The Ambassador and some of the embassy’s principal staff
The Nigerian Ambassador to Greece, H.E. Ayodeji Lawrence Ayodele is a consummate, pragmatic and development oriented diplomat that sees opportunity where others sees obstacle. In this interview with African Ripples Deputy editor and international correspondent, Akin Akingbala, the ambassador enumerated the myriads opportunities available to Nigerian and other businessmen in Greece. Please enjoy.
How would you define Nigeria’s role in international diplomacy?
Well, off course Nigeria had returned to the era of democratic governance and we have been witnessing a peaceful and smooth transition from one government to another since 1999. Nigeria’s clout has increased tremendously within the international system. With respect to Greece where I serve, I can confirm to you that there is acute respect for Nigeria and Nigerian operations on the part of officials of this country. We have been driving to intensify high level contacts between officials of government as well as contacts between private sectors so that we can positively actualize the potential that exists within both two countries. I can confirm that officially we have an outstanding invitation issued by the President of the Hellenic Republic Dr KarolosPapoulias to President Goodluck Jonathan to visit Greece, we have been working on identifying a date that will be mutually convenient for the visit to take place. Equally, the Foreign Minister had invited our Foreign Minister. Ironically, both Ministers has been replaced. We are still working on that as well.
What strategy or strategies are you adopting to implement the intents of President Goodluck Jonathan transformation agenda?
The issue of transformation agenda is at the core of Nigeria’s developmental policy that of course would involve inviting the Greeks to participate actively in these sectors, the privatized sectors of the economy among others. We have carried the message across to the Greek people because you can only do business when you have adequate information. It is the information you use to make your investment decisions and we have carried the messages across this country. We have done presentations all over, to the Chamber of Commerce, to the private sectors and we have met the leadership of the Economic Ministries to convince them about the very friendly investment climate in Nigeria. And that the environment is continuously being improved upon to make the economy more attractive on a daily basis. I can tell you that a lot more Greeks have started looking at the possibility operating in Nigeria. Off course we do not take figures of how much money is moved across banks but going by other indices such as the number of visas we issue per day, per week, per month, there has been significant increase in the number of Greeks going to Nigeria to seek ways to get themselves involve in the economy.
Additionally, the Greek economy is facing some challenges as at this time. The recession has been on for about six years. Looking at the situation in details, I have convinced myself that the best time to engage the Greek in productive venture is now. There is 57% unemployment in the country as we speak and Greek companies are shutting down, so you have an extensive redundant industrial capacity in the country. Our approach and message has been that Nigerian businesses and Greek businesses can collaborate to deploy these potentials for use in Nigeria to create wealth that will be mutually beneficial. I should address the issue of perception that the Greece is a poor country, I have said again and again that Greece is not a poor country. The image of poverty that is conveyed to the world is not exactly correct. Greece has adequate industrial skills that can be deploy by our businessmen in our productive process. They have unused industrial capabilities which our businessmen can use for manufacturing in Nigeria. The campaign we have been making and continue to be making is that our businessmen should reach out to these people to see how they can fashion collaborations for production in Nigeria. We have spoken to private sectors in both Greece and Nigeria. For example, a few weeks ago I met the Governor of Larrisa. Larrisa and Lamia are central region in Greece that constitutes the food basket of the country. More than 78% of all food consumed in Greece are produced there, these are industrial engagement that are doing very well because they are form into cooperatives. Cooperative farmers built large plants without a Euro from the government. Government created an industrial park and the milk farmers for example contributed to build a very large industrial plant that all the farmers dump their produce, based on a formula for preservation, for conservation. And also to convert into other products, cheese and what have you. We are discussing with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and State Ministries of Agricultureto model where these farmers can engage in large scale farming in Nigeria harking into what the Zimbabweans are doing in Kwara State. One of the plants I visited there was a cosmetic factory that uses palm oil to make cosmetic products. And in talking to the CEO, the palm oil in Benin can used not just to produce edible palm oil for consumption but 150 chemicals can be derived from palm oil. We will contact Edo State government to give them this information as soon as the facts and figures are made available to us so that the capacity to produce palm trees, palm products in Edo State can be further enhanced. Greek has wonderful technology which is heavily under reported anywhere in the world. Perhaps they are enjoying these perceptions by others that lead to pity that they are poor and impoverished. No independent or fair minded observer would classify this country as a poor country.
