Hope Uzodinma, the governor of Imo State, has struck a tenorin the nation’s quest for self-sufficiency. Barely three weeks in office,Uzodinma did what this writer has consistency advocated: the need to thinkNigeria, buy Nigeria and eat Nigeria. He ordered cars from the assembly plantof Innoson Motors in Anambra State. The cars were delivered to the Head ofService and permanent secretaries of various ministries in the state.
Let’s be clear on this. Uzodinma became governor via acontroversial judgment of the Supreme Court. The apex court sacked Rt. Hon.Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and ordered INEC to issuecertificate of return to Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress, APC. This essay is not about the jurisprudence ofthe Uzodinma-Ihedioha matter. Ihedioha has returned to the apex court. We leavethe jurists to fairly adjudicate on the issue.
That judgment, landmark on many fronts, has not onlystripped the Supreme Court of honour in the eyes of the layman, it haschallenged the numerate content of lawyers and judges in Nigeria. Thearithmetic deployed by the judges to arrive at their answer still confoundseven the best of mathematicians. And it has nothing to do with Uzodinma orIhedioha. The joke is on the judiciary, primarily; and on INEC, significantly.An electoral umpire that has consistently demonstrated a clear inability toconduct election – compile a voter register, accredit voters, supervise voting,count the votes, tally the ballots and announce results – is at the core of theperennial failings of our democracy.
Ask any INEC official, they will defend and justify theiractions, passing the buck to security officials who failed to stop vandals andhooligans from snatching ballot boxes and disrupting polls. It’s because theumpire has abdicated its duties to everyone within sight that we have to lookto the judiciary to bring a closure to almost all elections. Yes, the judiciaryis part of the electoral but adjudicating on electoral matters is not its primaryduty. It should never be the routine. It ought to be in exceptional cases. It’s the duty of INEC to conduct credibleelections, void of manipulation, shorn of duplicity and devoid of numericalambiguity which gives room for judicial conjectures. Enough of this digression.
We return to Imo. The reality is that Imo State and indeedall other states deserve good governance. Good governance, as common aspoliticians have traded the phrase on the floor of politics, is not itselfcommon. Good governance has been scarce at all levels of government. Federal,state and local government. Not even in the legislature, the constitutionalombudsman of democracy, can we find flashes of good governance. It’s because ofsuch scarcity of good governance with all its emblems that we applaud agovernor when he pays or agrees to pay a minimum wage of N30,000 per month($83). Because of the absence of good governance, we applaud a governor forpaying salaries of civil servants without fail. We hail a minister forrefurbishing a decrepit airport and even for building 20th centuryrail tracks for same century trains in the 21st century.
And this is where the Uzodinma gesture makes sense. Thegovernor did what all governors, CEOs, and leaders in the country should bedoing. We want the good life in Nigeria. We want to grow our economy, createjobs, create wealth and empower the people. We mouth it loud. The Presidentsays it. His ministers echo it. Governors sing the same hymn. Chief ExecutiveOfficers of blue chips chorus it. They say lets’ grow our GDP; build factories,cottage industries, create jobs, stop capital flight, shore up the naira,engage our youths, tame crime and criminality, temper poverty and mitigate thenational regression to destitution. They all know the problems and even how tofix it. But nobody wants to walk the talk. None stirs the anvil to offersolution. None fans the foundry. Just all talk, no action.
The reality is that Nigeria has multiple challenges. Part ofthat challenge is our lavish lifestyle. Our proclivity to import luxury createdin other countries. Our inclination to patronize the west. Our propensity toeat offshore, holiday offshore, get a cure offshore, ship our cash offshore inexchange for luxury, and these days outsource jobs and contracts to foreigners.You cannot build a virile economy on these faulty props.
India did not become the outsourcing capital of the worldfor nothing. She did not become the global outsourcing capital for softwaredevelopers including Microsoft just for being India. She achieved this bygrowing its internal capacity. The government of India became the biggestpatron on Made-in-India goods and services. The private sector took a cue fromthe government and India patronized India. The boom in local patronage helpedlocal industries to grow and improve on their products and services. And thisgave them confidence to export their products. By January this year, Indiaaccounted for approximately 55% market share of the US$ 185-190 billion globalservices sourcing business.
Indian brands like Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Tech Mahindraamong others did not become global brands overnight. They first enjoyed homepatronage which helped them to improve their products’ quality. Nigeria canreplicate the India, South Korea and Singapore magic. These Asian countries ata time shunned foreign products. They looked inward, engineered their ownproducts, patronized their own products, perfected them and are now selling sameto the world. In 2019 alone, South Korea’s exports totalled US$542.3 billion. These products are mainly electricalmachinery, business machines and electronics including computers, vehicles,mineral fuels including oil, plastics and plastic articles, Iron, steel et al.
Asians are not more intelligent than Nigerians. India has ahigh pool of numerate graduates and techies. Nigeria also has a good pool ofengineers and number crunchers: a good fodder for software engineering. Nigeriahas outliers in all fields but we never believed in ourselves. We would rather,more out of mischief than anything else, patronize offshore companies andproducts even when we can comfortably produce such products at home. It’s awrong-headed lifestyle and orientation.
Uzodinma has toed the path of progressive-minded individualsand institutions like Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State who when therest of us were in a seizure of self-doubt paid upfront for Innoson vehiclesfor use by Anambra state government officials. Uzodinma should travel furtheron this route. Buy more Innoson vehicles, buy Nigerian-branded computers(incidentally he has globally-certified Zinox promoted by a highly progressiveImo son, Leo Stan Ekeh) for Imo workers and schools. And why can’t we haveother states walk the Uzodinma path. The Nigerian Army has also walked thispath, partnering and patronizing Innoson Motors. Let’s have more.
President Muhammadu Buhari is passionate about promotinglocal content and growing the economy through the Buy Nigeria initiative. Theleast our leaders can do is to key into the Buhari vision. It is a worthycause. Imo has taken a great leap forward on this in a manner that makes methink there is Hxope in this Uzodinma.