PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has promised to arm several new security outfits over the coming years including members of state police forces and forest rangers as part of a renewed drive to combat the growing insecurity across Nigeria.

Ayo Akinfe

[1] With an internal market of 200m people and a further 150m consumers across the Ecowas sub-region, Nigeria has a captive automobile market and simply has to exploit this to the maximum

[2] As a people, we need to make a solemn pledge to at least assemble locally every passenger car used in the country. Importing finished cars has got to become a criminal offence

BESIKTAS midfielder Wilfred Ndidi has been named as the new Super Eagles captain to replace the now-retired William Troost-Ekong ahead of the forthcoming African Cup of Nations due to start this weekend in Morocco.

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Let me reteriate the point that Nigeria is not productive enough. Every other problem we face as a nation stems from this basic fact

[2] Cast you minds back to around 1970 and 1971 when Nigeria was enjoying 25% gross domestic product (GDP) growth. There were no religious extremists, terrorists, armed bandits, secessionists, public officers stealing their whole budgets, civil servants looting pension funds, etc

NIGERIA'S federal government has banned the export of wood and all allied products revoking all existing licences and permits to ship them as part of a clampdown on illegal logging and incessant deforestation.

Ayo Akinfe

[1] There are currently about 9m unemployed people in Nigeria. Between 4% and 5% of the population are without jobs. Most these are youths not trained or educated and lack the skills required in a modern economy

[2] Countries like Brazil and South Africa have successfully introduced public works programmes of late, soaking up millions of unemployed youths. Nigeria needs a similar sort of programme if she is to address her unemployment crisis

PRESIDENT Donald Trump appears to have delivered on his promise to attack Islamist militants killing Christians in Nigeria after it emerged that the US Air Force carried out a strike on a terrorist camp along the border with Benin Republic.

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Cotton production will be expanded to match Pakistan’s 2.3m tonnes through the provision of single digit loans and hybrid seedlings to farmers. Nigeria currently produces only 105,000 tonnes of cotton, which is not enough to sustain a local manufacturing industry

[2] A Nigerian Tailors Guild will be formed as part of a regulatory regime. Only registered members will be authorised to sew clothes for members of the public

NIGERIAN Football Federation (NFF) officials have written to Fifa alleging that the Democratic Republic of Congo breached its rules by fielding ineligible players in the recent World Cup play-off in a desperate last-ditch attempt to qualify for North American 2026.

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Nigeria needs to attract at least $50bn in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2026 to avoid total economic collapse

[2] Where on earth we are going to get it from I do not know and I am surprised that nobody is even talking about it at the moment

[3] Waiting for investors to just come to Nigeria is utopian thinking. Nobody is going to just wake up and think of Nigeria. We need to be proactive when it comes to FDI