Firstly, there is no way David Cameron would have sat down to jointly write the article with Jonathan. It was possibly written by one and sent to the other for approval, and I have no doubt it emanate from Nigeria. They want us to believe, that by posing to be on a good relationship with David Cameron, the magic that will transform our country is in the pipeline, contrary to what we are seeing daily.
I repeat, there are good reasons to bolster trade among African countries, and every effort should be made to grow and encourage it. However, to do this demands that we get down to work. Jonathan Goodluck is better positioned than any Nigerian to do this. He is also better positioned than most African leaders to encourage this growth, given that Nigerian remains the biggest market in African. The lectures in the article are meant for him and other African Presidents. May be, they can also find better forums to address the African business communities when they have removed the present barriers to trade.
If he is serious, he would rather be telling us polices he has put in place to grow the trade or ready achieved milestones than anything else. If he chooses the lecture side I wonder who will do the working.
As for Britain, we have known them since the pre-colonial days. I ask a simple question: is David Cameron willing to allow the trade between Britain and the individual African countries to be replaced by that between the African countries themselves; or is he hiding under helping the trade between us, merely to drive his country’s gains from Africa, as they have always done. Enough of rubbish convoluted logic. Britain is primarily concerned about its trade with Africa countries themselves.
In trading within our selves, African countries must be able to exchange goods in demand across our borders. What is the capacity of our economies? We are all in the business of exporting raw material to the western economies and lack the capacity to buy these raw materials from one another. While we should never neglect trade, we must focus on building our industrial base because right now, there is little trade on. Which of the African countries will sell machinery and other finished products to the other? Having failed to even refine our petroleum products, what can we export to the other African countries than our crude oil? Which finished product can we export to them?
The stage has gone beyond media antics. The time to begin delivering the goods is now!
Picture from http://kids.mongabay.com/elementary/africa.html
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