Nigeria and Russia are to sign a nuclear energy cooperation accord next Wednesday when President Dmitry Medvedev becomes the first Kremlin leader to visit Nigeria, officials said.
A joint venture between Russian oil and gas giant Gasprom and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will also be signed during the one day visit, Nigerian presidential spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said, hailing what he called a "historic" visit by Medvedev.
"It will be the first ever visit by the head of state of the Russian Federation to Nigeria," said Adeniyi.
Adeniyi said the nuclear agreement "is for cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy especially for the purpose of electricity."
Russia and Nigeria signed an agreement on March 18 this year to cooperate in building nuclear reactors in the West African country and jointly explore for uranium.
The protocol "foresees the possibility of bilateral cooperation for the development of Nigeria's nuclear infrastructure" and the "joint exploration and exploitation of uranium deposits," Russia's nuclear energy agency Rosatom said.
Nigeria believes there is "much to gain from closer ties with Russia given its oil and gas industry," the spokesman said.
Russia's envoy to Nigeria, Alexander Polyakov, said Medvedev was invited by President Umaru Yar'Adua following talks on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised powers in Japan last year.
Polyakov said "international issues would be on the agenda but primarily, the visit would be about bilateral cooperation. We would like to give a very strong political impetus to our interraction in different fields.
"First of all in the area of economy and investment awe would aim to bring the Russian /Nigerian partnership to a completely new level. Maybe it can be in strategic partnership," he said.
Polyakov said Gasprom chief executive Alexei Miller was expected to accompany Medvedev on the one-day visit.
"Other potential areas of cooperation will also be discussed, including military and technical cooperation," said the diplomat, who added that there was already "huge" and growing cooperation between the two countries.
Polyakov quoted Nigerian statistics as saying that the volume of bilateral trade went past 1.5 billion dollars last year and was still rising this year despite the economic crisis.

Thisday.com

Hmmmm. Will a single nuclear reactor be located in the north or will there be a spread like there is for refineries? I smell some politics out of this.

one in the north
one in the west
one in the east
one in south south
least i forget one for becomerich

.

And say yes to USA hummmmmmmmm the imperalist

Nigeria can't even maintain a freaking hydro electric power generator it's Nuclear power the now want to go into. I just pray if the build the plant, it's in a  very remote area where it won't kill folks if they ever have a disaster.

I think some people need to go do medical brain test now. What nonsense. Nigerian should say no to russia and no to nuclear power. who do they want to kill. OR else nigeria should be ready to remove even govt if Russia near the soil of nigeria.

OgidiBoy:

Nigeria can't even maintain a freaking hydro electric power generator it's Nuclear power the now want to go into. I just pray if the build the plant, it's in a  very remote area where it won't kill folks if they ever have a disaster.

When oil pollution never kill us? Let them build the things so we can have dependable electricity supply.

bombay:

And say yes to USA hummmmmmmmm the imperalist

That's wrong. Every country contracted to build infrastructures for developing countries like Nigeria becomes imperialistic to an extent. Even India and China could become imperialistic too. Our experience with Russia should not be forgotten, otherwise any mistakes will be repeated.

bashali:

I think some people need to go do medical brain test now. What nonsense. Nigerian should say no to russia and no to nuclear power. who do they want to kill. OR else nigeria should be ready to remove even govt if Russia near the soil of nigeria.

[size=15pt]

OgidiBoy:

Nigeria can't even maintain a freaking hydro electric power generator it's Nuclear power the now want to go into. I just pray if the build the plant, it's in a very remote area where it won't kill folks if they ever have a disaster.[/size]

Dude you an Idiot for real, do you even understand basic English ? GO BACK AND READ my post and you will understand I'm against building a Nuclear plant in Nigeria. Please read folks post and try to comprehend before you start throwing insults OK. D.i.c.k face

Please no insults here o abeg o respect yourself or else i go send mend to come mend you o.

They have constant power supply in russia don't they so that solves the problem.It is now left for us to look after it.They build and they go.

