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Presidency Reacts As Qatar Allegedly Rejects Tinubu’s Visit, Business Talk

Published

2 years ago

February 24, 2024

The Presidency has said the Qatari government did not snub President Bola Tinubu.

The Presidency said the botched investment forum between the Nigerian and Qatari business communities is only one of several events lined up ahead of the President’s State Visit to the Gulf country on March 2 -3, 2023.

This was disclosed in a statement signed by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga on Saturday.

“It is not correct for anyone to insinuate that the Qatari authorities have snubbed the Nigerian leader over a business and investment forum which is tangential to the all-important State Visit and which President Tinubu is slated to attend as a guest,” Onanuga said.

Onanuga was responding to a leaked note verbale between the foreign ministries of both countries, which showed the Arab nation would be unable to hold a proposed forum intended to be held during Tinubu’s visit.

Qatar said its decision to decline the business and investment forum was due to the lack of a legally binding agreement with Nigeria to promote investment.

More so, the letter explained that the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim al-Thani, “will be carrying out official missions outside the country during the upcoming visit period,” which makes him unavailable for the forum.

But in a statement titled ‘President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to Qatar,’ the Presidency explained, “President Tinubu is expected to proceed to Qatar on the State Visit as scheduled and during the visit, the Nigerian leader will engage in high-level bilateral discussions with Qatari leader on many important matters, covering the full range of diplomatic and economic issues.”

The Presidency said, “We are aware of a leaked diplomatic correspondence between the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Abuja and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s state visit to Qatar between March 2 – 3, 2024.

“The leaked diplomatic paper by mischief makers about an investment forum is not in any way a snub on President Tinubu by the Qatari government.

“It said the note verbale is about a private sector-led Business and Investment Forum to be held on the margins of President Tinubu’s State Visit. The event is being put together by the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture and Qatar’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry, where business people from Nigeria will engage their counterparts from Qatar on commercial and investment opportunities available in both countries.

“We note the strong bilateral relationship between our two countries and affirm that the State Visit by President Bola Tinubu to Qatar is at the invitation of the Emir of Qatar, Sheik Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.

“The State Visit is particularly aimed at strengthening the bilateral economic cooperation between Nigeria and Qatar,” the Presidency insisted.

NACCIMA and Qatar Chambers of Commerce and Industry, it said, were collaborating to take advantage of President Tinubu’s visit to Doha to mobilise the business community from our two countries to explore opportunities in key economic sectors such as oil & gas, manufacturing, agro-business, construction, real estate, ICT, Renewable Energy, Solid Minerals and service sector, among others.

It said the two leaders are committed to maintaining and building on the existing cordial and special relationship between Nigeria and the State of Qatar.

This is not the first time a leaked correspondence between Nigeria and Qatar would suggest a rejected visit of a Nigerian leader.

In 2022, a similar correspondence showed that the Qatari government postponed a visit by former President Muhammadu Buhari slated for September 11 – 12 because “the proposed dates are not suitable.”

Although Buhari’s visit was at the invitation of the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Qatari government raised concerns that the proposed dates were “too close” to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, which it later hosted from November 20 to December 18, 2022.

Buhari embarked on the trip on March 5 – 9, 2023, where he attended the 5th United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries. Tinubu’s trip to Qatar falls almost within the same time window as Buhari’s.

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

23 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

1 day ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP