10 reasons why secession is a far worse course of action than anything we are currently facing 

Ayo Akinfe

[1] The vultures are just waiting in the wings to devour the carcass of a dismembered Nigeria. We will become the global dumping ground for all obsolete goods and everyone will open up military bases in the hundreds of weak mini statelets

[2] Do you know that the US has 30 military bases in Africa? Washington uses them to defend its interests on the continent and to prevent any serious competition to its control of resources and markets

[3] Africa’s subsoil holds a range of important natural resources. This includes 98% of the world’s chromium, 90% of its cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 70% of its coltan, 70% of its tantalite, 64% of its manganese, 50% of its gold and 33% of its uranium. Our continent will thus always attract outside attention

[4] Do you also know that France has four military bases in Africa, located in Gabon, Djibouti, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In those countries, the governments do what the French tell them to do

[5] In 2018, the US Department of Defense proposed that the US and Ghana agree to a Status of Forces Agreement, a $20m deal that would allow the US military to expand its presence in Ghana. Now, nobody would dare try that with a nation of 200m people

[6] Neither the Organisation of African Unity (1963-2002) nor the African Union (2002 onwards) have been able to realise the two most important principles of pan-Africanism – political unity and territorial sovereignty. It is time to return to those founding principles

[7] If we start working on the legacies of Nkrumah, Machel, Lumumba, Nasser, Cabral, Sankara, etc, we will be address all these mini issues of ethnicity. See how ethnicity disappeared in South Africa when the ANC rallied the whole nation behind the anti-apartheid cause. Mongasuthu Buthelezi’s attempts to whip up Zulu nationalism fell on deaf ears

[8] Samora Machel summed up Africa’s woes when he said: “For the nation to grow, the tribe must die.” If Nigeria was currently involved in amalgamating with say Benin Republic, Cameroon and Niger Republic to form the Federal Republic of Songhai, I put it to you that the Fulani herdsman problem would disappear overnight

[9] If Africa wants to be able to compete on the global stage, we need mega nations like the West African Republic. Only the likes of Mansa Musa, Mari Jata, Samoury Toure and Kwame Nkrumah share this my vision

[10] My people do not get what is happening in China and India today. If you want to compete, you need the numbers!