Becomerich they will give you one nuclear plant just to appease you.

bombay:

Please no insults here o abeg o respect yourself or else i go send mend to come mend you o.

Send all your worri boys come and I'll destroy them with my pinky finger keep talking and I'll ask them to build a nuclear plant right in your backyard

Thats the spirit

Long overdue.
However,it should not be politicised.
For the guy who said Russia tech is not good,follow facts.
That your leaders failed to make Ajeokuta steel work does not mean they aint good.
For those who are afraid,its the best new way forward-others are engaging in it,we too can;YES WE CAN.

with these responses - I pity Nigeria. Any developmental effort is either sneered at or politicised or tribalised or written off b4 inception, which way Nigeria.

Well, I think it will be nice to have russian or chinese nuclear reactor for electric powers. These are the pple that a country like ours ( Nigeria ) can rely on.

Is the Russian President visit a compensation for President Obama shunning Nigeria for Ghana's visit What a set of unserious people

tosh_acer:

with these responses - I pity Nigeria. Any developmental effort is either sneered at or politicised or tribalised or written off b4 inception, which way Nigeria.

This is so true!

some people are even comdeming the entire north for this decision. y is it that some people are so quick to condem the north? the WHOLE OF NIGERIA is problematic. 8 years of Olusegun Obasanjo still has not tought u that a southern leader can be just as bad??

One of the reasons i had faith in a brighter nigeria is cuz i always thought this generation of nigerian youth would not be as petty as previous generations (considering tribal issues) but the longer i stay on NL the more disappointed i get.

@ post- the issue to be worried about is maintainance of the plant. as someone stated, we cant even maintain a hydro plant talk more of a nuclear one! i must admit, in my opinion its a scary and perhaps unreasonable decision to make.

Now this is a very scary thought, Russia about to turn nigeria to their nuclear waste dumping ground, we all knew what china did to our satelite program. God help us . this countries don see mumu country do business with

Some people have been configured ( )not to see anything good in anything

America is gradually losing its grip on Africa, Nigeria to be precise.
China is now the main player in Nigeria.

with this development, i see the americans grumbling.

Nuclear deal in a country that can't clean her streets,misplaced and misconceived priorities as always.Crazy bald heads.

Sometime high technology offers the best hope for "primitive" places.

Nuclear plant is really the cheapest and most reliable source of power we can ever think of but the state of Nigeria, management and maintenance culture, does not welcome the running of a nuclear reactor. I have reviewed the deccommissioning of at least five nuclear plants, UK, Germany, USSR, Canada and US, and I can categorically say that Nigeria is very close to extinction if they ever welcome this technology at the level of corruption, bureaucracy and carelessness in the manegement of public infrastructures in the country.
I can confirm to you that the devastating effect of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident in USSR was felt in as far as USA, the UK phase 1 and 2 deccommissioning which I worked on was feared would lead to death in Ireland, though it was successfully deccommissioned.
Furthermore, the canadian Three Mile Island deccommisioning was catastrophic leading to the death of many after the Govt spent about $978million and we know how bad our present Govt is in dispensing funds for public use.
Please before any of you make blind arguement, I advise you do a little research about nuclear reactors and their technical mentainance requirements. Nigeria is not ripe for that. You can as well read about the failed reactors in US and Germany to understand the level of radioactive exposure our Govt is about to expose us to in the case of minor fault. May God help us

Life is hierarchical.If we can't manage the basic power generating resources that we have in abundance,how can we cope with nuclear?

Sometimes i even think we are not yet mentally develop to even drive because we don't seem to know what the mechanisms of driving are.The world is energy in motion,we got to consciously tap into it and revolve in like cyclone.

And what about storage of nuclear waste in Nigeria?

@Big-Pen, I think you are right, it's like a compensation. I think we need to embrace nuclear technology, it's just the panacea to solve all our problems. If electricity is stable the rest will follow.

Most Nigerians will always criticize everything that is of benefit to the nation. I can see some here

this is a welcome development, but the tot of bad maintenance culture in nigeria can be scary.