Nigeria and Germany on Tuesday pledged to continue to boost the bilateral relationship between the two nations especially on power and health sectors as the major areas of focus.
Both countries also agreed on parliamentary cooperations in terms of training and exchange programmes needed to improve and sustain democratic practices.
These were part of the decisions reached between the president of the Nigerian Senate, Senator David Mark and German parliamentarians led by MP Uwe Kekeritz in Abuja .
In his Speech, Senator Mark said that parliamentary cooperation has become imperative between the two parliaments in order to share ideas and programmes to meet the challenging democratic principles globally.
He admitted that Germany has an older democracy which Nigeria could learn from saying “Nigeria must use the opportunity to interact and build stronger cooperation in parliamentary procedures.
“We will like to start cooperation with German parliament in order to learn from their legislative experience. I am confident that we will benefit immensely and translate our experiences to the betterment of our country.”
Talking on the insecurity situation in the country and the impression given to the outside world about Nigeria, Senate President told his guests that Nigeria still remains an economic hub of Africa, “Nigeria’s image has been bastardized by public opinions and views abroad, I want to state clearly that Nigeria is not as bad as it is being painted outside. We have our good and positive sides..”.
He called on the German government to extend hand of fellowship to Nigeria in developing major sectors of the economy pointing out that a visit to parts of Nigeria would tell the true story about Nigeria.
In his remarks, the leader of the German Parliamentary delegation, MP Uwe Kekeritz emphasized that the direction of governance in Nigeria is positive just as he pledged Germany’s assistance in the energy and health sectors adding “We will help in the human resources development, energy and the health sectors “.
He commended the National Assembly for the stability in the politics while urging members of the Nigerian parliament to sustain the tempo in order to improve on the developmental stride already recorded.
