Ambassador Geoffrey I. Teneilabe, Nigeria’s
ambassador/consul-general in Atlanta, United States, has expressed
concern that in spite of the good things happening in the country, the
international press is not talking about them.
In this interview in Atlanta, the envoy accused Western media of is
only interested in highlighting civil strife, coups, poverty, disasters,
crime, etc in Africa.
“It is therefore, no surprise that in spite of the positive things
going on in Nigeria or the immense contributions of Nigerians to the
development of America, Nigeria is not portrayed positively in the
American press. For example, in the course of the news of the kidnap of
the Chibok girls, Nigeria hosted the World Economic Forum, Africa, which
turned out to be one of the best organised world economic fora,
attracting an investment pledge of $168billion to Africa. According to
him, hardly was the event mentioned in the Western media,” The envoy
speaks on these and other issues.
Can you tell us about your background?
My name is Ambassador Geoffrey I. Teneilabe, Consul-General,
Nigeria, Consulate-General of Nigeria, Atlanta. I am a career diplomat. I
possess a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication and Master’s degree
in International Law & Diplomacy. I have served in various Nigeria’s
diplomatic missions, including Greece, Germany, South Korea, the
Gambia, where I was the Acting High Commissioner for over five years.
I also served as Senior Special Assistant on International Relations
to the Vice President and the President respectively at various times. I
was appointed Consul-General in 2011 and Ambassador in 2012.
As an Ambassador and Consul-General of Nigeria, in Atlanta, Georgia, what are your responsibilities?
My duties and responsibilities include: the general supervision and
direction of the Consulate. We issue visas and passports; we take care
of the welfare of Nigerians; see into consular matters of Nigerians;
undertake trade and investment matters; respond to enquiries in all
areas relating to Nigeria; promote the image of Nigeria; work with
Nigerian organisations and partners; take care of protocol matters of
visiting Nigerian dignitaries and, in summary, take care of matters
relating to the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians as well as promote
bilateral relations between the United States and Nigeria.
Since you became the Consul-General in Atlanta, the quality of
consular services has improved. What specifically did you do to bring
about this change and what plans do you have to sustain improvement on
our consular-services?
When I became the Consul-General of Nigeria, one of the points I
underscored was to conscientiously work towards the promotion of the
welfare of Nigerians and underline consular and immigration services.
Today, I can proudly say that if an applicant meets all the requirements
for visa, he/she would be issued visa within 24 hours. As for issuance
of international passports, a minimum of 24 hours and maximum of five
working days, if all requirements are met. Moreover, we also undertake
what we call Passport Intervention Services by going to cities with high
Nigerian population density, thereby, bringing passport services to the
doorsteps of Nigerians. This would have been more frequent but for the
actions of some Nigerians intended to undermine the exercise.
We also attend to our compatriots in prisons and detentions by
visiting them and ensuring that they are fairly treated and justice
served. Similarly, we work with Nigerian organisations, if their
membership are open to Nigerians irrespective of creed or ethnicity and,
where necessary, render assistance to them and encourage them
accordingly. The reason we do this is our consciousness of the fact that
there’s no greater resource of a country than its human resource and
that our people do not only need our respect but should also be treated
with dignity in the eyes of our host country. Moreover, Nigerians in the
Diaspora worldwide contribute immensely to our economic development,
with them remitting home as much as over $22billion in 2012 and over
$21billion in 2013. The Nigerian Diaspora, therefore, deserves every
encouragement from the various diplomatic missions within the context of
citizen diplomacy. Also, it gives joy and pleasure when you, as a
person, treat a person with courtesy and make a little difference in
his/her live.
As for the plans I have in place and how to continuously improve on
this? As long as I am here, I will do my humble best to improve on
these services, although sometimes budgetary provision could be a big
constraint. I also believe that whoever will take over from me would
have the good sense of professionalism and duty to not only continue on
this path but improve on it.
You are representing the government of Nigeria in this part of the
United States. What would you tell the international community about
the progress Nigeria is making towards securing the release of Chibok
schoolgirls abducted by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram?
