The first Newsletter for the season is dominated by the fact that the Embassy has travelled a lot during autumn. The travels thus constitute a barometer of what happened in the Embassy. In the beginning of September in Sweden, I myself went to Borås University and Malmö World Maritime University (WMU) and, then, on 14th September, we visited the capital of Benue State for a Rotary event to promote Sweden, then, September 28th, to Lagos to be a part of the first ever meeting with the Nigerian-Swedish Alumni Association, which took place at Lagos Sheraton. The Association was inaugurated on May 7th under the auspices of the Swedish Minister of Development Cooperation and we are currently in the process of starting an Alumni Association in Ghana as well. In the beginning of October we went to Accra to meet with the Swedish business community there and to prepare the grounds for the visit of Swedish Minister for Enterprise, Ms Annie Lööf. And in the end of October I had the honor of accompanying the President of Ghana, H.E. Mr John Mahama, during his visit to Stockholm. Shortly after, Minister Lööf and a delegation arrived in Accra, staying 4-6 November. Thereafter I went to Lagos to partake in an important seminar arranged by Business Sweden on security.
Another important event in November was the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Professor Viola Onwuliri's visit to Stockholm, during which she was awarded the prestigious EUWIIN International Award. Finally, on December 7th I got the opportunity to revisit Lagos - this time to celebrate St Lucia together with the Scandinavian community, Swedish companies and their customers.
As the quote above says, 'when somebody made a trip, he'll have something to tell (from the German poet Matthias Claudius, 1751-1815), in this Newsletter you will find reports from the mentioned trips. But also e.g. an impressionistic mémoire from a (then) 14 years old Swedish school girl who shares with us some glimpses from the year she spent in Lagos, accompanying her father, who was the then Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria/Lagos.
Photo: Omowunmi Ogunnaike
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