by Ayo Akinfe
Given that Africa accounts for just 4% of world trade and 1% of global manufacturing, Nigeria’s forthcoming elections should be about consolidation. Unless we pool our resources together, our continent will remain poor and beggarly. I await a foreign policy outlook like this from several candidates
[1] Nigeria will seek to build a global superpower in the middle of the African continent that will serve as a homeland for negroid people the world over. It will be the spiritual and ancestral home of all negroes
[2] This nation will merge as many African countries as possible into one giant with an economy that has a GDP of at least $15trn and an annual budget of at least $2trn
[3] Any negroid person on earth who wants to, will be granted automatic citizenship of this nation which shall be named Songhai. Abuja will be its capital city
[4] Any negro person who suffers discrimination or ill-treatment anywhere in earth will be welcome to relocate to Songhai on a permanent basis
[5] Songhai shall start off as an amalgamation of Nigeria, Niger Republic, Cameroon and Benin Republic. It will aim to produce at least one third of the world’s industrial goods
[6] Songhai shall aim to account for about 50% of global food production
[7] Given that about 80% of the current Niger Republic is in the Sahara Desert, Songhai shall build the world’s largest solar farm in it. Songhai shall be responsible for providing electricity across the African continent and possibly beyond
[8] Our Contract With the Negro shall be signed by 55 black leaders worldwide and have the same status as say the Human Bill of Rights
[9] Songhai shall be self-reliant in everything. Obviously it will trade with other nations but only because it is more cost-effective to import some goods. As a principle, Songhai must be able to manufacture all its domestic needs
[10] Should negro people be maltreated anywhere on earth, Songhai will have the unilateral right to intervene and airlift them out. It will also have the right to deploy troops there to defend them
Ayo is a London-based journalist who has worked as a magazine and newspaper editor for the last 31 years. He was the founding editor of Nigerian Watch, the UK-based paper for the Nigerian community in the UK.
He is the current president of Ondo Union UK, the chair of Uncelebrated Nigerian Awards UK and was the chairman of the Nigerian Centenary Awards UK organising committee. He was recently appointed as the Chairman of the Central Association of Nigerians in the UK
He is also the author of two books on Nigeria. Fuelling the Delta Fires is an expose which reveals the depth of the challenges in the Niger Delta, while Black Ladder is a narrative about the life of a Nigerian immigrant in the UK. In addition, Ayo is a columnist for several publishing houses in both Nigeria and the UK.
Ayo has a history degree from the University of Ibadan and he did his post-graduate studies in journalism at the University of Westminster.
