By Omonu YG Nelson
Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, stirred the pot at a seminar on the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) by suggesting Nigeria draw inspiration from China’s culture for economic success.
The event, organized by the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria and the University of Abuja, explored the GCI, a Chinese initiative promoting respect for cultural diversity, common human values, and people-to-people cooperation. In his keynote address, Professor Na’Allah highlighted discipline, patriotism, and commitment as key Chinese traits Nigeria could emulate.
“China’s civilization informs its development,” he said, praising China’s self-sufficiency, industrialization, and strong national identity. He contrasted this with Nigeria’s struggles with corruption and reckless spending, arguing that “we only resemble America by nomenclature.”
Professor Na’Allah emphasized the importance of embracing and innovating Nigerian culture alongside modernization, citing China’s example as proof that economic advancement doesn’t require abandoning tradition. He also challenged the notion that English is essential for development, saying: “Our languages are part and parcel of our solution… We take modernity to be Westernization, whereas we can modernize without being Westernized.”
In his remarks, the Chinese envoy to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun urged Nigeria and China to embrace and innovate their culture alongside civilisation
Cui who believed that to achieve civilisation that speed up development, there must be respect for diversity which is the foundation of modernisation.
According to him, these initiatives have enriched the ideological connotation of the concept of building community with a shared future for mankind and an important contribution of Chinese modernization to the world.
He noted that, Nigeria needs to adopt the principles guiding the process of civilisation alongside its unique features to achieve civilisation that influences development
“Civilisation is the foundation of modernisation and through this initiative, we advocate for respect for diversity.
“We want our respective countries to embrace and innovate their culture alongside civilisation. We advocate the respect for the diversity of civilisations, the common values of humanity, the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilisations, and robust international people-to people exchanges and cooperation,” Cui said.
Also speaking, the President of the Society of Nigeria Artist and President, China Alumni Association of Nigeria, Mal Muhammed Suleiman said, civilisation starts from building the educational system in Nigeria, noting that an institution that is not build and the people are not properly educated to help in promoting the initiative, csnnot get it right.
Suleiman, who added that Chinese government has assisted Nigeria in the aspect of training in several ways to contribute to development of the nation called on the people to support the idea behind the initiative and champion the campaign.
The aim of this civilisation initiative is to promote economic competition and also to unite countries across Africa Asia Europe through infrastructural development, trade and investment.
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