Then the choice could have been.You're joking, right? All the deals done in West Africa and East Africa are by the Chinese. We can neither underbid them on price nor can we offer the "dash" (aka a "gift", a back hander, brown envelope, "dessous table") that they do. All the big projects...for example the new Lagos to Kano railway are Chinese. Or, but much less so, the United States.
"In 2006, the Nigerian government awarded a $8.3 billion contract to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to construct a standard gauge railway from Lagos to Kano."
And India, as they told the useless Theresa May back in November 2016, will want any future trade deal to not just be restricted to a) trade b) capital and c) services but also d) free movement of persons. In other words on the same basis as the UK had with the EU up until we Brexited (the EU "four freedoms").
Heath (another contender along with May as the most useless post-WWII Tory Prime Minister) effectively and very firmly closed the door on the Commonwealth in the 1970s. These countries have moved on. They don't need deals with the UK and if they do accept an invitation to negotiate deals they will most likely, as with India, demand these encompass a), b), c) and d) as above.
B for Brown
C for Corbyn
