As the whole world remembers that horrific event called the Holocaust that was uncovered some 81 years ago, I cannot but ask us to cast our minds back to World War Two and ask ourselves some hard questions

Ayo Akinfe

[1] If you ask me, there is something fundamentally missing with us Africans as human beings that fails to explain our intellectual laziness

[2] Faced with the constant threat of terrorist attacks, Nigerian munitions manufacturing should be thriving in an unprecedented manner at the moment.

[3] It is a given that during conflicts, countries exceed themselves with engineering and productive ingenuity. During World War Two for instance, all leading edge technology aircraft were mass produced

[4] Can someone please explain to me why 81 years after World War Two ended, Nigeria is unable to manufacture basic aircraft like Spitfires (Britain), Hellcats (US), Hurricanes (Britain), Wildcats (US), Zero (Japan), Messerschmitt 109 (Germany), Mustang (US), Focke-Gulf (Germany), Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (US) or the Mosquito (British)

[5] What should be happening now in the face of the Boko Haram and Iswap threat is that we should be churning out prototypes of bombers, helicopter gun-ships, drones, etc on a daily basis for the Nigerian Air Force, who should then approve the best ones

[6] When the best ones have been selected, the likes of Innoson Motors and Dangote Industries should then be asked to mass-produce these aircraft.

[7] Now, this is how a normal country operates during conflicts. It is standard procedure, which leads me to ask if there is something missing in our human DNA.

[8] As we speak, Ukraine is expanding its military capability. We have been fighting Boko Haram since 2009 and have not managed to manufacture one helicopter gun-ship. This is simply not normal human behaviour

[9] World War Two ended in 1945 and some 81 years later, Nigeria cannot even manufacture a basic battle tank like the Soviet T-34 or the American Sherman. Surely that cannot be right

[10] Do we have the moral right to demand that other humans treat us as equals when we are this lacking in initiative?

ayoakinfe@gmail.com