President Buhari should have used his presence at the London UK-Africa Summit to sell Amotekun to a global audience as Nigeria’s investment protection police

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Over the last two days, about a dozen African presidents have been in London thrashing out all sorts of investment deals at the UK-Africa Summit. From what I have seen, the UK, just like Russia, Japan and the European Union (EU) is terrified of China’s growing influence in Africa, so want a share of this 1.3bn market. Nigeria, being the continent’s biggest market and largest economy, should have used the opportunity to mop up several mouth-watering deals that would have been unprecedented

(2) Yesterday, I was at an event where President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda spoke about how anyone who manufactures a product needs a market to sell it to. He pointed out that if you mass-produce goods, you simply need a market to sell your products to. This is why the UK needs Africa, not because they like us and we should be exploiting this to the maximum

(3) At the moment, 54% of UK trade is with the EU, while only about 3% is with Africa. With Britain leaving the EU, their trade with the continent will suffer, so they need new markets. African leaders should be negotiating the most robust deals ever seen as they are actually in a strong position but alas, is that happening?

(4) Also yesterday, former UK foreign office minister Jim Murphy, spoke about how when he was in office, he saw several African nations sign terrible deals that were never going to benefit them. He pointed out that multinationals hire the most expensive lawyers on earth to represent them in trade negotiations and they would take ignorant national trade representatives to the cleaners. Just imagine say a company like Vickers negotiating a defence supply deal with Nigeria and their expensive legal team having to negotiate with Abubakar Malami. There will only be one beneficiary from such a deal. They will run so many rings around Malami that he will be dizzy by the time he signs the contract

(5) Despite the lure of the African market and the need to access raw materials, UK companies are still concerned about the security of their investments. This is where Nigeria could have played a blinder, using Amotekun as her trump card

(6) For starters, 95% of all Nigeria’s foreign direct investment goes to Lagos State. Investors are wary of the rest of the country for several reasons. President Buhari could have allayed all such fears, promising investors that with Amotekun their investments are safe in Nigeria as this body will offer security

(7) Russia once had a special armed tax police force that went round collecting taxes. They have now disbanded it after setting up a workable tax regime but having an investment protection police force is kind of similar. It will guarantee the property and lives of investors and their staff and serve as the link between these private firms and the state government

(8) Governors Babajide Sanwoolu and Dapo Abiodun are on President Buhari’s entourage and should have been the ones dispatched to sell this vision. Just imagine if they went to a company like Rolls Royce and assured them that if they opened an engine manufacturing facility in Sango Otta, Amotekun would provide them with 24 hour security, while the state government would take care of roads, power supply and housing, etc

(9) There are other factors that limit investment such as transport links, inconsistent government policy, legal transparency, etc but if the government can at least take care of physical security, that will be a good start. If President Buhari can give investors a 100% guarantee that their staff will not be abducted for ransoms, it is a great starting point

(10) From what I can see, Nigeria came to this summit ill-prepared and without a roadmap. We have an annual $100bn infrastructural deficit and I am gobsmacked that the government did not set itself the target of filling that funding gap at this summit. We have made this same blunder at recent African summits held by China, Russia and Japan. France will be the next country to host an African summit and I hope that by then, President Buhari has summoned the courage to admit that Amotekun is here to stay. All he needs to do is use it to his benefit