OP-UNEDITED: Scrutinizing That Diatribe Against Innoson Vehicles At The Senate – Prof. F. O. Orabueze

From what happened on the floor of the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday, it is obvious that some of the senators from the Igbo Nation, except a few of them, didn’t know and didn’t appreciate that our people sent them to the Senate to be our eyes and our ears in the Senate. And if ANYTHING is being shared, they should get our own shares for us. “I COMMEND SENATOR UTAZI WHO HAS ALWAYS CONSISTENTLY SHOWN THAT HE IS A TRUE IGBO SON.” 

Others should be made to appreciate that instead of murmuring against his position on INNOSON vehicles, they should have stood by him and supported him to ensure that INNOSON vehicles are patronized by the government at ALL levels. 

INNOSON vehicles and other locally manufactured vehicles should be patronized by schools, hospitals, civil service, etc like it is done elsewhere. I still remember China’s plates of the seventies and eighties. From manufacturing fragile breakable plates, China is NOW a superpower that is competing with other world Powers. VERY soon, it would send its scientists to Mars, and Nigeria is still a CONSUMERIST nation that imports foreign vehicles, while local manufacturers are left out in the HARMATTAN cold.  But If they are encouraged and patronized, definitely, their brands would improve tremendously. ALREADY, INNOSON new models of cars are NOT only exotic but are very durable. Again, Igbo senators termed the issue of INNOSON vehicles brought up by Senator Utazi as a local issue. It is quite UNFORTUNATE their use of words. Were they saying that it should be discussed ONLY at the South-East states or local government councils in the zone? If it is NOT discussed at the level of the Senate, where else would it be discussed? Don’t the Senate spend billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to purchase porch cars for its members even at the HEIGHT and DIRE time of the CORONAVIRUS pandemic? HOW AND WHERE WAS FOREIGN RICE BANNED TO THE BENEFIT OF LOCAL RICE PRODUCERS? Was it done in a particular zone that gained from the ban?                            

Besides, the Federal Government making INNOSON VEHICLES and other locally manufactured cars priority in patronage will definitely bring economic development and empowerment of the zone, which the Igbo Nation has been hammering on; yet, the opportunity came, it was fizzled out by our OWN people.  VERY SOON WE SHALL TURN ROUND TO COMPLAIN THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT DEVELOPING THE SOUTHEAST, AND EVERY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP IS MARGINALIZING THE  ZONE.    

If that opportunity was harnessed, it would not ONLY create employment, but it would also lead to local content development.    

With the South East being economically viable, the exit of the Igbo youths to other greener pastures, where they are seen as NUISANCE, would have been minimized.           

NEXT TIME, PLEASE, LET THE IGBO SENATORS BE WELL-GUIDED  and bring our own goodies from the center to those of us who stay in Igboland. IF THE SITUATION CONTINUES,  NONE OF US SHALL VALIDLY SAY THAT ANYBODY MARGINALIZES US, BUT WE MARGINALISE OURSELVES.

Prof. F. O. Orabueze is a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka