By Ayo Akinfe
(1) Now that all President Buhari’s ministerial nominees have been cleared by the senate, can he please assign them portfolios today. I gather that Geoffrey Onyeama is returning as foreign minister. Can he please put together an African development plan
(2) We need an African Development Doctrine that compels all nations to produce an least half of what they consume
(3) If any nation fails to produce 50% of all its needs, the African Union should be empowered to merge it with one of its neighbours
(4) Historically, Europe has taken over the running of sick countries under League of Nations, European Union and United Nations mandates, why is the African Union not doing likewise. Even our neighbour Cameroon was taken over by the League of Nations at the start of World War One
(5) I remember Paddy Ashdown once being put in charge of running Bosnia. Now, when I look at some African countries like Burundi and Malawi with GDPs of about $3bn and $7bn for 10m and 18m people respectively, I ask whether they are really viable as nation states
(6) Why Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania are not one country is beyond me. Just imagine what Paul Kagame would do running such a regional giant
(7) During his last visit to Nigeria, President Kagame told President Buhari we need to go beyond fighting corruption to generating wealth. What we need is for the African Union to set itself production targets like say, by 2030, we want to be manufacturing:
(i) 30% of the world’s automobiles
(ii) 50% of the world’s washing machines
(iii) 60% of the world’s laptops
(iv) 70% of the world’s mobile phone
(8) For this plan to take off, Nigeria has got to drive the process. If we can get South Africa and Egypt on board and equally committed, we are halfway there
(9) As things stand, Africa only accounts for about 3% of world trade and that is almost entirely down to the export of primary commodities like crops, solid minerals and fossil fuels. We need the African Union to make it illegal to export anything outside our continent unless value is added
(10) As a continent, we also need stringent importation laws. If anyone wants to supply us with anything, like say railway carriages, automobiles, etc, they should set up a local factory as a precondition for signing any contract
