By Raphael Oni
The government of the Peoples Republic of China through her Embassy in Abuja, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Institute for Peace and Conflict resolution (IPCR) to raise awareness on insecurity, foster peace and development in Nigeria.
The Chinese Contemporary World Magazine agreement, an intellectual publication, will contain contents on mechanism to prevent insecurity, promote good governance, poverty eradication among other issues.
His Excellency Cui Jianchun, Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria said that China, knowing and understanding what peace entails, his country would share its experiences with Nigeria in the joint publication to ensure peace and sustainable development in Nigeria.
The Ambassador said Nigeria was the first country in Africa to sign the MoU with the Chinese government, this he said showed how much importance China attached to Nigeria. In his words, “Today we make it a reality. We find a good partner from China and this is the Contemporary World Magazine and it is a very powerful magazine all over the world. Here the Nigeria Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution is a very important institute, not only for Nigeria. You know peace we need peace, we need resolution.”
Furthermore, the Chinese Ambassador said, “In Nigeria, we have serious problems we have problems of insecurity, in China also we have insecurity but mostly from external forces. But in Nigeria we have different insecurity. And, I discuss with the Director-General how can we do things differently and the good thing is to have symphony and my idea advocating harmony is to share Chinese harmony, to perform Nigeria-China symphony.”
The Ambassador acknowledged that the event marks the beginning of a new journey in Africa. According to him, “Today is a very good example on how can we have a cooperation between the two most important institutions and try to provide our idea, our approach, our solution to Nigeria to African continent, to the whole developing countries. So, I do believe that this is just the beginning and also this is supported by the two governments and I think we can do good things,”.
Cui said that during his tenure, his priority was to strengthen the bilateral relations between China and Nigeria and to get more support from China to develop various sectors in Nigeria.
While making his remark at the signing ceremony, His Excellency Bakut Bakut , the Director-General of IPCR said that the signing of the Chinese Contemporary World Magazine MoU between Nigeria and China was another stride in the already existing good bilateral relations between both countries.
he said that with the content of the magazine duly applied, Nigeria would begin to prevent insecurity and spend less on fighting the scourge. In his words, “It is a magazine, but not just an ordinary magazine that you see on the road. This is an intellectual magazine which is focused on looking at issues that are not sentimental.
We look at real issues of governance, international relations, economics, development, poverty eradication, culture, environmental issues. Security Is part of what we are doing. The reason for the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution is a preventive agency. If we have enough money to prevent insecurity, there will be no need for the army of police to collect money to resolve the security challenges. In other words, what we are doing, we are security related agency, we try to prevent insecurity before it becomes an issue. So this is the purpose,”.
He explained that aside being an intellectual magazine, the policies would make an impact across all strata as the IPCR now have zonal offices across the country to implement policies.
Mr Wu Baoci, Directing Officer of the Chinese Embassy in Abuja, signed the MoU on behalf of the Chinese government while Bakut signed on behalf of the Federal Government. The first issue of the magazine is expected to be launched in September and will be expected to sell at N1,000 a copy, a price already subsidized by the Chinese government.
Contemporary World, founded in 1981 and supervised by the International Department of the Central Committee of CPC, is China’s leading scholarly journal in international studies published at home and abroad in both Chinese and English. Its Chinese version (monthly) is included in Nanjing University’s Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) and Peking University’s Guide to the Core Journals of China. The English version (bimonthly) is listed on the catalogue of CSSCI foreign language journals. Contemporary World has attracted a broad range of readers from political parties, political organizations, NGOs, universities, think tanks, academic institutions, media and enterprises worldwide and serves as a significant window for global readers to better understand China and the Communist Party of China. The magazine has a great impact among policy-makers and academic circles.
