China to deepen ties with Nigeria on sports.
Mr Cui Jianchun, Ambassador of China to Nigeria, has stressed the need for his country and Nigeria to harness sporting activities, to deepen diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Cui spoke while briefing Journalists on Saturday in Abuja on the sidelines of the 4th edition of the Nigeria-China Ping-Pong tournament, organised for Journalists by the China Cultural Centre in Abuja.
Cui said, “Nigeria leads in football in Africa and we have a great distance to catch up with Nigeria football, and we are thinking of bringing Nigeria football team to China, we can do things together.
“I am working on this agenda, because there is need for the two countries, to try to use sports as a way to deepen relations between them.
“I also have lots of plans for next year after COVID-19; I believe that lots of Journalists will like to go to China, because seeing is believing.
“China has now really achieved a lot. We have lots of challenges, but I believe that if you go to China you will see China and I think that is beneficial to Nigerians.
“We can use table tennis to build friendship between the two nations. It is very important and I think it special for young people to make friends, share ideas and exchange thoughts.”
He disclosed that the Chinese embassy plans to create opportunities for Journalists to go to China and encourage Chinese people to come to Nigeria for nationals of both countries learn from each other.
More so, Cui said, although the tournament could not hold in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, China is putting-up measures to support Nigeria, to ensure that normalcy is restored, saying “Chinese central government has decided to donate Chinese vaccine to Nigeria.
“Firstly, batch of 500,000 dosages will be delivered to Nigeria before the end of this year and millions of dosages could be provided by the Chinese government, so we await your government’s response.
“We have 40 countries that use Chinese vaccines, donated by China, so on the Nigerian side, I have not received any response from your government.
“I hope by the end of this year we can provide a million dosages to Nigeria and this is very important,” he added.
Also speaking, Mr Emmanuel Ogbeche, Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), FCT Chapter, thanked the Embassy of China and promised to work closely with the mission to sustain the feat.
According to Ogbeche, the support derived from the mission and its Cultural Centre has gone a long way to promote the well being of members of the Union and to physically keep fit.