I would just love it if Kemi Badenoch visited President Tinubu at his London home now that he is in the UK and the two of them agreed an Anglo-Nigeria Trade Pact that looks like this

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Boris Johnson once referred to Africa as a country. He also once said Europe should recolonise Africa and this time not be made to feel guilty about it. Let us not delude ourselves, Britain's elite still regards Nigeria as a nation of savages where people have just climbed down from tree tops. That perception desperately needs to change if we are to attract British foreign direct investment (FDI)

[2] Unfortunately our Nigerian government appears not to have any strategy to combat this. At the moment, Nigeria is the UK’s fastest growing export market but the Nigerian government has no plans to boost trade and commerce between both countries. Neither do we appear to have FDI investment targets for British investors in Nigeria

[3] According to Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID) UK-Nigeria trade was worth £3.4bn in 2016. Successive should have had a wish list demanding that this be boosted to around £50bn by now. There are sectors like power, automobiles, railways, healthcare, etc where Britain has a lot of expertise that is badly needed in Nigeria

[4] Britain has one of the world’s largest wind farms in the North Sea. Why is the British government not pushing its investors to establish a similar project along Nigeria’s Atlantic coastline? President Tinubu should have asked be pressing for Downing Street to offer tax holidays and breaks to any British company that invests in the sector. I want to see an endless wall of wind turbines stretching for 800km from Badagry to Calabar

[5] Britain once used to have a thriving car manufacturing industry. Nigeria on the other hand desperately needs to start manufacturing automobiles at home to meet growing demand. President Tinubu desperately needs to visit Downing Street to discuss the locating of British car plants in Nigeria? Just imagine if we had Vauxhall and Leyland manufacturing facilities in Lagos and Abuja employing say 10,000 people and churning out vehicles for the local market

[6] One of the reasons why the British automobile industry collapsed is because she did not expand it into her former colonies. In contrast, the likes of Volkswagen, Peugeot, Toyota, Nissan, etc moved into markets like Nigeria big time. We need an Anglo-Nigeria plan to work on the automobile industry. Innoson for instance could do with British experience and expertise

[7] Britain also owes Nigeria one big time when it comes to railways. They committed a crime against humanity when they built a narrow gauge track in Nigeria. Narrow gauge tracks are for intra-city trams or factory supply freight trains. Building a narrow gauge track from Lagos to Kano that runs at about 40km an hour is economic madness. They should be asked to compensate us for this by investment in the Nigerian railway sector

[8] Given the large number of Nigerians in the UK, it is increasingly becoming an important market for our food. As we speak, yam, egusi, gari, etc are widely available in UK supermarkets. President Tinubu needs to get Britain to sign a trade deal guaranteeing Nigerian produce shelf space in every British retail outlet

[9] We have been talking about a national carrier for ages but alas, very little has been done about it. President Tinubu needs to ask our former colonial masters to pledge that BA will take a 30% stake in this new venture. They owe us one big time here as Britain left Nigeria with no airline. Also, Lagos to London is one of the most lucrative routes in the world and British airlines like Virgin and BA have made a fortune from it

[10] Can you just imagine the pressure it would put Kier Starmer under, if President Tinubu and Badenoch could agree an international trade pact that looked like this?

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com