Nigeria ready to loosen ties with the West as it attempts to join BRICS
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is attempting to join the elusive BRICS club in order to become an influential force on the world economic stage, as reported by Bloomberg.
According to the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria hopes to join the group within 2 years. He also disclosed the country’s intention to join other beneficial groups with good and well-defined intentions.
“Nigeria has come of age to decide for itself who her partners should be and where they should be, being multiple aligned is in our best interest,” the minister stated.
“We need to belong to groups like BRICS, like the G-20 and all these other ones because if there’s a certain criterion, say the largest countries in terms of population and economy should belong, then why isn’t Nigeria part of it?” he added.
The BRICS group, originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa has been aggressively pushing to change the order of the globe’s economic structure. The group’s primary intention is to dominate the global market by increasing its economic influence.
To accomplish this, the group began by bringing together the aforementioned original members, all of whom share a similar economic ethos. Very recently they decided to add new members to the group to further strengthen its cause, and step up its efforts in reshaping the current status quo. BRICS, at its core, intends to rupture the strong economic influence the West has had on the world for centuries.
The new members it added shortly after its annual summit in August include, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, and Nigeria is looking to join this group.
It is believed that Nigeria has not yet joined because of its long-standing strong ties with the West.
It is also very highly contentious if Nigeria has in fact applied to be a part of the group in the past. While the Vice President of the country, Kashim Shettima, denied any claims that Nigeria has applied for membership in the BRICS group, publicly available information on nations that have expressed interest in and sought to join BRICS, include Nigeria.
In any case, Nigeria has now placed its name in the BRICS hat and can present a strong case to join the group, seeing as it boasts Africa’s largest economy.
