Nigeria may be closer to industrialisation today than ever before – not because of ambition, but because of alignment.
Along the Lekki corridor, something rare is happening: a refinery, a deep seaport, a free trade zone, expanding infrastructure, energy capacity, and now early signals of steel production are coming together in one place.
This is not just development. It is a moment.
But history warns us. Abuja, Ajaokuta, and ALSCON did not fail because they were wrong – they failed because they were not aligned.
Infrastructure alone does not produce industrialisation. Concrete is not industry. Industrialisation requires discipline.
If Lekki must succeed, six things are critical:
- Stable and competitive power
- Policy consistency beyond political cycles
- Efficient, integrated transport systems
- Strong industrial linkages (not isolated projects)
- Environmental discipline
- And most importantly – a coordinating authority to align everything
Nigeria has built before.
The real question now is: can we organise?
Because nations do not industrialise by accident. They industrialise by design – and by discipline.
By Gbenga Onabanjo, goforte1@gmail.com