Yar’Adua gets endorsement from French official

President Yar’Adua got an approval by a top French government official on Monday as Nigeria marked her 47th anniversary.

In Paris the official declared that the last elections may have been "difficult and even controversial," but the steps taken so far by President Yar'Adua shows that the new government is "efficient, honest and playing a positive role in solving the problems" of the country.

Mr. Jean de Gliniastry, Head of the African Department of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, told a visiting delegation of federal lawmakers that while elections in a highly populated and developing country like Nigeria could be difficult, the French government was impressed that citizens could react to the results by using the judiciary and freely express their opinions on the elections.
Mr. Gliniastry applauded Nigeria's pivotal role on the African continent, especially her peacekeeping missions, but expressed the concerns of his government over the precarious situation in the Niger Delta region.

Senator Lee Maeba, Head of the Nigerian delegation to the French Foreign Ministry, called on the French Government to do much more than it was doing to strengthen Nigeria's democracy so that the interests of French companies, like TOTAL and others could be protected.
He was accompanied by Senators Effiong Bob; Iyiola Omisore; Grace Bent; Osita Izunaso; Lekan Mustapha; Nimi Barigha Amange and Representatives Tam Brisibe; Ehiogie West-Idahosa, and Duro Faseyi who are in France to see the facilities of one of the major upstream sector players in the oil industry, TOTAL.

Maeba admitted that while there were challenges in the Niger Delta region, the Yar'Adua administration was reacting adequately to it, adding that the French government could give momentum to the resolution of the crisis by advising French companies operating in the country to be more corporately and socially responsible to their local communities.