President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday pleaded with the Japanese government to assist Nigeria in tackling illegal fishing and piracy on the Gulf of Guinea.
This is just as the President witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Union that will see EU’s support to Nigeria hit the €562 million mark, by 2020.
President Buhari who met with other world leaders on the sidelines at the ongoing Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7), used the opportunity to meet with the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, at bilateral talks.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Abe, while commending President Buhari for “taking Nigeria to the Next Level “made a donation of $300,000 to the Nigeria Defence College and another ¥12m in support of the public health sector in Nigeria.
Abe assured of his county’s support for Nigeria’s Presidency of the 74th Session of the United Nations UN General Assembly currently occupied by Nigeria’s Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who was elected the President of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, to succeed María Fernanda Espinosa, whose term ends in September 2019. He in turn pleaded with Nigeria to support Japanese bid for headship of some global organizations
President Buhari, who also met with the European Union top officials, witnessed the signing of a €50 million Memorandum of Understanding to support humanitarian and development efforts in the war-ravaged North East region in Nigeria
The cooperation agreement which was signed by Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama and Neven Mimica of the EU, is expected to bring the EU support which commenced in 2014, to €562m by 2020.
Buhari also used the opportunity to commend EU for its consistent support for Nigeria, especially in the northeast ravaged by the over ten years of Boko Haram insurgency.
Buhari called for more assistance, especially in the areas of education, describing the situation in the internally displaced persons camps as “pathetic”.
The EU Commissioner assured that Nigeria’s requests would be given top-priority considerations as EU is currently working on its seven-year budget.
