Iranian Ambassador to Nigeria, Hussein Abdullahi has said his country’s relationship with Nigeria and the rest of the world remain cordial, adding that some forces are only bent on destabilizing its relationship with Nigeria.
He said: “Iran’s relationships with the whole countries of the world, particularly Nigeria, are friendly.

We believe in bilateral friendly relations with every and each country of the world based on mutual respect and common understanding. You can see that Iran has very cordial relations with the rest countries of the world.
“We have a very expanded relations with our neighbours. We are very active in solving the regional conflicts in the whole region around us and in the West Asia, Middle East, Central Asia and to some extent, Africa.

The Iranian envoy however noted the politicization of the recent issue of arms shipment by one of its nationals, which he said, was not meant for Nigeria. He descried the whole episode as unfortunate. Abdullahi said, “the experience during the last two months, of course, did not affect our relations with the Nigerian Government. Unfortunately, it affected the public opinion due to the misunderstanding and misinformation, which was made through the media.

“The case is very clear of Nigerian authorities at this time. What I should say is that there were some different similar cases before now between Nigeria and some other countries. There was another consignment in Kano some years ago and another consignment in Abuja in two air planes, which came to Nigeria. Then, they had ammunitions but nobody wrote about them. “Shortly after the consignment in Lagos, there was another consignment but nobody wrote about it. I would say that there are some very, very non sectors in Nigeria that are trying to destabilize the relations between Iran and Nigeria. And some forces are available here, trying a lot to deteriorate the relationship.

“You know the relationships between Iran and some countries, which I prefer not to mention, are not cordial and they are capitalizing on it. They are mostly foreigners but they are trying to use their Nigerian friends.”
He said within his four months stint in Nigeria, he realized that Nigeria has a very bright future, saying the country is growing very fast. Abdullahi said: “my understanding about Nigeria after being here for four months, is that there is a very bright future for Nigeria. I believe that the country is growing very fast. The country will have a living growth for economic development in the whole region of West Africa and the whole continent.

“The international community in my view, is going to accept this role and assist Nigeria in this procedures. There are very positive signals from the world community that Nigeria has to play a positive role in the world community as regards the whole region and due to that, Nigeria now has a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. This is a very clear signal that the world community accepted Nigeria as a responsible member of the world community and this is a great achievement for a country. And there are other positive signals that the world is going to welcome the positive role of Nigeria in the world international community.”

On the economic scene, he said a kind of competition was taking place on the economic scene between many countries to come to Nigeria, to invest in Nigeria and make the country a very active economic counterpart, mentioning amongst others, countries like Turkey, India, Brazil, China; adding that it was also a clear signal that the world accepted Nigeria as a country with a bright future and has to participate and contribute to the development of Nigeria. He further said: “Iran also believes the same and we have tried a lot to invest in this country in different sectors. There are some shortcomings like power sector where we have offered to construct two power plants here and also, construct about 30,000 houses in some parts of Nigeria.

“We have some contributions in the oil and gas sector but yet, in our view, it is not enough. There are a lot of expertise in my country that can be utilized here on the oil and gas sector and also for trade exchange.
“There are a lot of quality goods that are being produced in Iran, which can be imported and used here and there are a lot of raw materials that can be exported to Iran for processing and making the useable commodities to be distributed in Nigeria and other parts of the world. “Iran attaches great importance to Nigeria due to many reasons,” he said.