by Perry Brimah

What are the terms of this loan to the auto cabal, if that is what it is? What is the oversight of these “companies” given money and how is the selection made? Are they simply companies that promise the government officials shares in their companies, political donations and gifts of private jets, as was reported between Dangote and Obasanjo?

I am trying very hard to understand this… perhaps I am a bit slow. I read and re-read the media release from the Mr Aminu Jalal, the Director-general of NAC (National Automotive Council), looking for where he mentioned that the money given to the 33 “automobile companies” was a loan or federal investment. I must have missed it or do not understand these things. Did the federal government really simply ‘dash’ these 33 selected automobile companies 11 billion naira? What’s that? A bailout or bail-in?

If so, how does this process work? I understand all Mr. Jalal said about trying to push Nigerian made cars, but is that to be sponsored by the government? Does/will the government and in effect, Nigerians earn and divide the appropriate dividend of these companies when they sell the cars? What are the criteria of industry that this government dashes money to? I have a little manufacturing company, I make slippers; is it only cars, cement and electricity companies that the government dashes Nigeria’s money to? What about small businesses, the bane of development? Will these auto companies sell cars to Nigerians at less than the global prices or as is and has been with everything our cabal manufacture —despite government generous gifts, free import tariffs, land grabbing from the locals by police and what have you —will they end up selling the cars to us at triple the global price again, as we now pay with internet, phones, cement and electricity?

What are the terms of this loan to the auto cabal, if that is what it is? What is the oversight of these “companies” given money and how is the selection made? Are they simply companies that promise the government officials shares in their companies, political donations and gifts of private jets, as was reported between Dangote and Obasanjo?

And then, I wonder, do we really need to manufacture cars? There are a host of economies, some are manufacture, of which there are different things that can be focused on, including textiles, leather, even food; some economies are tourism based; some are software based, etc; not every nation must manufacture cars and cement; and in choosing what to promote in an economy, the comparative advantage must be priority. Today we manufacture cement but buy it at double-triple the cost we used to buy it, or will buy it if we import it. Ibeto cement always reminds us of this. Despite the land wasted, the toxic waste to the environment and the depletion of resource, we the common mekunu lose! Is this a right strategy?

I can assure Nigerians that unless we get a Rawlings, Buhari/Idiagbon, Yar’Adua, Murtala, Thomas Ankara, Nkuruma type of guy to clamp down on all these fake cabal companies that ripped Nigeria off with these gifts that all other smart, young and vibrant businessmen do not enjoy, and again rip Nigerian off with extortive prices for manufactured products, this automobile industry will again exploit us forever and those in power today and their Cabal coterie, will celebrate in Forbes as the world’s richest men, due to their shares in 9and ownership of)  these companies set-up to exploit and extort us. We should seriously wake-up or simply accept that we are the world’s biggest bunch of mugus, 167 million of us (that excludes the 2003 ethno-diverse cabal owners of our lives/our slave masters).

Now, considering our governments “generosity” dashing these cabal companies like Coscharis that help the government officials in stealing and laundering our billions of dollars; why does the same ‘benevolent’ government tax and take N1000 each from our millions of unemployed living industries- youth job applicants? So the government gets their private companies on the outside, like Drexel Nig. Ltd, to help them wean us of billions in elaborate scams, a penny a person from millions of us, and then gets their private companies to assist them in BMW scams to steal and launder, then gifts the nations billions to these private companies again, then helps them grab our land—as is happening right now in Lagos with Dangote and Fashola, uncompensated, then gives them free import tariffs, that we small businesses and even travelling visitors never enjoy, then pseudo-bans our import of cheap, lovely quality Tokunbo cars we manage, then forces us to take loans from their bank friends, a representative of whom they make the CBN governor, who will ensure that our banks charge us the highest rates in the world for the worst service, then we owe thousands for new cars we are forced to buy, paying usury/riba, to end up broke, hopeless and the most unhappy and most un-prospering youth in the venture world, as the recent Global Youth wellbeing Index, survey found.

And then, we fight each other, north vs. south, Muslim vs. Christian trading blame for our suffering and our poverty, being distracted by the mysterious 50 military clad, helicopter aided gunmen on bikes, killing and burning the entire north from Benue, to Zamfara, to Katsina, to Kaduna, to Borno, while the cabal, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Dangote, Oil goddess Diezani, Elumelu, Otedola, Coscharis, Emefiele and co, launch their way to the Forbes top 10 list—the world’s fastest growing billionaires, proud to be from the nation with the world’s most poor, unhappy and hopeless?

Makes total sense.

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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.