On March 6 1957, Kwame Nkrumah said: “Our independence is meaningless unless it leads to the total liberation of the African continent. Likewise, Tinubu’s subsidy removal is meaningless unless it leads to the diversification of the Nigerian economy

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Nigeria needs to attract at least $50bn in foreign direct investment (FDI) annually to avoid total economic collapse

[2] Where on earth are we going to get such FDI from? I do not know and nobody is even talking about it

[3] Waiting for investors to just come to Nigeria to bail us out is utopian thinking.

[4] We should be the ones aggressively pursuing them, using our control of the Ecowas market as a unique selling point

[5] Nigeria can provide access to the sub-region’s markers to any investor. This should be a regional modus operandi

[6] Were I in President Tinubu’s shoes, I would insist on such regional investment agreements being put in place before opening up Nigeria’s borders to the rest of Ecowas

[7] Tinubu’s message to the rest of the world should have been simple - Invest in Nigeria and we will grant you access to the 350m Ecowas market

[8] Nigerians love to blame their leaders for their woes but hey, there can be no good leadership without followership. A people who are only interested in stomach infrastructure have no moral right to demand good governance

[9] Whatever savings are made from the petroleum subsidy removal should be ploughed into economic diversification and the attraction of FDI

[10] Here are certain key sectors I think President Tinubu should target for investment:

[1] Scandinavia - Railway construction

[2] Russia - Steel production

[3] Germany - Electricity generation and distribution

[4] Japan - Automobile manufacturing

[5] Australia - Solid mineral processing

[6] Canada - Livestock processing and animal feed compounding

[7] US - Food processing

[8] India - Pharmaceutical manufacturing

[9] China - Machine tool manufacturing

[10] Europe’s Low Countries - Household goods manufacturing

If we could attract just $10bn worth of investment from each origin, imagine how many jobs it would create. I do not believe that asking say Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Suzuki and Mazda to float a Nigerian joint venture is asking a lot. What is $10bn investment to these companies together?

Opening say a gearbox manufacturing plant in Nnewi a chassis facility in Nsukka and then maybe an assembly plant in Port Harcourt to churn out a unique Nigerian four-by-four vehicle would guarantee them bumper sales. Plants manufacturing other components could be opened up across the rest of West Africa in cities like Accra, Abidjan, Dakar, Monrovia, Conakry and Banjul.

Across the board, this model could be replicated. It cannot be business as usual in this post-Covid era my people!