Nigeria future of the world —German envoy

German Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Bernhard Schlagheck,  said yesterday that Nigeria is the future of not just Africa, but of the whole world and mankind.

Schlagheck told a delegation of Follow the Money and Connected Development (CODE), an NGO, in his office yesterday in Abuja that Germany and Nigeria shared similarities in diverse areas, adding that Nigerians could contribute towards growth of their country through tracking governance processes to ensure accountability.

Schlagheck said: “There are developments in every society that must be tracked. To achieve that, there is need for distinction of people to do such.

“Nigeria as the future of Africa is the future of the world of mankind that we can ask many important questions and of course this is also applicable in places like Germany, in Europe.

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“Although there are obstacles in development processes, Nigerians should strive to focus on cross-fertilisation of good ideas to bring about meaningful growth in future.”

He commended the delegation for their effort in tracking expenditure of public funds to promote accountability and transparency in governance process in the country.

According to him, “this is something that can change things positively. I am quite happy to see many young activists willing to do so”.

Earlier, Mr Hamzat Lawal, Founder, Follow the Money and Chief Executive Officer of CODE, said that they were at the German Embassy to appreciate Schlagheck for his support to the organisation.

He noted that the support by Schlagheck had helped young people learn best practices on modern methods to track public fund spending.

He said they were in Germany this year and won the SDGs awards under mobilise-category, despite the fact that we applied for our papers late.

“Europe and US are struggling with illegal migration because people from other parts of the world are tired of how governments are not ensuring that the services delivered are efficient.”