We have to close the book of prejudice on France so as to move forward. We are presently in bad shape and we shall welcome any help from friends or foes who will rescue us from our present economic dilemma. The recent state visit by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) to Elysee Palace in Paris is most welcome. We need friends, not foes, any longer or else the world will continue to move without us. We need to sustain our traditional ties with London too, while at the same time pursuing our adventure with Paris.
Only three Nigerian leaders have been invited by the British monarch for state visits to Buckingham Palace. They are General Yakubu Gowon (GCFR; 90) and his wife Victoria Gowon (78) (12–15 June 1973), President Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari (GCFR; 25 February 1925–28 December 2018) (17–20 March 1981) and General Ibrahim Babangida (GCFR; 83) and his wife, Maryam (9–12 May 1989).
In fact, Nigeria is more favoured than most African countries that have been invited for state visits to Buckingham Palace.
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On the other hand, the British monarch had visited Nigeria twice. Queen Elizabeth II (21 April 1926-8 September 2022) first visited Nigeria between 28 January to 16 February, 1956. She was accompanied by her husband, the then Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip (10 June 1921-9 April 2021). She visited Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ibadan and Lagos.
While in Nigeria, she worshipped at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Marina, Lagos, an Anglican church founded by Reverend Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1809–31 December 1891) and which – during the Queen’s visit – was under the Provost, Reverend AW Howells (17 September 1905- 7 March 1963). During her visit, the Queen donated a chair to the cathedral, which is still being preserved till today.
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The Queen also commissioned the Nigerian painter and sculptor, Ben Enwonwu to make a bronze sculptor of herself. The next year, she posed in London as Enwonwu banged metal against his imagination in order to bring an outsized version of the Queen to life. The sculpture was completed in 1957, and in November of the same year, was presented at the Royal Society of British Artists exhibition in London.
The monarch was also in Nigeria between 3 to 6 December 2003 for the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOG) meeting in Abuja. She was received by President Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR). The Queen also visited Nasarawa State.
General Gowon was actively preparing for a state visit by the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, before he was overthrown in a military coup by General Murtala Mohammed while in Kampala, Uganda, for the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in July 1975.
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The present British monarch, King Charles III (76), is a regular visitor to Nigeria.
Charles, Prince of Wales, now King of England has visited Nigeria four times, in 1990, 1999, 2006, and 2018.
For his first visit, he and his now late wife, Diana, Princess of Wales (1 July 1961-31 August 1997) arrived in Nigeria on 15th March, 1990. They left the UK through Gatwick Airport and were met at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos by the then Chief of General Staff, Admiral Augustus Akhabue Aikhomu (20 October 1939–17 August 2011) and Mrs Rebecca Aikhomu. Nigeria was under military rule at the time, with General Ibrahim Babangida serving as the military president.
The Prince and Princess were taken to State House, Marina, where General Babangida and his wife, Maryam Babangida (1 November 1948–27 December 2009) received them. That night, they were hosted at a state banquet, after which they retired to the Royal Yacht, which was docked next to the Marina in Lagos.
In 1999, the prince returned for the inauguration ceremony of President Olusegun Obasanjo (87; GCFR), with late South African president, Nelson Mandela also in attendance.
In 2006, the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, arrived at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja to begin a three-day state visit. At the time, the trip was seen as a boost to the democratisation of the Nigerian polity. While he was around, he also visited Kaduna and Kano.
2018 saw Prince Charles (now King Charles III) (76) return, but this time with a new wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall. They were received by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. While he was in Abuja, he met with some traditional rulers at the residence of the British High Commissioner, Paul Arkwright.
Some of the monarchs present included the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (the Ọjájá II) (50; CFR); Sultan of Sokoto, His Majesty Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III (68; CFR); Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II (63); Obi of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe (83); Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar (72; CFR); Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo Oba Ewuare II (71); and Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garba Al Amin El-Kanemi (67).
During the three-day visit, the couple also met with and talked to some Nigerian youths, the Armed forces, and people in the creative sectors, specifically in arts and fashion.
Only six British Prime Ministers have visited Nigeria. They comprise Harold Wilson, Alec Douglas-Home, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron and Theresa May. Mr Harold Wilson was in Nigeria for the Commonwealth Conference on Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, held at the Federal Palace, Hotel, Lagos, between 12 January and 14 January, 1966. Nigeria’s Prime Minister then, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (December 1912–15 January 1966) hosted the Conference. Other world leaders that attended the conference were Lester Pearson of Canada, Sir Dauda Jawara of The Gambia, Dr Hastings Banda of Malawi, Dr Borg Olivier of Malta, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Sir Albert Margai of Sierra Leone and Dr Milton Obote of Uganda. Others at the meeting were President Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus, acting Prime Minister of Jamaica at that time, Donald Sangster; vice-President of Zambia, Mr Kamanga; and Ceylon’s Minister of Justice; India’s Minister of law and social security; Kenya’s Minister of Finance; Malaysia’s deputy Prime Minister; New Zealand’s High Commissioner in London; Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Lagos; and Trinidad and Tobago’s deputy Prime Minister.
