Nigeria needs to be at the centre of Biden and Harris' foreign policy agenda

Ayo Akinfe

(1) US companies need to expand into new origins close to raw materials where production costs will be lower. Nigeria has got to be on a top global list of five favourite investment destinations

(2) As we speak, hundreds of US firms are relocating from China as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. They realise it is dangerous to plant all your eggs in one basket. We want Nigeria to be among the top three nations they relocate to. Set up a special Covid-19 Relocation Corporate Fund to finance this

(3) Rather than the US paying out foreign aid, what we want your government to do is offer US companies tax breaks to relocate to Nigeria and create jobs

(4) We want the US to introduce corporate social responsibility laws that will compel its companies that win contracts in Nigeria to manufacture all the goods they supply locally. It should be illegal to manufacture finished goods in the US and ship them to Nigeria

(5) No US automobile manufacturer has an assembly plant in Nigeria. This is totally unacceptable. If Peugeot and Volkswagen can open factories there, so too can Ford, General Motors and Chrysler

(6) The US has got to make Nigerian power and steel production major priorities. Producing these two is key to making Nigeria an industrial economy, without which sustaining democracy will be hard

(7) US food processors will be given tax rebates to help commercialise Nigerian agriculture. For now, Nigerian agriculture is based on small subsistence farmers, which is a recipe for social unrest

(8) The US will no longer allow Nigerian politicians to receive basic healthcare in America

(9) Nigerian politicians will no longer be allowed to send their children to the US. They should be compelled to develop the local education sector

(10) The US must set itself a $5bn annual foreign direct investment target in Nigeria