The Federal Government, through the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) in collaboration with the People’s Republic of China, has scaled up efforts to enhance knowledge sharing between the two countries through the Contemporary World Magazine.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Director General of the IPCR, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, at a one-day seminar themed “Advancing Knowledge Exchange: Strategies for the Promotion and Dissemination of the Contemporary World Nigeria Magazine.”
The Magazine is a multi-lingual journal supervised by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC).
The Nigerian edition was introduced at the launching ceremony of Contemporary World Nigeria and Symposium on the Culture of Harmony in China and Africa on November 18, 2022.
In his remarks, Ochogwu said the initiative is in line with the transition from the strategic partnership to the comprehensive strategic partnership which President Bola Tinubu signed with the Chinese in September 2024.
The DG noted that the platform is for knowledge sharing, knowledge production, and knowledge dissemination on how issues around innovations, inclusion can further help to expound infrastructural development, economic growth between both countries, as well as in Africa.
“This is a collaboration between Contemporary World China and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, where we are publishing the Contemporary World Nigeria.
“It is a platform to share Nigerian-China relations and China-Africa relations as well as Nigeria-Africa relations. What we are doing is basically scaling it up to fit properly in terms of the transition from the strategic partnership to the comprehensive strategic partnership, which Mr. President signed with the Chinese in September 2024.
“It is also a timely opportunity to align this effort with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 4Ds Policy Doctrine and the vision of the Renewed Hope Agenda. Under the 4Ds Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora-Nigeria is repositioning itself on the global stage,” Ochogwu said.
He added that since its launch in Nigeria in 2022, Contemporary World has played a unique role in publication that brings the world into perspective from nation-to-nation cooperation, international security, to peacebuilding, development, and governance.
“For us in Nigeria, it provides a new lens through which we can analyse and learn from China’s global engagements and internal successes, especially in poverty alleviation, infrastructure, and diplomatic strategy,” he affirmed.
The DG charged participants to share boldly, listen deeply with a renewed commitment to amplify shared values and promote mutual respect through the powerful medium of research and publishing.
“This is the spirit of Renewed Hope- a belief that Nigeria has the talent, the vision, and the will to lead and to learn, to engage and inspire.
“Using Contemporary World as a soft-power tool to advance Nigeria’s diplomatic and developmental goals,” he urged.
Also speaking, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Yu Dunhai, said
the journal is an answer to the rising need to find practical solutions and provide intellectual support for the resolution of regional hotspot issues and the maintenance of world peace, stability and development.
“Under the superimposed impact of the century of change and the epidemic of the century, global governance is mired in a deficit dilemma, international cooperation has declined sharply, the game of big powers continues to intensify, and the risk of geopolitical confrontation and conflict is rising.
“The deepening of the development divíde and rise of unilateralism and the vision of mankínd in pursuit of a peaceful and better life has suffered a serious impact. As the international situation has changed and become increasingly chaotic, people’s aspirations for peaceful development have become stronger.
“The Contemporary World magazine should become a national social science core journal, combining authority and knowledge, melting the world’s latest information into a furnace, focusing on a unique perspective to authoritatively analyze the world’s focus, in-depth analysis of international relations, and disseminating information on the politics, economy, society, military, culture and life of various countries,” Dunhai noted.
Represented by Wang Jun, the Chinese Ambassador said the magazine will serve as an important channel to culture mutual learning which will facilitate extensive dialogues, diversified communication, the interplay of ideas and innovative development.
“We hope it will act as a crucial bridge for people-to-people exchanges and interaction, which will further consolidate
our mutual trust, build consensus, expand cooperation and deepen our friendship,” he said.
Addressing newsmen, the Director, Centre for China Studies, Charles Onunaiju, emphasised that the essence of the magazine is to challenge Nigerians in their thinking framework.
Onunaiju, who doubled as the Guest speaker, noted that Nigeria is a great nation but needs to engage its own reality for sustainable development.
“I believe and I see that nobody wants to make Nigeria into China. It’s not even possible. China is unique, Nigeria is unique but I think articles, engagement, perspectives in this magazine will shape our new thinking, will shape our new focus. China is a good reference point to people who have used original ideas to drive their development. And you can see where they are.
“Reality is beyond what is around us or what we see. It is understanding the nature of things. Everything, every process has internal mechanisms, how they function. So, if you want to understand those things, if you want to understand your reality, you must begin to deconstruct it. You must begin to unravel it and begin to see its inner connections. So, that is the challenge we have. We haven’t actually been speaking to our reality,’’ Onunaiju stated.
