“We allowed problems in the past to hold us back, but today we said this is over. Brazil and Nigeria are here to grow together. Technology transfer, energy and the economy are ways that can benefit both countries. Together, we can develop our economies, strengthen our sovereignty and contribute to a better world.”
“At a time when protectionism and unilateralism have been making a comeback, Nigeria and Brazil reaffirm their bet on free trade and productive integration.” – President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
The image of President Bola Tinubu and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva clasping their hands together, their faces beaming with bright smiles summarises the import of President Tinubu’s last week’s state visit to Brazil. That photograph was not just an image of two happy men. Its meaning is much deeper. It’s a depiction of reconnection between two long lost brothers who have found themselves and decided to retrace their age-old relationship, dating to the transatlantic slave-trade, and take each other back with open arms.
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The state visit of President Tinubu, on the invitation of President Lula, was a remarkable opportunity to renew the partnership between the two giants of the global South. Nigeria and Brazil are like identical twins, or two sides of a coin. The two lead their respective regions. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy, like what Brazil is to Latin America. Our population is almost the same. We have nearly a balanced trade sheet. From January to July, trade between the two countries was valued at $1.2 billion. Brazilian exports to Nigeria totalled $654.9 million, while Brazil’s import from Nigeria stood at $591.7 million. The trade figures are, however, far from desirable.
Considering the long ties and proximity of the two countries, separated only by the Atlantic Ocean (in commenting about this geographical proximity, President Tinubu humorously remarked that we’re so close that a good swimmer can actually cross to the other side), a relationship between us, to borrow President Lula, ought to be “much more substantial.”
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From ifá religion and football to Marcopolo buses and Embraer jets, Nigeria and Brazil have long standing cultural and economic ties that unfortunately ebbed in the last decade, as lamented by President Lula. Addressing a joint press conference with President Tinubu, the Brazilian leader pointed to a decline in both diplomatic and economic ties and how both sides are working to revamp these.
“For many years, Nigeria was our largest commercial partner in Africa,” President Lula said, pointing to a peak trade of $10 billion recorded in 2014. “However, in the last decade, this exchange has been drastically reduced.”
Enters President Tinubu.
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For a man who from Day One was clear about his mission: Resetting our economy and setting Nigeria on the path of prosperity, President Tinubu has his job well cut out. To achieve his set target of making Nigeria achieve a $1 trillion economy by 2030, the president is all out to court friends and develop new acquaintances. With internal cleaning all done — including tidying up the investment climate — the president’s goal is to create as much investments and partnerships as possible. He goes around the world not for merry junketing but to knock at the doors that matter and inform everyone that “Nigeria is ready for business.” From Doha to Delhi, Johannesburg to Riyadh, he carried the same message with the details and dexterity of a skilled salesman.
It is within this context that the Tinubu administration set out to renew the lulled relationship with Brazil, culminating in the state visit last week. Prior to this trip, the last time a Nigerian leader was in Brasília was in 2009. The other side too went aloof.
This active reconnection began with a side meeting between President Tinubu and President Lula on the side-lines of the African Union Summit in 2024. The two reviewed the state of relations between the two countries and decided that the situation needed to change. In President Lula, President Tinubu found a willing brother eager to smoothen things out. Thus began the journey.
Since then, Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, and Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin had been to Abuja on separate occasions, for high-level discussions on areas of collaborations. Also, the Nigerian Minister Agriculture and Food Security and that of Livestock Development had been to Brasilia to participate in the 2nd Brazil-Africa Dialogue on Food Security, Fight Against Hunger and Rural Development. Through these diplomatic shuttles, the two sides had signed several bilateral agreements in the fields of defence, agriculture and livestock, security, audiovisual production, trade and investments, tourism, and energy. This were aside the fresh ones signed last week in the presence of the two leaders.
President Tinubu was received as a very important guest in Brasilia, with pomp and pageantry, in the spirit of true brotherhood. Aside the colourful military reception and decorated hallways, central boulevards in the capital city were adorned with Nigerian flags. It was a warm and honourable welcome.
Beyond the pageantry, meaningful conversations took place in one-on-meetings and in wider bilateral conversation involving twenty top officials on both sides of the table. At the end, both leaders gave a vow to commit to a new future in which humanity and a shared destiny trump selfish or pecuniary interests.
President Tinubu, who delivered a powerful off-the-cuff remarks at the joint press conference, gave a succinct bon mot signalling a new beginning.
Thus, “We allowed problems in the past to hold us back, but today we said this is over. Brazil and Nigeria are here to grow together. Technology transfer, energy and the economy are ways that can benefit both countries. Together, we can develop our economies, strengthen our sovereignty and contribute to a better world.”
It’s not for nothing that our foreign reserve got the recent reported surge to $41 billion. Beyond improved earnings from oil – whose output soared nearly double under this administration – the economic diplomacy of President Bola Tinubu, like this trip to Brazil, has renewed the hope of investors and attracted many of them back. A latest example – a gain from the trip to Brazil – is the prospect of having the Brazilian oil giant, Petrobras back to Nigeria, five years after it divested from our then fledgling oil sector.
The high point for this important presidential outing was the signing of the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between the two countries which was immediately put into effect through the gesture of Air Peace CEO, Chief Allen Onyema, who flew back part of Nigerian contingent via a demonstration flight from Brasilia to Lagos. That flight was a symbol of the deep connection and love between the two countries which was unlocked through President Tinubu’s significant state visit.
Abdulaziz Abdulaziz is Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu and a member of the Presidential Communication Team.
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