I hope President Tinubu will use his vacation to come up with Africa-centric foreign policy initiatives. As things stand, our continent is not economically viable and this needs to be addressed to attract FDI

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Is President Tinubu aware of the fact that Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), currently stands at $2.8trn. This is the combined economic output of 1.4bn people. We have the same population as China but alas, they have a GDP of about $18.5trn

[2] Do you know that the industrialised world would not be where it is today without all the mergers and amalgamations it witnessed over the centuries. We had the reunification of Germany and Italy, England and Scotland signed a Union Treaty creating Great Britain and then of course we had the 1776 US Declaration of Independence and the subsequent growth of 13 states into 50 with a series of amalgamations

[3] Take it or leave it but the large dominate the small and the strong dominate the weak. Africa remains the world’s punching bag today because most of her nation states are too small, weak and economically unviable

[4] Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Ethiopia account for about 50% of Africa’s GDP. This clearly shows that the majority of the remaining 49 nations and not economically viable or sustainable

[5] Take our northern neighbour Niger Republic with its huge uranium deposits and token GDP of just $15bn. There is no way that the rest of the world will ever leave Niger Republic be. It will forever be exploited by those with imperialist ambitions. France and the US have made it clear they see the country as a piece of real estate they want

[6] Were I in President Tinubu’s shoes, I would sit down with the regime in Niamey and negotiate an amalgamation plan. We would then set up a joint committee with a mandate to deliver a unified and democratic country within five years

[7] Under this plan, within a year, the Nigerien generals who recently seized power will be retired and elected officials will replace them in the run-up to the grand unification. We will use the template adopted when East and West Germany merged in the early 1990s

[8] I see this unification of the Niger Area as a prelude to creating the Socialist Republic of Songhai. A West African giant made up of modern Nigeria, Niger Republic, Benin Republic and Cameroon. Populated by 1bn people, Songhai will have a gross domestic product (GDP) of $70trn and an annual budget of about $10trn. Covering a total area of 3m square kilometres, Songhai will be one of the five pillars on which humanity stands. By 2050, the five nations that will dominate global affairs, politics and commerce will be China, India, America, the European Union and Songhai

[9] We then need to replicate this template across Africa. Large nations like South Africa, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Kenya, etc all need to open amalgamation talks with their neighbours

[10] Africa only accounts for about 3% or global trade and 1% of worldwide manufacturing. This is despite accounting for 18% of humanity. As things stand, our continent is not economically viable and nobody but the Nigerian president can do anything about it

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com