NIGERIA CONCERNED OVER NEGATIVE PERCEPTION

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) -- Nigeria is very concerned over the
negative perception of its country by Malaysians and appealed to the media to
assist in correcting it.

The First Secretary to the Nigerian Embassy in Malaysia, Adamu Jibirilla,
said Wednesday that it was most unfortunate that negative stories about the
country were being played up by the local media.

"We often see stories of Nigerian students getting into a brawl or Nigerians
being detained for drug trafficking and cheating and things like that.

"On the other hand, many Nigerians who were contributing to the development
of Malaysia like the engineers in the oil industry and the lecturers and
professors in the universities went unrecognised," he said.

Speaking to Bernama on the sidelines of the D8 food securities conference
here, Jibirilla said local media should be more supportive to give more
substance to the D8 countries' cooperation and help towards building
Malaysia-Nigeria ties.

The countries that make up the D-8 are Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria.

Jibirilla said before the discovery of oil in the 1960s, Nigeria was an
agricultural country.

It has 323,000 sq kilometers of arable land suitable for agriculture.

The climate is also tropical and crops like oil palm, rubber, rice, wheat,
maize could also be cultivated extensively in Nigeria.

He said Nigeria, with its stable government and investor-friendly
policies, would welcome Malaysian investors and entreprenuers to take advantage
of the vast agricultural land to carry out joint viable projects for mutual
benefit.

-- BERNAMA