YOUR EXCELLENCY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR ACCEPTING OUR REQUEST FOR THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, CAN YOU GIVE US A BRIEF OF YOU?
Ok I just happened to be a foreign service Casual Diplomat of Bangladesh and I started my career in 1998 February. Before coming to Nigeria I was in Beijin as countries Minister, political and deputy chief of mission.
HOW WOULD YOU DISCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCE SINCE YOU ASUMED DUTY AS THE HIGH COMMISIONER OF BANGLADESH IN NIGERIA?
It happens that I become the third Bangladesh High Commissioner to Nigeria. after our mission has been opened, in 2016 September, so it’s still formative stage for our mission to walk out the details of bilateral engagement with Nigeria but with a very good collaboration, cooperation, warmth and friendliness of our host foreign ministry not to speak of the media, journalist, academia as well as business communities in Nigeria, they have been very much welcoming the idea of deepening our bilateral relations to versatile fields and I felt it quite remarkable that my two years in 3 to 4 months’ time that I have been encountered with the majority of the leaders, political leaders, business leaders, academicians and that actually gave me an insight about this country and also we have some significant engagement in recent days that gives us hope and the experience as we talk about this country the food, the music, the films that Nigeria continues to produce are very much iconic and very much beautiful for synergic as well so I really love them and not only that, the people are very friendly I must say and that one of the major positive side that I have witness in my stay.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY THE MOST AS A DIPLOMAT?
I think the most enjoyable part of diplomacy as a diplomat is to engage in, apart from government to government collaborations, bilateral engagement, is about two countries peoples and their culture and their identical feelings, similar views and a kind of cohesiveness that both countries people find together when they meet actually, although we are espouse in Asia and here it is in West Africa but I have noticed that Bangladeshi and Nigeria are a good mix for any friendship for any bigger roles of partnership and beyond.
SINCE THE MID 70’S, NIGERIA AND BANGLADESH HAVE MAINTAINED A HEALTHY DIPLOMATIC RELATIONSHIP, WHAT ARE THE MAJOR FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS STEADY GROWTH?
Ok that’s a very good question and the major factor that has brought us, both Bangladesh here in Nigeria opening our embassies and high commission in 2016 September is actually the synergy of our two countries Both our countries are DA countries, Developing Aid countries and we are also members of the IOC, the Common Wealth, the non-aligned movement, and also we are acting very strongly for peace and stability across the globe.
Our peace keepers are very much engaged in the similar hot spots and our two security forces and defense personnel they are very much close to each other as they conduct lots of mutual trainings and exchanges so this are the things apart from that the two countries are based on identical values and ethos of democracy, diversity, harmony and non-communalism, secularism and the nationalism that comes from the soil, ethos and values of the soil that binds the country together so both countries are very much unique and that has a reflection to its people and that’s actually the inspiration for taking this bilateral relations to a steady growth and to a new level.
NIGERIA AND BAGLADESH HAVE A GOOD TRADE RELATIONSHIP ESPECIALLY IN TEXTILE, PHARMACEUTICAL AND RUBBER. HOW DO YOU INTEND TO PROMOTE THIS TRADE RELATIONSHIP?
Yes if you look at the location of Nigeria, it’s located very conveniently in West Africa with the economic clout of ECOWAS and also the country along the Gulf of Guinea that are very much connected, also we see that Nigerians are the main voice of Africa, the largest economy and a big conduit of connectivity with Latin America, North America, Europe right, and if you look at Bangladesh location, we are in between ASEAN countries, South Asia and the Middle East and also the southern part of the middle part of the whole of Asia. This centrality of our location with access to the Bay of Bengal have given Bangladesh a wonderful opportunity for building connectivity that is one of our foreign policy priorities.
Our foreign policy priorities are of course, Economic diplomacy and Public diplomacy and that will bring together people from across the globe for peace and cohesiveness and stability and improve upon so if we take those two paradigm of Nigeria and Bangladesh then you engage in bilateral trade, commerce investment and shipping as well as people to people exchanges then I can say that it actually brings about a dynamic change and we have request gradually easing out of area connectivity why because they are a lot much now many airlines are actually connecting south Asia I will not name that we don’t have a direct flight of course but the options are very high so we are very hopeful to connect Bangladesh and Nigeria, taken due advantage of this locations and both countries are developing countries and both countries take the identical foot print of engagement, partnerships from regional as well as global peace, stability and development thank you.
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS TO FOSTER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND NIGERIA?
