Looking at the Olympic facilities in Japan it is clear that the refusal of the rest of the world to invest in Africa is a crime against humanity

Ayo Akinfe

[1] There are a total of 42 facilities in Japan hosting the Tokyo Olympics. Obviously the pick of the bunch is the 72,000 capacity International Stadium Yokohama built at a cost of $1.4bn. Timber was used as a major component of the structure, all of it sourced from Japan in order to reduce environmental impact

[2] Similarly, in 2019, China opened the world’s biggest airport in Beijing. completed on June 30, 2019, and began operations on September 26, 2019. This huge Beijing Daxing airport that spans 1m square metres costs £13.5bn and was constructed south of Beijing in just five years

[3] Shaped like a starfish, the Daxing International Airport has been designed to handle up to 72m passengers a year. British Airways has moved all of its daily Beijing flights to the new airport. A new high-speed railway service was constructed to serve the airport and will carry passengers at a speed of 250kmh (155mph) to the centre of Beijing 45 miles away

[4] While this was going on, US aerospace start-up Hermeus Corporation, said it has obtained finance from seed funders and private investors to develop a plane that will travel at five times the speed of sound, transporting passengers between New York and London in 90 minutes or less

[5] I want to ask all of you how come Africa has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.19trn, while China has a GDP of $12.24trn. They both have identical populations of about 1.3bn people. Unfortunately, the United Nations (UN) does not see anything immoral about this. The European Union has a GDP of $18.8trn and a population of about 500m people. What kind of macabre inequality is this?

[6] China is particular is setting new boundaries on a daily basis with bigger, faster, taller, etc everything. Dubai is trying to follow suit, as is Saudi Arabia

[7] When I look at the thousands of Nigerians who shamelessly troop to Dubai annually to throw flamboyant and expensive parties, I ask myself how come they are not embarrassed about the fact that their nation is not part of this development drive. How come the “See wetin your mate dey do” argument does not apply here?

[8] If all the money Nigerians invest in Dubai jamborees was invested in Nigeria, it would have had a significant impact on the economy by now

[9] As things stand, the rest of the world is accelerating ahead and leaving Africa behind. It is up to the United Nations to address this anomaly. We need an article passed by the UN Security Council compelling all industrialised nations to invest 5% of their GDP in Africa. Failure to do so should be classified as a crime against humanity. Failing to eradicate poverty is a worse crime than using chemical weapons in my opinion

[10] Unfortunately, Nigeria has failed top make the case at UN on behalf of the African continent. It appears that successive Nigerian presidents have failed to grasp the seriousness of the issue at hand. Africa needs FDI urgently or poverty, religious extremism and ignorance will continue to grow across the continent