Nigeria needs to look at generating about $10bn from the sale of Amotekun memorabilia annually on both the domestic and international markets

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Why are football clubs cash cows? Because they sell millions of pieces of memorabilia worldwide to a lot of people over the globe. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Juventus, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, etc all rake in memorabilia millions annually. Why have we not learnt from this?

(2) They sell key rings, jersey, underwear, coats, bags, shoes, caps, hats, towels, scarfs, suitcases, pens, bedsheets, blankets, curtains, swimwear, etc. There is very little that these clubs do not sell to their fans to generate revenue

(3) In Nigeria, we have ankara, aso oke, guinea brocade, lace, etc all of which can be dyed in leopard skin print. I hope someone is thinking about opening a production facility to mass produce all sorts of Amotekun goods

(4) What I would like to see is an Amotekun factory located in somewhere like Oyo, to produce leopard skin fabrics and other products. I would go for Oyo because of the historical significance of the city as the capital of old Oyo Empire

(5) We should produce everything including head ties, agbada, underwear, kaftans, cooking pots, mortars & pestles, etc. I would even like to see Amotekun-branded moi-moi, Amotekun bread, Amotekun palm wine, Amotekun hybrid cocoa seedlings, Amotekun kolanuts and Amotekun bottled water

(6) We should enter into deal with global fashion chains like Gucci and Lui Vuitton to supply them with goods too. This is what countries like Pakistan and India are currently doing very successfully. Maybe a dedicated leather plant could be opened in somewhere like Ado-Ekiti, a canning plant at Owo, a water distilling factory at Ijebu Ode, a seed processing plant at Ede and then a mechanical factory in Lagos

(7) Ultimately, I would like Amotekun to become a global brand name, kind of like Toyota, Mercedes, Phillips, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Ford, Coca Cola, etc. We should not place limits on what it can achieve

(8) I dream of the day we will have an Amotekun Enterprises that manufactures a unique Nigerian car. Maybe a four by four version of say the Volkswagen Beetle. A car that can compete on the global market with other players

(9) Given that Amotekun was set up for security, it should also be looking at manufacturing its own unique battle tanks, helicopter gunships and fighter jets at some stage in the future

(10) I just hope the six governors are also thinking economics. That is what the Development Agenda of Western Nigeria (Dawn) Commission is there for. I for one await their economic blueprint. We have stumbled on an idea by accident out of the blue. If we do not cash in on it, be guaranteed, the Chinese will!