As Tinubu goes to Paris…

BY SIMBO OLORUNFEMI AND ADE ADEFEKO

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be visiting France in a few days to be hosted by French President, Emmanuel Macron on a State Visit. While President Tinubu has visited France at different times since he assumed office, most of the trips have been private. However, his first official foreign trip in June 2023, less than a month after his inauguration, was to Paris to attend the “Summit on New Global Financing Pact” to deliberate on how to reposition global financial architecture in consideration of less developed countries dealing with debt hangover, effects of climate change and Covid-19, and struggling with energy transition. The summit was hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, who warmly received President Tinubu on that visit.

This trip to France is, however, different in a few respects. Not only is it a state visit, which is a formal visit by the head of a sovereign country at the invitation of the head of state of another sovereign country, which is considered to be the highest expression of friendly relations between two countries, this is the first such visit in 24 years by a Nigerian leader. The last state visit by a Nigerian leader to France was by President Olusegun Obasanjo in February 2020.

It is early days yet, but perhaps we already have a signal that the efforts invested by President Tinubu in his role as the Chief Diplomat, with the several foreign trips he has made, are beginning to yield fruits.  It could well be that Nigeria and France have come to a renewed realisation of the importance of strong bilateral relations between the two countries, with an interesting past behind them, a compelling present before them, and immense possibilities for the future.

The historical nature of the Nigeria-France relations, characterised by upheavals and mutual suspicion, has been generously documented and interrogated by scholars of Nigeria’s foreign policy. However, as we argued in our 2021 intervention, apart from other areas in which there is a convergence of interests between the two, Nigeria and France must work with the mind that they are obviously the two most powerful interests in West Africa, which predisposes them to rub themselves the wrong way. But the time has come for them to find accommodation for each other’s interests and chart a mutually beneficial course for themselves, especially in heralding peace in the Sahel and other troubled parts of the region.

There has been an uptick in the relationship between Nigeria and France in recent years, possibly out of mutual love and respect between Nigeria’s immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari and Emmanuel Macron of France, who has a personal relationship with Nigeria stemming from his stint as an intern in the country.

Trade relations have been on an upward swing between one of Europe’s largest economies and one of Africa’s largest economies, extending beyond oil to agriculture, finance, energy services, and technology. Nigeria is France’s leading trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa, and the fourth-largest in Africa, only behind Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, which were French colonies in Africa. Historically, France has been a major buyer of raw materials from Nigeria, accounting for 20% of France’s trade with sub-Saharan Africa, amounting to €3.53 billion, in 2021. In the first quarter of 2024, France emerged as Nigeria’s largest trade partner, surpassing Spain and the United States for the first time in recent years, with French imports from Nigeria rising to $1.4 billion, accounting for 11.05% of Nigeria’s total exports, ahead of Spain, which had led for the past five years, and the United States, solidifying France’s position as Nigeria’s top trade partner.

While petroleum products have dominated French imports from Nigeria over the years, standing at 95% in 2021, it has scaled down to 88% as of the first quarter of 2024. French foreign direct investment in Nigeria has doubled in a decade, putting it ahead of the United Kingdom and the United States of America, with around 100 French companies operating in different sectors of the economy. For the Tinubu Administration which has made the drive for foreign investment the centrepiece of its diplomatic drive, with the President as the Diplomat-in-chief, this visit could not have been better structured with the firm integration of leading Nigerian business interests, such as BUA, Olam, unarguably Nigeria largest Nigeria Agri- Business and Food Company ,Milk Giant Danone of France as part of the Private Business delegation. It is good to see the level of progress in only a few years by the France-Nigeria Business Council, launched in 2018 to bring together major French and Nigerian companies that wish to launch investment partnerships.

This visit should serve as an avenue to further strengthen security and defence cooperation agreements between the two countries, deepening current support to Nigeria’s security forces not only with the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in the fight against Boko Haram and terrorist activities around and beyond the Lake Chad region, as well as in Nigeria’s north-west, while enhancing efforts at improving maritime security, especially along the Gulf of Guinea, to curb the different illicit activities in that region.

It is not enough, however, to seek support abroad without taking time to put our house in order. There is work to be done within to bring to fruition gains from agreements signed during visits of this nature. With Dr. Jumoke Oduwole as the Minister of Trade and Investment, it is hoped that the Nigerian business environment will experience significant improvement given the work she did with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) which was established in 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari “to make Nigeria a progressively easier place to do business by removing bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria, as well as improving the perception of investors and stakeholders about the Nigerian business terrain” credited with reforms that resulted in improvement in Nigeria’s ranking on the “Éase of Doing Business Index’’.

It is over a year already, since President Tinubu recalled High Commissioners and Ambassadors from their duty posts. In the case of France, it is slightly longer, as Nigeria’s last Ambassador to France and exemplary diplomat, Kayode Laro, passed in August last year. It is no use having the President put in the shift, and doing the groundwork when there are no Ambassadors in the missions to see through with the gains made. The Charges d’Affaires can only do so much, with diplomatic protocols denying them privileges accorded Ambassadors. For instance, they can’t meet with Presidents and Ministers. Nigeria cannot take full advantage of the benefits that accrue from such a visit without an ambassador in place. The Diplomat-in-Chief will do well to make the appointments now so that what sometimes becomes a lengthy process that culminates in the presentation of letters of credence can commence in earnest.

There is hardly a better time and opportunity to reset and strengthen the relationship between the two countries than now. President Macron’s affinity and history with Nigeria always come to the fore. When President Bola Tinubu visited Paris last year, the reception between him and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, was warm, like one between old friends. We must find a way to build on what we have going between us to the benefit of both countries and the troubled region. The historic nature of this visit speaks for itself, we must make the best of it

There is no doubt that it is an increasingly interdependent world, which suggests that every country must find ways to prioritise cooperation and collaboration, let go of mutual suspicion, and key into the opportunities out there for the benefit of citizens (individuals and corporates) of the two countries who have so much in common so that the spirit of liberte, egalite and fraternite might prevail.

Simbo Olorunfemi is a Specialist on Nigeria’s Foreign Policy and Managing Editor of Africa Enterprise, while Ade Adefeko is Director Corporate and Regulatory  Affairs Olam Agri, Chairman Industrial Group Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and Honorary Consul of Botswana in Lagos.