ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Vice President Kashim Shettima, says global cooperation is needed towards maximising available opportunities, as well as surmounting all challenges confronting mankind.
Shettima made the proposal in his address to World leaders at the ongoing G77+China Leaders’ Summit at the Palace Convention Havana, Cuba.
According to a statement on Saturday morning by the Director of Information in his office, Mr Olusola Abiola, he said, “We must always remember that cooperation is our compass and the most realistic path towards maximizing the opportunities and resolving challenges before us.”
Speaking to an Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Gutteres and delegates from over 100 countries from the global South, the Vice President emphasized the need to be focussed leveraging cooperation or partnership for finding realistic solutions to global challenges.
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“We must not allow geopolitical tensions in any corner of the world to deter us from forging a collective and mutually advantageous path forward – a roadmap of shared prosperity and progress,” Shettima advised.
The Vice President further expressed Nigeria’s commitment to tow the path of partnership with member-States of the G77+China towards addressing global challenges.
He said, “allow me to reiterate Nigeria’s commitment to partnering with our fellow member nations of the G77 and China.”
Speaking to the theme : “Current Development Challenges: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation” the Vice President underscored the prominent role which science, technology and innovation have always played in resolving challenges from the past to the present.”
Delivering his speech titled: “From Pandemic to Paradigm Shift: Nigeria’s Road to Reinvention” the Vice Presiden said: “throughout history, science and technology have shaped the course of nations. The phases of the Industrial Revolution, from the first to the fourth, and from mechanization to automation, have determined the prosperity of those nations.”
Continuing, Shettima observed that “ it is crucial to acknowledge that the developing world found itself at a disadvantage in the earliest phases of these transformations, struggling to compete fairly as these revolutions swept across the globe.”
He told his audience that Nigeria is contributing its share in leveraging science, technology and innovation to resolving challenges such as Covid-19 and the climate crisis.