CHINESE foreign minister Mr. Wang Yi’s visit to Nigeria in conclusion of his highly successful five – nation’s African tour, reaffirmed the core principles of Nigeria – China bilateral relations. In a joint communiqué signed by the visiting Chinese foreign minister, Mr. Wang Yi and his Nigerian counterpart, Mr. Geoffrey Onyema, they both vowed a commitment that the two countries would strengthen “the longstanding friendship and co-operation between them to the benefit of their peoples”, and further reaffirmed “their respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

While the Catholic Church and other Christian groups were praying for a country free of corruption and a country out of distress, Muhammadu Buhari came.

Nigeria’s economic outlook is gloomy. Her over dependence on crude oil as the only veritable source of foreign exchange earnings has become an albatross due to vandalisation of crude oil pipelines by militants in the Niger Delta region. This has made it impossible for the nation to meet its projected 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production, thereby losing big money.

Right from its inception, hardly any week has gone by without one form of destructive criticism or malicious attack on the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa led administration in Delta State appearing on print or social media. Some rather unfortunate developments of the last few weeks are the latest installment in this trend and have only served to expose the opposition in Delta as one utterly lacking in credibility.

Since his appointment over two years ago, this administrative colossus has embarked on projects that are not only visible but also beneficial to generations yet unborn.