What is the state of trade between Nigeria and Greece? We are all aware that trade between Nigeria and most European countries is predominantly in the sales of crude oil and you have mentioned some of what you are doing perhaps to diversify from crude oil to agriculture, what other things are you doing?
We have sold to the Greek the concept of 34 minerals which Nigeria has promoted to commercial level, so that the Greek can come into the mining, solid mineral sectors in Nigeria as well as agriculture. However, the recorded trade figures between us can be better, they are not too impressive. And there are few reasons for this. The absence of direct contact between the two countries in terms of aviation, in terms of shipping. These are infrastructures that promote the concept of trade. If you had flown in straight from Abuja, a trip to Athens through London will take you about 13 hours. And it is the same if you passed through Paris, Rome, Istanbul and other European capitals. We have strongly canvassed for the introduction or establishment of direct air link between the two countries. This will reduce flight time to about 5 hours and correspondingly, reduce the cost of ticket. Similarly, we are persuading the private sectors to engage themselves to see if they can float an ocean liner if only with two ships that can run West Africa into Athens. This will significantly create the possibility for our traders and businessmen to come to Greece and their businessmen to Nigeria. It will reduce the cost of doing business, it would open up our two economies further. Again, the perception that this country is poor and nothing serious can be done with them is not right. This country has significant technology across the sectors, solid mineral development, gold mining, they have the acute knowledge and I believe our economy can benefit tremendouslyand our businessmen too can benefit through cooperation with them.
Where do you place Nigerians in Greece in your responsibility portfolio taking into cognizance the recent attack on Nigerians and other foreigners due to the lingering economic crisis?
Well, thank you Akinola. I will begin by confirming that responsibility to our citizens consist a major pillar of the functions of a diplomatic mission and we have not left any stone unturned in pursuant and accomplishment of that responsibility. As a matter of fact, the government of Greece is beginning to see us as being over protective of our citizens. When i came here in July 2012, there were Nigerians here who have been seeking to renew and use their passport for 5, 6, 7, 8 years and we did not have the capacity, a passport machine was not on the ground so the mission cannot issue a passport. The machine supplied since 2010 was not installed, so I made it a duty to call the CGI at the time and impress on her the need to quickly get the machine installed. I can report to you that after some delay, the machine was installed in April in 2013. Even before the installation, the immigration officers that came here to capture Nigerians data for passport and take back to Nigeria to issue, I compelled them to go issue them in France because the ones they had come to collect in 2010 and 2011 before I came and took to Abuja has not come back. So, the ones we operated in France can back within a week and Nigerians began to smile. We have encourage them through investment of some funds into forming a strong Nigerian community. The NIDO Greece chapter is functioning under Dr.Oparaocha. We arrange election for them so that they can choose their leadership among themselves and live peacefully, we issue passport to them within the shortest possible time depending on when we get the approval from NCG and when they bring their complains we attend them promptly.
On the issue of crime and prostitution by Nigerians, what is the situation in Greece?
Europe as you very well know has very strong laws. In Europe when you arrest a person, we have to get the permission of the Foreign Ministry to go there. By European laws, the government must get the approval of the prisoner or detainee before the embassy can come. So, in case where detainee has agreed that we visit, immediately we swing into action but in most cases they declined to give the permission to the Foreign Ministry and who in turn declined us permission. But when there are court cases that are brought into our attention, we send a consular officer there to listen and ensure the due process is followed and justice is served. There is a lot of Nigerians here who came in as refugees claiming one thing or another drove them out of Nigeria, that entitled them to get a pink card-the refugee status to stay here, the young ladies who carry the pink cards, run their operations and whenever they come here for service, we render the service as efficient as possible. The first problem I observed as Ambassador is that a lot Nigerians do not carry the necessary requirements stipulated by law to get some of these documents. As an embassy we counsel them on the right things to do. We will not break the law but we can at least show some understand towards our citizens. My intention is every Nigerians living here must carry a passport and that is what we having been doing. Since we started it, our observation is that the number of reports which we received from Greek authorities about Nigerians has greatly reduced. We insisted that every Nigerian apprehended they must let us know so that our records can be updated. In fairness to the Greek authorities every Nigerian arrested for whatever offence, they write us a letter and we follow up such case of arrest. There was case of a Nigerian that was stabbed about a year ago, he didn’t report to the embassy, when we picked it on the news, we took it up with the Minister of Citizens Protection of Greece. I visited him accompanied of my head of Chancery and laid bare to him that it’s important that foreigners should feel safe living in this country and ask for a report. When he replied us, he said he was a victim of armed robbery and not a racist attack, off course understandably, he will want to protect the image of his country. Recently, we had cases of some Nigerians that were killed here and we also ask for investigative report. We have informed Abuja on these cases. Surprisingly, the report that came is that Nigerians kill Nigerians. We have two of such cases now. So, what was our reaction? We called NIDO and other Nigerian Unions to address them on the need to be their brother’s keeper. And the need to conduct themselves in ways that would sustain the respect we are working hard to build. However, there seems to be an exodus of Nigerians from here because there is no job, some are relocating to other European countries to find succour and some are going back home. Largely, many of them are well behaved and going about their daily duties.
