As Nigeria grapples with the twin headaches of Fulani herdsmen and a coronavirus-induced economic meltdown, bear in mind that the darker the night the brighter the dawn

Ayo Akinfe

(1) This year, about one third of Nigeria’s $33bn annual budget shall be funded by borrowing. We simply do not generate enough wealth as a nation to raise a paltry $33bn despite having a population of 200m

(2) Sadly, Nigeria is a mono-economy with about 95% of government revenue coming from crude oil exports. With petroleum demand depressed, we are on a terrible mess. Our only way out is to find other ways to generate wealth, which broken down, means diversifying our economy

(3) While we are grappling with this headache, we are under siege from heavily-armed Fulani herdsmen. Politicians have armed killers with AK47s and told them to go across Nigeria sowing ethnic discord. Many of these killers have been imported from across West Africa. The fact that they are not taking up arms on their own countries is enough to tell anyone that they are being sponsored by Nigerian politicians who probably see them as a way of getting their hands on more security dollars

(4) For me, this whole Fulani matter has raised the issue of animal husbandry and the economic potential it offers. I take the view that Nigeria has accidentally stumbled on an alternative to crude oil. When I look at how Brazil accounts for 20% of global beef production and how its leather industry alone generates $3bn in export earnings, I am full of optimism about Nigeria

(5) I see us killing two birds with one stone here. A thriving livestock industry with mega ranches, animal feed compounding plants, dairy factories, leather tanneries, abattoirs, etc, could resolve the herdsmen saga, create up to 20m jobs and enable Nigeria replace the $30bn or so she gets from crude oil exports

(6) All the ingredients are there except the spirit required from Nigerians. As a people, we are lacking in the enthusiasm and drive to realise the potential here, so rather than see the opportunities, we magnify the problems. When I hear people identifying the solution as balkanising Nigeria into numerous statelets, I ask what has happened to our ability to think

(7) Nigeria is not the first country in the world to go through ethnic turmoil and will not be the last. Everyone else gets around their problems using the weapon of sustained thinking. It is intellectually lazy to start calling for the destruction of Nigeria as a solution to the national question. China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, etc have all had their faith share of ethnic squabbles but they have all found a way around them

(8) Do you know that between 15m and 50m Chinese people died during Mao Tse Tung’s Great Leap Forward? During World War Two, 27m Chinese people perished in the hands of the Japanese. Many of them were used for biological experiments. However, look at how China has bounced back from all that trauma. Today, it had a diversified economy worth $14trn

(9) No continent on earth has suffered as much as Europe. During the Bubonic Plague of 1347 to 1351, about one third of Europe’s population perished. During World War Two, at least 35m Europeans died but look at the continent today. It created the European Union after the conflict to avert any similar disputes and has gone on from strength to strength. Nigeria has not suffered anything like what the Soviet Union or Poland went through during this period. Do you know that in these countries people had to resort to cannibalism to survive? Poland lost 20% of its population and the Soviet Union 20m people. Bear in mind that in the Soviet Union, just 10 years earlier, about 12m people had died from Stalin’s forced collectivisation programme

(10) In this picture is a battalion of allied female nurses landing on the beaches of Normandy in northern France in 1944 after D-Day. Brave young women who knew they faced possible death but alas, were more inspired by the dream of a glorious future than governed by their fears. It is this spirit that is lacking among Nigerians. Your average Nigerian is only thinking of how to accumulate private wealth. I, however, refuse to join the ranks of the pessimists who have thrown in the towel. They remind me of those who wanted to reach an accommodation with Hitler, whereas like Winston Churchill, I choose to fight in the fields, on the beaches and in the landing crafts