The IMF and World Bank should come up with a radical post-coronavirus development plan for Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt by forcing them to be responsible for the debts of all other African nations

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered debt forgiveness for 28 of the world’s poorest countries. To be honest, they had no choice as these countries will never be able to repay such debts. Most of them were African

(2) Of the 55 nations in Africa, probably about 20 are viable. Most of them are too poor, under-populated, lacking in skilled manpower and simply do not have enough natural resources to survive. Were we back in the 19th century, countries like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, DR Congo, Angola, Ethiopia, Morocco, Algeria, etc would have just swept their armies across the continent annexing such territory

(3) In the 21st century you cannot go around colonising and annexing other nations, so you need to merge via agreements, mergers and amalgamation deals. Nigeria’s foreign policy should be geared towards merging as many African nations as possible. Over the long term, our goal should be to eradicate all landlocked states across Africa

(4) This coronavirus pandemic provides Africa with a unique opportunity to rise from the ashes the way Europe did after World War Two. I am still in awe of how a continent totally devastated by the war managed to recover and totally rebuild itself with 10 years

(5) I think Africa has unique opportunity here bouncing back from this pandemic as we simply have to make the transition from being a consumer continent to being a producer continent. I would like to see the IMF and World Bank come up with an African post-coronavirus stimulation plan that makes the Marshall Plan look like child’s play

(6) I want to see Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt asked to be responsible for the debts of all of Africa’s other nations in exchange for $100bn of foreign direct investment annually. Why deal with 55 countries when you can deal with three?

(7) Is it not ironic that the Europeans who were so keen on indirect rule during colonisation are not so keen on the idea now. Nigeria was colonised after deals were reached with the Oba of Lagos, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba of Benin, Obong of Calabar, Obi of Onitsha, Sultan of Sokoto and Shehu of Borno. Everybody else had no option but to fall in line

(8) It is not unusual for large nations to accept responsibility for their neighbours. Do you know that as part of the deal dissolving the Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia agreed to be responsible for all the Soviet Union’s debts?

(9) Of all the old Soviet Republics, only Russia and Ukraine are really the only two viable nation states. As we speak today, Russian troops remain in all the other breakaway nations. Any talk of them being independent is just a mirage. They do what Vladimir Putin tells them to do. End of story!

(10) Just imagine where Africa would be as a continent in 10 years time if her three largest economies were each attracting $100bn of foreign direct investment annually, enjoying skills transfers and benefiting from an ambitious technology transfer programme. We simply cannot continue with the status quo whereby our continent is littered with weak, inviable, small and parasitic nations states. Nigeria has got to take the lead in restructuring Africa