We plan to have so B-to-B connectivity’s let me be very clear it has to be an ongoing process that I have made clear to the Nigerian national president of NACCIMA as well as other business leaders and also to our apex chamber body in Tarka the FBCCI as well as Tarka chamber of commerce and industries, Chittagong Chamber of Commerce & Industry, major industries, you know Metropolitan Chamber of commerce and industries in Bangladesh here we have also the Lagos chamber of commerce and Abuja chamber of commerce and industry and we are aware that the chamber activity across the states have been very much delicately connected with TACCIMA so we want to connect the business bodies on a regular B to B booting exchanging visits, we are also organizing some road shows fares for Bangladeshi company are coming to participate this year, pharmaceutical companies are coming in September then small quarter industry, association in Bangladesh are coming in October if am not mistaken and we are going to work out the final phases of a host of, a dozen or more bilateral agreement we are going to work for finalizing it for the preparation of a official visit from the head of the state either way, we are looking at the honorable president of Nigeria to visit Bangladesh at a opportune moment sometime soon, as soon as we finalize this documents and of course we are very much hopeful that during the 29 May presidential inauguration, honorable president Bola Ahmed Tinubu our Honorable president of Bangladesh has conveyed his good will messages and our honorable prime minister her excellency Sheikh Hasina the daughter of the father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Prime Minister has also sent very cordial messages of goodwill and wish for further collaboration.
In this perspective I must say Bangladesh minister for local government and rural development and cooperatives Md Tazul Islam MP had visited representing our honorable president on that 29th may presidential hand over and it was a fruitful development in our bilateral relations and also I must say that this year in February first week the former federal minister for communication and digital economy professor Isa Aliyu Ibrahim Pantami also took a seventeen member first ever Nigerian trade mission to Tarka and that actually created a lot of developments between Nigeria and Bangladesh.
I can say that we have some mechanism under the D-8 collaborations we are looking towards building a preferential trade arrangement bilaterally which is in of the basic proposals from Bangladesh side in the D-8 ministry last year in July so that’s being worked out in the D-8 countries but we are trying to reflect it bilaterally both sides are working on those issues and Nigerians are also keen to know about the D-8 free trade zone, that has been also one of the key agenda in the D-8 council of minister last year in July in Taka so those are the issues that can actually galvanize our relations we can enhance our cooperation’s in garments, textile that-is Bangladesh has a very formidable edge on this area, we have the pharmaceutical products, we have the electronics, ICT, software products that Bangladesh produce today, and give service too, we have jute products, ceramic’s products, Lethal goods products and of late, Bangladesh is also into producing E-bike, motorcycles, Electric motorcycles, electric cars of late. It’s not yet into the proportion to go for exporting it but it will be a huge market.
The last thing that I want to say is that Nigeria is in a huge land resource you know the Agriculture farming, food processing in the Agric business we have a huge opportunity and the two countries population is about two hundred and ten million and one hundred and seventy million so in the area of digital connectivity, E-commerce, digital E-learning, all those things can connect the both countries and rule over the distances that we have so we look at all the directions and we are also working towards creating ODL Open and Distance Learning Co-operations between National Open University of Nigeria and Bangladesh Open University of Nigeria to premier open and distance learning in institutions in our regions. So that’s all I think.
WHAT IS THE MOST CHALLENGING PART OF YOUR AMBASSADORIAL ROLE IN OUR COUNTRY?
It is a very difficult question but answer is easy. The easy answer is both countries need to engage more, more frequent contacts at the ministerial official commercial business level and more people to people exchanges so that is the challenge.
We are making some engagements but not enough and of course the other challenges and Bangladesh knowing all this challenges we decided that we had to engage our deepening relations connectivity relations we have friends and brothers in Nigeria and we also of course will look for reciprocal favor that Nigeria will sooner someday will open their high commission in Tarka I think it has been talked in the foreign ministry for quite some time and with the new administration which is a very business friendly administration, and a very much futuristic administration with Honorable President Bola Ahmed Tinubu we are very hopeful about a lot of things happening between our country and Nigeria, between our park and Nigeria’s domain thank you.
IN A NUTSHELL, WHAT IS YOUR GENERAL VIEW OF THE COUNTRY?
Nigerians are very straight forward simple, humorous simple and very good human being that I can tell you and that’s my impression. The people are hardworking, and the people are very much infatuated with Arts, crafts, designs, cultures and creativity and kind of things like music, film and this is the center of Africa for that context and if we look at Bangalis we call our self Bangalis because we come from that Bengali culture and heritage.
Bangla is our mother tongue our people gave life for establishing Bangel as a language and our leader and Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Led our country to independence based on creating a Bengali speaking Nation and banking on those things, the two countries glorious history, synergic history, colonial history, and then we have a scenario of struggle at the beginning right we have the liberation war you know, very traumatic were three million people were perished two hundred and fifty thousand women and children were humiliated and we have a long history of struggle of civil war in this country and the people have learned from this sufferings both countries have fought together on our own time to fight against poverty, malnutrition, hunger and both countries people have a common goal of economic emancipation, economic freedom and our leaders have actually dream the same vision so I think both countries could carry forward the vision and join together.
We have lots of vision like UN Agenda of course for all our country of sustainable development goals by 2030 that also concise with Bangladeshi policy of gaining the high middle incoming level and of course 2041 the vision for a developed economy knowledge based, smart technology based happy prosperous Bangladesh so that is what we want to be looking at other friendly and brotherly developing country Nigeria so this two countries and infact all the developing country should be cooperating for deepening their diverse potentials and exchange to the best and mutual benefits of their people.
THANKS FOR HAVING US YOUR EXCELLENCY.
I thank you very much for this interview and look forward to seeing you again thank you.
YOU ARE WELCOME.