Ambassador Shina Enikanolaiye, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs, has described President Bola Tinubu’s current visit to London as a strategic move to reset Nigeria-UK relations.
He stated that the visit, initiated by King Charles III, is a significant endorsement of Nigeria’s ongoing domestic reforms despite the huge challenges the country still faces.
According to Enikanolaiye, the President’s primary focus is ensuring that foreign policy feeds directly into national development.
He highlighted that the administration is working to move away from managing relations in silos, instead placing trade, security, and migration under one umbrella for better coordination.
“We’ve already signed a landmark agreement that will enable us to revamp the Port of Lagos,” he revealed, adding that the administration is targeting a trade volume of £8.1 billion in the coming years.
On the issue of migration and the Japa syndrome, Enikanolaiye argued that the administration views migration as an engine of development rather than a negative variable.
He stated that the goal is to grow the domestic economy to a point where migration becomes a matter of choice rather than a necessity driven by a lack of opportunity.
He concluded by noting that President Tinubu has directed all ministers to engage deeply with their UK counterparts, with a strict mandate to provide actionable implementation reports upon their return to Nigeria.