Belarus appoints two Nigerians as honourary counsel

The Belarusian Government has appointed two Nigerians, Mr Abba Usman and Mr Oluseyin Olufade, as honourary counsel to represent the eastern Europe country’s interest in Nigeria.

Belarus Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vladimir Makei, who is on a three-day working visit to Nigeria, presented the new counsel at a reception in his honour on Monday night in Abuja.

Usman was appointed the honourary counsel to Kano while Olufade will oversee the affairs in Lagos.


The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Nigeria and Belarus established diplomatic relations in 1994 and Belarus opened an embassy in Abuja in 2001.

Nigeria is considering opening an embassy in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and at present , Nigeria’s ambassador to Russia has concurrent accreditation for the country.

In his remarks, Usman thanked the Belarusian government for the honour and pledged that he would use the new position to promote economic and trade ties between Nigeria and Belarus.

“Belarus and Nigeria have a lot to offer to each other. Belarus has agricultural implements; they have a good history on security and defence equipment, and Nigeria is cooperating with them on that.

“We have facilitated the import of some agricultural tools and we are having business roundtables to discuss agricultural products,” he said.

On his part, Olufade said: “This is an assignment, and like my colleague said, we will ensure that we enhance the strategic bilateral relationship between both countries.”

Earlier, Makei described Nigeria as a “very promising partner” in the continent, adding that his country was looking at cooperation in the areas of industry, education, agriculture, military, tourism and culture.