My mom she's from Ireland coached tennis in Nigeria when she was a missionary and turned me on to it when I was young.

To meet the expectations of the majority of our people and to open up new vistas of economic opportunity so that the aspirations of Nigerians can stand a fair chance of being fulfilled in a lifetime there must be a truly committed leadership in a democratic Nigeria.

Each one of us and indeed all those who aspire to national leadership must bring their own visions views and styles to the business of reforming Nigeria and the search for solutions.

Nigeria has had a complicated colonial history. My work has examined that part of our story extensively.

The challenge as we saw in the Nigerian project was to restructure the economy decisively in the direction of a modern free market as an appropriate environment for cultivation of freedom and democracy and the natural emergence of a new social order.

I'm very proud of my Nigerian heritage. I wasn't fortunate enough to be raised in a heavy Nigerian environment because my parents were always working. My father was with D.C. Cabs and my mother worked in fast food and was a nurse.

The biggest opportunity in 2013 is in Africa. It has seven out of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. In Nigeria alone there are 100 million people with mobile phones. In total 300 million Africans - five times the population of Britain - are in the middle class.