The president of the Africa’s 3rd largest economy Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is in Rwanda for what has been termed as the usual strengthening of bilateral relationships between the two countries .
However, there is more ingredients beyond strengthening the outside garment of strengthening bilateral relationships.
Of course whatever will emerge will have to be a result of the inter-relational matters cultivated by the bilateral relationships developed between the two countries.
The economy of Nigeria is a middle income, mixed economy emerging market with well-developed financial, legal, communications, transport, and entertainment sectors.
It is ranked 31st in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) as of 2009, and its emergent, though currently underperforming manufacturing sector is the second-largest on the continent, producing a large proportion of goods and services for the West African region.
Previously hindered by years of mismanagement, economic reforms of the past decade have pushed Nigeria back making it fail to realize its full economic potentials.
The country’s GDP per capita doubled from $1200 per person in 2005 to an estimation of $2,500 in 2009 now estimated to be $3,500 with inclusion of the informal sector hence becoming the largest economy in the West Africa compared to Rwanda’s GDP of $ 1100 person which has also grown in the shortest period ever.
Nonetheless, a majority of Rwandans said to be still living below the poverty line of 250 Rwandan francs per day about US$0.43.
Because of her political will, Rwanda has managed to retrieve almost the lost pillars to put her on the world economy.
Policies of public accountability, transparency, zero tolerance to corruption and sustaining national security, judicial reforms, education reforms and other national matters that intends to make Rwanda information based economy that can also make it become an middle income economy.
With Nigeria’s unrest in the Niger delta due wealth of petroleum products have put the country on the international scrutiny.
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo once declared all-out war with the Nigerian state as well as the oil corporations and threatened to disrupt oil production activities through attacks on wells and pipelines.
This quickly caused a major crisis the as Shell evacuated 235 non-essential personnel from two oil fields, cutting oil production by 30,000 barrels per day (4,800 m3/d).
In 2008 Crackdown the Nigerian government launched a massive military crackdown on militants in Niger delta.
They patrolled waters and hunted for militants, searched all civilian boats for weapons, and raided numerous militant hideouts.
In 2009 a military operation undertaken by a Joint Task Force (JTF) began against militants operating in the Niger Delta region.
It came in response to the kidnapping of Nigerian soldiers and foreign sailors in the Delta region.
Thousands of Nigerians have fled their villages and hundreds of people may be dead because of the offensive.
This was followed by the Nigerian Government announcing ed that it would grant Amnesty and an unconditional pardon to Militants in the Niger Delta which would last for 60 days leading to militants to surrender their weapons.
A retired Professor Onigu Otite of Sociology, University of Ibadan published a paper on Niger delta crisis titled ‘The Complexity Behind Nigeria’s Niger Delta Crisis’ and said that militants have to be positive and not skeptical when the federal government of Nigeria rendered amnesty.
Ibadan University is the oldest Nigerian university, and is located five miles (8 kilometres) from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria.
The professor argued that the crisis cannot be resolved by the criminalizing local patriotism of militants and the military reactions of the Joint Task Force on behalf of the Federal Government.
In his conclusion he wondered how successfully the use dialogue to get the militants to surrender their arms and stop the induced criminal tendencies without the activities of the military.
He says the crisis grew from an unresolved legitimate struggle and demand for an equitable development of the Niger Delta, the main current source of Nigeria’s wealth.
According to him problem was inherited from the past Government regimes. It required a political solution, a firm committed political will which has been working making things work back here in Rwanda.
Some Nigerians have some sort of in born hatred that cross from one state to another basing on the distinguished wealth of each state.
In response to professor Otite’s paper some Nigerian said “I think its high time the people of the Niger delta realize that the oil belongs to the whole nation and not them alone. This greed has been going on for years. If they don’t want to share OUR oil with us then they should leave”.
Another one replied; “It is not OUR oil, just as the Cocoa in the West was not OUR cocoa, or tin in Plateau was not OUR tin, or Coal in Enugu was not our coal, etc. Nigeria is a federation and the resources found in an area should belong to the natural owners of the area as is the practice alsewhere,”
“The people of the Niger Delta are simply asking for a fair share of the revenue from oil – 50% for them and 50% for the federation – as was the case before independence and enshrined in the 1963 Constutition when cocoa (West), groundnuts (nut), etc where the money spinners,” the respondent in anonymous said to the professor’s paper .
President Goodluck’s visit to Rwanda can benefit a lot from his counterpart President Paul Kagame on how conflicts can have sustainable resolutions.
The 14th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Goodluck E. Jonathan was the 3rd civilian president which ended military rule in 1999.
At his inauguration President Jonathan promised to fight corruption and defend democracy across Africa.
Born in 1957 in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, Jonathan is a Christian from the Ijaw ethnic group.
A zoology graduate, Goodluck, worked as an education inspector, lecturer and environmental protection officer before going into politics in 1998.
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