By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
Ahead of 2023 general elections, a delegation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) yesterday met with the leadership of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) over how the two political organisations can work together to ensure a peaceful 2023 elections.
Chinese Communist Party is the ruling party in China, while IPAC is an umbrella budy of all registered political parties in Nigeria.
Speaking to journàlists before a closed door meeting with the CCP delegates, the National chairman of IPAC, Yusuf Sani Yabagi, said the visit was a pointer to the existing bilateral relationship between Nigeria and China.
He said the emerging signals on the political horizon are clearly demanding greater level of preparation and strategies on the part of IPAC and other strategic key players in the country’s democracy project.
He said with the 2023 general elections drawing closer, Nigeria will be needing robust support from friendly nations in order to be able to surmount the looming challenges which makes the People’s Republic of China, through the Chinese Communist Party and other institutions in China worthy allies.
Speaking further, Yabagi said “Let me very briefly touch on the well known facts of the special, the history and, the significance of strengthening the long and existing mutually beneficial friendship and cooperation between the Republics of Nigeria and China.
“While Nigeria was in the forefront of the countries that used the platform of the United Nations to support China in her legitimate demand for recognition and admission to the global body in 1971, the People’s Republic of China on the other hand, has since remained a consistent and reliable pillar of support of Nigeria in her quest for economic advancement,
national stability and security.
“It is noteworthy also, that while the two countries have the historic coincidence of sharing the 1st of October as their National Day of Independence, China, by its population, geographical size, economic and technological advancement, is at once, a regional power in Asia and a prominent force to be reckoned with on the global scene. Similarly, Nigeria, as the most populous country of the Black race with the largest economy and population on the African continent, has the dual status of being a continental leader and a power house among nations of the world.
“By it’s mandate, the Inter-Party Advisory Council is no doubt, one of the veritable vehicles for the uplifting of the Sino-Nigerian friendship to higher pedestals”, he said.
In his remarks, the leader of the CCP delegation, Comrade Zhao Jinshuo, highlighted areas of collaboration between the two countries.
He however, assured Nigeria of the needed support in the sustenance of collaborative democracy which is a strategy and vanguard of crystallizing human development through economic prosperity, technological advancements, security and integration in a polity of a united and patriotic citizenry.