What is the general perception of the Greeks about Nigeria? And what are you doing to promote our culture?
Honestly, Greece sees Nigeria as an important country in Africa. Their embassy in Abuja is the only one in West Africa, it covers about 8 countries. They see Nigeria as a country they can engage in several collaborations. We are hoping by next year we can sit down at a joint commission to better structure our relations. We have been pushing for and updating, renewal of existing agreement between us but we have got the one on economic and technical commission rectified by Greece, we are waiting for the Nigerian side for the agreement to take effect. Headquarter is aware of this. Recently, we got an instruction to book in Greece for the 2014 rounds of joint commission so that further engagement can be intensified.
With respect to Nigerians living here, the Greeks believe that in any society there will be a small minority that will not do things the right way. It is not as if the Nigerians are the only one committing crime, we have other nationalities-Senegalese, Indians, Pakistanis and so on. They are engaged in petty trade to survive in the absence of structured job, regular employment to live in a country like this, in some cases, we have differences in our laws and their laws. For example, the sale of a cd in Greece is a criminal offence that can land someone in jail whereas the sale of cd in Nigeria is not really frowned at the way these guys frown at it. And we have tried to let them know that these are petty traders not the pirate.
On culture, during this year independent celebration we brought in the National Troupe of Nigeria, Keziah Jones- a younger Nigerian musician based in the UK known all over Europe. The turnout was massive. You must have watched the clips on NTA. We also at the level of African Ambassadors, we brought in movies produced by Nollyhood in February last. It is an annual event, the African Film Festival. Today, the Greek know more about Africa, Nigeria in particular.
Leventis is a known Greek corporation operating in Nigeria, what are you doing to get Greek companies interested in reforms and privatization going on the power sector, banking, construction and other areas of the Nigerian economy?
Flour Mills is the oldest Greek company in Nigeria and off course Flour Mills is expanding. Greek has a force flair for shipping. Greek vessels and maritime personnel play a significant role in our maritime sector in terms of deploying of ships to service our oil and gas, and the deployment of personnel to maintain those vessels. A lot of efforts is in the pipeline by independent Greek companies to find Nigerian partners they can collaborate with. We are working hard to structure an exchange of trade missions between the two countries.
In light of all that you’ve said, how would you describe your relationship with your host country?
I will say excellent. From the President downward, our relationship has been cordial, warm and friendly regardless of some unfortunate incidence such as the killing of a Greek national in Bauchi last year and the seizure of a Greek vessel for illegal bunkering.
As an Ambassador, how would you describe the general profile of Nigerians in Diaspora and how can this be exploited for the growth and development of our country?
A country’s Diaspora population is an important segment of its population. A country’s Diaspora population is an important segment of its developmental efforts. Nigerians in Diaspora are highly skilled, highly motivated. They must manage themselves and we must also manage them properly. For example, I think the time has come for us to consider articulating the finances of our Diaspora through the creation of Diaspora bank where Nigerians abroad would be encouraged to save their money into so that can be sure of some compulsory assets should they come back home. I say this because when I discuss with a good number of them, the fear they have, is taken the first step and how to re-integrate into a society they left long ago in terms of resources to resettle even before they begin to deploy their skills. And when you have the Diasporabank perhaps under the supervision of the Central Bank guaranteeing the safety of their funds. Then we can have thousands of Nigerians domiciling their savings in this bank. This fund can also be used to finance the real sectors locally. The Diaspora will provide significant support to the vibrant minds at home across all sectors. A force that has contributed heavily to the maintenance of other economies to the detriment of ours, is a force to be reckon with.
Lastly, what is a typical day for you in the office?
My typical starts in the morning. I get here by 8 and I leave at times time depending on the work load on my table between 7 or 8 at night.
