FG tasked to key into China’s initiative to reclaim Lake Chad

From Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

Centre for China Studies has asked the Federal Government to avail itself of the opportunities available in the Chinese Government’s Belt and Road Initiative in its bid to reclaiming the Lake Chad.

The Director, Centre for China Studies, Mr Charles Onunaiju, made the call in Abuja at a one-day roundtable organised by the centre.

The event which was organised with the cooperation  of the Embassy of China in Nigeria, had as its theme: “Global security initiative and the implications for overcoming security challenges in the Sahel and Nigeria.”

The meeting examined ways and means of how Nigeria could maximally engage the outcomes of the just concluded Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022.

Onunaiju said there was an existing international framework that could support Nigeria’s effort to reclaim the Lake Chad, which is the Belt and Road International Framework of Cooperation.

He explained that the framework comprised cooperation across maritime, overland, cyberspace and even air connectivity.

“And I think that the Lake Chad falls into the area of maritime cooperation and we can engage the Belt and  Road Initiative and the enormous liquidity it has to address the challenge of Lake Chad,” Onunaiju said.

While noting the availability of a whole range of Belt and Road projects already existent in the country, particularly overland projects such as railway and power plants, Onunaiju said “these are all part of the Belt and Road.”

Head of the Political Section, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria, Mr. Du Sheng, in his remarks, explained how to address the six core concepts of President Xi Jinping’s Global Security Initiative.

He also said that Nigeria and China can cooperate in the area of security both at the bilateral and multilateral levels.