BusinessDay 26 Mar 2018

12 BUSINESS DAY C002D5556 Monday 26 March 2018
EDITORIAL
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Frank Aigbogun
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Anthony Osae-Brown
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Ignatius Chukwu
HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES
Adeola Obisesan
Nigeria’s refusal to sign the AfCFTA
Nigeria was, once
again, absent on
a momentous day
in African history
when 44 African
countries signed the African
Continental Free Trade Area
(AfCFTA) at a summit of the African
Union in Kigali, Rwanda.
The AfCFTA seeks to remove
import duties and non-tariff
barriers among member countries
and could bring together
over 1.2 billion people into one
market, boost intra-African
trade, making it the biggest
trade agreement since the
formation of the World Trade
Organisation in 1995.
Unfortunately, 10 members
of the African Union’s 55
member states, including its
two largest economies – Nigeria
and South Africa - did not
sign the agreement, taking
the shine off the momentous
event. South African president,
Cyril Ramaphosa, unlike Nigeria’s
president, was present
at the summit and stated the
commitment of his country
to the agreement once the
necessary legal processes were
undertaken.
Curiously, Nigeria’s reasons
for refusing to sign the trade
treaty, in which its international
trade policy expert was the lead
negotiator, was that it does not
want to become a dumping
ground for goods from African
and European countries, who
would use smaller countries to
gain free entry into the Nigerian
market. “We will not agree to
anything that will undermine local
manufacturers and entrepreneurs,
or that may lead to Nigeria
becoming a dumping ground for
finished goods,” President Buhari
tweeted on Wednesday. The
special adviser to the president
on Media and publicity, Femi
Adesina added subsequently
that the president said the country
is yet to fully understand the
economic and security implications
of the agreement.
This only brings to focus the
embarrassing lack of coordination
within the Federal Government
and its agents. Does it mean
that on such an important issue,
policy papers and memoranda
had not been previously read by
the President and Vice President
before the crucial FEC meeting
that ratified the treaty? Does it
mean that the Vice President
did not consult the President to
know his thoughts before leading
the entire cabinet to ratify a
treaty with which their Principal
disagreed?
What do we make of the fact
that the globally-respected
trade policy expert, Ambassador
Chiedu Osakwe, who led Nigeria’s
negotiations and played a
very significant role in bringing
African countries to achieve this
momentous milestone, must
now be extremely embarrassed
by his President who is now making
near-xenophobic statements
about this African trade treaty.
And what exactly are Nigerian
manufacturers afraid of? What
have we been for imports from
China and South East Asia all
these decades? Which African
country has a greater manufacturing/trade
capacity than
Nigeria outside South Africa?
What does South Africa “dump”
in Nigeria that harms us? The
treaty is also not merely about
goods. What about services?
What about intellectual property?
These are areas in which
Nigeria does enjoy significant
advantages. However, with
this refusal to ratify the African
Trade Treaty, we have effectively
ranged ourselves against all our
major trading partners. This is almost
like our own Brexit, except
that the President’s decision to
act against the advice of his entire
cabinet lacks a credible basis.
Does the president realise
that in Africa, it has, perhaps,
the largest number of its citizens
living and doing business in
other African countries? Does
he realise that perhaps, beside
South Africa, Nigeria has the
largest number of its banks and
companies pursuing internationalisation
programmes in
other African states? What will
become the fate of Nigeria’s biggest
industrialist, the Dangote
group, now operating in over
fourteen African countries and
seeking to dominate the African
market?
Perhaps, the president needs
to consider the benefit of the
AfCFTA to Nigeria and Africa as
a whole. The AfCFTA has the potentials
to permanently change
Africa’s fortune from dependence
on assistance to increased
trade. Intra-African trade, which
currently stands at only 10 percent,
is the lowest in the world
and one of the chief reasons for
Africa’s backwardness. Our salvation
ultimately lies in trading
amongst ourselves and consequently
developing our economies
and not in isolationism as
Nigeria is tending towards.
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