I wonder if Nigeria currently has a team of whiz kids wracking their brains out, thinking of ways to bring foreign direct investment into the economy come 2025

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Nigeria’s size will always get us a listening ear anywhere in the world any day. It is time we exploited that advantage to the maximum by coming up with annual New Year’s Day foreign direct investment (FDI) requests

[2] Upon assuming office in 2015, President Buhari enjoyed a lot of international goodwill with Nigeria being invited to every capital in the world. However, did not translated into FDI. We have to correct that by making the point that Nigeria is open for business

[3] In all fairness, Presidents Buhari and Tinubu have both been warmly welcomed as guest to G-7 summits and everyone including the Americans, Chinese, British, French, Russians, Germans and Japanese have held African summits, where Nigeria has been a major participant

[4] Enough of the window dressing now. We want to see all these welcomes result in investment and job creation. What exasperates me is that a token FDI of say $20bn a year would solve 50% of Nigeria’s socio-economic woes.

[5] Everyone is shying away from this now but when we become another Afghanistan, the rest of the world will be ready to pump $1trn into Nigeria. I say enough is enough. President Tinubu must read the industrialised world the riot act. Fail to invest at least $20bn a year in Nigeria at your peril!

[6] It is a very easy case to make. Unless the industrialised world creates jobs for Nigeria’s youth, the terrorist world will. The choice is yours but please do not complain when Al-Queida, Isis and the Taliban make Nigeria their headquarters

[7] Companies like Boeing and Embraer for instance must be compelled to open any new aircraft manufacturing facility in Nigeria. In this post-coronavirus era, airlines are increasingly using the Airbus A380 to recoup their losses. They must be told in no uncertain terms that about 50% of all such aircraft must be manufactured in Nigeria as from 2025

[8] By the same token, the automobile companies have got away with murder up until now. Nigeria must place a blanket ban on the imports of any vehicle whose parent company does not open an electric car plant in Nigeria. After a year, the likes of Toyota, Volkswagen, Peugeot, Nissan, General Motors, Ford, Range Rover, Citroen, Renault, Mitsubishi, Honda, Suzuki, Hyundai, Daewoo, etc will get the message

[9] In addition, by 2050, Nigeria will become the third most populous nation on earth. Our current landmass cannot sustain that kind of population, so the industrialised world must fund an expansion plan that will enable us to merge with Benin Republic, Cameroon and Niger Republic to form one mega Federal Republic of Songhai

[10] Does the rest of the world know that up to 80% of the landmass of Niger Republic is in the Sahara Desert? This is the world’s largest solar farm, so immediately Nigeria incorporates this area, the industrialised world needs to immediately fund an unprecedented energy programme unheard of in the history of mankind. I want to generate 80% of the world’s clean energy through this Sahara Desert Songhai Project. It will electrify the whole of Africa and account for at least one third of global electricity production

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com