Nigeria sends low-level delegation to Russia-Africa summit

The Russia-Africa summit is ongoing in Moscow, with many African states in attendance in what has been described as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to expand Russia’s footprint in the region.

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Several top African leaders are in attendance, including presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, and heads of state, each representing their country’s interests. Their presence also underscores the importance states place on relations with Russia. Some African countries represented by their heads of government include Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, DRC, Ghana, Mali and Ethiopia.

Nigeria is neither represented by its president, vice president, nor even its foreign minister. Nigeria is instead represented by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sola Enikanolaiye. Mr Enikanolaiye and the government delegation left for Russia the night before the two-day event began on Wednesday.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has established a pattern of delegating important international events to Vice President Kashim Shettima. For example, the Nigerian leader has not attended any UN General Assembly meeting since he assumed office but has instead been represented by his deputy. Various reasons have been given for Mr Tinubu often delegating important international events to his deputy. These include

prioritising urgent domestic challenges, as well as national security and economic issues.

However, even though the vice president is in the country, Mr Tinubu did not ask him to lead the Nigerian delegation to the Russia-Africa summit.

The next most senior person who could lead the Nigerian delegation is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu. But even she is not in Moscow for the summit.

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PREMIUM TIMES gathered that Mr Enikanolaiye was assigned to represent the country because Mrs Odumegwu-Ojukwu is reportedly occupied with other assignments.

The minister’s spokesperson, Magnus Eze, told this paper that Mrs Odumegwu-Ojukwu initially planned to attend the event until a last-minute change in plans.

“The minister was assigned to another assignment. But because of its importance, the minister of state was assigned to represent the country in her place. The Minister of State is in Moscow representing the country,” he said.

Mr Enikanolaiye’s spokesperson, Richard Elesho, also confirmed this.

Trade and security top the summit agenda. On Wednesday, President Putin told African leaders that Russia was a better partner compared to the colonial West, which is still trying to exploit the continent’s resources and is using debt to hold back development.

“Africa is increasingly asserting itself as one of the key players in the global economy and ​politics.

“However, the emergence of a multipolar world is, of course, no easy task; it faces resistance from countries ​that are not prepared to accept this reality: those who are accustomed to thinking in terms of their colonial past and to enriching themselves ‌fabulously,” he said.

Was Shettima supposed to attend?

The Nigerian ambassador to Russia, Joseph Iji, had earlier announced that Vice President Kashim Shettima would attend the Russia-Africa summit.

He said Mr Shettima would be leading the government delegation to the event.

“The Vice President of Nigeria will lead the government delegation. We want to deepen our relations with Russia and with Russian businesses,” he was quoted by the African Initiative as saying.

The presidency did not explain why Nigeria downgraded its representation at the summit from its vice president to a junior minister.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Shettima’s spokesperson, Stanley Nkwocha, he appeared unaware of the reported plans for the vice president to lead a government delegation to the summit.

When asked to confirm whether the vice president was to lead the delegation as reported, Mr Nkwocha asked this paper to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

PREMIUM TIMES reached out to the ministry’s spokesperson, Olufemi Adeniyi, but has yet to get a response at the time of filing this report.

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However, the foreign minister’s spokesperson, Mr Eze, confirmed that the vice president was indeed supposed to lead the delegation, which was initially supposed to include Mrs Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

He said he could not say whether the vice president still led the delegation because he stopped following developments after Mr Enikanolaiye replaced the minister as the ministry’s representative.

He noted that Mr Enikanolaiye travelled with his delegation.

Possible reasons for downgrading delegation

Although the presidency could not give a definitive reason for downgrading the Nigerian delegation to the event, there are plausible reasons for it. Campaigns for the January 2027 presidential election have begun, and the ruling party has launched its campaigns. Messrs Tinubu and Shettima were both in Kaduna on Saturday to launch the campaign and are expected to play key roles. The president has already said he would join the campaign in 12 states, with the vice president expected to join even more.

Another plausible reason is Nigeria’s increasing closeness to the United States, which may have influenced the country’s decision to downgrade the Russian event. Since US President Donald Trump falsely claimed last year that there was a Christian genocide in Nigeria, the Nigerian government has taken several steps to douse the tension and get closer to the US administration. This has led to improved relations between the two countries, including joint security operations.

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