Nigerian experts in international relations, in collaboration with their Chinese counterparts, have said that the Contemporary World Magazine Nigeria has become a veritable platform to advance improved ties between China and Nigeria.
Indications of this development emerged during a seminar on Advancing knowledge Exchange aimed at building strategies for promoting and disseminating the Contemporary World Nigeria Magazine, in Abuja.
It was a collaboration between Contemporary World China and Nigeria’s Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPRC), and both sides are publishing Contemporary World Nigeria.
In his remarks, the director general of IPCR, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, said it is a platform to share ideas about Nigeria-China relations, China-Africa relations, and Nigeria-Africa relations.
“We are scaling up the magazine to provide the platform for knowledge sharing, knowledge dissemination and knowledge production on how issues around innovation and inclusion can flourish,” Ochogwu said.
According to the IPCR boss, the aim is to expand infrastructure development and economic growth in Africa and Nigeria. He stressed that it has become incumbent on stakeholders to ensure that the narrative fits the development trajectory that President Bola Tinubu is pushing alongside his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping.
He said, “The publication stands as both a mirror and a bridge of Nigeria-China cooperation, a mirror that reflects the evolving global landscape through African perspectives and connects diverse peoples and political cultures through dialogue, understanding and shared development goals.
“The promotion and dissemination of the magazine converges with the upgrade of the Nigeria-China relations from the Strategic Partnership to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to Beijing in September 2024.”
He added that since its launch in Nigeria in 2022, the Contemporary World Nigeria Magazine has uniquely promoted academic, political and cultural exchanges between Africa and China.
Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, said the magazine represents an ever-deepening academic and cultural exchange between Nigeria, which enhances cultural understanding, facilitates academic and cultural interaction, and gives impetus to the development of state-to-state relations.
The envoy, who was represented by Counselor Wang Jun, said that the magazine has come to represent a new vision for expanding ties, especially in a period replete with the game of big powers and the rise of unilateralism.
He said, “The magazine should become a national social science core journal. Combining authority and knowledge, melting the world’s latest information into a furnace, focusing on a unique perspective to authoritatively analyse the world’s focus, in-depth analysis of international relations, and disseminating information on the politics, economy, society, military, culture and life of various countries.”
The guest Speaker, Mr. Charles Onunaiju, said the magazine provides a robust platform to strengthen China-Africa relations for mutual benefits. He added that Africans and Nigerians must explore this opportunity to increase their knowledge about China and how the Chinese transformed their society by expanding their intellect and strategic thinking.
