By Daniel Idonor
ABUJA—VICE President Namadi Sambo has again assured the international community that Nigeria remained an important ally on the African continent, worthy of developing economic engagements with the rest of the world.

Sambo said, “our country has great potentials, time has come for our political relations to be deepened. He also assured that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was not just mouthing free and fair elections come 2011 but was serious about bringing it to pass.

According to him, the Nigerian government is keen on realizing the goals set at the just concluded 3rd AU-EU Summit with the theme: “Investment, economic growth and job creation” which ended yesterday in Tripoli, LIbya.

One of the engagements of the Vice President at the Summit was on bilateral talks with top African and European government representatives.

The dominant issues include Nigeria’s power sector reform, strengthening democracy on the continent and economic relations.

Vice President Sambo at an audience with the Slovenian Prime Minister, Borut Pahor, described Nigeria as an “extremely important ally” on the African continent worthy of developing economic engagements which he assured that the country was ready.

He said President Jonathan was committed to all the issues tabled at the summit, particularly fast-tracking power and energy sector.

To actualise the new partnerships, the two leaders agreed to commit their foreign ministers to draw up areas of cooperation.

The Slovenian Prime Minister particularly sought Nigeria’s support for its bid to chair United Nation’s Security Council in 2012. He also said Nigeria being a force to be reckon with and respected in world’s affairs deserve to have a seat in the UN security Council, adding “I only think is fair Nigeria is there”.

Receiving Moroccan Secretary of State Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mohammed Ouzzine, Sambo said the two nations can build synergy and friendship towards the actualisation of common objectives.

The Vice President said Nigeria was keen on realizing its vision of being among the top 20 economies by the year 2020 and one of the ways it can achieved that is through bilateral relations.

He charged the Kingdom of Morocco’s representative to outline areas of cooperation that would be beneficial while both countries foreign ministries will fine-tune before conclusions can be made.

While exchanging bilateral commitment with Burundi’s Minister of Transport and Equipment, Saidi Kibeya, the Vice President Sambo, assured that trade was top priority to the two countries.

On the request for technical aid corp, the Vice President assured that the Nigerian government will look into the request amongst others and give favourable response in no distance future.

He noted that African problems require African solutions as have been stressed at the just concluded submit but said bilateral relations and partnerships will fast-track African development.

At another session with United Kingdom Henry Billingham, the issues of strengthening Nigeria’s critical infrastructure such as power, roads, water transportation dominated discussions.

Billingham reiterated Nigeria’s importance to Africa’s partnership and how Nigerians in Diaspora has contributed.

Sambo said Nigeria was not only keen on generating, transmitting, distribution and administration aspect of power but also to export to other countries and with proper partnership and plans to privities power plants, the vision is realizable.

In the spirit of Tripoli Summit, the two sides agreed to partnership that will be beneficial