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Suzuki honoured for defying Sahara desert
By Moses Akaigwe (igwemos@sunnewsonline)
Friday, November 7, 2008
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•Suzuki
Grand Vitara
Photo:Sun News Publishing |
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It was a day of glory for the Suzuki brand recently when
stakeholders in the fight against desert encroachment and
sponsors of an expedition across the Sahara converged on the
Swimming Pool side of NICON Luxury Suites, Abuja, to honour
the heroics of the adventurous team and the vehicles involved.
All the three Suzuki SUVs (sports utility vehicles) that the
team led by Dr Newton Jibunoh drove from Lagos, across the
desert, to London, were conspicuously displayed at the venue
with many of the guests milling around them and paying tribute
to their ruggedness, the comfort they gave to the voyagers
and their (the vehicles’) ‘staying’ power.
As would be expected, Mr. Emeka Ndu and Mr Godfrey Ugwuegbu,
Chairman and Managing Director, respectively, who represented
C & I Motors (the company that markets Suzuki vehicles
in the country), were visibly elated and assured that the
brand would be glad to partner with future expeditions.
Recalling the highpoints of the epic journey which commenced
on Sunday, March 9 in Lagos, Dr Jibunoh disclosed that the
three Suzuki vehicles – a Sidekick and two Grand Vitaras
- took them through Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso,
Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco, all in Africa. The
SUVs also traversed European countries like Spain and France,
before arriving London at about 7.30am on Saturday, April
12, 2008.
Jibunoh said the Suzukis never gave the team any problem on
the way, adding that the presence of an auto technician, Joshua
Adegbaju, whose experience spans 30 years, helped to keep
the vehicles on the road all the time. Adegbaju has the credit
of refurbishing and maintaining the Suzuki Sidekick with which
Jibunoh accomplished his second journey across the desert
eight years back, in 2000.
Not a few people were impressed that two of the SUVs used
by Jibunoh in the third expedition through the Sahara were
not new. Infact, the Sidekick which Adegbaju refurbished for
the second time (for the third journey) and which never disappointed
the team while the trip lasted, was described as the ultimate
conqueror of the desert, having defied the death’ route
thrice -- in 1966, in 2000, and in March 2008.
Addressing the guests, Ugwuegbu said his company’s (C
& I Motors’) positioning of the Suzuki range as
the best in terms of fuel efficiency, durability and performance
on the road, has been confirmed by the testimonies of the
Jibunoh team.
"Across the Sahara desert, there are many abandoned SUVs
that broke down and could not continue with their journeys.
They are there and anybody can have them for free, because
the occupants are dead. Where these other SUVs failed, Suzuki
succeeded. Suzuki has conquered the Sahara desert twice",
the C & I Managing Director stated gleefully.
Ugwuegbu drew attention to Suzuki’s fuel efficiency,
remarking: "Across the desert, there are no gas stations,
and if you let your car die, then invariably, you also will
die. Any car with fuel efficiency is environmentally friendly
because it burns less, and therefore, emits less fumes, thereby
saving our ozone layers. This is the technology around Suzuki".
Calling on the Federal Government to standardize the certification
of all new cars before they are allowed into the market (because
"the days of dumping should be over"), he maintained
that C & I Motors has empirical evidence to prove its
claim of fuel efficiency as one of Suzuki vehicles’
major unique selling points.
The evidence, Daily Sun learnt, was a test-drive conducted
by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) which showed
that the Alto, a mini Suzuki introduced recently by C &
I, can ply from Lagos to Ibadan on one gallon of petrol! Following
this impressive performance, SON last month issued the company
a certificate confirming Suzuki’s fuel economy, at a
brief ceremony held at the marketer’s head office on
Agege Motor Road, Ilupeju, Lagos.
Aside the tales of the SUVs’ epic journey as told at
the event, what most guests found remarkable was the disclosure
by Ugwuegbu that the choice of an all-Suzuki fleet for the
journey was entirely that of Dr Jibunoh and his team - without
any prompting either by C & I or any other party.
"His (Jibunoh’s) choice of Suzuki without a third
party intervention or initiative, is laudable, and that has
kept him alive", Ugwuegbu stated.
Jibunoh was to confirm later in a chat with Daily Sun that
though his first expedition which he accomplished alone in
1966, was driven by a Volkswagen Beetle, the second was in
a Sidekick, 33 years later – a choice influenced by
his personal conviction that only Suzuki could do the job.
When the Sidekick acquitted itself creditably, across the
world’s widest and most dreaded desert, it was not surprising
that the same vehicle not only made the most recent (third)
voyage, but also attracted two Grand Vitaras, to make it an
all Suzuki convoy. Apart from one of the Vitaras, C &
I also provided a Suzuki Jimny (mini SUV) which aws used for
support services.
After traversing about 16,000 kilometres through 11 countries
in Africa and Europe thrice, is the 70 year-old engineer (specialised
in Soil Mchanics) from Akuwku, Delta State, likely to dare
the desert a fourth time? His answer was an emphatic "no".
He said he had assured his family that the third would be
his last. He would rather encourage younger adventurers, including
the members of his recent team who he had shown the way, to
continue the campaign.
Other members of the team, apart from Jibunoh and Adegbaju,
were: Ebun Olatoye, Deputy Team Leader and Mission Correspondent;
Kelechi Amadi-Obi, a lawyer who was the official photographer;
Afam Austine Ugah, IT specialist; and Elizabeth Titi Laoye,
film maker. Jibunoh’s international non-governmental
organisation (FADE – Fight Against Desert Encroachment)
endorsed by the United Nations will provide the platform.
And, Ugwuegbu has pledged that C & I Motors will always
be willing, as it did during the recent journey, to donate
Suzuki. |
