The world is now broken into three: the West, China/Russia and the Un-allied. Today, according to CNN, “Chinese and Russian bombers jointly flew around Japan, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told reporters Tuesday, adding that the country’s Air Self Defense Force had to scramble its fighter jets and conducted surveillance…China’s Ministry of Defense confirmed that China and Russia’s air forces conducted joint strategic air patrols over the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the Western Pacific Ocean on Tuesday”.

 This is a turning point and what that means is that everyone is affected. People, Russia and China are forming their own version of NATO and they have become bold to make that known. President Joe Biden’s statement that the US will go to war to defend Taiwan means China has to shift on many things. It is no more hypothetical: the US will fight for Taiwan and because China truly wants to bring Taiwan home, alliances must be formed!

If the US goes to war, NATO follows. China sees a shift here; it needs an ally. For all nations in the world, only about 6 make useful military gear: – US, UK, “EU”, Japan, China, and Russia. The first four are entwined and the last two are coming together. 

If US/NATO wins in Ukraine and pushes Russia and China together, I am not sure that will be super-great for Europe. For all its recent shortcomings, Russia remaining aligned with Europe is better for the region, compared to having a strong Chinese military ally within Europe.

The Un-allied include Africa, Arab world and Latin America. They are in very complicated positions here: if you annoy US/NATO, they will stop selling you weapons. And if you annoy Russia, the same fate comes. 

So, Africa, for example, is going back to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah theory: no west, no east, just forward. In other words, Africa must not fight US “wars”, or “Russia ”wars”, but focus on moving forward as a continent – and that means America’s or Russia’s interests must not automatically become Africa’s interests. That is the current playbook in the continent.

If the state of the world now is not managed well, the world will break economically. I do not expect any military conflict at a global level but I expect a severe economic paralysis.

Many bad things could happen…I am concerned.

Japan scrambled jets after Russian and Chinese warplanes neared its airspace on Tuesday, when Tokyo was hosting the leaders of the Quad grouping of countries that includes the United States, Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said.

Tokyo conveyed “grave concerns” to both Russia and China through diplomatic channels, Kishi said at a news conference that was broadcast online.

He characterised the incident as a likely provocation by both Beijing and Moscow on a day when U.S. President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australia’s newly elected leader, Anthony Albanese, were meeting in Tokyo.

Lagos State recently emerged as the top destination in Africa for digital infrastructure investment, to the delight of its teeming fans.

It’s noteworthy Lagos has remained the most populous city in Nigeria and on the continent.

The above report was revealed in April 2022 during a panel hosted by Digital Infra Africa, where industry experts deliberated on the impacts of growing investments in data centres on the continent.

The session, which was moderated by Senior Vice President, Middle East, Africa and Greater India, Uptime Institute, Mustapha Louni, had MainOne CEO, Funke Opeke, joined by CEO of the Raxio Group, Robert Mullins; CEO, Teraco, Jan Hnizdo and Chief Marketing Officer and VP of the International Business Development, WIOCC, Mike Last.

These market leaders noted the spate of acquisitions and new entrants in the past six months including Equinix – MainOne’s new parent company, Digital Realty, Cassava Technologies and WIOCC.

They said growth in investments in the data centre infrastructure on the continent had grown exponentially, adding that such investments continued to be driven by the growth of broadband access and data consumption across the continent’s large economies, of which Nigeria was the largest.

Opeke stated, “When you look at the connected population and the growth potential of the numbers that remain unconnected, we see a large opportunity for growth in data consumption levels, and this is attracting global market players.

“MainOne is the market leader in Lagos already and we will continue to make investments with our new parent company Equinix to remain at the forefront of the increasing digitalization happening on the continent.”

“These views are in line with the recently published statistics on investments flowing into the tech sector on the continent. Lagos State government has actively championed these initiatives and investments in technology by creating an enabling environment for businesses to flourish, and also by providing active support to investors in the state through its numerous programs and initiatives.

“The effort is bearing fruit, as in the last one month, Lagos has attracted over $1 billion worth of committed investment from technology giants like Microsoft, which opened its new African Development Centre in the State; Google, which last week launched its state-of-the-art submarine Internet cable in Lagos and Equinix, which recently completed its acquisition of MainOne with a $320 million deal.

To put the level of investment that Lagos would attract in the next few years into context, at the recent launch of MainOne’s MDXi Lekki II Data Center, VP Growth and Emerging Markets at Equinix, Judith Gardiner, stated that, “Amsterdam as a key hub, with a population of one million people, has nine Equinix Data Centers with over 106MW capacity. Lagos, with a population of over 20 million, has the potential to far exceed this footprint.

“We are committed to bringing our capital, expertise, knowledge and customers to accelerate the digital age in Nigeria.” She hinted.

Indeed, Lagos has over the past and recent years taken the lead as regards investment destination owing to the seeming friendly and enabling environment. This prowess has made the state to relatively boast of the richest territory across the Nigeria’s shores.

The leadership of other states in Nigeria are required to step up their policies in a bid to ensure they key into the investment mantra towards boosting the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) base of their respective jurisdictions. This would make them not to wholly depend on the central government for survival, as it’s currently witnessed in the country.

However, the Lagos government must strive to sustain the tempo, as well as revisit its various fiscal policies to ensure it becomes and remains friendlier than its present position, towards attracting more prospective investors to the state.

Governments at all levels must learn to acknowledge that the wholesomeness of every economic activity centres on policy-making and its onward implementation.