These two gentlemen here taught us the benefits of magnanimity and pan-Africanism. With elections looming, Nigeria’s political parties should have foreign policies that reflect such values with manifestos that look like this

Ayo Akinfe

[1] First and foremost Nigeria’s foreign policy should aim to attract at least $100bn annually in foreign direct investment nationally and at least $1trn continent-wide. Our ambassadors and high commissioners but have attracting investment from their locations as a primary job task

[2] The African Development Bank once said Nigeria has an annual infrastructural deficit of $100bn. Were we serious about fixing our country, plugging this gap would have become a national obsession. This has to be done in conjunction with other African nations, especially South Africa

[3] We must set ourselves the target of matching up with other developing nations like Brazil, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, etc In terms of literacy rates, kilometres of rail track, number of hospital beds, etc. We should make sure we never fall behind this group of countries

[4] Nigeria is a member of a group known as Mint, made up of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. Economists once expected these to be the miracle growth economies of the 21st century. Our foreign policy should be geared towards achieving this

[5] Nigeria is also one of seven countries that account for over 50% of the world’s population. The other six are China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil and Pakistan. We need to form a group called the Spine of Africa made up of Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa which makes sure our continent attracts at least 10% of all global foreign direct investment

[6] Nigeria is a member of the D8 group of developing nations. Known as The D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, its members are Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey. Maybe they should form an industrial development committee between them with a mandate to reverse-engineer everything manufactured in the industrialised world

[7] Nigeria is also a member of the E9 forum of nine countries, which was formed to achieve the goals of Unesco’s Education For All initiative. Other members are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan, again representing over half of the world’s population and 70% of the world’s illiterate adults. Our foreign policy must be geared towards eliminating illiteracy across the African continent

[8] E-9 countries have made significant socio-economic progress since the group was formed in 1993. Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Mexico are members of G-20, Mexico is an OECD member, while China is now the second largest economy in the world. Brazil and India are also the top 10 economies, while Indonesia has also been growing fast. We should set a target of getting Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa to become G10 economies by 2035

[9] In 1993, E-9 countries accounted for only 16.5% of world’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP). Now, they represent almost 30% of world’s nominal GDP. Africa as a continent only represents 4% of world trade and 1% of global manufacturing. We have to raise these two figures to the 18%, which her population represents by 2050

[10] As a first step to achieving all this, we need to put in place an African anti-xenophobia mechanism. Nigeria has to take the lead on this, getting the African Union to create structures that respond to the xenophobia we are currently witnessing in South Africa because at the moment, the South African government appears clueless about how to deal with the matter

ayoakinfe@gmail.com

www.ayoakinfe.com