With Angela Merkel set to leave office soon, President Buhari should be the first world leader to visit the new German chancellor once he gets sworn-in with the following 10-point proposals 

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Either  Armin Laschet or Markus Söder is to be named German chancellor soon. As soon as either is sworn-in, President Buhari should be in Berlin with his first demand being that the German GSG 9 anti-terrorist federal police unit come to train the Nigeria Police Force on combatting terrorism and anti-guerrilla warfare. Germany’s army is also arguably the best at fighting terrorism so they should train a whole Nigerian brigade up to the standards of the US Navy Seals, British SAS or French Commandoes

(2) German pharmaceutical giant Bayer has announced that it will help biomedical company, CureVac, produce a Covid-19 vaccine with plans to manufacture up to 300m doses by the end of 2021. We wanted a manufacturing plant opened in Nigeria immediately

(3) German automobile giants Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen are all welcome to come and open manufacturing plants in Nigeria. They will be given five year tax holidays and 50-year land leases. In the case of Volkswagen, we also want them to sell the production rights of the world’s most successful car the Beetle, to Innoson Motors

(4) We want German agricultural giants Omya AG and Weltec Biopower to come and invest heavily in cattle ranches, food processing plants, storage facilities and refrigeration in Nigeria. They will be offered 100 year land leases and five year tax holidays

(5) To address the Nigerian electricity crisis once and for all, we want German power giants  Siemens, RWE, E.On and Innogy to all come and construct hydro-electric power plants, solar farms, wind farms, gas-fired plants, distribution/transmission companies as well as transformer manufacturing plants in Nigeria. We want Germany to offer them export credits and tax concessions to help fund this

(6) Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline is to come and take out a 25% stake in Nigeria’s planned national carrier. It will become a joint partner in the venture, second only to Air Peace, taking over all the assets of Arik Air

(7) Hamburg is the third busiest port in Europe after Rotterdam and Antwerp and the 15th-largest worldwide. Its operators are being invited to Nigeria to purchase the Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar and Ikot-Abasi ports. They will dredge them up to the depths of Hamburg and run them like genuine international commercial operations

(8) All of Germany’s major railway companies including Regio Nord (Hanover), Regio Nordost (Potsdam), Regio NRW GmbH (Düsseldorf), Regio Südost (Leipzig), Regio Hessen (Frankfurt am Main) and Regio Südwest (Mainz) (for Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarlan) will be invited to run franchises in Nigeria. They will be free to construct high speed railways lines, inter-state networks, urban metros, open carriage manufacturing factories and even build regional African networks

(9) Steel companies Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG, ArcelorMittal, Salzgitter AG, Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann and Saarstahl AG are desperately needed in Nigeria like yesterday. They are to purchase the Ajaokuta, Aladja and Oshogbo steel mills with a mandate to produce 20m tonnes by 2025

(10) German fashion houses MCM, Hugo Boss, Adidas, Puma, Escada, Joop, MCM, Bruno Banani, Jil Sander and Triumph will all be offered five year tax holidays and 50 year land leases to open facilities in Nigeria. Their mandate will be to open leather processing plants and take over the assets of the Arewa Textile Company. We want Nigeria to become the luxury goods manufacturing capital of the world