For the Ecowas protocol to work and for our war against import dependency to work, Nigeria needs to be in control of imports into the sub-region's main ports especially Cotonou

By Ayo Akinfe

[1] Today is October 18. On this day in 1867 the US took formal possession of Alaska from Russia, having paid a sum of $7.2m for the territory

[2] Alaska is the largest US state by area and the seventh largest sub-national division in the world. In addition, it is the third least populous and the most sparsely populated of the 50 US states

[3] When Russia sold Alaska to the US, it was considered a barren wasteland in the middle of nowhere with no significant economic value. Today, Alaska has a GDP of about $50bn. The 1968 discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay and the 1977 completion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System led to an oil boom

[4] Russia had established a presence in North America during the first half of the seventeenth century, but few Russians ever settled in Alaska. In the aftermath of the Crimean War, Russian Emperor Alexander II of Russia began exploring the possibility of selling Alaska, as it would be difficult to defend from Britain and other countries in any future war. Following the end of the American Civil War, US Secretary of State William Seward entered into negotiations with Russian minister Eduard de Stoeckl for the purchase of Alaska. Now, this is what is called foresight

[5] Reactions to the purchase in the US was mostly positive, as many believed possession of Alaska would serve as a base to expand American trade in Asia. Some opponents, however, labeled the purchase as "Seward's Folly", or "Seward's Icebox", as they contended that the US had acquired useless land. Today, these opponents have been proven to be totally wrong

[6] When a nation is expanding, its population growing and it has plans to triple or quadruple the size of her economy as is the case with Nigeria, you simply need to consider expanding your territory too. By 2050, Nigeria will become the world's third most populous nation with 400m people and our landmass of 923,768 km2 is simply going to be inadequate. It is time to start thinking outside the box

[7] We are already getting taster of what is to come with the way the Chinese are exploiting the Ecowas Free Trade Protocol. Ecowas member states are allowed to trade between with other without tariffs, so China is dumping millions of tonnes of rice and cement in Benin Republic and transporting it to Nigeria. Helpless to stop it, the Nigerian government has had no option but to close its border with Benin Republic

[8] West Africa has seven deep sea ports in Abidjan, Tema, Apapa, Lome, Cotonou, Dakar and Takoradi. Make no mistake about it, the rest of the world will keep targeting them as destinations to export their goods to. There are about 350m people in the Ecowas region, 200m of whom are Nigerian, so we all know where the target market is. Nigeria simply cannot defend herself against dumping unless she can control the goods that come into these other ports

[9] We are no longer in the 19th century when you can just annex territory. If we were, Nigeria would just have marched her troops across the border and seized the port of Cotonou. If we did that, the border could be opened without any threat of dumping in the Nigeria market. No matter how you look at it, Nigeria simply has to control the port of Cotonou for Ecowas to work and for our programme top end import dependency to work

[10] I believe that the Nigerian government should open negotiations with Benin Republic about a formal merger of both countries. If they are not prepared to go the whole hog, them they should at least sell is Cotonou. If it was done in Alaska, it can be done in West Africa too