As Nigeria’s secret police and politicians celebrated attacking Sunday Igboho’s home and arresting Nnamdi Kanu, Toyota was commissioning an assembly plant to sell more cars in Nigeria. Left and right, you can see a massive disintermediation playbook from Ghana as companies position themselves there to serve Nigeria.
Like I noted the other day, if Twitter suspension in Nigeria becomes permanent, Twitter will suspend its voyage of opening an office in Ghana because that office which listed some jobs requiring local Nigerian languages was designed for the Nigerian market.
As Ghana rises, which is good, I call on the Nigerian government to pay more attention to AfCFTA. My position during the debate of joining AfCFTA remains: ‘Nigeria should SIGN but must make sure the “rule of origin” clause is strong. We cannot afford goods produced outside Africa to be repackaged in a treaty member state and then shipped to Nigeria at a low tariff that is exclusive to member states.’ Yes, once AfCFTA takes off, expect revenue from Customs to drop which could be a double whammy for Nigeria: you used to make money from the duties, but today, you get nothing.
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We need to do to Toyota Ghana what America did to Toyota Canada – expressly remove any North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) benefits on the cars. That is why a Toyota car costs more than $6,000 in United States to what you get it in Canada where most are made for the US market.
Nigeria needs visionaries because in this age, we are being faced with asymmetric challenges, and to overcome, we need our leaders to be proactive with the fierce urgency of now.
Our President Should Sign AfCFTA Free Trade after Strengthening “Rule of Origin” Clause
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We are a typical case of one who’s chasing rats while his house is on fire. The regime has put so much energy in coercing everyone to sing One Nigeria, as if it brings special benefits. We are not working on things that could make One Nigeria a natural song, instead we are creating doubts and distrust, both by actions and inactions.
Even in developed nations, thers are pockets of agitations, but achieving strategic objectives of a nation state mutes those agitations; unfortunately our political leadership is more concerned with amplifying agitators.
We have been losing in various fronts, Nigeria seems to be the only big country in the world that is never taking seriously; something to think about.