IF ONLY NIGERIANS WILL BUY “MADE IN NIGERIA”

 

Nigerians are creative people; you can see creativity in how they imagine situations, create objects, design proposals, build templates and create products. It’s globally reputed that we are some of the smartest people on earth with a rare ability to use our minds and hands.

Outside the shores of Nigeria, foreigners quake on hearing that a Nigerian is around the corner. They fear that the average Nigerian spirit is set up to dominate every sphere he gets involved with and so they are threatened.

Our productivity is rare. We strive to do the best we can with crude tools and technology and still hold our own when we are called upon to showcase our stuff amongst the comity of nations that include super-giants like America, Canada, china, Germany, France and their likes. These counties often wander where we developed such ingenious capacity.

The problem with Nigeria is Nigerians. We seem to have been carried away by the colonial mentality that we think only things produced from abroad is good enough. We look down on ourselves and our ability; always seeking for resources and help from foreign nations who are glad we aren’t seeing what they can see. They know that as far as we are blind to our capabilities, it is good business for them.

We have always had Nigerian technology. But we throw that aside because we’ve heard that American technology is great, Chinese technology is prolific or that that of the Germans is rugged. We forget that all these technologies we run to are designed with their climate in mind while Nigerian technology is developed for the rugged terrain of Nigeria.

All the technologies we celebrate in Nigeria are because their nationals spoke us into seeing how great their technology is. Who will speak for Nigerian technology? No foreigner will speak highly of what’s Nigerian when he has a similar product in his homeland and is hoping you will dash yours to get his.

Since former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure, governments have been drumming the beats of buying made in Nigeria. Subsequent governments have followed suite with varying degree of results. Up till now, Nigerians are still struggling to come to terms with buying Nigerian.

The coronavirus pandemic has shot the cost of importation of foreign good, naira is suffering a swift fall against major currencies, yet Nigerians aren’t thinking about why they must think local.

There’s hardly nothing these day that has not been produced in Nigeria. We have made in Nigeria automobiles. Automobiles are obviously the biggest technology anywhere and we have companies owned by Nigerians that have taken the pains to turn the tide of foreign cars importation by starting vehicle production plants. Innoson Motors for example produce cars that are globally well rated yet produced for the hash terrain that characterizes roads in Nigeria. Sadly, you’d hardly find these automobiles in Nigeria. Nigerian governments do not patronize them to encourage them. But you’d find these cars, buses, trucks and other products of this indigenous company flying the Nigerian flag across Africa.

And our computers? We do have several computer manufactures like Zinox, Omatek amongst a growing list who are doing well. But we prefer the high end global brand from abroad even when our global brands have proved themselves worthy over the years.

Let’s not even talk about phones. Nigerians only patronize Nigerian made phones when the phone is less than five thousand naira. They go for such phones for its cheapness, and not for its value, but indeed these phones can stand their ground against the best brands anywhere.

From time, wearing made in Aba shoes was considered something for the poor. We cherished the imported high priced shoes with labels “made in Italy” so that we can brag that we wear designer labels from foreign country. Our brothers this way produce even better quality shoes but they are disdained because they are not Dolce and Gabbana, Sean John or Tony Montana.

This our love for foreign goods has given us the tag “the dumping ground of the world” and it’s not hard to see that we really are the dumping ground of the world. All the dirt heaps scattered across our landscape will attest to this.

Our creative sons and daughters are doing their best to create value for us as a nation but we disdain them because we don’t want to be seen as been local. We don’t want to stutter when we are asked” which brand of shoe are you putting on?” we want to brag that what we wear is first class.

We accept to spend five times the income to buy a Nigerian product on a foreign product. This way we lose foreign exchange that we should be preserving or attracting. It’s discouraging that when Nigerian inventors are inventing products meant for Nigerians, Nigerians are seeking inventors from abroad.

If we will decide to look inwards, there is always a Nigerian option for whatever we get from abroad. Our failure is often because we immediately gaze the space beyond our shores for even the least opportunity leaving our technicians groping for opportunity to prove themselves.

Nigerian products have been known to be reliable, much more reliable in many aspects when compared to some of their foreign counterparts. Sure, there are poor products too in the Nigerian sphere, identifying quality Nigerian products and doing business with such companies will give no chance for the fakers.

Every made in Nigeria product we buy feeds a network of Nigerians. Nigerian producers buy from Nigerian merchants who sell the raw materials that are locally sourced. The money stays local and it is the best thing for the Nigerian economy.

In an era when the Naira is suffering a free fall against all other major currencies, Nigerians must wake up to salvage the situation.

Let’s think local, let’s think Nigerian. Let’s standardize the Nigerian quality system, let’s create a market for our homegrown products. This way, our producers and inventors will be propelled to work on their skills to service the high and quality needs of Nigerians. When we buy Nigeria, we produce jobs for our young people.

This is the time to think Nigeria. This is the time to think local. We can make Nigeria a production hub for Africa; our products can have a good share of the global enterprise market. Let’s do this for the love of Nigeria.