Muhammadu Buhari and Tayyeb Erdogan

Education and Health Matters

Nigeria and Turkey reached very important agreements on matters concerning education and health. These are key areas in which Turkey has made a lot of progress.

There are existing Turkish investments in these areas in Nigeria and it is on record that a number of countries in the world, including some in Africa have shut down schools and hospitals on the request of their home government following allegations that they are owned and operated by this organization accused of terrorism.

The smart thing the owners of some of these businesses did is that they transferred part or full ownership to Nigerian citizens at the onset of the crisis.

The Nigerian government delegation has accepted offers by the Turkish authorities to support a new group, the Maarif Organization intent on setting up of schools and specialist hospitals as new investors who are not tainted by such accusations.

It was in this regard that this new organisation, the Maarif Foundation for educational was introduced to the Nigerian delegation. A delegation from the foundation will visit Nigeria to commence the process of registration as well as following the procedures of establishing the new schools.

The two countries agreed to expand cooperation in exchange of scholars, exchange of students and exchange/sharing of ideas, skills and education technology and to improve scholarships for Nigerians to study in Turkey. They also agreed to resolve the issues relating to Nigerian students in Turkish universities that are facing exclusion due to visa challenges.

Nigeria and Turkey have equally agreed to strengthen and promote investments in health institutions and this, as promised by the President will proceed quickly, that is as soon as the details of the various agreements reached in the bilateral discussions are laid on his table.

Defence

The two countries agreed to strengthen defence and military cooperation initiated by them a few years ago.

This had already lead to the establishment of the Defence section in the Turkish Embassy, Abuja in 2013 and Nigeria’s Defence section in Ankara in 2016.

In the latest rounds of discussions, Nigeria and Turkey penned an agreement on military training.

They also agreed to collaborate towards the development of the Defence Industries Corporation, DIC in Kaduna into a Military Industrial Complex of Nigeria, which is a key agenda of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Furthermore, two Turkish companies have have taken the giant stride to collaborate with the DIC in the production of arms and ammunition.

Of the two companies, one is establishing a rifles production line and the supply of raw materials, technical assistance and training while the second one is partnering the DIC in the conceptualization, designing, consulting, invention, manufacturing, marketing, sale, exportation and sale of military industrial products.

Ninth Summit of the “D 8”

The ninth summit, which took place in Istanbul on the 20th October also marked the 20th Anniversary of the organization.

It also witnessed the handover of the baton of its leadership from the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sahid Khaqan Abbasi to President Recep Tayyep Erdogan of Turkey.

At the end of the Summit, the Heads of State and Government adopted a communique which spelt out the direction of the organization for the coming two years under Turkey.

Immediate next steps:

The Turkish Minister of Economy plans to visit Nigeria as part of the Trade Ministers of the D-8 Conference holding in Abuja between November 14 and 17, 2017.
Nigeria will consider hosting the Joint Action Committee (JACO) on boosting the volume of trade and investment between Nigeria and Turkey in January 2018. This will also include a business forum with the private sector of both countries. The Turkish Ministry of Economy will send a formal notification to the Nigerian Government in the coming days.
The Turkish Government will prepare a case study of the BOT model used to fund airport and other infrastructure projects to Nigeria. Specifically, the case-study on the successful build and expand Istanbul Airport project.
Turkey will invite Nigeria for the Turkey-Africa Business Forum that will be taking place in Istanbul sometime in Autumn.
Nigeria will work on ratifying the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) of the D-8.
Nigeria and Turkey will in the coming weeks sign an agreement with Turkey against against trafficking in weapons, humans and drugs.
Nigeria will raise a technical committee to advise her on how to ramp up trade and investment with Turkey as well as with other members of the “D 8.”

Taking everything concerning the trip as a whole, the two meetings, i.e the bilateral between Nigeria and Turkey and that of the “D 8” in which the country participated, it can safely be concluded that this is perhaps one of the best outings by President Muhammadu Buhari in a little over two years of his administration.

The President was accompanied on this mission by his wife, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Geoffery Onyeama, Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (Rtd), Defence, Brig-Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (Rtd), Education, Adamu Adamu and that of Industry, Trade and Investment Okechukwu Enelamah.

The rest included the National Security Adviser, Maj-General Babagana Munguno (NSA),his counterpart in the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Arab Yadam, the Comptroller-General of the Customs, Colonel Hamid Ali (Rtd) and Nigeria’s Ambassador to Turkey, Ilyas Sulaiman Paragalda.