Columns

Let all Nigerian govts use NORD, IVM vehicles

Published by

2 years ago

RECENTLY, as Nigerians literally fed from the poverty mill, the national legislature struggled to justify its unconscionable expenditure on imported armoured vehicles valued at N160m each. Nigeria has 469 federal legislators (360 reps, 109 senators), so that means a whopping N75bn plus expended on mobile palaces. That is, of course, assuming that seniority did not dictate senators having grander rides than reps. Rationalising the unconscionable expenditure, the Green Chamber said the vehicles were tied to oversight functions. Its words: “Unelected government officials in the executive arm of government from Director level and above, in most cases, have official vehicles attached to their offices. For the duration of the 10th assembly (2023 – 2027), the vehicles shall remain the property of the National Assembly. At the expiration of the tenure of the 10th Assembly in 2027, should the extant assets deboarding policy of government still be in place, honourable members may have the option of making payment for the outstanding value of the vehicles to government coffers before they can become theirs, otherwise it remains the property of the National Assembly.”

This is, of course, mere rhetoric, because, per the grapevine, the vehicles are assumed to depreciate by 25 percent every year, and so are officially “mere scrap” after four years, and the lawmakers will only be doing us a favour by taking them home. In any case, the Senate being the province of moneybags, no senator is ever going to mount a horse previously harnessed by another. Apparently, the law lords need “a level of comfort” (per Ghali Umar Na’Abba) to serve the people well. They are no Amtrak Joe, as the current White House lord was called when he commuted between Delaware and Washington by rail for 36 years. The same logic extends to the executive, where ministers, commissioners and those down the line almost always use pristine vehicles.

After all, our leaders are no Thomas Sankara, the Burkinabe president whose entire earthly possessions consisted of a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer; the man who sold off the government’s fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5, the cheapest car in Burkina Faso at that time, the service car; refused to have his portrait hung in public places, and would not even use an air conditioner because ordinary citizens could not afford such luxury; lowered his salary to $450 a month, cut the salaries of all public servants, and outlawed the use of government chauffeurs and first class air tickets. Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world but its president owns a fleet of luxury airbuses, and is no wretch like the British PM who uses public birds, and whose economy is sixth in the world. Nigeria spends 97 percent of its entire earnings servicing debts, not paying the actual debts, but its leaders live in armoured luxury, making special reservations for themselves in hell.

Bloomberg bellyached over Nigeria’s nonsense this week, saying “President Bola Tinubu’s first supplementary budget includes a fleet of SUVs for himself and his wife, and the renovation of his villa amid a cost-of-living crisis for some of the poorest people in the world.” The government, it said, “asks Nigerians to persevere through pain caused in part by a raft of economic reforms ushered in by the new president.” Bloomberg’s qualms: “Africa’s most populous country faces rampant unemployment, soaring food prices and a plummeting currency” but “the lawmakers approved 1.5 billion-naira proposed to purchase SUVs for the office of First Lady Oluremi Tinubu — an amount larger than that allocated to many individual federal colleges.”

I was in conference with my phone last week when I stumbled upon priceless beauty safely moored in Lekki, Lagos: NORD vehicles. By its own account, the company has an assembly plant to aid the manufacturing process and make its fleet of cars affordable. Its garage boasts classy rides: Flit bus, Lasgi big bus, Nord Yarn, Nord Max, Q5 SUV, Ben SUV, Aso truck, Q3 sedan, etc. Beauty, said the British poet John Keats, is truth, and truth beauty, but Nigeria’s decisioners love and live a lie. Pray, why can’t all our government officials use NORD vehicles? Headquartered in Nnewi, Anambra State, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Co. Ltd, the Pride of African Roads, produces 70 percent of its car parts locally, while the rest are sourced from Japan, China, and Germany. Its creations include the mercurial Ikenga, the five-seaters Fox , and the Umu as well as the mini-bus Uzo. It is also producing tricyles, and transforming PMS-powered vehicles to CNG-run ones. Innoson has for years been transforming the story of our transport, rolling out masterpieces at godly cost, but our leaders prefer to spend money that we do not have, importing fleets from jurisdictions swimming in gold and silver. Let all governments use Innoson.

The NORD vehicles I saw are simply breathtaking: they prove that what we seek in Sokoto city is right there in our sokoto (trousers), only that we are too burdened by extreme arrogance rooted in arrogance to notice. If the naira is to be rescued, then the time has come to outlaw the importation of vehicles by governments and their agencies. If in 63 years of independent nationhood our leaders cannot ride locally produced cars, then let them trek. The money they throw at Toyota and make for Mercedes is not their money; it is our money. We have the brains to create whatever we desire; let us engage them.

I do not know these automakers from Adam, and they have not sent me on an errand. I am moved by the beauty they brew, the sheer lustre of their craft. They are gold, pure gold, but our decisioners would sell their heritage to pay for dross as long as it is from across the seas. How can we grow when we resist birth? Watching the elegance called NORD and IVM vehicles (I have already placed orders in my mind) on video caused my head to swell with pride. The Lord has blessed us.

Why does a Nigerian lawmaker need a Japanese vehicle? Do Japanese lawmakers japa to Nigeria, asking for Nigerian autos? Can’t we bring our best brains from abroad to correct whatever flaws we find in these local beauties? I shall not rest till I see every corner of Nigeria IVMED and NORDED and. If lawmakers want to ride bulletproof cars while the masses dissolve in the hot sun, let them at least ride local ones. This should be the law, or the country is lost.

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE