Thursday night was a landmark evening at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Abuja as the foreign mission hosted a dinner to mark the 70 years of the People’s Revolution.
The revolution of October 1949 led by the Communist Party of China (CPC) ushered in a new era of the history of the country into modern rebirth.
At the event that was well attended by the political and diplomatic community of Abuja as well the media that was well represented, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Zhou Pingjian pledged the continued deepening of the diplomatic and other ties between Nigeria and China.
He stated that China is resolved on working harder and better through the platform of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to have a stronger and more beneficial relationship with Africa.
Ambassador Zhou praised what he called the wonderful friendship between China and Nigeria in so many ways and assured that the country is ready to work more to assist Nigeria in every possible way for better growth.
China that had been expanding and extending her friendship frontiers with Nigeria in media exchanges, education and scholarships to Nigerians to study in Chinese universities and in industrial cooperation says it’s willing to do more with the country as the existing friendship has worked out wonderful results.
Also speaking, the Nigeria Minister of State for Foreign Affairs who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the dinner congratulated China on her national day anniversary and also said Nigeria whose national day coincides with the Chinese has a lot to learn from the country that had leapfrogged her growth from a backward agrarian economy to one of the world’s most advanced and indeed, world’s second largest economy.
He further pledged Nigeria’s willingness to work more collaboratively with China in diverse ways and open to learn from China’s development examples.
Also in attendance at the event was Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who spoke on the technology advancement lessons Nigeria needs to learn from China.
The event was attended by a retinue of the Nigeria media community owing to a very strong friendship between the embassy and the media through a lot of exchanges and professional visits by senior media practitioners in the past years.
Prominent among them was the Afri-China Media Centre, (ACMC) Lagos, a media organisation devoted to reporting China, Africa and Nigeria friendship and lessons to be learnt from each other.
In attendance at the dinner was the Executive Director of the ACMC, Ikenna Emewu who had at the previous day on behalf of the media signed a partnership and content exchange deal with the Chinese news agency, Xinhua in Abuja with the head of the agency in Nigeria, Mr. Guo Jun.
