We live in a ‘world’, where we solely depend on another ‘world’ for survival.
Can a country that can’t swash off any tangible product fabricated perchance have a flourishing economy?
Will a country where 95% of products found on it are imported (foreign) have a developed economy? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Why will a country who hinges on one source of revenue and imported goods not possibly drift into recession?
We assert to be the ‘Giant of Africa’ but fail in all ramifications to live up to the ballyhoo.
Think of it, why will Nigeria be importing toothpicks (of all things, chai!!!), Biros, books etc. when we have able-bodied citizens with all the potentials in the world both intellectually and physically to produce this?
Why should Nigeria be importing rice when we have locally made rice here in Nigeria e.g Abakaliki rice , Lagos rice etc which are less hazardous to our health compared to foreign rice .
We’ve heard cases of ‘plastic rice’ being imported from China …
We shouldn’t stoop so low as to be importing fruits, plants, and animals when we have copious of them here.
Citizens are fast to blame the government, but NO, for it’s not entirely the faults of the government but the citizens also have some flaws on this issue (I’ll get to that)
I feel importation should be ostracized totally from the country as we have both all source of natural resources and able-bodied youths to start our own production and exportation.
We all have roles to play in order to achieve this feat
My Suggestions:
The Government should ply producers enough fund to produce. Before anything could be produced, enough capital must be put in place.
They (government) also should organize seminars, special training for the youths on how to produce things.
The Citizens on their part should patronize the locally made products. One of the reasons production in Nigeria is minimal, is lack of patronization, citizens should stop looking out for foreign goods and buy the locally made ones which is cheaper.
When we depend on foreign goods, we lack that ‘Independent identity’ and are on some sort of neo-colonialism, but depending on our locally made goods give us our ‘independent identity’.
I don’t see anything wrong in us dropping corporate wears and wearing our traditional wears to our respective associations, organizations , hospitals, court of law and even on our ‘white wedding’ days etc. since that has been our identity from the beginning of our existence. There’s even a bible verse that says “but from the beginning it was not so”
We can even have our ‘own English’ called ‘Nigerian English’ with examples like jacko (bookworm), hammer (successful), whining (playful tease) etc., as our own official and formal language instead of using the British language (English). We all know of U.S.A which was colonized by England and was taught the British English but immediately after gaining their independence, ‘kicked’ out the British English and formed theirs.
One thing I respect most about our past four civilian presidents [Obasanjo, Yara dua, Jonathan and Buhari] is the fact that no matter where they are, they always (or mostly) show the true identity of Nigeria by wearing our traditional wear even at international events such as U.N.O, ECOWAS etc...
Furthermore, the producers of these locally made goods should abstain from producing substandard goods. This is, in fact, one of the reasons for lack of patronization.
We’ve heard stories of large scale production of substandard goods, from sale of fake drugs to use of special chemicals in order to quickly ripen food products e.g. plantains, bananas, tomatoes, inter alia for quick sell.
With past stories like this, people have lost complete trust on Nigerian products, as no one would like to make the ‘same mistakes over and over again’.
These manufacturers should turn a new leaf and produce standard goods which are long-lasting and less hazardous to human health.
Conclusively, if we take all these points to work, we would be self sufficient, be out of recession and possibly have the best economy in the world.
Nigerians, let us embrace our own.
David Sidney,
100 Level,
Law Students' Society,
Faculty of Law,
OAU.
09026166812.
