Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama Reflects on Ties With China: We Are Not “Blind and Gullible”

File image of Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama. PIUS UTOMI EKPEI / AFP

Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama is the latest senior African stakeholder to push back against the accusation that China is taking advantage of Africa in general and his country in particular. “It is not totally accurate to make it sound as if we go into these relationships [with China] blind and gullible,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with Premium Times journalist Bridget Chiedu Onochie.

Earlier this month, Rwandan President Paul Kagame issued a similar rebuttal in a discussion with former U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, who suggested that China is engaging in predatory diplomacy in Africa.

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by Eric Olander

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