Twenty-four hours after the conference ended, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa was assassinated in Lagos.
Speaking in British Parliament on 25 January, 1966, Mr. Harold Wilson said, “The whole house, especially those who in any capacity had dealings in the past with Sir Abubakar, will deeply regret the tragedy which occurred in Nigeria a few days ago. I should like to add—I am sure that I speak for all Commonwealth Prime Ministers—a tribute to his splendid chairmanship of what could have been a very difficult Commonwealth Conference. He as much as anybody was, I believe, responsible for the satisfactory outcome of it”.
Although Tony Blair (71) in his 718-page book titled A Journey, after numerous visits to Nigeria, did not make any reference to Nigeria, but the alliance between Nigeria and Britain is still strong. There are over three million Nigerians living in the United Kingdom now. This number is expected to double in the next few years. Over 2,500 Nigerians fly in and out of the United Kingdom daily.
In some parts of London, like Old Kent Road, Camberwell, Thamesmead, Islington, Barking, Abbey Wood, Woolwich, Deptford and of course Peckham, it is as if you are in any part of Nigeria. In fact, the Suya spot at Camberwell, apology to Egbon Tunji Oyelana, is better than the Suya spot at Obalende in Lagos. It is common knowledge now that suya spots at Peckham in London are better organised and well managed than the suya spots in Lagos.
The UK deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr Jonny Baxter, announced two years ago that ten per cent of all visas granted by the British government, were to Nigerians. We were discussing Nigerian/Britain relationship on the sideline of the current romance between Elysee Palace and Abuja, specifically between President Bola Tinubu (GCFR) and Emmanuel Macron of France. Our President and our Foreign Minister, Alhaji Yusuf Tuggar, know that going by past records, France has not been Nigeria’s friend.
On 13 February 1960, France conducted its first nuclear test at Reggane, an oasis town in southern Algeria. The war for the North African country’s independence had been ongoing since 1954 and French President Charles de Gaulle was keen to show the world that France belonged at the top table of military powers.
To that end, the first French atomic bomb, named Gerboise Bleue after the blue of the tricolour flag and a small desert animal in the Sahara, was detonated in the Algerian desert. It released over four times the amount of energy as that of the US bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
A few months later, as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was in France for an official visit, a second French bomb was detonated in the Sahara.
Between 1960 and 1966, four years after Algeria gained its independence, France detonated 17 bombs in the Sahara, including four in the atmosphere near Reggane. Witnesses to the tests described them as the most brutal thing they had ever seen in their lives.
Four underground explosions in the Algerian Sahara “were not totally contained or confined”, according to a French parliamentary report.
Most famous of these was the Beryl incident, during which nine soldiers and a number of local Tuareg villagers were heavily contaminated by radioactivity. The impact of France’s nuclear testing programme in Algeria was immediate and has been ongoing. Following the first explosion in 1960, the radioactive fallout landed in newly independent Ghana and in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Government had earlier warned France not to conduct those tests but it refused. The test affected a lot people in Kano and its surroundings. After the test, Nigeria broke diplomatic relations with France.
Writing on the then situation in his book titled, A Right Honourable Gentleman: The Life and Times of Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Trevor Clark wrote on page 495 that, “As to relations with General de Gaulle (who had been assured in the Algerian cease-fire agreement that Sahara tests might continue for some years, and had just received massive support from the French people in his referendum on self-determination for Algeria, despite the abstention of 40% of resident Algerian voters), Abubakar personally followed up Dr. Esins’s demarche. At half past seven in the morning, after returning from Bauchi, he ordered the withdrawal of the French ambassador, Mr Raymond Offroy and his embassy staff from Lagos; he barred all French aircraft and ships; and he denied them all rights of transit.
The Frenchmen found their telephones disconnected the next day, and left by unescorted cars for Dahomey within the 48 hours set in the ultimatum. One unforeseen consequences was a dearth of liquid petroleum gas for Ghanaian lamps and stoves, since LPG was carried up the coast in French cargo vessels. The people who were to be hurt most were the citizens of Nigeria’s francophone neighbours in Niger, Dahomey and elsewhere. A more hypothetical result was to be suggested seven year later, M. Offroy was to be a prominent leader of the anti-federal government, pro-Biafran, lobby in Paris, and President De Gaulle to incline to favour Igbo secession.
At the time the Nigerian press and politicians were ecstatic, although their colleagues in Dahomey, Niger and Tchad were distressed. No other country broke off diplomatic relations with France over Saharan nuclear testing, resting content with shouting slogans.”
During the civil war, we all knew where France stood and this led to anti-French demonstrations by over 3,000 Nigerian students at the French embassy in Lagos on 14 September, 1968.
