Despite the hopelessness people sometimes feel here are 10 things that make Nigeria a potential superpower any day

Ayo Akinfe

[1] We have a 60% literacy rate today. At independence, I doubt if up to 5% of the population was literate. I am sure that for many middle aged Nigerians today, their parents were the first people to get an education in their families

[2] Nigeria currently has 150 universities. At independence we only had one because the British had no intention of elevating our living standards. They came in search of raw materials to furnish their industries

[3] Nigeria will forever remain a potentially lucrative market for the fashion and luxury goods industries. One thing about Nigerians is they know how to dress. Other Africans are not too fashion-conscious but alas, we move around in style

[4] We are currently the world’s 27th largest economy. At one stage we were 22nd but fell back due to fallen crude oil prices. Our goal was to be number 20 by 2020 and in all fairness, we nearly got there

[5] Nigeria is the world’s sixth largest agricultural producer. We are world’s number one producer of yam, cassava, cashews, shea nuts, kolanuts, egusi, bitter leaf and cocoyam. We are also among the top 10 producers of cocoa, palm oil, papaya, groundnuts, pineapples, plantain, millet, sorghum, gum arabic, etc

[6] For all our economic woes, Nigeria remains the favourite destination for foreign investment in Africa. Even France, one nation that has remained perpetually envious of Nigeria invests more in the country than it does in any of its former colonies. Peugeot Automobile for instance opened a plant in Kaduna and not Abidjan, Dakar, Lomé, Conakry or Yaoundé. France kicks itself until today for missing out on colonising Nigeria

[7] As much as we lament the state of our roads, we still have 193,200km of tarred roads in Nigeria. This is not much given we have an area of over 900,000 sq kilometres but at least you can travel between the major cities of Nigeria by road. In many other African nations you simply cannot do that, especially during the rainy season. In Ghana for instance, they only have 109,515km of tarred roads

[8] Our youth are forever innovative and creative. When you look at Nollywood, which is the third largest film industry in the world, you can see how creative we are. It is no accident that Mark Zuckerberg decided to visit Nigeria where he was impressed with the number of online apps Nigerian youths were working on

[9] We are one nation that is forever abreast with what is going on worldwide. We simply refuse to remain left behind. Caucasians are forever perplexed that Nigerians are not savages living in tree tops and can match them for information and know-how. We simply refuse to be intimated or fazed. There are some African countries you will go to and they will not accept dollar payments. That will simply never happen in Nigeria

[10] Do you know that the Nigerian Defence Academy trains officers from other African nations? Similarly, our police colleges train police officers from our neighbours. We are only having our current security challenges because some people are making a lot of money from it.