Anambra: An Assembly’s Unbelievable Stand

By Comfort Obi

Since the story made the rounds in the media, neither the Anambra State Government, nor the Members of the State House of Assembly, has denied it. Meaning: The story is true.

So, will the Members of the Anambra State House of Assembly, ANHA, stand up for a standing ovation? They should. They deserve it.

Without a dissenting voice, they reportedly, rejected the idea to be gifted with foreign made SUVs. They preferred  the one manufactured by their kinsman, Innocent Chukwuma, who set up a vehicle manufacturing company, named Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing, IVM.

The government had, reportedly, budgetted a whopping one billion Naira for the purchase of the vehicles in foreign land. But the Lawmakers looked the government in the eye, and said: Not in our names.

They rightly termed that huge amount of money  a waste, a waste of the state’s scarce resources, and  the People’s money. And, especially, now, when most Nigerians are going through hell. It is difficult to feed their families. It is an uphill task to pay their children’s school fees. As a result of those and the insecurity in the land, they hardly sleep. And, we have all become blood pressure patients, and candidates for cardiac arrest due to constant thinking and anxiety. A bad combination.

To these Lawmakers, therefore, that obscene amount of money even borders on  insensitivity.  They don’t want to be associated with that.

Of course, they need official vehicles to do their jobs, but they see everything wrong  In what it would cost the state. The solution: Get SUVs from Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company Ltd for us.

If this is true, and the government has not denied it, then these Lawmakers have started a quiet revolution.  It is a revolution that should spread, with no fears for a  clamp down by Security personnel. They have pointed at the right direction for both the state and federal governments.

When I first read the story, I dismissed it with a wave of the hand. It is an April fool story in September, I said. The members, I reasoned,  are young people who, like their mates and colleagues, have an unquenchable appetite for the  good things of life. They are Nigerians too. And, Nigerians have a pathological love for anything foreign. We have an obscene appetite for anything  foreign.

This other day, I listened, in shock, as one of our ranking federal legislators, roundly condemned all Nigerian universities. He desperately wanted his kids out of Nigeria, but was told that all the good schools in his country of choice had closed admission for the next semester. ‘Are there no other schools, there, available?’, he asked. Told that a number of smaller ones were available, but obviously not of the same high profile as he desired, he  barked: ‘Go ahead and fix it. Anyone there is better than any university in Nigeria’. Here is a man, which for three consecutive times, has been his people’s representative,  maintained by tax payers’ money. This attitude is not the exclusive of big people only.

I go to the Balogun market, in Lagos, once a month, and it is just a total disgrace. Before one buys anything, one is told by, especially, the market women, to buy the imported ones. They are better, they insist. Even pepper, pawpaw and pineapple, have  imported types which they explain, are superior to the Nigerian types. Same goes for fresh tomato, and. garri. Crayfish. Fish. Ground nuts, Palm oil. It is endless.

When you want to buy Ankara, they show you the imported ones. ‘Ah, Auntie, they are better. These ones, I can’t  tell you to buy them. They are made in Nigeria’. I don’t argue with them, especially,  when it concerns foodstuff. I simply tell them to give me the Nigerian foodstuff. When I insist, they think my head is not correct. Where is our National Orientation Agency? What are they doing?

For the records, it is not that I insist on our products out of patriotism.  It is just that I know they are better than the imported ones.

But we have extended this appetite for foreign things to everything, including domestic helps. It has reached  a ridiculous level.

Perhaps,  it’s an ego thing, a sign that one has arrived. So we prefer foreign cooks, foreign drivers, foreign gardners, foreign nannies,  foreign house keepers to Nigerians.

They flaunt them before you. My cook and driver are  from Togo, or Cotonou, they proudly inform. And I don’t want to talk about foreign artisans who have completely taken over everything in our building industry. Or the very many fake foreign engineers and brief case contractors, who dot our land, and have taken over every aspect of our lives.

Simply put, at the heart of the “P & ID” $9.6b contract scandal, is our large appetite for anything and, anybody foreign. There are many of them here, scamming the country,  brazenly raping our economy, and being given protection by our security personnel. In their companies, Nigerians are treated like second class citizens, even when Nigerians do the bulk of the job.

They are looked down upon, and spoken to in a most derogatory manner. Nobody cares about our citizens. Instead, for peanuts, the foreigners are protected by the law. The Chinese and Indian companies are notorious for this, and our security personnel cannot claim ignorance of the situation. Many of them are in their pockets, and they flaunt it.