A breakthrough in Nigeria/France relationship came on 4 February, 1987, when the then Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida flew to Paris in France for medical treatment. He was in France for four weeks until he came back on 4 March, 1987. No Nigeria Leader ever visited France again until 8 March, 1999, when the President-elect, Olusegun Obasanjo visited Paris. He was received by the then French President, Jacques René Chirac (29 November 1932-26 September 2019), even though he had not been sworn in. On 4 February, 2000, President Obasanjo (GCFR) was in France for three days. All in all, President Olusegun Obasanjo visited France six times during his eight-year tenure as the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria. The last was on 16 May, 2006, the day the Senate rejected the third term bill.
On 10 June, 2008, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (GCFR; 16 August 1951-5 May 2010) visited France and was received by President Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (70) at the Elysee Palace, where they had lunch together. After the visit, President Yar’Adua announced a $5 billion deal with France.
On 24 November, 2011, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR GCON; 67) was in France for a meeting to attract foreign investments to Nigeria. He led an economic delegation.
President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR; 82) was in France for a state visit between 14 and 16 September, 2015. He was also in France between 2 and 4 February, 2016. Between 10 and 16 November, 2018, President Buhari was in Paris for a peace forum. Between 10 and 13 November, 2021, President Buhari was also in Paris on a working visit.
We have to close the book of prejudice on France so as to move forward. We are presently in bad shape and we shall welcome any help from friends or foes who will rescue us from our present economic dilemma. The recent state visit by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) to Elysee Palace in Paris is most welcome. We need friends, not foes, any longer or else the world will continue to move without us. We need to sustain our traditional ties with London too, while at the same time pursuing our adventure with Paris. Rigidity wont solve our problems in Foreign Affairs, so far as our national interests are recognised and protected.
France at present is the third biggest economy in Europe, after Germany and the United Kingdom, so we can’t shut down the opportunities it has to offer. I am aware of top French companies operating in Nigeria. They include Air Liquide, specialising in gases, technologies, and services for industry and health; it supplies industrial gases and related services. The company’s offerings support sectors such as oil and gas, manufacturing, and healthcare. Bolloré Transport and Logistics, a major player in logistics and transportation, has been active in Nigeria, providing services that facilitate trade and commerce. The company has shown interest in investing and exploring opportunities within Nigeria’s economy. Maurel & Prom has operations in Nigeria through its significant stake in SEPLAT, one of the country’s leading indigenous operators. The company engages in exploration and production activities, contributing to Nigeria’s energy sector.
Ponticelli Frères is another French company that provides services, including boiler-making and maintenance, supporting various industrial projects in Nigeria. Alstom has been involved in Nigeria’s rail transport projects. It contributes to the development and maintenance of railway systems, supporting the country’s efforts to improve its transportation network. Sodexo, operating in Nigeria, provides quality-of-life services, including facilities management, catering, and employee benefits. The company serves various sectors, such as corporate, healthcare, and education, enhancing operational efficiency and employee well-being. Danone, through its subsidiary, Fan Milk, has a presence in Nigeria’s dairy and frozen dairy products market. Fan Milk is known for its range of frozen yogurt, ice cream, and other dairy products popular among Nigerian consumers.
Schneider Electric specialises in digital automation and energy management. It drives digital transformation in Nigeria by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, an endpoint to cloud connecting products, controls, software, and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centres, infrastructure, and industries.
AXA Mansard Insurance Plc was incorporated in 1989 as a private limited liability company registered with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM). The company was listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange in November 2009 and currently boasts the highest market capitalisation in the Insurance sector of the Exchange. The company’s health insurance service has been greatly awarded in Nigeria in recent years.
Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited (Swipha) engages in the production and distribution of anti-malaria, anti-infectives, anti-diabetes, CNS, and cardiovascular drugs, with over thirty brands to its credit.
In 2008, Swipha became the first pharmaceutical company in Nigeria to obtain ISO 9001 certification and in 2014 again became the first company in West Africa to obtain the WHO GMP certification. Examples of Swipha’s products include drugs like Arenax Plus Forte and Arenax Plus. Lafarge Africa, a subsidiary of the Holcim Group is a leading player in Nigeria’s building materials industry. The company manufactures and distributes cement, aggregates, and ready-mix concrete, serving construction needs across the country.
Total Energies is another French company in Nigeria that majors in the petroleum industry. The company began operations in Nigeria in 1956 rapidly becoming a major player in Nigeria’s onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration, production, natural gas liquefaction, and marketing of petroleum products. It currently operates about 570 service stations in Nigeria for the retail of petroleum products. This service station is to help the government meet the mandate of getting petroleum products across to as many members of the population as possible.
In December 2023, TotalEnergies announced plans to invest $6 billion over several years in Nigeria’s oil and energy sector, focusing on gas and offshore projects. The company also currently employs more than 1800 members of staff nationwide. Over the past years, the company has invested in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector through projects like the Ubeta gas development project to supply Nigeria’s LNG liquefaction plant to aid gas supply across Nigeria.
In foreign affairs there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies only permanent interests.
Eric Teniola, a former director in the Presidency, writes from Lagos.
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