Kuwait celebrated its 51st anniversary of independence and 21st year of liberation Monday in Abuja where the country’s Ambassador Saad A. Al-Asousi said it had signed a number of agreements with Nigeria to strengthen bilateral relations between both countries.
The ambassador said assistance from Nigeria had greatly helped in bilateral relations, just as four agreements were recently signed with Nigeria.
He said the two countries were cooperating on different fields as both are OPEC members, adding that the establishment of a bi-national commission would soon be in place to regulate relationships between them.
Prof. Viola Onwuliri, Minister for State 1 for Foreign Affairs, said the occasion was worth celebrating, adding only a country that has gone through forms of domination by foreign forces would appreciate what liberation means.
She said Nigeria, having experienced a similar thing, could not but be in the league of nations to fight for liberation as it is not a luxury but a natural course of event, the success of which has every reason to be celebrated. Onwuliri noted that interactions between Nigeria and Kuwait dated back to Nigeria’s year of independence and have continued to grow specifically with the establishment and continuous funding of the Sheik Sabad College Kaduna (now Sardauna College).
She said though the project had to be aborted due to certain developments in Nigeria, the enabling environment was now in place for any form of investment in education, access to funds to address desertification, erosion and oil spillage among others. The minister noted that the main factor militating against satisfactory economic transactions between the two countries was lack of formal bilateral agreements that will regulate the envisaged activities.