The meeting with the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman was basically to promote agriculture in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, the nation’s capital Minister, Nyesom Wike, has said.
The former Rivers state governor made this known after he was accused by Shehu Ahmed Gumi, an Islamic cleric that the minister was planning to bring Israeli security operatives to the country to kill Muslims.
He demanded that Wike be sacked by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for having a meeting with the ambassador.
Gumi made the allegation last week amidst the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, a militant Islamic group in Gaza, Palestine designated by the United States and some European countries as a terrorist group.
The war was instigated by Hamas after they launched a surprise attack against Israelis, killing scores and taking over 150 people hostage, among them foreigners.
Foreign affairs analysts insist that the Islamic cleric capitalized on the war to attack the minister, to stir up anger among Muslims in the country.
Explaining the meeting he had with Freeman, the FCT minister, who spoke during a meeting with officials of the Abuja National Mosque management stated that he cannot determine the relations between Israel and Nigeria.
According to him, it’s the duty of President Bola Tinubu as the commander-in-chief to determine relations between Nigeria and other countries.
The FCT minister said he “cannot determine a relationship between a country and another country. So, it is difficult for anybody to say ‘I am doing this, I am doing that’.
He stated further: “Any foreign body that wants to have anything to do with Nigeria, it is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who will write to me and state that these people want to see me; it is simple.
“ And when they come, it is in my position to say ‘look, we want to partner with you’. Take for instance, you are going into agriculture and we want to partner, then we tell you where exactly,” he explained.
“In Abuja here, most of them have cultural farms and we say look, it is our desire to help anybody who wants to invest in Abuja particularly in agriculture to employ our people and to get more revenue. It has nothing to do with another country. It doesn’t work that way.
“When our people begin to think from different angles, people may not understand that it is not correct. So, I will like to use this opportunity to say look we have to talk to our people. We must live harmoniously. We must live together to make sure that development is promoted,” Wike said.
Nigeria does not support any of the warring parties in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and has sued for peace in line with her neutrality posture in international diplomacy.
