Seminar: SA and Nigeria’s indispensable relationship
On 26 April 2023, the Centre for Africa-China Studies (CACS), in partnership with the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria, hosted a seminar titled ‘South Africa and Nigeria: Africa’s indispensable relationship’. The keynote speaker was Professor (Ambassador) Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria.
Context
The relationship between South Africa and Nigeria has continental implications due to the economic influence, political clout, and demographic dividend that these two countries are able to marshal. If managed with tact and patriotic foresight, it could help to surmount the multitude of problems that beset the African continent, including poverty, youth unemployment, poor economic growth, instability, and Africa’s weak showing at international forums. Professor Ibrahim Gambari will bring decades-long experience as an academic and diplomat to discussing this indispensable relationship.
About the speaker
Prof Ibrahim Gambari is the incumbent Chief of Staff for the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. He was previously chair of the Eminent Panel of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). He is the founder of the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development, a non-governmental think-tank based in Abuja, Nigeria, devoted to critical analyses of and solutions to conflict prevention, management and resolution. He also served as Nigeria’s longest serving Ambassador to the United Nations between 1990 and 1999.
He holds a B.Sc (Economics) in Political Science and International Relations from the London School of Economics, and an MA and PhD in Political Science/International Relations from Columbia University in New York. He has also taught at the City University of New York, the State University of New York (Albany), and Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria, where he founded the first undergraduate programme in International Studies in Nigeria.
