Nigeria marks her 50th anniversary as a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC.
The OPEC Secretary-General, Mohammed Barkindo, in a congratulatory message, said over the course of the subsequent five decades, OPEC and Nigeria enjoyed a unique relationship with a multitude of positive effects for both parties.
Barkindo said the intertwining of the destinies of OPEC and Nigeria even precedes membership.
On September 14, 1960, OPEC was founded on the banks of the River Tigris, in Baghdad but just two weeks later, on October 1, 1960, Nigeria joined the fraternity of independent nations.
Since these momentous events, both OPEC and Nigeria have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to the universal values of international cooperation, dialogue, sustainable development.
The OPEC Secretary-General concluded that OPEC owes Nigeria an enormous debt of gratitude for the pivotal role it played in the organisation’s historic achievements.
These include recently bringing together OPEC and non-OPEC countries and reaching consensus like the adoption of the “Declaration of Cooperation” (DoC), on December 10, 2016, and the “Charter of Cooperation” signed on July 2, 2019, especially as the world navigates the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic.
