by Ayomide Oyalowo

Let’s be clear, having in place a good policy is always the best in the long run, but government is supposed to be for the people and by the people. You can’t shave my head in my absence, can you?

To govern a people is not necessarily rocket science for as long as the government sincerely seeks the best interests of those it purportedly wishes to govern. Nigerians generally are the easiest to govern with simple, almost basic needs and requirements, from their government.

It Is therefore painful to see how Nigerians have been cheated, lied to, abused, used, raped and pauperised by their ruling elites from generation to generation– it has been the same story of lies, deceit, dashed hopes and aspirations for the teeming populace and masses of Nigeria.

The continuous deceit and lies by the ruling elite, either military or civilians, have created a huge gap between the rulers and the ruled; therefore the citizens of Nigeria have come to see the various governments as a bunch of liars, while those in government have also not helped matters. Issues within and policies of government at all levels are carried out in the fashion of a secret cult; nobody outside the few privileged elites know exactly what goes on within government, therefore rumour mongering thrives and since those juicy rumours mostly fill up the void left by the over secretive government and as the saying goes, “life abhors a vacuum”, the rumours, hearsay and innuendoes help to serve the people’s curiosity.

Democracy has a new meaning in Nigeria. To our politicians it means soliciting for votes every four years. The voters (electorates) are mere guinea pigs to be danced to and danced with during jamborees called electioneering campaigns, after which they are quickly forgotten and dispensed with by the almighty political kingmakers until the next elections are around the corner.

The Nigerian democracy is never about debates and exchange of ideas nor are the governed allowed a say in how their affairs are run. In fact, the government expects the “poor serfs” to be grateful for having the opportunity to have few roads patched and boreholes dug in their community. The Nigeria democracy is a four year ritual where huge and empty promises are made with no intention whatsoever of fulfilling them anyway.

Recently it came to light that The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday 2nd October, 2013 finally gave its nod for the new national automotive policy. The government said it was disturbed by the whopping annual N550 billion spent importing cars and it therefore took the decision to grant approval to the new policy that has been on the drawing board for over nine months.

The new development is also expected to revive, expand and develop the petrochemical and metal/steel sectors. The proponents of the policy claim it will also see the return of the tyre manufacturing industry to profitability ways to support the automotive sector.

To the uninitiated, one could easily jump for joy. But hold on, don’t celebrate yet: let us go down memory lane.

In the early 1970s, in the pursuit of what was said to be the “import substitution policy” of the Federal Government then (a policy that was mouthed to ultimately obliterate the importation of vehicles into the country; which this new automotive policy seems to be echoing), Volkswagen and Peugeot plants were started in Lagos and Kaduna respectively. These two government sponsored CKD assembly plants were followed by the FGN establishing four commercial vehicles’ assembly plants in Ibadan (Leyland), Enugu (Mercesdes-Benz ANAMMCO), Kano (National Trucks Manufacturers) and Bauchi (Steyr Nigeria) in 1976.

Also, agreements were signed in the early ’80s for the establishment of five minibus assembly plants (Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Isuzu and Mazda), but just as the previously established plants were going out of business (barring Peugeot in Kaduna and anemic versions of Mercedes-Benz ANAMMCO in Enugu and Steyr in Bauchi) these newly planned plants didn’t commence operations. In 2010, a local entrepreneur, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Ltd in partnership with a Chinese automaker commissioned Nigeria’s latest automobile assembly plant.

Lets us ask ourselves a basic question: who was consulted before Aganga and his gang came up with this policy? When or where were the exhaustive debates held to get the buy in of stakeholders? Aren’t we merely embarking on another wild goose chase?

Let’s be clear, having in place a good policy is always the best in the long run, but government is supposed to be for the people and by the people. You can’t shave my head in my absence, can you?

A cursory examination of the failed historic import substitution policy may help us to appreciate the inherent emptiness of the new automotive policy. Before such an ambitious policy can be successful, certain fundamentals must be in place: One, the requisite human capital, with the relevant automotive mechatronics capacity to engage the electronics and computing technologies that define the modern automobiles ought to be in place. This vital condition is presently lacking because of the generational systemic failure of our educational/technical training programme. Nigerian universities and colleges of technology are still using totally obsolete curricula (like carburettor technology that’s been outdated for over two decades now) to teach our undergraduates specialising in automotive engineering.

Two, in most countries where vehicles are manufactured, the assembly plants only constitute the zenith of an industrial pyramid of raw materials processors and parts-making industries. The National Automotive Council, the nation’s statutory body that’s laden with regulating activities and standards in the industry has less than 100 registered local automotive parts/products producers/manufacturers (and this includes manufacturers of basic seat covers, seat belts and other primary and less complicated components). And insofar as the import substitution policy of yore failed because these feeder industries were non-existent, it’s almost certain that the present ruse of a policy too will fail, as laudable as it seems on paper.

Three, it’s indeed an irony that unlike most auto making countries where basic electrical components like the air conditioning compressors, alternators, starters, etc, are refurbished locally and re-used in vehicles, the unholy alliance between incessant power outages, dearth of investment funds and almost a total lack of skilled manpower will starve the enunciated policy to the grave of its dead and delusional predecessor-policy.

Finally we have the small matter of extreme power failure and lack of basic infrastructure. If the tyre manufacturers abandoned Nigeria for neighboring countries of Ghana etc, in the past, has anything changed to warrant their returning to Nigeria?

It has become the tradition for supposed “technocrats” and political appointees to bring up bogus policies with no clear road map and measurable timelines, knowing that even when they fail, which they ultimately do, nobody will call them to question and none ever accounts for their failed stewardship.

Is it not paradoxical that the same administration that increased the number of years of automobiles imported to Nigeria from 10 years old to 15 years is the same government that has “reasoned” out this utopic policy? Is this not a major policy somersault?

I must state at this juncture that the government’s claim that N550bn was expended annually to import vehicles into the country seems a bit tall to me; if one assumes that the average price of imported automobiles (eighty five percent of which are used vehicles) is N2.5m and when one divides N550bn with N2.5m one will get a picture of 200 million vehicles annually imported into the country! Something is totally wrong between this outrageous claim and the realistic picture of just over 100,000 vehicles averagely imported into this country annually.

Something is not just right about this new national automotive policy and the federal government led by President Jonathan needs to step it down until more exhaustive debates and national consultations with serious stakeholders is held in an atmosphere of genuine debate and policy review sessions where stakeholders can table suggestions on how to create the industrial eco-system that will help articulate the admirable objectives enunciated in the presently presumptuous policy.

The utopian picture as being painted by Aganga is nothing but another white elephant project, designed to line up a few pockets and emasculate genuine businessmen and women amidst the euphoria of an empty and cacophonous policy that is doomed to fail from the outset, while sounding the final death knell on the fast disappearing middle class and plunging them into further obscurity and economic chasm.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.