By: FEMI OWOEYE
Whoever wins the next Saturday’s presidential election should make one thing a priority.
The automobile industry. Courtesy of technocrat Olusegun Aganga, the sector which had suffered neglect over the years , is now back on discussion table.
Though not many analysts would score President Goodluck Jonathan 10% over the development, which is quite understandable, the brain behind the new auto policy, Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, deserves a pat on his back for bringing this important sector back into subconscious minds of stake-holders. Of course, what’s on ground so far, is riddled with loopholes.
Aganga achieved the best he could within a system choked up by political chess players. Reviving the auto industry was not President Jonathan’s idea. He brought no idea into governance. Not that he is a moron, as many ignorantly portray him. The truth is that he never, ever planned for all the high profile political positions he found himself. They just happened. That explains why he has got no manifesto of his own. No special ambition. He never meant to be
corrupt. He is like a car, prepared for a race. End result is mostly dependent on its driver. That is the man GEJ. A man brought into political limelight by political wolves. And still surrounded by them.
President Jonathan was prepared for his present job decades ago. His father was partly informed, but not about the main motive of the planners. His first wife knew not about the plans. The present wife was part of the plot. She was meant to marry him. She was meant to be instrumental to his political exposure. The likes of Aganga and Ngozi Okonjo-Nweala were all recommended for Jonathan’s regime by one of the facades. Unknown to Jonathan, in an attempt to outwit one another in the game of who gains what in the most important four years, which is about to end, a faction of the facades made Jonathan to act outside the script, an action which has caused an irreparable damage to unity of purpose within PDP.
Yet Jonathan knows little about the script prepared concerning his destiny. Like many ignorantly believe, he too feels he has been LUCKY. Of course not. He was found out to be gentle and loyal. His becoming Nigeria president was all pre-planned.
Unfortunately a faction of the political masquerades, who prepared him for this top position have been his handlers. They are such powerful forces who are bent on milking the nation dry, who are bent on taking possession of all that Nigeria has got in the name of privatization. That is why rather than generating electricity, they simply shared among themselves assignments of distributing power that is not available. They billed poor Nigerians administrative charges to be paid monthly even though most Nigerians still suffer erratic power supply. This has to be until the mask men are in position to take charge of power generation, telecommunication, water, electricity, transportation, agriculture and even the auto industry.
Of course, there should have been functioning petro-chemical industry as well as iron and steel rolling mill. All  have to be delayed till the political wolves have amassed enough wealth to buy them all. That’s why things have got to slow down for so many years. That’s why corruption has been so towering. Billions of dollars need to be siphoned to buy over entire Nigeria. And somebody of Jonathan’s personality was  needed for the position he occupies now. They known him. He knows them not. He is easily deceived. They pretend to be patriots. They portray his real friends as enemies. He was to spend only one term(2011-2015) during which all their evil deeds would have been concluded. The only reason why he is being pushed to go for second term is because of the opposition candidate, who is believed to be a spoiler. They believe he could dig into their past, especially the last four years of larceny adventure. They are wary of any regime that would attempt digging beyond the surface of what is known to Nigerians today. That is why preparation and campaign for the next Saturday’s election has been like matter of life and death.
Incidentally, though the likes of Aganga and Okonjo-Iweala were recommended or approved by a faction of the wolves, they genuinely accepted invitation and came into government to serve their fatherland. Real motive of those, who recommended them for ministerial appointments was to get proper technocrats to balance Nigerian books and introduce  viable and developmental ideas into which into which they could invest their looted billions. The wolves have their  fronts within and outside the country.
What has, therefore, happened to the Nigerian economy within the last four years has been  beyond dwindling oil prices. Former CBN governor, Sanusi’s attempt to raise an alarm earned him a boot. President Jonathan himself knows billions of dollars have been stolen. That’s why he said stealing is not corruption. Unfortunately most of the culprits are in charge of government. They mill around him.
The bottom-line is this. The designer of the auto policy is a technocrat. But the policy has not enjoyed genuine political will and zeal. It was rather prematurely celebrated to score political points. Why is the cheapest car assembled in Nigeria selling for over N2million? Answer: All CKD meant to assemble the cars are imported. And given the Naira exchange rate, which is now above N200 to a dollar, coupled with high cost of generating power (running generator with diesel), you can’t have the cars cheaper. It would all change, once the political wolves finish taking charge of the entire wealth of the nation.
They will be the ones to generate power. They would buy majority ownership of auto manufacturing plants. They would buy everything with stolen public money and own everything. Unless they are exposed, stopped, tried and be made to face the music.