The kidnap of the 219 of the Chibok schoolgirls on April 14, 2014 was
as unfortunate as it was inhuman. It is inhumanity of man to man and I
deeply sympathise with the parents of the innocent and hapless girls.
The Nigerian army said that they have located where the girls are since
April 26, but how to extricate them from the clutches of Boko Haram has
become a very delicate issue. It is important to bring back the girls
alive rather than to bring their dead bodies back; so the matter becomes
extremely delicate. I strongly believe there are a lot of back-channel
diplomacy going on to set them free, although the government has said it
will not agree to swap Boko Haram prisoners and detainees, who have
blood on their hands, with the innocent girls. So, government is making
continuous efforts to ensure the release of the girls but would not be
inclined to give a regular briefing on these efforts because of the
confidential and security nature of the matter.
To protect the civilian population, government has increased the
number of troops in the North-East of the country, the epicenter of Boko
Haram activities from 15, 000-20,000. It is embarking on new
recruitment of soldiers; it is acquiring new equipment; it is stepping
up training on the new patterns of the war from its conventional and
peacekeeping warfare posture; it has established joint patrol with
neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon and this is yielding
fruitful dividends.
President Goodluck Jonathan had attended several international
meetings on this matter, in Paris, London, etc., and is galvanising the
efforts and assistance of over 20 countries and organizations, with a
view to ending Boko Haram insurgency. Intelligence gathering and
surveillance have also been stepped up, again with pleasant results but
more still need to be done. It will however, be extremely unfair for the
opposition to exploit the issue as a referendum on President Jonathan.
In the face of insecurity in Nigeria, what are the selling points to attract foreign investors to Nigeria?
The selling points to attract investment in Nigeria are as follows:
liberalisation of the Nigerian economy by government; breaking down of
bureaucratic barriers and other obstacles in doing business in Nigeria
such as the establishment of a one-stop-shop and the competitiveness
committee; privitisation of the power sector aimed at increasing power
supplies in Nigeria and reduction in the cost of doing business; putting
in place several incentives including 100 per cent ownership of
enterprises by investors; 100 per cent repatriation of profit; granting
of pioneer status to new business enterprises; duty waiver status;
export grants for industries that export their products; huge average
profit of not less than 30 per cent as return on investment; duty waiver
on importation of machinery for certain sectors such as health,
agriculture, aviation, etc.
Also, there is ease of allocation of land by state governments for
enterprises, such as agriculture; higher import duty on some products to
protect local production and the political will of government to
continue the improvement of the investment climate in Nigeria. And
lastly, the determined efforts of government to tackle insecurity in the
North-East and, indeed, in the country.
It is being suspected that President Goodluck Jonathan will seek
re-election in 2015. Can you enunciate some of his achievements in
office and why Nigerians should reelect him?
There are a plethora of accomplishments of the President, which
unfortunately, is being suppressed by the opposition because of
politics. These include but not limited to: establishment of over 100
al-majiri Islamic/Western education schools; the establishment of over
12 new universities thereby giving every state, at least, one tertiary
Federal institution; privitalisation of the power sector in a courageous
move to improve power supply in Nigeria, award of contract of the
building of the Zungeru and Mambila power plants; construction and
revival of dams for improvement in water supplies, agricultural
production and tourism; construction of over thousands of kilometer of
roads in all six geopolitical zones nation-wide; the commencement of the
construction of the 2nd Niger bridge; the ongoing reconstruction of the
Lagos/Ibadan expressway; the revamping of the Nigeria Railway system
such that rails now run between Lagos and Kano and Lagos Abeokuta, while
construction work goes on at the Eastern corridor between Port Harcourt
and Maiduguri as well as a new line between Abuja and Kaduna.
