Foreign investors interested in coming into Nigeria to invest in the various sectors of the nation’s economy have been urged to always pass through the proper channel rather than cutting corners.
The danger inherent in such adventure is that genuine investors fall into wrong hands and at the end of the day portray Nigerians as fraudulent people.The charge d’Affairs of the Nigerian embassy in Damascus ,Mr. Hassan Mohammed Hassan who gave the advise said that the commercial section of the various embassies are readily available to advise businessmen and women who want to genuinely invest in Nigeria.
He said that Nigerians are very hardworking ,peace loving and peaceful people who are always ready to do business with their foreign counterparts.According to information from the economic intelligence “ The Head of the Nigerian mission in Syria noted that the trade balance between Nigeria and Syria is not very significant at the moment but that the deficit is highly compensated by the presence of over 10,000 expatriate Syrians who mostly are involved in profitable businesses with some of the earnings transferred periodically back to their families in Syria.”
He however explained that the Nigerian embassy in Damascus and the Syrian embassy in Abuja are working hard to encourage bilateral trade adding “a team from the Nigerian chamber of commerce has written us indicating their desire to further improve commerce and business relations with Syria. We are currently working on this and it is my fervent hope and desire that relationship between our two countries would transcend the political realm and firmly establish itself in the economic and commercial arena”.
Hassan who observed that Syrian expatriates first came into Nigeria in the early 1920s and have lived in peace ever since are well established in most aspects of the economy, especially commerce, manufacturing, oil, gas and education.
He further stated that there are currently so many sectors of the Nigerian economy that are very attractive to foreign business due to the remarkable success achieved since the advent of democracy in the country.
“The banking sector, telecommunications, oil and gas, energy and agriculture are all open for potential investors who want to come to Nigeria”, he remarked.
Meanwhile, Economic intelligence stated that the National Assembly has been advised to jettison the whole idea of constitution review and face the nation’s pressing problems.
The publisher of an online press release distribution Agency, Alhaji Ismail Sani who gave the advise in a statement in Abuja said that the haste to review the constitution is uncalled for, unnecessary and unwarranted adding that” already, the National Assembly is up in arms against itself, one shudders to imagine what will happen if the battle moves to the state Assemblies”
He observed that the noise generated by the constitution review has woken up the centrifugal forces from slumber who have now dust up the traditional divisive issues: tenure elongation, agitation for state creation, derivation etc capable of not only heating up the polity but even derailing the democratic train. “Granted that these area fundamental issues, but they can only be addressed one at a time, not in one fell swoop and certainly not through a rancorous, volatile constitution review jamboree”, he added.
While admitting that the 1999 constitution is defective in certain respects, he explained that “no document written by humans is perfect. Constitutionalism is a gradual, evolutionary process which gathers momentum in full operation and smoothen through occasional add and drop, and not through rushed mega amendments”.