By Ayo Akinfe
If we are serious about banishing poverty from our land, we should insist that Tinubu makes Nigeria the global manufacturing centre of one product like say railway carriages for instance
[1] Nations do not just become wealthy overnight. They do so because their citizenry do audacious things to create unprecedented wealth to move their society forward
[2] When I look at the UK and its Industrial Revolution for instance, I can see where Nigeria’s fault lines lie. You cannot be a nation of eternal consumers and expect to have the same living standards as countries that are serial manufacturers
[3] One just needs to look at what the UK has achieved in the railway sector alone too see how national wealth is created. In February this year, the UK’s first ever steam locomotive celebrated its 100th anniversary. In 1928, the Flying Scotsman made history with the first non-stop London to Edinburgh service and in 1934, it became the UK’s first locomotive to reach 100mph
[4] During the steam era, the UK railways boomed in an unprecedented manner. This continued when diesel took over, with a massive manufacturing industry growing to churn out engines, carriages, railway tracks, signalling equipment, etc
[5] Nigeria is simply too parasitic a nation to live at ease with itself. There is a saying: “Grow or die.” Nigeria needs to start manufacturing or she will just self-implode
[6] We missed a trick with China’s Belt and Road developing nations infrastructural development plan. We should have reached a deal with the Chinese to manufacture all the railway engines and carriages for the programme worldwide
[7] Today, India prides itself on being the pharmacy of the world. Would you not just love it if Nigeria could assume the title of the World’s Railway Workshop
[8] With high speed electric trains now the new vogue, the world needs a manufacturing centre. Can someone please explain to me why one Nigerian governor has not offered land for such an industrial complex in his state
[9] We need to now throw the gauntlet down to Bola Tinubu and insist he attracts the foreign direct investment required to industrialise Nigeria. Without it, we are going nowhere anytime soon
[10] If Nigeria wants to get off her knees, it cannot be business as usual. Among the most important positions that need to be in Tinubu’s cabinet are the ministers for manufacturing, security, railways, retail trade, clean energy and power