I need also to mention the ongoing construction of the Abuja light
rail; the completion of the dredging of the lower River Niger and
establishment of Ports and other complementary infrastructure;
transformation of the agricultural sector such that Nigeria’s food
import of $11billion has started declining; several rice mills have been
established; dry season rice farming has created thousands of jobs,
while corruption has been reduced through the electronic wallet system
for distribution of fertilizers to real farmers; one could also
mention the new industrial revolution policy being embarked upon as
well as the new Automotive Policy aimed at reversing Nigeria’s
expenditure of $4billion import of vehicles per year; on the
macro-economic level, Nigeria is now the biggest economy in Africa with a
GDP of over $510bn and the 26th biggest economy in the world; the
economy is among the 10 fastest growing economies in the world with a
growth rate of nearly seven per cent; also, inflation is at a single
digit of about eight per cent; foreign exchange reserve at $40bn;
Nigeria has graduated from a low income country to a middle income
country by the classification of the World Bank, IMF and international
other financial institutions; President Jonathan is a true democrat
who upholds the principle of one man, one vote and does not interfere
with the electoral system; through the wise execution of the Amnesty
Policy, Peace has been sustained in the Niger Delta region; according to
the World Bank, Nigeria’s poverty figure under President Jonathan has
reduced from 56% to 33.1 per cent; construction work on the Airport
remodeling projects in over eleven airports are on-going; and the Enugu
airport has been made an international airport.
So you can see what the government of President Goodluck Jonathan has
achieved within the period of his presidency despite the huge
challenges of insecurity to distract him. He is doing what General Park
did for South Korea-laying the economic foundation for the country.
Some people are advocating the partition of the country. What is your reaction to that proposition?
Those who are advocating the partitioning of the country need to
think twice. Some tribal chieftains are so narrow-minded and
short-sighted that all they are concerned about is to carve enclaves for
themselves as local champions. Of all the countries in the world, only
Korea and Somalia are ethnically homogeneous while all others are
multi-ethnic. The fact is that division, when it starts, it does not
end. The abuse of the good intentions of state creation is a typical
example of that. There is strength in number and in size; partitioning
will not help Nigeria; staying together in diversity as a big nation
will bring more respect. Being divided into ethnic groups as countries
will only diminish us. That is the reason even on the international
scene, nations come together as regional bodies or groups to pull their
resources together in order to have a stronger bargaining power. The
European Union and the North American Treaty Association (NAFTA)
comprising the United States Canada and Mexico are good examples.
There is no nation without its problems. Even the United States, the
richest country on the surface of the earth, has endured two internal
wars, the war of independence and the civil war and who says there is no
problem in the United States. Indeed, the problems here in the United
States are numerous. Who could have imagined that even in governance and
democracy especially at the federal level, there appears a
dysfunctional system with government shot down and the occasional
elevation of constituency and party interests above national interest.
So, it is better for Nigerians to live together as one united entity and
learn how to solve our internal problems. We are only 170 million
people and if we are not mature enough to solve our problems, what would
countries like India and China do with population of over 1bn people
each?
How would you assess the level of US-Nigeria relations during this administration?
Nigeria-United States relations during President Jonathan has been
excellent. Nigeria is a strategic partner of the United States and this
strategic partnership has been illustrated in the formation of the
bi-national commission between the two countries, which operates at the
highest level of government. The Bi-national Commission is divided into
four and later five thematic areas that cover agriculture, security,
Niger Delta, democracy/governance, among others. Both countries take
the relationship very seriously and although President Obama has not
visited Nigeria, it should be noted that during the United Nations
General Assembly last year, President Jonathan was the only Head of
State President Obama received in audience during the event. This is
indicative of the importance attached to the relationship between the
two countries by the United States.
Another perspective of the relationship is trade and investment.
Bi-lateral trade between the two countries as at 2012 was about
$36billion and although the purchase of Nigerian crude oil has declined
as a result of technological improvement in oil and gas exploration in
United States, American investment in Nigeria in other areas, such as
agriculture, machinery, the stock market, infrastructure, manufacturing,
etc, are growing. American investors are also looking at Nigeria more
as a lucrative market with the possibility of good returns on their
investment.
On the human resource level, there are over two million Nigerian-
Americans and Nigerians in the United States. Nigeria operates dual
citizenship, so Nigerian-Americans are still Nigerians. This group is
one of the most educated immigrants community in the United States.
They could be found in the rarest of specialised fields in any
profession, contributing significantly to the social-economic
development of the United States.
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