The ambassador said this on Friday, in Lagos, during the monthly Ambassadorial Forum organised by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).

The NIIA Ambassadorial Forum is a platform that provides serving ambassadors and diplomats in Nigeria the opportunity to make contributions on issues of their relationship with the country and other multilateral interests.

According to Ryan, Nigerians are creative people who have a reputation internationally for being creatives.

He noted that the journey Nigeria had come on, reflected in some ways Ireland’s journey as an independent nation.

Ryan said that he saw great opportunities for progress, resilience, creativity and innovativeness in the Nigerian public.

“We hear quite regularly from the Nigerian diaspora in Ireland, about how positive they are on the future of Ireland-Nigeria, Nigeria-European Union relations.

“I think our trade has never been better, our cultural connections with each other has never been stronger, and our community connections have never been stronger.”

Ryan said that Ireland’s largest African diaspora was from Nigeria.

“We’re having lots of new generations of Nigerians now in our business world and our cultural world and we are very proud of them.

“This is a real treasure for us and something that we’re going to nurture because I think we can go on to great things together by developing and using those people to keep the links,” he said.

The envoy also spoke on global peace and his country’s membership of the United Nations’ Security Council.

Ryan said the principles that guided Ireland’s UNSC membership are building peace, strengthening conflict resolution and prevention, and ensuring accountability.

He said the security council remained a pivotal institution at the heart of the multilateral system.

“We can’t address global challenges, conflict, climate change, food insecurity, without an effective, robust United Nations Security Council,” he said.

Ryan added, “We are, through the European Union and our work here, trying to do what we can to contribute to the development of a more prosperous, secure and safe Nigeria.

“This includes through the European Union Election monitoring mission, the development humanitarian programmes that we have, our partnership for business and partnership on education and our engagements with the diverse cultural scene in here.”

Also speaking, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, Director General, NIIA, said there was every reason to expect that Nigeria’s relations with Ireland would continue to expand and be strengthened at every level.

He said at the citizen to citizen level, Ireland was very strong in the area of education, cooperation, sports, and culture and also involved in the development sector in Nigeria.

“Nigeria and Ireland are working hard to ensure that multilateral strength is brought to bear on conflict zones in different parts of the world and to see that there is shared peace and prosperity.

“Peace is central to Ireland’s relations with the rest of the world and this is a great thing to partner with them on,” Osaghae said.