It is inferiority complex and our obscene appetite for everything that is not Nigerian.

One of the most celebrated Nigerian women, she is late now, had a numbing habit of sending her clothes, every month, to London, for dry cleaning.  She said she couldn’t trust any dry cleaning service in Nigeria. A Lebanese mutual friend of ours was as shocked as I was the day she, proudly, revealed this to us. I was ashamed.  Our mutual friend quickly suggested the dry cleaning service at Eko Hotels, Ikoyi,  to her and, continued to pick the bills thereafter.

This inferiority complex has so infected every aspect of our lives that we have become slaves to it.

When our tailors, they all prefer to be called fashion designers now , make good dresses, they label them “Made in Italy, or Paris, or London”. They don’t want to take that credit as Nigerians. Same thing with our shoemakers. Which is why when people criticize Abia Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, I ask them to pause and, at least, acknowledge that he has popularised made in Aba products – Shoes, Suits, Belts. We now proudly wear them, with their labels, “Made in Aba”.

But in every aspect of national pride, we are incorrigible. We are lacking.

The Nigerian big man/woman prefer holding family weddings and  birthday parties in foreign lands. Dubai is, usually, their destination of choice.

In the instant case, there are particularly two reasons why I find the position taken by members of the ANHA an aberration. I am Igbo. The Igbo work hard. But most of us are loud, and love loud things. Big cars in particular. Anambra takes the cake. Check them out. The state has the highest number of siren-blaring big men. As a governor, Peter Obi used to quietly make way for them. He would park, and let them pass. Their convoys were ten times longer than his own.

This other day when people were deriding,  both at once, the obscenely loud and expensive sun glasses worn by the state’s First Lady, the beautiful Ebele Obiano, to, I guess, a funeral, I jumped to her defence. It is in our DNA, I defended.

The second reason is that our legislators are notoriously, at all levels, inconsiderate when it comes to their welfare – their allowances, their cars. For their cars, they go for the best, the biggest. No compromises. It is like a competition every four years.

Which is why I am taken aback by the unbelievable patriotism displayed by the Anambra lawmakers.

For the records, there is nothing wrong with vehicles manufactured by IVM. The only thing wrong with them is that they are made in Nigeria,  and for that matter, Anambra state. So, “ab initio”, they have been termed inferior.

I have not visited the factory before. But I met the Chairman, years back, when both of us received the National Honours, same year.

I was excited meeting him, and promised I would visit his factory. I never did, and I’m not sure I would recognise his face now, as he would not recognise mine. But I am very proud of him for having the liver to dare, and persevere inspite of our very harsh business environment, and the very obvious persecution he has been passing through.

Years back, it was the intervention by Obi,at the highest level of government, which saved his business from being liquidated. The Nigerian Customs Service had  impounded everything, almost,  which Chukwuma shipped in for his factory. Obi fought like a true Igbo son that he is, and saved the situation. Since then, he has had brushes with banks and the law. He has always been vindicated.

I see his vehicles along the road. I’m told that they are really good and durable,  and 70 per cent manufactured with raw materials sourced from within Some of them are really big, and sleek, and as beautiful as those imported ones. My driver of 22 years, an incurable admirer of beautiful cars, often points them out to me, wishing we’d own one soon. He doesn’t seem to understand the crisis Madam is going through. And, I just smile.

The Innoson cars I see along the road don’t seem inferior to me. The company has provided employment to hundreds of our youths, and, trained many. It pays taxes to Anambra and the Federal Government.

Obi patrionized Innoson, very much. And, I understand, so does Enugu state government now. Other state governments, led by Anambra should do the same.

We cannot be mouthing patriotism and fail in the most basic patriotic act. These vehicles are manufactured in our back yard – Nnewi. Why don’t we make them our first choice? The government cannot be shouting patronise Made-in-Nigeria, and be doing the opposite. It will be nice if a percentage of the vehicles bought by governments in Nigeria is, as a matter of policy, allocated to Innoson Motors. When we do that,  we grow our own industry, and save the much needed foreign exchange. Can you imagine how much will be saved if our NASS and House of Assembly members bought their official vehicles from Innoson vehicles?

The foreign companies, which vehicles we patrionize, started like Innoson’s. Their people and governments grew them by patronising them. We should do the same.

And, finally, to the members of the Anambra House of Assembly, you have set a good example. You have shown patriotism. You have put the people first. By so doing, you have written your names in gold. And, I salute you.

Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com.  Email: [email protected], [email protected]