In the dark days of military rule, the relationship between Abuja and Ottawa became frosty with the Canadian High Commission moving its office to Ghana. However, with the return of democracy, the High Commission returned to Nigeria with trade between the two countries hitting the $1.5 billion mark. Bolstered by the present relationship, the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Perry Calderwood, says there are prospects for trade to grow, maintaining that Africa’s most populous country was very important to Canada in sub-Saharan Africa. He was at Rutam House, headquarters of The Guardian, recently where he spoke. Excerpts.
On Canada’s support to Nigeria
During the military regime in Nigeria back in the 1990s, you would probably recall that Canada actually withdrew its High Commission in protest against the human rights situation in this country then. Also, Canada played leadership role in the context of the Commonwealth to have Nigeria suspended until democratic rule was returned. For me, I am delighted to be in Nigeria having arrived four months ago from Senegal where I served in the last three years. The relationship between Nigeria and Canada I noticed is quickly growing in a very dynamic style especially in the last three years. There has been increase of interest on both sides at the political and private sector levels as well. It is a recognition that the two countries have a lot in common and with many areas that we can still work together. In the beginning, our relationship experienced some turbulence during the military era and I must commend Nigeria and Nigerians for the progress they had made since 1999 in rebuilding and developing democracy and human rights culture.
The High Commission in Canada in modest ways has been able to support Nigeria to strengthen democracy and human rights regime. For example, we are currently providing funding through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and to some extent, to the National Assembly, as well as to the civil society to help develop the capacity and reform necessary to ensure that the election in 2015 will be free and fair, transparent and peaceful. That is one example of a way of accompanying Nigeria to develop and consolidate her democracy.
Another area where we have been active is that we provided funding through civil society to a project in Jos, Plateau State, to encourage better inter-communal relationship based on the situation in that state. We are working through a Geneva-based NGO, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (CHD) and we are providing $500,000, which is a significant contribution.
The organisation, CHD, is an expert globally on mediation and relationship building on communities is leading a process workshop with a series of workshops to bring different groups together to discuss the problems, as well as how to overcome the problems and live together peacefully.
Those are couple of examples but we are very pleased to be working with Nigeria in a number of democratic and humanitarian processes. I must say I have been impressed by so many Nigerians I had met who are strongly committed to these values in all walks of life.
On the 2015 elections
We are providing support through the UNDP called ‘basket fund.’ The idea is to pull resources and ensure the possible coordination with focus on reforming the INEC to make it as efficient as possible. The capacity building is a major part of the exercise in terms of training and skills building so that they can be better equipped. It is not about ballot boxes, it is about the institution itself. So we provided through the UNDP to organise and the coordination to build the capacity of the people in INEC.
Having served in a number of countries, I had observed elections in different nations and everywhere I go, it is the same thing. Just like media used to report that it is not what happens on the election day, it is the context that leads up to the election that matters and I hope that international observation for 2015 elections will start two to three months before the election. To be realistic, it is good to start the observation a year to the election so that the entire process will be observed and not just on the election.
Canada’s position on Nigeria’s anti-gay law
There has been a lot of confusion in the media on Canada’s position on the signing of the law against same-sex marriage in Nigeria. With regards to the law, Canada has never said that Nigeria should adopt same-sex marriage. We have same-sex marriage in Canada and it has been in place for years. But it is not our foreign policy or role to go around the world telling other countries to adopt same-sex marriage. It is not an issue for Canada.
The concern that we have and expressed through our foreign minister in a statement after President Goodluck Jonathan signed the law relates to a certain provision of the law, which is called the Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act: There are number of features in it and these features in our view curtail very important human rights like freedom of assembly and speech, which says people can go to jail if they form an association or club.
When I look at Nigeria, I see a country that over the last 15 years has achieved great progress building a democratic society and respect for human rights. And I think this kind of law runs the risk of curtailing some of those accomplishments that Nigeria has made. The idea that if someone joins an association or attends a meeting he or she can be sent to jail does not seem consistent with the broad direction that Nigeria is going on the human rights side.
The other concern that we have relating to the law is that it seems to single out and stigmatise a particular group of people within the Nigerian society; that is the homosexual people.
The way Canada views human rights are that it is universal, it applies to everyone, it does not matter what your race, religion and language or sexual orientation is. Our government speaks around the world and not only about Nigeria, whenever we see issues where a particular group is stigmatised or discriminated against. We are concerned about this because we believe very firmly that human rights must be universal. Canadian society is very diverse in many ways but the most important thing is that the country is made up of people from all parts of the world with different languages and customs being practised. Why Canada is the most peaceful and successful country in the world is because we have a very strong culture of respecting one another despite differences.
In my view, same-sex issue is just part of the human diversity that we see in Canada and other countries and people of this same-sex are in top places in the society.
On immigration visa
As you probably know, Canada is a country that is very much built on immigration. We have a huge population born outside of the country. But ever since the start, incoming people that today constitute 97 per cent of Canadians are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants, who have built our growth and development.
We have immigration throughout our history and it continues. In recent years, we have received approximately 250,000 immigrants per year, which is nearly one per cent of our population and this makes us one of the countries in the world that receives the most immigrants on a per capital basis.
