when will nigeria government ever produce a car?
Stakeholders in the steel industry have called on President Muhammadu
Buhari to probe the sale of the nation’s automobile industries by the
Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE).
Workers under the umbrella of the Steel and Engineering Workers’
Union of Nigeria (SEWUN) demanded for the review of the privatisation of
the companies in the sector, lamenting that due process was not
followed in the sale of the companies.
The National President of the union, Elijah Adigun, in his address at
this year’s Annual Industrial Relations Conference in Ijebu Ode, Ogun
State, advised the Federal Government to urgently set up a probe panel
to look into the sale of automobile industries and to determine why the
guidelines provided for in the Privatisation Act was not followed in the
sale of these companies by the BPE.
According to him, for President Buhari to succeed with his agenda of
creating jobs for the unemployed youths, he should take a second look at
the privatisation exercise carried out by BPE as no single company
privatised in the iron and steel industrial group is doing well. “For
instance, Anammco Limited, National Truck, Steyr Nigeria Limited,
Leyland Nigeria Limited are companies sold to auto traders instead of
core investors who have knowledge, expertise and skills of vehicle
manufacturing,” he said.
Adigun noted that before the privatisation of these auto plants, they
had a combined workforce of nearly seven thousand compared with about
300 workers they now have put together. “It will interest you to know
that before the privatisation of these auto plants, they had a combined
workforce of nearly seven thousand compared with about three hundred
workers they have now. Clearly, the figure here is an indication that
the privatisation of these companies has brought economic woes and
wastages to the country, rather than blessing envisaged by the Federal
Government, even salaries are hardly paid to their workers,” he said.
The union leader who expressed his union’s support for the Buhari led
administration’s battle against corruption, said it should not be
selective. He also said it should be extended beyond the last regime to
ensure that all those who had illegally appropriated the nation’s wealth
are brought to book.
Employment generation
He called on the government to grow the economy by exploiting other
natural resources for wealth creation and employment generation. “To
create more jobs for the teeming population of our youths, government
needs to look at other areas apart from oil sector.”
General Secretary of the union, Michael Ogbolu, in his paper said the
theme of the conference, “Survival strategies in an unfriendly
environment-the Nigeria experience”, was quite appropriate, given a
situation whereby corruption has brought Nigeria to its knees.
Calling for urgent attention to rejuvenate the power sector, which he
said holds the key to the restoration of the manufacturing sector,
Ogbolu expressed dismay that most vibrant factories in the past have now
been converted to places of worship due to unfavourable business
environment. He also condemned the insurgency in the North Eastern part
of the country, which he said has a negative effect on its members’
companies’ volume of trade and thereby contributed to the loss of jobs
in the sector .
excerpt from Vanguard.
