Nigeria’s weak foreign policy is responsible for Africa’s slow economic growth 

By Ayo Akinfe 

(1) Today is June 23, the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s visit to Paris after the German army, known as the Wehrmacht, successfully marched through the Arden Forest and crushed the mighty Grande Army of France within two weeks. Never before in the history of mankind has a world power suffered such a humiliating and crushing defeat within such a short space of time 

(2) Hitler’s Blitzkrieg of 1940 is one ignominy the French will forever have to live with. French defences were based on the way World War One was fought but alas, Hitler was thinking some 20 years on. France was thinking of trench warfare but the Germans were thinking of fast-moving tank units. France and Britain simply had no answer to the speedy German Panzers when they rumbled across the French countryside

(3) In 1940, Germany was simply some 50 years ahead of the rest of the world both in terms of technological advancement and in military tactics. The concept of Blitzkrieg that Field Marshall Erich Von Manstein came up with revolutionised warfare in an unbelievable and eternal way. His tactics are still used today. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, they copied his tactics verbatim in the race to Baghdad. Within a month, the Yanks has gobbled up an Arab nation of 35m people 

(4) In 1940, a certain Field Marshall Erwin Rommel led the German assault on France in such a manner that Paris was actually captured without a shot being fired. We talk about the incompetence of Nigerian security chiefs in the face of the Boko Haram insurgency but what we saw in France in 1940 beggars belief. I actually find it humiliating that such a bunch of incompetents could colonise large swathes of Africa. The Nigerian Army looks professional compared with the French generals of 1940

(5) During the rest of World War Two, the American troops based in Britain mocked the British and French repeatedly over the defeat in France and the evacuation from Dunkirk. In pubs up and down England, when asked what he wanted to drink, an American troop would reply: “Serve me up a beer as quickly as you guys got out of Dunkirk.” This led to numerous punch-ups in British bars

(6) I actually just found out that during his visit to Paris, Adolf Hitler visited just two locations. These are the Eiffel Tower and the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte. I can see why he visited Napoleon’s resting place as the two men shared a vision of a united Europe. Their vision though was based on subjugation, which was always going to fail. There is no way the rest of the continent would accept that 

(7) In contrast, the collegiate approach of the European Union (EU) is working well. Building unity by consensus is the way to go. It is just a shame that the UK is seeking to destroy a structure that had guaranteed 75 years of peace simply because they cannot dominate it. Brexit represents the kind of selfishness and me, me, me approach we saw from Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler 

(8) Learning from the EU, Africa as a continent needs to see how the creation of the community has delivered peace, prosperity, economic growth and technological advancement. Europe can only compete with the US and China if it is united. Had Africa developed organically, we would not have had this current large number of nation states. Many of them are unviable and not sustainable. Nigeria has to address this matter going into the 22nd century. We are the continent’s giant and cannot shirk our responsibilities

(9) Of the 42 landlocked countries in the world, 16 are in Africa. This represents about a third of the total and for me is totally unacceptable. Nigeria’s foreign policy has to be geared towards altering this. Does our continent need more than 12 nation states? We need to find a way to achieve this peacefully and open up Africa to unprecedented growth 

(10) Aliko Dangote was recently talking about the difficulties he always faced when negotiating with so many African nations. If we significantly reduced the number of countries, we would remove a lot of impediments to growth and then on the basis of that create a genuine free trade area and common market of 12 sovereign nations. With so many weak and small nations, world powers are having a field day in Africa. There are only few African nations that can for instance refuse to accept US rice, Chinese cement or French wine. Nigeria, sort this out!