African students join a volunteer team at Yuanmingyuan Park in Beijing in August 2018. Photo: VCG

 

Learning Chinese and Chinese culture contributes to achieving the "Nigerian dream" of the young generation in Nigeria, allowing them to better align with national development, Nigerian teachers and students told the Global Times, emphasizing the broad prospects of China-Africa education cooperation. 

"A high population of Nigerian students want to learn Chinese because they see the prospects of achieving their Nigerian dream through learning the Chinese language, just like the Chinese dream that Chinese people mention," Adetoro Banwo, deputy director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Lagos, told the Global Times ahead of the upcoming Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to be held in Beijing.

Banwo said learning a language cannot be separated from culture, adding that peaceful Chinese society, devoid of violence, can be attributed to Chinese culture, which emphasizes self-cultivation, self-discipline, humanity, love for one another, and mutual assistance. This is where Chinese values contribute to the Nigerian dream of the young in Nigeria and the country's national development along its process to modernization, Banwo added. 

He elaborated that the Nigerian dream is a dream of prosperity and possibility; it's a dream of the youth to have a better society, a society where it's safe and people can work and earn good means of income, have access to electricity and all other basic things in life. Banwo's Confucius Institute and the 13 teaching centers scattered around Lagos have around 4,000 students in total. 

"Local Nigerians accept China and Nigeria as partners in development because China has changed the face of my country," Banwo said. "We have wonderful highways, light rail has just been constructed, new airports. People feel happy and excited. In addition, a lot of Chinese companies bring in goods and services, employing local people." Chinese companies are also imparting valuable skills to Nigerians, enabling many individuals to establish their own small to medium enterprises, Banwo said. 

Cultivating more talents for Africa's future has been a consistent effort by China to assist in Africa's development. China proposed close cooperation with African countries to jointly implement "nine major projects." It involves China aiding in the construction or upgrading of 10 schools in Africa and inviting 10,000 high-end African talents to participate in training and seminars.