Were I in President Tinubu’s shoes I would aim to make winning the 2026 World Cup a launchpad for attracting widespread investment into Nigeria so would have a long-list that looks like this
Ayo Akinfe
[1] Joachim Lowe
[2] José Mourinho
[3] Ralph Hasenhüttl
[4] Julen Lopetegui
[5] Hansi Flick
[6] Zinadine Zidane
[7] Jurgen Klopp
[8] Herve Renard
[9] Antonio Conte
[10] Thomas Tuchel
For me, the programme would be very simple:
[1] Win the Jules Rimet trophy and use it as a platform to sell Nigeria to the wider world
[2] For starters, invite all the World Cup sponsors to the presidential villa for a corporate weekend
[3] Offer all these sponsors 99 year land leases to open factories in Nigeria
[4] In addition, offer them five year tax holidays
[5] Then beef up security big time as part of a plan to target the tourist industry
[6] Import large numbers of big cats and other wildlife from East Africa as part of a plan to launch the Nigerian Serengeti in Taraba State
[7] Build a national railway network linking all of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas
[8] Task all state governors to ensure that they have at least one five star hotel in their state
[9] Set your trade and industry minister a target of attracting at least $50bn a year in foreign direct investment
[10] Host an annual global football tournament of some sort to woo the outside world. Maybe something like a competition where all the participants are the Fifa confederations. Caf vs Uefa for instance would always be a crowd puller. We can get it adopted by Fifa.
