I would have loved it if all these recent meetings of Nigerian leaders in London had included visiting Prince Charles to press him on the serious matter of inadequate British investment in the Nigerian economy

Ayo Akinfe

[1] A lot of people may not be aware of it but the British royal family has been trying to re-brand itself of late, positioning its members as investment ambassadors

[2] Lead by the heir to the throne Prince Charles, the British royals not only seek to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into Britain but they also push British investment into foreign markets. Prince Andrew played this role well in the past and now, Prince William is serving in that capacity too

[3] Over the last week, the Who is Who in Nigeria have all been in London, holding meeting after meeting. Just imagine if a delegation made up of Obasanjo, Atiku, Tinubu, Obi, Wike, Ortom, Makinde, Fintiri, Ikpeazu, etc, had all visited Clarence House together to make the case for increased British investment in Nigeria

[4] For starters, Britain is a country well reknown for its expertise in several sectors including tunnelling, coal mining and steel making for instance. How many people know that the man known as the world’s father of tunnelling was a British engineer named John Norton-Griffiths? During World War One, he was the man who came up with the idea of digging tunnels beneath the German trenches, allowing the allied powers to get behind their lines and subsequently win the war.

[5] After the war, Mr Norton-Griffith was awarded contracts to carry out major engineering projects in Africa and South America. These included work on the first 197km of the Benguela Railway in Angola between 1903 and 1908. His construction firm also took on a contract to carry out the heightening of Egypt’s Aswan Low Dam. His pioneering work was what led to the construction of the London Underground. His methods are still being used to this very day as the UK expands the network to build the Crossrail sector of London Underground. Lagos in particular desperately needs such skills as a city of 12m simply cannot survive without an urban underground network

[6] In the area of coal mining too, Nigeria could benefit from British expertise. Just imagine what British coal miners could do if taken to Enugu to revicve that coal mine

[7] Do you know that Sheffield was at one time renown as the European steel capital? Yet, we have the Ajaokuta, Aladja and Katsina steel mills rotting away and we watch on helplessly

[8] Britain created Nigeria and left her sitting on a keg of gunpowder. As far as I am concerned, the British have to take responsibility for a lot of the problems they created. I cannot believe that out leaders visited London in this number and did not fight for Nigeria

[9] I believe they should have visited Clarence House and Downing Street and given Britain a minimum annual investment figure Nigeria requires each year

[10] We have poverty, restlessness and violence in our land because of a lack of industrialisation and job creation. Britain should be obliged to address this by investing at least £1bn a year in Nigeria. Such investment should be tax deductible with the British treasury underwriting such outgoings to encourage it!