There is an old saying that any PR is good PR, so I am hoping that we gain from the Kemi Badenoch debacle. I hope the focus on Nigeria as a result of her recent outbursts leads to more British FDI

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Let us not delude ourselves, Britain's elite still regards Nigeria as a nation of savages where people have only recently climbed down from tree tops. We need an aggressive enlightenment strategy to get them to start viewing Nigerians as equal human beings and subsequently an investment destination

[2] At the moment, Nigeria is the UK’s fastest growing export market but I am not aware of President Tinubu’s plans to boost trade and commerce between both countries? For instance, does he have foreign direct investment (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. President Tinubu now needs 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. Who knows, maybe Kemi’s latest outbursts will get British investors to establish a similar project along Nigeria’s Atlantic coastline. President Tinubu should offer tax holidays and breaks to any British company that invests in the sector so we get 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. 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 in my opinion

[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 should be pushing for a trade deal guaranteeing Nigerian produce shelf space in every British retail outlet

[9] We also want the British aviation industry to stop the bullying of Air Peace immediately. London-Lagos is one of the most lucrative routes globally. I think it is time for BA or Virgin to enter into a joint venture with Air Peace

[10] I would also like to see Prince Harry personally commit to opening a factory to manufacture prosthetic limbs in Nigeria. He should take out a small personal stake in the venture to show his commitment. Who is to say Kemi’s recent outburst will not spur this?

ayoakinfe@gmail.com