If war breaks out in the Middle East, there will be a scramble for the services of experts forced to flee as happened in Germany after World War Two. Nigeria needs to draw up recruitment plans

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Looking at the recent infrastructural development of the Middle East, it is easy to see the handiwork of engineers, technocrats, technicians, architects, scientists, agriculturalists, etc. They have turned the region into an enviable place to visit

[2] One just needs to visit Dubai to get the message. It is now one of the world’s most popular holiday destinations. Some of their innovative projects are just mind-blowing

[3] Likewise, when I look at the skyscrapers appearing in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, etc on a daily basis, I have to doff my hat to the leaders in the region

[4] Just look at the last World Cup in 2022 and see the feat the Qataris pulled off. Leaders across the Middle East have made it clear that they plan to catch up with the industrialised world when it comes to social-economic development

[5] Lest we forget, Israel is also doing so many unprecedented things. Look at the way they have revolutionised their agriculture by irrigating the desert. Look at the missile defence shields they can now deploy, which shoot down projectiles launched at them

[6] If fullscale war breaks out in the Middle East, a lot of these experts will be forced to flee. Nigeria needs to start working on contingency plans to recruit thousands of them as we need to kickstart our socio-economic development too

[7] After World War Two, there was an almighty scramble for the best Nazi brains. The US, Argentina and Australia got the best of them

[8] In the US, their space programme was led by a man called Wernher von Braun. He was a former Nazi scientist recruited to lead the agency Nasa. His sins as Hitler’s henchman were forgiven and forgotten by the Americans

[9] What the Soviets actually did was when they marched into Berlin in May 1945, they moved entire factories east. They would ship the machinery, staff, production plans, etc, all back to the Soviet Union and set up shop

[10] Nigeria needs to learn from history. We need these fine brains who have transformed the Middle East to industrialise our economy. We should have set up a Middle East Brains Poaching Unit by now that is working on a long list of experts that includes:

[1] Steel manufacturers

[2] Railway engineers

[3] Hybrid seed developers

[4] Food processors

[5] Health professionals

[6] Electric automobile plant engineers

[7] Clean energy engineers

[8] Irrigation experts

[9] Oil refinery engineers

[10] Skyscraper designers

ayoakinfe@gmail.com