|
Listen now
|
Nigeria’s Vice President, Kashim Shettima, says world leaders must always remember that cooperation is the compass and the most realistic path towards maximizing opportunities and resolving current challenges confronting the global community.
Shettima disclosed this on Friday in his address to World leaders at the ongoing G77+China Leaders’ Summit at the Palace Convention in Havana, Cuba.
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 focused, leveraging cooperation or partnership for finding realistic solutions to global challenges.
“We must not allow geo-political 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,” he advised.
The Vice President expressed Nigeria’s commitment to tow the path of partnership with member states of the G77+China towards addressing global challenges.
According to him “Allow me to reiterate Nigeria’s commitment to partnering with our fellow member nations of the G77 and China.”
“We shall champion initiatives that harness the potential of science, technology, and innovation to confront economic challenges, particularly within the global south,” he pledged.
Speaking to the theme: “Current Development Challenges: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation” the Vice President underscored the prominent role that 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” Vice President Shettima 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.”
Furthermore, he 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.”
The Vice President told his audience that Nigeria is contributing its own share in leveraging science, technology, and innovation to resolving challenges such as Covid-19 and the climate crisis.
He explained that Nigeria “understands that the key to advancing innovation in science and technology lies in fostering a vibrant knowledge economy and facilitating the unrestricted exchange of ideas.”
This the Vice President said; “is the reason “across the globe, one would be hard-pressed to identify a premier institution, even within the most developed nations, where a Nigerian, trained at home, is not contributing significantly, whether as a tech innovator or a medical specialist, in the noble pursuit of improving the human condition.”