The Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu has commended President Bola Tinubu for not letting Nigeria join the BRICS economic group.
Okechukwu who gave the commendation in a statement made available to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja, Okechukwu, declared that Nigeria is better off maintaining her decades-old diplomatic standpoint as a non-aligned.
According to the founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), should be applauded by all Nigerians for not applying to join the emergent grouping.
Truth Live News recalls that at the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa, the bloc admitted Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE among other intending developing countries into its folds, thus fuelling speculations that Nigeria’s application was rejected for not meeting some crucial membership criteria.
However, Ikechukwu said he noted that he was thrilled when the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, recently cleared the air and said, “So far, we have not applied for the membership of BRICS. And it is majorly informed by the fact that my principal, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a true democrat that believes in consensus building.”
He insisted that Nigeria is better maintaining her age-long diplomatic policy and standpoint.
The statement notes that, “Whereas one has nothing against Brazil, Russia, India, China nor our brothers South Africa that make up the BRICS; however Nigeria stands to benefit hugely if we maintain our age-old standpoint of multilateral diplomacy.”
He pointed out the worldview origin of BRICS, saying, “records have it that to spur economic development outside the Breton wood system, the BRICS, a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and later South Africa, was formed. Ironically, the acronym was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs, and 2006, the bank opened an equity fund for investors in the BRICS. The group had since established the New Development Bank (NDB).”
On the proposal that Nigeria’s membership of BRICS has economic growth as the main goal, Okechukwu argued that whilst economic growth is important, it should not be at the expense of Nigeria’s cherished freedom and rule of law, which the leadership of the bloc abhors.
“Whilst one agrees that BRICS may engender economic growth; however neither the West nor Russia or China is Father Xmas, therefore our destiny is in our hands. And most importantly we cannot gloss over our cherished freedom and rule of law which may be in jeopardy in the BRICS alliance.
similarly, he pointed out that at the last count, the New Development Bank (NDB), a multilateral lending institution set up in 2014, based in Shanghai, had $25bn in recorded assets in 2022, less than a tenth of the World Bank’s total, and not much economic growth was stimulated, Okechukwu explained.
Against this backdrop, he urged President Tinubu to maintain Nigeria’s multilateral diplomatic strategy; which allows Nigeria today and in the future to operate and relate freely with all blocs and ultimately guide jealously our national interest.