If I was the Governor of Kano State, I will do all it takes for Dangote and BUA Group to move their corporate headquarters to Kano. Let their factories remain in their existing locations but bring the head offices to Kano. If I was the Governor of Delta State, I will encourage Zenith Bank and UBA Group to move their headquarters to Asaba. Of course, both banks can then maintain a huge annexe office in Lagos. The game-changer Dangote Refinery ought to have been sited in Warri or PH or Uyo.

All I am saying is that Nigeria's other sub-nationals can and should compete squarely with Lagos on the economic front. As it is now, outside Ogun State (in the past two decades or so), no other state competes with Lagos for economic opportunities. Even Ogun itself is not really competing seriously yet with Lagos. If it does, a sizeable portion of the economic muscle of Lagos will be easily uprooted and moved to Ogun. Let this be a deliberate thinking, planning, and execution. Long range thinking. Governor Godwin Obaseki once said publicly (echoed by his Deputy, Philip Shuaibu) that Edo State will compete with Lagos to emerge as the 2nd biggest subnational economy in Nigeria in the years ahead.

We have fashioned our politics after the US. Let Nigerian states take a cue from this and learn from American states to compete squarely amongst themselves. New York State used to be the Numero Uno for most the the 150 years of America's global economic ascendancy. Then California State rose up gradually to overtake it; leveraging Silicon Valley as its unbeatable competitive tool. Today, Texas State is giving California a stiff competition. So, let our own states embrace this spirit. Nigeria would be the better for it.

Competition (healthy competition) brings out the best in individuals, in companies, in football and other sports, in subnational entities, and in countries. Ondo State has more beach space than any of the other coastal states in Nigeria. When people think about beach tourism their mind rarely goes to Ondo State. So over to you Ondo. Sola Fanawopo spoke about this subject so brilliantly recently.

Lagos CBD (Central Business District) is already well entrenched as the major international financial centre (IFC) of Nigeria. It now plays this same IFC role for the entire West Africa and (increasingly) for Central Africa. Why can't Abuja Metro deliberately position itself as the venture capital headquarters of Nigeria? Abuja will then morph into the Silicon Valley of Nigeria while Lagos maintains its long entrenched credential as the Wall Street of the country.

Compete or die! Compete or remain perpetually a laggard. Compete or stay hopeless, wallowing in the mud of wretched poverty and backwardness. Healthy competition with the West. This was the spirit of the Japanese since the beginning of the 1900s. This was how Japan joined the developed world even as far back as the pre-WW2 era. It is this same spirit that has helped Singapore, UAE, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan to become first-world countries within 4 to 5 decades after WW2. It is the same spirit that is behind China's ascendancy today as the world's biggest economy (ranked by GDP PPP, as against Nominal GDP), since 2017. PPP means purchasing power parity.

Frederick Apeji is an Event Management and Public Relations Expert based in Abuja