Best thing would have been to have a true Nigerianized car. Now that we cannot have that, having assembly plants set up by the likes of Stallion Motors, Kia Motors and Innoson is still a big progress. Remove the political wolves and allow full implementation of Aganga’s Auto policy, that is when Nigerians would begin to reap the benefit of what has been started. All the assembly plants need do is to gradually increase local content of their products. Before you know it, 100s of industries would spring up to manufacture some of the over 2000 parts that make up a vehicle. And so thousands of job would be created. But all these would not happen, the plants would end up closing down or playing
smart ones on Nigeria, if the nation’s political wolves holding the nation hostage are not chased out. Unfortunately, a man like Jonathan happens to be a victim of circumstance. He is not strong enough to do away with them. But if he wins the coming election, he would have no choice than to develop a strong will, throw the wolves out of his government. If Buhari wins, it will be advisable for him to eschew politics and take on Olusegun Aganga on to ensure that the nation’s auto industry is revolutionized. I believe, being an old brigade, he knows the importance of the auto industry.
Expatriate Versus Indigenous Employees Ratio
Come to think of it, we have over the years, clamored for revival of Nigerian auto industry, not because we just like to ride in a car made in Nigeria. Most importantly, we know that before IT revolution, the greatest employer of labour in the world had been the auto industry.
Even today, the industry is still one of the biggest employers of labour in the world. Secondly, a strong auto industry would save a nation billions of foreign exchange annually.
In essence, employment generation for Nigerians is the primary essence of encouraging auto assembling and manufacturing in Nigeria. Anything short of that, Toyota can remain in Japan. Peugeot can stay put in France. Rovers, Jaguar and others may not bother to occupy our land with factories. Hyundai and Kia can as well kiss Nigeria goodbye and back off to South Korea.
Nissan plant would not be needed here then. Even Innoson can cancel its agreement with the Chinese. On a serious note, we need all of them. Provided they shall see the need to provide jobs for our unemployed youths. Not filling up over 80% of their staff lists with expatriates. That will be unacceptable. Every new assembly plant in Nigeria should take a cue from PAN Nigeria limited and aim at filling up their labour offices with at least 95% of Nigerians.
Manufacturers Need Help
But the likes of Nissan, Kia, Innoson and any assembly plant that will still take off, needs help of our government to be able to play their own roles. Corruption and stealing of public funds should be tackled with vigor. Nigerian law, which allows whoever is being tried in court for corruption and stealing crime to contest an election or hold political posts should be deleted. In fact such people should wait till their cases are concluded before contesting for any election.
Diversification of the economy should go beyond politicking. The nation should return to Agriculture. Rotavator and Tractor manufacturing should be encouraged. Rotavators are cheaper than tractor. And medium scale farmer can buy and make do with that for land tilling.
And lastly, importation of automobile should be minimized. Just as they did in South Korea in the 70s to ensure that Hyundai did not die. We must stop importation of any Fully Built Up (FBU) new cars that compete with locally assembled/manufactured vehicles.
That was the policy left behind when General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over to President Shehu Shagari in 1979. But the civilian regime, ironically reversed it and started flooding our nation with foreign cars. That accounted for the dead of the old Volkswagen plant.
Another thing: The law that says no government department, agency or parastatal should acquire any imported vehicle that is manufactured or assembled in Nigeria should be reenacted. Our elected leaders should leave by example, promote our own locally made products, including automobiles.
I still remember, in those days, our presidential vehicle used to be Peugeot, not Mercedes-Benz. State governors should start riding made-in-Nigeria Innoson or Peugeot. Staff vehicles in ministries should be Peugeot, Kia, Nissan, Innoson or any other locally assembled vehicle.
We need power. Federal government should hands off power generation once and for all. Lagos, for instance, should be allowed to generate power for Lagos State so that industries in the State, including auto assemblers can operate profitably, manufacture their products at lowest possible cost.
These are some of the moves that would strengthen our economy and guarantee better future for the nation’s yet to be born children. National Automotive Council, NAC’s move to collaborate with certain banks towards auto purchase finance is commendable. The question is what is the current average income of a typical Nigerian graduate? It’s about N60,000 per month(N720,000 per annum). If he or she is going to feed, cloth, rent a house and probably educate children, help schooling younger ones and take care of aged parents, how can such a person afford a car that is worth two million Naira, even with a bank loan, which has to be paid back in not more than five years? This is the reality.
Olusegun Aganga’s auto policy is fantastic. But unless corruption, stealing of public funds are vigorously fought against, unless political wolves are kicked out of governing environment, unless power generation is given priority above power generator importers, it may never work.
