Like President Buhari I covet Niger Republic because it is 1.2m sq km of almost totally uninhabited land, 80% of which is in the Sahara Desert, making ideal for an unprecedented solar farm

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Probably the only policy of President Buhari I am in love with is his romantic affair with Niger Republic. No matter how long we delay things, ultimately Nigeria and Niger Republic need to merge one day. That is inevitable!

(2) For starters, by 2050 Nigeria is poised to become the third most populated nation on earth behind India and China. We currently only have a landmass of 923,769 square kilometres. Now contrast this to China’s 9.6m square kilometres and India’s 3.28m square kilometres. Our current landmass cannot sustain 1bn people so whether we like it or not, Nigeria needs to expand

(3) Merging Nigeria with Niger Republic will create a nation of about 2.1m square kilometres. Add Cameroon’s 475,442 sq kilometres and Benin Republic’s114,763 sq kilometres and we have a country of almost 2.8m sq kilometres. Now that can sustain 1bn people comfortably

(4) What I particularly love about Niger Republic is that it is only made up of 24m people, about the same population as Lagos State. Acquiring 1.2m square kilometres with just 24m people is as good as bargains get. It is like being given a housing estate on the condition that you must accept the gardeners and grounds staff. Nigeria will never get a better offer,so we must grab this one with both hands

(5) What will make me fight for Niger Republic until my death is that 80% of the country is in the Sahara Desert. I dream of building a solar farm in the desert that will be so big, it will change the clean energy debate forever. I envisage a solar farm that will provide half of Africa’s energy and be a major exporter

(6) Furthermore, with over 1m sq kilometres of desert, we could also give irrigation a new meaning. I dream of diverting both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea into Niger and getting them to meet at somewhere like Agadez. Just think of turning an area the size of most countries from barren desert into lush farmland. I dream of a nation that accounts for 25% of global food production

(7) Given that the Sahara Desert covers about 9m sq kilometres, if every inch of the desert soaked up every drop of the sun’s energy, it would generate more than 22bn gigawatt hours a year. At the moment, only Morocco is seriously looking at the potential of Sahara solar power

(8) In theory, the Sahara Desert could potentially produce more than 7,000 times the electricity requirements of Europe, with almost no carbon emissions. Bear in mind the proximity of the Sahara to Europe, so what I have in mind is Nigeria generating clean energy using solar technology in Niger Republic and selling it to the European Union. Just imagine how much this will fetch us as foreign exchange

(9) Morocco’s solar farm covers an area of more than 3,000 hectares but hey, I have more ambitious plans than that. Morocco’s goal is for 42% of its power to come from renewable sources. My goal is for the Greater Nigeria which I will call Songhai, to provide 42% of the world’s energy

(10) I want President Buhari to open negotiations today with the presidents of Niger Republic, Cameroon and Benin Republic about all of them merging by 2025. Let them plan to put a negotiated deal to their populations in five years time so we can unveil this new nation on October 1 2025. I envisage a nation of 1bn people that will give China, India, the US and the EU a good run for their money