The primary reason a group of Nigerians had a meeting in Abuja with embassy and trade officials from Vietnam on Wednesday October 30, 2024 was to explore business opportunities for cooperation and development. That quickly changed to nagging questions such as why Vietnam which was a physically flattened country back in May 1976 when it began diplomatic relations with Nigeria is, today, fast developing, while Nigeria is fast degenerating and steadily under-developing? Why is the Vietnamese Foreign Exchange Reserves $92.3 billion and that of Nigeria $39.07 billion?
Why should Nigeria which five decades ago had thriving granaries exporting cotton to Europe and, integrated modern textile companies in places like Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Aba and Asaba be begging Vietnam for textile expertise?
How come Nigeria in 1976 with a population of 64.658 million had over 500,000 textile workers, now with 234 million people, it has a little over 20,000 workers in that industry?
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