As we start this 65th lap of our journey, were I in President Tinubu’s shoes, I would shock everyone by releasing Nnamdi Kanu and appointing him to a position where he would be asked to do the unprecedented

Ayo Akinfe

[1] I have made it repeatedly clear that Nigeria is sitting on a land mass time bomb as come 2050, we will become the world’s third most populous nation with 500m people with less than 1m square kilometres of territory. We desperately need to merge with our neighbours Niger Republic, Cameroon and Benin Republic to form a United Republic of Songhai to avert a catastrophe

[2] Of these three neighbours, the one that excites me the most is Niger Republic. It had over 1m square feet of territory and about 80% of the country is Sahara Desert, giving it the potential to become the world’s largest solar farm. I hope President Tinubu initiates merger talks immediately with probably a 2030 target in mind

[3] Once talks begin, I would appoint Nnamdi Kanu as the head of the Desert Directorate. It would be his job to build solar farms across Niger Republic, to irrigate the desert and to build new towns in the middle of nowhere

[4] Nnamdi Kanu spent a substantial amount of time in Israel while he was on the run. Surely, while there, he must have seen how they converted the desert into lush farmland and this expertise is now required as we contemplate merging with our northern neighbour in line with Kwame Nkrumah’s dream

[5] More than half of Israel's land area is desert. Their climate and lack of water resources does not favour farming but guess what, they have irrigated the desert in an unprecedented manner. Only 20% of Israel's land area is naturally arable but the country produces 95% of its food requirements

[6] Do you know that the area of irrigated farmland in Israel has increased from 74,000 acres in 1948 to some 460,000 acres today?

[7] Israeli agricultural production rose 26% between 1999 and 2009, while the number of farmers dropped from 23,500 to 17,000. Farmers have also grown more with less water, using 12% less water to grow 26% more produce

[8] Due to the diversity of the land and climate across the country, Israel is able to grow a wide range of crops. Field crops grown in the country include wheat, sorghum and corn. Fruit and vegetables grown include citrus, avocados, kiwifruit, guavas, mangoes, grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini and melons. In 1997, $107m worth of cotton was grown in Israel with most of this sold in advance on the futures market.

[9] Do you know that Israeli cows produce the highest amounts of milk per animal in the world, with an average of 10,208 kilograms (around 10,000 liters) of dairy in 2009. All of Israel's milk comes from dairy farms with most herds consisting largely of Israel-Holsteins, a high-yielding, disease-resistant breed. Maybe as a starting point, Nnamdi Kanu should import some of those cows. Do you know that when Obafemi Awolowo was premier of the Western Region, he imported a special variety of high-yielding cow from Argentina?

[10] Israel is also big in acquaculture. Scientists of the Bengis Center for Desert Aquaculture at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev discovered that the brackish water under the desert can be used for agriculture, aquaculture and a combination of the two. This has led to the farming of fish, shrimp and crustaceans in the Negev. Maybe Nnamdi should be asked to build the world’s largest fish farm at somewhere like Agadir

ayoakinfe@gmail.com