Vice President Shettima reads Nigerian leader's message to world's rising economic bloc, pitches Africa's youngest population as its biggest asset
President Bola Tinubu did not travel to India for the 18th BRICS Summit, but his message still reached the room. Vice President Kashim Shettima stood in for him, reading out a speech that laid out, in clear terms, what Nigeria wants from its growing relationship with the bloc: real investment, shared technology, and a seat at the table when big decisions about the global economy are made.
The summit, chaired by India this year, carried the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability." Shettima opened by thanking the Indian government and people for their hospitality, before getting into the heart of Nigeria's message one built around partnership, not charity.
A key part of that message centered on Nigeria’s people. One number stood out in the speech: 16.9. That is the average age of Nigerians today, out of a population of 250 million people. Tinubu, through Shettima, called this Nigeria's "greatest asset," arguing that the country's young population is what will drive its innovation agenda in the years ahead.
To back that up, the speech pointed to home-grown programmes already under way 3MTT, the Three Million Technical Talent scheme, Project BRIDGE, and various national artificial intelligence initiatives as proof that Nigeria is putting money and structure behind digital skills, entrepreneurship, and research, not just talking about them.
If there was one line meant to sum up Nigeria's stance, it came near the end of the speech: BRICS, Tinubu said, must move "from dialogue to delivery, from commitments to implementation, and from cooperation to measurable development outcomes." It is a polite but pointed reminder that summits and speeches only matter if they turn into roads, power plants, jobs, and trade deals that ordinary people can feel.
On that front, Nigeria listed the areas where it wants BRICS cooperation to show up in practice: trade, agriculture, food security, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare, and critical minerals. On the last point, the speech was especially direct, calling for partnerships that bring technology transfer, local value addition, industrial capacity, and employment not just extraction.
Beyond its own economy, Nigeria used the platform to pitch itself as the entry point into the rest of the continent. The speech invited BRICS investors to see Nigeria as a gateway into Africa's expanding market under the African Continental Free Trade Area, whose digital trade protocol Nigeria says it is championing. The country also renewed its support for rules-based, multilateral trade including e-commerce and digital trade arguing that no nation's borders should limit the reach of its businesses.
The address then turned to technology. As Project BRIDGE continues expanding broadband, fibre optic networks, and digital public services across the country, Tinubu's message stressed that Nigeria wants this growth to happen on its own terms: an open, secure, and inclusive digital ecosystem that supports innovation, digital trade, responsible artificial intelligence, and cyber security. On this front, the speech welcomed deeper BRICS cooperation in artificial intelligence, digital public infrastructure, fintech, telecommunications, cyber security, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. The reasoning was blunt: developing countries, Tinubu argued, must produce technology and own intellectual property, "because a nation that owns no technology risks renting its future."
On climate change, Nigeria's position was about balance rather than sacrifice. The speech called for affordable climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building for Africa, alongside cooperation in renewable energy, gas, clean technologies, climate-smart agriculture, sustainable infrastructure, and responsible development of critical minerals. The underlying argument was that climate responsibility should widen development opportunities for countries like Nigeria, not shrink them.
Tinubu's speech also pushed for change beyond BRICS itself, calling for a more representative and equitable global governance system including reform of the United Nations Security Council and the wider international financial architecture. BRICS, the speech argued, gives the Global South a louder voice in pushing for that kind of change.
Addressing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders directly, Tinubu's message closed with a commitment. Nigeria, it said, is ready to help build a BRICS partnership strong enough to survive global shocks, open enough to embrace new ideas, cooperative enough to share prosperity, and sustainable enough to protect the generations still to come.
"Our partnership must create jobs, expand trade, transport technology and strengthen our nation's productive capacity," the speech read. "We must build a future in which Africa moves from the margins of global development to the frontiers of global growth and innovation. Nigeria is ready to play its part."
With that, Vice President Shettima closed the address on behalf of a president who, though absent from the hall, made sure Nigeria's position was heard loud and clear.