Experts call for strengthening of African-Chinese relations through scholarly exchange

Nigeria

Experts in the study of Chinese-African relations have called for the strengthening of relationship between Africa and China, especially through scholarly exchange.

Pof. Sharkdam Wapmuk of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna and Director General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, speaking during a seminar on ‘Advancing Knowledge through Exchange: Bridging Africa -China Dialogue Through Scholarly Exchange,’ hosted by ICPR in Jos on Tuesday, said with Chinese population and emerging market China is becoming the next bus stop for international relations.

Wapmuk said with the way the world is going, the world is undergoing a change in terms of world order.

The don however expressed worries that public discourse on Africa-China interactions is often
influenced by stereotypes, misperceptions, and imbalanced narratives shaped by external actors.

On narrative on Africa, Wapmuk said Africa is presented as a land of violence, poverty,
disease, and exotic dining habits, while narrative on China is presented as supporting undemocratic governments, overlooking human rights abuses, and dealing with
corrupt African governments; interest in Africa viewed driven primarily by the desire to exploit the continent’s rich natural resources to meet its energy and raw material needs at home.

He said, “The way China is going, but at the same time, with its huge population, the sectors in which it has taken are affecting the next language. Given the population that we are going to be engaging, the next language we should be learning is actually Chinese or Mandarin.

“The don, who praised Nigeria’s effort in improving China-Nigeria relations, said, “And indeed, it’s the right thing the Nigerian government has actually done, though we are coming late, but however, it’s the right step in the right direction because increasingly,

“With the population of China today, India struggling to catch up, I don’t see India catching up because the Chinese are very great at this.

“China-Africa relations is just one of the many dynamic relationships of one country, one continent that we have today. We can actually glean the nature of the Chinese growth or economic footprints in several facets today.

“We can view it from the angle of China’s presence in the era of trade and investment, especially in investment and infrastructure.”

Ochogwu, represented by a research fellow of the Nigerian Institute for Peace and Comfort Resolution, Dr. Olalekun Babatunde, said that Nigeria can deepen its relationship with China through sharing of ideas, research, output, promotion of research and development.

Olalekan, who presented a magazine on China Africa relations, ‘Contemporary World Magazine, said, “We can begin to have co-authorship together with the Chinese, because they are there to promote research and development.

“So it is important that Africans, and particularly Nigerians will wake up to begin to do research on issues that ,that concern the global south, that concern Africa, development issues, like poverty, be it health, climate change, be it AI, technology, you know, and so on and so forth.

On prejudices against Chinese, he called on the government authorities in Nigeria, to enforce, standard, national laws, rules and regulations, that anything imported is of good standard.

Plateau State Information Commissioner, Joyce Ramnap, in her remarks, said that in an increasingly interconnected world, academic diplomacy is becoming a key instrument of national involvement.

She said academic collaboration thrives in environments where knowledge flows freely and innovations are encouraged and urged policymakers support initiatives, stressing that policy makers are prepared to support initiatives such as research commercialization, innovation hopes and technology packs, collaboration between academia and industry, publication of high-quality research outputs,
capacity building for scholars and graduate students.