As we round up the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, here are 10 things the British should have made sure Nigeria had in place before Oct 1 1960

Ayo Akinfe

[1] The capacity to produce at least 5m tonnes of steel annually

[2] A machine tool manufacturing capability

[3] A double gauge railway network that linked up all her 40 provinces and could run at a speed of 120km per hour

[4] A 25% literacy rate

[5] A hydro-electric power capability to generate at least 5,000MW per year

[6] At least one technical vocation college in every one of our 40 provinces

[7] Political parties that could attract at least 25% of the vote in two thirds of our 40 provinces

[8] At least three food processing plants given the agrarian nature of our economy

[9] At least six secondary schools in each of our 40 provinces

[10] At least two primary schools in each of our local government areas

These are some of the basic requirements of nationhood. Maybe if we had all this in place before independence the First Republic would have succeeded.

Given that we had none of this in place, ethnic mistrust, corruption, religious bigotry and nepotism grew to fill the vacuum. Nature as we all know abhors a vacuum.

This year, Nigeria will be 66 and unfortunately we still not still have some of the basic requirements of nationhood. For me a country that cannot produce enough steel to meet its local manufacturing requirements is not a nation but a colony.

As we join the British in celebrating their Platinum Jubilee, it is time we drew up a list of 10 “must-do’s” over the next decade. As a people we must then pledge to achieve these, no matter how irresponsible the government is!