{"id":37548,"date":"2021-02-21T19:31:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T19:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?p=37548"},"modified":"2021-02-21T17:00:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T17:00:30","slug":"republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Nigeria<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made this disclaimer in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mr Ferdinand Nwonye, on Saturday in Abuja.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Affairs Minister explained that the misleading reports were quoted out of context following the meeting with Onyeama and his Beninese counterpart on Feb. 18 in Abuja.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been drawn to misleading reports in the media that the Republic of Benin is aspiring to be the 37 State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in the presence of his counterpart from the Republic of Benin granted a Press Interview after a very fruitful meeting between Ministerial delegations from both countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd stated therein that the President of Benin Republic said he would like the relations between the two countries to be so close as if Benin was the 37th State of Nigeria\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Republic of Nigeria has no territorial ambition and has never aspired to make Benin or any country as part of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Minister of Foreign Affairs was therefore quoted out of context and the general public should kindly disregard the wrong information,\u201d the ministry urged,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made this disclaimer in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mr Ferdinand Nwonye, on Saturday in Abuja. The Foreign Affairs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":37547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,14,26],"tags":[1570,2140,1830,254,3117],"class_list":["post-37548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-geoffrey-onyeama","tag-nigeria","tag-republic-of-benin"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State o ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State o ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-21T19:31:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-21T19:31:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Geoffrey Onyeama\",\"Nigeria\",\"republic of benin\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts\",\"name\":\"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts - Nigeria\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-21T19:31:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State o ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts - Nigeria","description":"The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State o ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts","og_description":"The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State o ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts","og_site_name":"Nigeria","article_published_time":"2021-02-21T19:31:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts","datePublished":"2021-02-21T19:31:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts"},"wordCount":241,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Nigeria","Geoffrey Onyeama","Nigeria","republic of benin"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","Policy","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts","name":"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts - Nigeria","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-21T19:31:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Geoffrey Onyeama, says the Republic of Benin is not aspiring to be the 37 State o ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2021\/02\/img-60329187c30f6.jpg","width":1280,"height":720,"caption":"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/republic-of-benin-not-aspiring-to-be-part-of-nigeria-geoffrey-onyeama-retracts#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u201cRepublic of Benin not aspiring to be part of Nigeria\u201d\u2013 Geoffrey Onyeama, retracts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/","name":"Africa Press | Nigeria | Homepage","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/author\/cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}