Two years and ten months into diplomatic mission, the Ambassador of Japan to Nigeria, Mr Kikuta Yutaka, will be leaving Nigeria soon. In this exclusive interview with Daily Trust, he talks about the bilateral relations between Nigeria and Japan, the culture and economic blend, as well as the things he will personally miss about his ‘host country’.
Daily Trust: You will soon leave Nigeria after almost three years of unique relationship with your host nation, how do you feel?
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Mr. Kikuta Yutaka: My honest feeling right now is since I arrived Nigeria in 2018, I have been admiring Nigeria’s rich culture. I enjoyed working in this fascinating country. Like Julius Caesar, I came. I saw. And unlike Caesar, I just tried.
DT: What are the high points of your stay in Nigeria?
Yutaka: I received many high points, especially last year. We saw high level of exchanges, including President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Japan, where he took part in the International Conference on African Development (TICAD7), accompanied by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and the Speaker of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Also, from Japan, we received representatives of the prime minister who participated in Nigerian’s Democracy Day.
Nigeria and Japan actually had a lot of close exchanges at high level, as well as grassroots level. You witnessed our people-to-people exchange today. We have the same in education, economic relations, business and investment, and in all affairs. So, there is a closer relationship between Nigeria and Japan.
DT: What have you achieved so far in terms of economic relations?
Yutaka: There is increase in the number of Japanese companies operating in Nigeria today, especially after recession in the country few years ago. We observed the upward trend and it was very encouraging to me.
Unfortunately, last year, lots of Japanese businessmen got out of Nigeria to Japan for a while due to the COVID-19 pandemic but they returned after sometime. All the companies in Lagos and Abuja are now operating. It is so encouraging to me that as the COVID-19 situation is going down, Nigeria’s economy is picking up again and our business relations improving.
DT: Your country has achieved so much in technology and economic development, what can Nigeria learn from you?
Yutaka: Sixty years ago, when Nigeria was born, Japan was still a poor, war-devastated island nation in the far East. However, Japanese people worked so hard for reconstruction of their motherland, with massive loan and help from the World Bank and other development partners. We were grateful for the generosity from the world.
At the same time, we learned that investment in human resources constitutes the basis of nation building. We would like to share such an experience with other developing partners.
DT: What can Nigeria expect from Japan?
Yutaka: With regard to Nigeria, Japan established diplomatic relationship and opened its embassy in 1960, extended the first loan assistance in 1966, first grant in 1970 and technical cooperation in 1972. We have three pillars in our assistance policy toward Nigeria.
The first is economic growth; infrastructure such as electricity, agriculture and training. Second is the health sector. Do you know, for example, that each of the 36 states and the FCT has Japanese ambulances? We are proud of our capacity-building assistance to local hospitals and NCDC, which is now a core institute in the fight against Covid-19.
Peace and stability is the third; we work together with international organizations such as UNDP to help IDPs and vulnerable communities in the North East. We have provided overall $1.4 bn through numerous projects with three routes, that is, the government ODA implementing agency JICA, international organizations and the embassy itself. Japan’s economic cooperation has an emphasis on human capacity development.
Therefore, beyond the amount of money or the number of projects, we believe our effort has invisible but more sustainable positive impact on Nigeria’s self-help for her socio-economic development.
DT: How do you describe Nigeria-Japan trade relations so far?
Yutaka: The Nigeria-Japan trade relations is always in favour of Nigeria.
Surprisingly, we sell automobile, electronics appliances and so on but we import a lot of energy like natural gas energy from Nigeria and in the agricultural field, we are the number one importers of sesame seeds from Nigeria.
There is very good relationship between us, and I hope, as Nigeria diversifies its economy, we will have more commodities we can import from Nigeria.
DT: Scholars from reputable universities in Nigeria appealed that Japan should increase the number of scholarships for Nigerian students to study in your country, what is your take on that?
Yutaka: So far, I think I did my best; I put a lot of seeds and the plants are growing. I hope my successor will put more effort so that Nigeria’s educational exchange with Japan will grow more in future.
DT: What was your impression when you first came to Nigeria? Has that changed?
Yutaka: My first impression was the smile of Nigerian people; I like it when they smile. The second impression was that Nigeria is such a big, diversified country – the giant of Africa.
When I came here, I saw it. You have so many diversified people, religions and political interests but, some how, Nigeria is a country that has maintained democracy – progressive democracy in a unified way. I have utmost respect for Nigeria’s democracy in the African continent.
Before I came here, I heard a lot of negative stories about Nigeria. After my arrival, however, I found a number of positive things of this country, especially in the people. I think the Japanese people should have a more balanced way of seeing this county. I am happy to promote things in this direction.
I have a firm belief in Nigerians’ resilience. Nigerians have a respectable can-do-spirit, which is being shown in the fight against polio as well as current Covid-19 pandemic.
DT: What are the negative surprises for you?
Yutaka: Negative side? If I may say a few, I want Nigerians to always keep to time and their words. That’s very important for Japanese.
DT: What memories are you leaving Nigeria with?
Yutaka: As I always say to my friends, I like the lyrics of the Nigerian National Anthem and Nigerian peoples’ smile. They will remain in my heart for the rest of my lifetime.
DT: Why do you like the lyrics?
Yutaka: I like it because it contains unity, peace, freedom which are all the important things for the future of Nigeria. I think it’s the best among many national anthems I have heard in my diplomatic career, except for Kimigayo – the National Anthem of Japan.
DT: How about Nigerian dishes, is there a particular food that you will miss?
Yutaka: Of course, yes, I like Jollof rice, Suya, fufu, pounded yam, black honey, ogogoro, etc… We have quite similar food in Japan such as Yakitori (grilled chicken skewers) and Shochu (distilled spirit).
I prepared all these dishes for our foreign affairs minister but his visit was cancelled at the very last moment due to COVID-19.
