Vice President Shettima should not leave this UN summit in New York until he gets clear assurances on global investment in clean energy into the Nigerian economy

Ayo Akinfe

[1] World leaders are currently meeting at the United Nations’ 80th anniversary in New York. While there, among other things, they are busy trying to find ways to reduce the global carbon footprint. One thing they always fail to ever mention, however, is that Africa has very little to do with global warming

[2] As a continent, Africa’s carbon emissions are minuscule because we simply do not manufacture enough to pollute the environment. When you account for just 1% of global manufacturing, you really have no environmental case to answer

[3] In the case of Nigeria, our only two big environmental crimes are gas flaring in the Niger Delta and the endless use of generators to provide electricity. They, however, still do not amount to much

[4] I hope Vice President Shettima is making a case for Africa at this summit. He should be telling everyone that the world owes Africa one and for, me, what he should be demanding is foreign direct investment (FDI) as a way of making it up to us

[5] I want to ask all of you how come Africa has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.19trn, while China has a GDP of $12.24trn. They both have identical populations of about 1.3bn people. Unfortunately, the United Nations (UN) does not see anything immoral about this. The European Union has a GDP of $18.8trn and a population of about 500,000m people. What kind of macabre inequality is this?

[6] China in particular is setting new boundaries on a daily basis with bigger, faster, taller, etc everything. Dubai is trying to follow suit. Africa, with 18% of the world’s population is simply lagging behind the rest of humanity

[7] When I look at the thousands of Nigerians who shamelessly troop to Dubai annually to throw flamboyant and expensive parties, I ask myself how come they are not embarrassed about the fact that their nation is not part of this developmental drive. How come the “See wetin your mate dey do” argument does not apply here?

[8] If all the money Nigerians invest in Dubai jamborees was invested in Nigeria, it would have had a significant impact on the economy by now. I put it to you all that each one of those jamborees could fund a mini power grid

[9] As things stand, the rest of the world is accelerating ahead and leaving Africa behind. It is up to the United Nations to address this anomaly. We need an article passed by the UN Security Council compelling all industrialised nations to invest 5% of their GDP in Africa. Failure to do so should be classified as a crime against humanity. Failing to eradicate poverty is a worse crime than using chemical weapons in my opinion

[10] Africa needs FDI urgently or poverty, religious extremism and ignorance will continue to grow across the continent. I hope Vice President Shettima succeeds in convincing the rest of the world of this at the New York summit

ayoakinfe@gmail.com