Presidency Denies Qatari Snub
The Nigerian Presidency refuted allegations that authorities in Qatar had snubbed President Bola Tinubu regarding an upcoming state visit and business forum. Tinubu is scheduled to travel to Qatar March 2nd-3rd on an official invite from the nation’s ruler, Emir Sheik Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani.
Contrary to leaked memos claiming event cancellations, the Presidency Denies Qatari Snub and clarified that the Emir directly invited Tinubu to strengthen economic ties between the two countries. The alleged business forum was always meant as a private sector affair anyway.
Rumors had swirled over a diplomatic memo implying Qatar snubbed Tinubu by scrapping a forum where he was to appear. But the Presidency insisted no disrespect occurred and that the Emir himself initiated the state visit aimed at expanding Nigeria-Qatar cooperation.
The apparently leaked memo concerned an investment event organized on the visit margins by Nigerian and Qatari commerce chambers. This gathering was never an official state function.
As the Presidency underscored, the Emir’s personal invitation underscores mutual goodwill at senior levels. The state visit’s central purpose remains bolstering joint prosperity through bilateral trade and investment partnerships.
Tinubu still plans on traveling to Qatar as scheduled given shared national interests. His extensive agenda features high-level talks with the Emir on the full gamut of diplomatic and economic issues uniting the two countries.
The Presidency chastised those portraying any forum cancellation as a snub when Tinubu gratefully accepted the Emir’s invite for nation-level meetings instead. It stated that business forums come second to state interactions between principals focused on cementing bonds.
Both leaders actually aim to expand existing cordial ties, dismissing attempts to muddy relations. The commerce gathering was simply meant to incentivize business leaders in varied industries like energy, manufacturing and technology to exploit promising openings.
In conclusion, the Presidency decried cynical attempts to distort a visit by one nation’s head of state to another bearing the host country’s highest goodwill. Tinubu anticipates fruitful state-level engagement with the Emir on themes of mutual prosperity, dismissing sideshow rumors beneath leaders preoccupied with weightier matters.
Source Leaked diplomatic memo: Qatar didn’t snub Tinubu on business forum – Presidency. Published in Vanguard by Johnbosco Agbakwuru