Singapore President Invites Tinubu

The President of Singapore, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, has invited President Bola Tinubu to visit the Asian country as both nations seek to strengthen diplomatic relations and expand areas of cooperation.

Naija News reports that Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, disclosed this in a statement issued by the Nigerian Mission House at the United Nations in New York.

According to Ibrahim, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Burhan Gafoor, delivered a letter from President Shanmugaratnam inviting Tinubu to Singapore during a visit to the Nigerian Mission House.

During the visit, Gafoor also congratulated Ibrahim on his emergence as Chairman of two key United Nations committees, the Fifth Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters and the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, popularly known as the Committee of 34.

Receiving the invitation, Ibrahim thanked the Singaporean government and assured them that President Tinubu would honour the invitation at a suitable time.

He said Singapore’s interest in engaging Nigeria was linked to the country’s ongoing economic reforms and efforts at national transformation.

Ibrahim said President Tinubu’s economic policies had attracted global attention and created opportunities for countries such as Singapore to share experiences with Nigeria on development and multilateral cooperation.

He compared Tinubu’s reform agenda with the transformation achieved under Singapore’s first Prime Minister, the late Lee Kuan Yew.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is making bold economic reforms like the first Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. His achievements are enviable and continue to generate concern to countries like Singapore to share experience in multilateralism,” Ibrahim said.

The envoy added that Tinubu valued his relationship with President Tharman and congratulated Singapore on the reforms that helped reshape the country.

Ibrahim said Nigeria was also undergoing reforms aimed at building a modern economy where citizens’ interests would be protected and economic opportunities expanded.

“Nigeria is currently going through reform in order to transform herself to a modern contemporary state, where interests of everyone is protected and Nigerians begin to enjoy a viable proposition,” he said.

The Nigerian envoy also disclosed that his office had recently recorded increased diplomatic engagements with representatives from different countries.

He said the British Ambassador to the UN visited him last week, followed by the Ambassador of Guyana before Gafoor’s visit.

Ibrahim pledged that his leadership of the UN committees would be guided by fairness, accountability and efficiency.

“I will be fair to all in allocation of resources under the Fifth Committee, and every country will have a say. The United Nations will be impartial to member states under the reform of accountability and efficiency,” he said.

The Fifth Committee oversees the administrative and budgetary affairs of the United Nations, while the Committee of 34 focuses on matters relating to UN peacekeeping operations.