In current thinking in Canada, the emphasis in terms of our immigration is bringing people that are skilful to Canada. Our immigration policy is one of the most successful in the world compared to other countries. Part of the reasons is that we focus on bringing people who had skills, background and experience that are relevant to the need of the Canadian economy so that we don’t find ourselves in a situation where people are coming in and not finding jobs and become unemployed, as well as marginalised. We have quite a sophisticated system whereby you can see it on our immigration website, list of professions that we need. Like the engineers, IT experts, and we seek to match the influx of immigrants with the need of the Canadian economy and it has worked very well.
Our immigration policy does not discriminate from one country to the other. We don’t give priority to nationalities to the other. Any citizen from other countries is free to apply to Canada and the application will be treated on its merit. But a big emphasis is on the skill, experience and qualification of the person whether they correspond with the need of the Canadian economy.
For visa, there are different kinds of visas if one decides to migrate to Canada or to apply for immigrant visa. It takes one to two years to go through this exercise when applying for immigrant visa. Students visa takes six months to process while visitors visa takes six to seven weeks now. It used to take three months but we are reducing the time and we are committed to trying to get it down.
Managing resources in Canada
In Canada, we have provinces and according to Canadian constitution, it clearly defines jurisdiction of the provinces and the Federal Government and this has existed for a long time. But over time, there have been small adjustments because of tension as the provinces want more and sometimes the Federal Government pushes back.
Generally speaking, the provinces have higher degree of autonomy in particular areas and some of those areas are education, because there is no Federal Ministry of Education at all. Education standard is at provincial level. Health care is at provincial level but the Federal Government sets the standard. Natural resources are within the domain of the provinces, so each province processes its natural resources that lie under the soil. In a case where a certain province is richer than the other, we have an equalisation programme whereby the Federal Government collects taxes and returns it to provinces that are disadvantaged. The fundamental thing is that the provinces have control over the natural resources in their territories. It is absolutely not for me to decide which system will work in Nigeria. But in Canada, the Federal Government system has worked well for us and our country has gained for it. So, it behoves on every country to decide the model that can work well for them.
In terms of resources management, the biggest question is which level of government is managing the resources? But the issue is that do you have structure in place to ensure efficiency, proper and transparent management of resources? Our provinces control our oil industry and we have record of good governance and there are structures in place as every gallon of oil is accounted for and everyone knows where the money is going. The oil boom started before the structures were in place and Nigeria has been struggling since then to put the structure in place.
Potential in Nigeria
The area I hope to see cooperation between Canada and Nigeria is the mining sector. Nigeria has a lot of potential in this sector and to a large extent, it has not been developed. This is an area that Canada has 100 years experience as we have learnt how to get the rock out of the ground, as well as how to put in place government structure to ensure the proper use of the funds. We have also Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is very strong among our mining companies because we believe they respect the environment and treat the host communities where they extract the mines from very well.
When you look at Nigeria and your plan to develop mining industry, I think Canada has a lot of experience that will be relevant and you can learn from the mistakes we made in the past. To a large extent, we have experience and we look forward to sharing this with Nigeria. I also hope Canadian companies will invest in Nigeria to develop the mining sector.
Volume of trade between the two countries
We have about $1.5 billion in trade with $ 1billion from Nigeria to Canada and $.5 billion from Canada to Nigeria. The export from Nigeria is primarily oil although there are other products like cocoa and rubber but essentially, it is oil. From Canada to Nigeria, wheat is the biggest element but there are also automobile and various machinery and equipment.
The numbers I mentioned in my opinion are significant but modest. I think there is potential for a lot more and part of my jobs and mandate is try and encourage the trade and also investment because trade and investment go hand-in-hand. When I look at Nigerian economy and its development, there are prospects in the years ahead. I see a number of sectors where there is great complementary between Nigerian needs and Canada’s experience and expertise.
Also in the area of infrastructure, energy and transport, I think Nigeria has recognised that it has to invest in improved roads, rail roads, and airports, as well as energy of course power, in order to flourish and develop because the economy is growing six to seven per cent a year, while population is growing at three per cent. So, you need to build infrastructure to keep up with the pace.
Canada being a huge country geographically, we have very capable companies in the area of infrastructure and quite a number of them are in Nigeria doing interesting work.
ICT is another area with great potential. I see tremendous ambition on the part of Nigeria to move forward on the ICT font. I think that it is a great thing because to be part of the modern world economy, one has to have the efficiency that ICT brings and there are Canadian companies that are cutting edge in that regards doing good work.
For now in Nigeria, from the initial 20 Canadian companies operating in Nigeria, we have over 60 of them doing good businesses.
How Canada rode the 2008 global financial storm
Canada weathered 2008 financial crisis very well and I think there are a few elements that have played out. One is that the crisis started in the banking sector in other countries. But in Canada for a number of years now, we had very tight regulation on banks. Our banks are not allowed to supply mortgage or lending, which has been the case in the United States and other countries. So, we had a very strong banking sector and the government has put in place regulations to prevent the banking sector from taking high risk.
We have not had a real estate bubble that was experienced in other western countries. At the time of the crisis, Canada had no deficit. We have a deficit now because the government took a rational decision to spend in order to stimulate economic growth but the government is determined to get over the deficit by 2015. Lots of countries have fallen to deficit in Europe, which is very expensive to manage.