Maybe our first step in the quest for economic emancipation should be to write our own African holy book like the Torah, Bible and Koran. It would give us the self-belief to start manufacturing and initiate self-reliance

Ayo Akinfe

Central tenants of African Bible/Koran

[1] In the beginning there was a void. God created dinosaurs in the Nile Valley but because they were not procreating enough, he destroyed them in a meteoric attack and wiped them out

[2] God then decided he would create man in their place and make him the master of the universe. He thus created a special garden at a place called The Valley of Kings in modern day Egypt

[3] God then created Lamurudu and Moremi at a second garden in a place called Ile-Ife and gave them a staff of life, with which they would rule mankind

[4] Moremi's womb was sealed but when she was 80 the Lord opened her womb and she bore a son called Oduduwa. God promised to make him a father of many nations

[5] Oduduwa's son Oranmiyam became the world's first king. He had 12 sons named Oyo, Benin, Dahomey, Nri, Arochukwu, Katsina, Zaria, Ashante, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Nupe and Borgu

[6] When Oranmiyan died, the Lord got the prohets to annoint Shango his son as the chosen one. Shango received the blessing and was made the Alaafin of Oyo

[7] Nri's grandson Odumegwu committed terrible sins, allowing the prohets of Baal to eat at his table, so God decided to punish them by visiting defeat in war, starvation and pogroms upon them

[8] One of Arochukwu's gransons ventured south into the delta area disobeying God and Arochukwu thus cursed him: "You will suffer terribly for this sin. Your lands will be polluted, your air will be destroyed and your creeks will become oil slicks."

[9] Dan Fodio was a man who found favour in the eyes of the Lord and God promised him riches. Dan Fodio defeated all his opponents in battle and founded a dynasty. The Lord promied him and his offspring authority over all their neighbours

[10] The people of Ibadan were very sinful, committing sodomy, drunkeness and all other forms of vices, so the Lord wiped them out with the Ogunpa flood and visited terrible rulers upon them like Adelakun, Adedibu and Alao-Akala.

Come to think of it, if only we Africans had taken advantage of Heiroglyophics, this may have been the version of events currently contained in the bible/koran. We need to do something drastic like this to end our inferiority complex, epitomised by our wholesale dependence on imports for our survival.

We recently had a global pandemic with every sane nation rushing to come up with a cure. Nigeria, despite being the seventh most populous nation on earth was wholly dependent on vaccine imports during this process.

I do not believe the rest of the world was obliged to supply Nigeria with vaccines. We should have been challenged to become a producer too!