The Canadian mayor recounted how he fell in love with Nigeria after he visited Lagos State in 2007.
The Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, has expressed his admiration for Lagos State during an event organised to honour Peter Obi, the Labour Party flag-bearer in the 2023 presidential election.
Brampton is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, with a high population of Nigerian immigrants.
While speaking at a recent town hall meeting hosted by the Coalition of Nigerian Canadian Interest Groups based in Canada to honour Obi, Brown recounted how he fell in love with Lagos when he visited in 2007.
The period of his visit coincided with the time President Bola Tinubu was in office as the governor of the South-West State.
Brown was seen in a video shared on Saturday, May 4, 2024, by Wale Adedayo, a user tweeting as @Mario9jaa, addressed the cheering audience.
Brown was blown away during his visit to Lagos
“I went to Nigeria in 2007. I went to Lagos and I fell in love with the country. Two years ago, I went back and once again, I toured the country. Anytime you visit Nigeria, you’re saying to yourself, ‘When can I go back?” the impressed mayor said.
He also mentioned that he was “blown away” by the strides of the nation’s movie industry, popularly referred to as Nollywood.
“There’s a lot of love for Nigeria in my city,” he added.
Similarly, a member of the Provincial Parliament in Brampton North, Graham McGregor, also disclosed in a tweet on Sunday that “In Brampton, we’ve got one of the fastest growing Nigerian-Canadian communities. I’ve spoken with a few people here that are from Brampton and we’ve got a lot of exciting things going on.”
McGregor stressed the importance of creating an “open, inclusive, welcoming economy for everybody. And to the connections we’re building here with the Nigerian-Canadian community, we want to make sure Nigerians are part of it.”
