‘…if Morocco joins ECOWAS, Nigeria will disintegrate’
I was in Morocco recently, about 20 years after I last visited Timbuktu, Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat and Laayoune. I was quite impressed to see how Morocco with its colour-coded cities remains very much an organized, efficient and a comparatively competitive country. The trip this time began from the Lagos airport aboard the Royal Air Maroc, which now plies the Lagos-Casablanca route. Twenty years earlier, I had to go first to Paris, France, change from one airport to the other, before boarding another flight to Morocco.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI
This crisis of transportation, having to go to Europe before accessing African countries, poses a major threat to trade, co-operation and integration among African countries. This time around, Lagos to Casablanca took no more than 4 hours. The flight was full; the passengers were mostly Nigerians. I would later discover that these passengers were not necessarily going to Morocco to attend the Crans Montana conference on Africa and South-South Co-operation taking place in Dhakla, they were transit passengers going to New York or Europe. Casablanca to New York is about 6 hours, and the cost of travel either to the US or Europe through Morocco is much cheaper. The Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and Morocco has brought both countries closer, with many Nigerian businessmen taking advantage of the opportunity to trade with Morocco. Many Nigerian students are also now going to school in Moroccan universities and technical colleges.
As I took in these details, and reflecte
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