Nigeria seeks cultural partnership with EU to promote foreign policy

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has called for partnership with the European Union in the area of culture to advance Nigeria’s foreign policy.
Onyeama, who made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday, said that culture could be used as tool to drive national growth.
He said that partnership had become imperative because culture would help to promote core national values and aspirations of a state.
He said: “Partnerships are very important because culture is based on real intellectual property; they are worth intangible assets.
“So you need cooperation of all the countries, particularly EU, to protect those assets and also to support them.
“There is a lot of collaboration between Nigeria and the EU in the area of copyright for instance and in the music industry.
“Of course in the area of sports we have seen a lot of cooperation.
“A number of the big countries in Europe clubs are now having junior clubs in Africa and in Nigeria, recruiting Nigerian players.”
He said although the relationship between Nigeria and EU was largely based on democratic governance, it should be expanded through partnership to encourage culture preservation.
Onyeama said: “We have been able to build strong relationship with EU, with the onset of the present leadership administration; we look forward to more meaningful engagement in culture to achieve desired goal.”