Nigerian president for Emancipation visit

Nigerian president Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan and a 70-member delegation will be the Government’s specially invited guests for next week’s Emancipation celebrations.

T&T’s Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan announced the visit of the Nigerian team—from July 31 to August 2. Jonathan, 55, will be accompanied on the visit by his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan. The delegation will arrive at Piarco Airport at 5 pm next Tuesday. Rambachan said Jonathan’s Emancipation visit—the Nigerian president’s first to T&T—comes as a result of talks Prime Minister Kamla Persad- Bissessar held with Jonathan during last year’s Commonwealth leaders’ conference in?Australia.

Rambachan said T&T?has increased ties with Nigeria on trade issues and had sent an energy delegation to Nigeria last year. On arrival on Tuesday, Jonathan will be given a welcome at Piarco by a military guard of honour and will be greeted by President George Maxwell Richards and Persad-Bissessar. On August 1, Jonathan and his delegation will participate in the Emancipation Camboulay celebration parade. That day also, Jonathan will pay courtesy calls on President Richards and the Prime Minister. During the visit with the PM, they will hold bilateral trade discussions on energy and other matters, including possible air links between Nigeria and T&T, in which Nigeria has expressed interest. At 4 pm on August 1, the Nigerian team will visit the Emancipation Village at the Queen’s Park Savanah, Port-of-Spain, and will attend a state banquet hosted by the Prime Minister at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s. On August 2, the Nigerian visitors will head to the Pt Lisas Industrial Estate.

Rambachan said 57 Nigerian students are expected to graduate from training programmes at Pt Lisas Skills Training centres and some 80 more will be undergoing courses there also. Dame Patience will visit children’s homes on August 2. The team will also attend an Emancipation luncheon at the Diplomatic Centre before leaving T&T at 3.30 pm. Speaking at the Diplomatic Centre yesterday, Rambachan said the Government is committed to foot the bill for the visit, since the Nigerian contingent was invited by the State. Costs are still being worked out, he added.

Via NVS/TRINIDAD GUARDIAN

Government’s Press Release below

PRESIDENT JONATHAN TO VISIT TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, JAMAICA

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will depart Abuja tomorrow to attend Trinidad and Tobago Emancipation Day and Jamaica’s Independence Anniversary Celebration.

President Jonathan, accompanied by First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, will review the Kambule Street Procession, the major event marking the Trinidad and Tobago Emancipation Day on Wednesday, August 1, with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

He will present a Goodwill Message to the Procession, pay a courtesy call on Prof. George Maxwell Richards, President of Trinidad and Tobago and his wife, Dr. Jean Ramjohn Richards, and meet with members of the Nigerian community resident in Trinidad and Tobago.

President Jonathan and Dame Patience Jonathan will attend the Emancipation Day Cultural Programme at the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village, and be hosted to a State Banquet by the President of Trinidad and Tobago.

The President’s Official visit to Jamaica will commence on Thursday, August 2, with a Special Commemorative Session of Parliament in his honour, after which he will be hosted by the Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller.

Other activities of President Jonathan in Jamaica will include participation in a Mello Go Round at the National Stadium, a bilateral meeting in the Prime Minister’s office, a meeting with the Nigerian Community and a luncheon hosted by the Governor-General of Jamaica, Patrick Allen.

President Jonathan is expected back in Abuja on Saturday, August 4, 2012.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Emancipation Day is celebrated to mark the end of slavery for Africans in the British Caribbean on August 1, 1838, and has been observed as a national holiday in Trinidad and Tobago since 1985, while Jamaica attained independence from Great Britain in 1962.

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