BY CHARLES KUMOLU

 ECOWAS Coordinator, Dr. Godwin Okonkwo, believes the exit of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU), decided through a  referendum, on Thursday, will not affect Nigeria’s relationship with the EU. He, however, said aid to Nigeria from the UK would be affected by the new development. ‘’I don’t think it will affect Nigeria’s bilateral relationships with the EU because many of them had existed for long and some dates back to the colonial era. Also our membership of the Commonwealth gives us a long standing relationship with the UK. The aid  that we that we get from the United Kingdom is likely to be affected. We have a lot of Nigerians that live in the United Kingdom,”Okonkwo told Sunday Vanguard at the weekend.

‘’We also believe that they are going to be affected because part of the reasons they voted for the exit is because they felt that most of the jobs that are supposed to be done by the UK citizens have been taken away by Africans, Asians and other migrants especially those that come from EU nations. If they are crying that type of cry, we should be rest assured that it is going to affect our Diaspora population. The tolerant of Britons for people that are not actually British, is going to be affected. And there is this reason which no body is talking about. Because of terrorism now and the idea that the EU is accepting migrants and also the act of giving EU members a particular number of people to be accepted, they feel that with the terrorism that is happening, they don’t know people they are accepting. Some are radicalized, some are jihadists, so you don’t just accept people like that.

‘’ Even though the Londoners felt they should stay in the EU most of the people that voted are for it are not Londoners. I think what they felt is that remaining in the EU with the conditions of allowing refugees into the UK will expose them to terrorism. They kept talking about immigration but why they kept talking about immigration laws is because of terrorism.’’

Similarly, Director, Chiana-Africa Investment Group, Mr. Festus Mbisiogu, said: ‘’I am sure the Federal Government will be reviewing their bilateral relations with the concerned bodies concerned. It is not a good thing for Britain. It will have negative impact on our commitment with them because we have so many Nigerians in the UK, we also have so many MOUs with the UK. So what I expect the Federal Government to do is to review how it will not affect us negatively. The pledge of resigning by the British Prime Minister should be an example for Nigeria and African leaders.’’