INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE

I am tempted to ask if the federal and FCT governments are content with making Abuja and Nigeria a contract pursuing, civil service country. What role is the FCT expected to play in the actualization of the National Industrial Skills Development Programme and the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan? These are blueprints aimed at fast tracking Nigeria’s industrial drive, but unfortunately, they appear to only exist on paper. If the FCT administration were willing to industrialize Abuja, there is one way to find out: through government’s commitment to the development of the Idu Industrial Estate, Abuja. Like the University of Abuja, it is in their back yard. What measures have they taken to attract new businesses to the Park and improve existing ones?

The infrastructure in Idu Industrial Estate is deplorable apart from the road network, which is a slow work in progress. Electricity supply is erratic and incapable of powering industries located there. Communication is a challenge as no masts have been erected there. Those who have braved the situation by investing in generators and boreholes are bullied into paying duplicated taxes and levies. As if all this were not bad enough, last week, a unit from AMAC rallied thugs – some in uniform and others in mufti – to storm the entrance into Idu and dismantled and destroyed at gunpoint signboards belonging to businesses located at the industrial park. Upon enquiry, injured parties were violently set upon. Some company staff were beaten for speaking up against this nonsense. 

They say that the signposts were erected illegally. However, two arguments readily flaw this. First, no signpost was spared, meaning all the companies erected them illegally. In this case, shouldn’t the agency issue a notice that those signboards should be removed if conditions for their erection were not met? The second point is that some of the factories actually approached the agency for approval and paid the levy to erect the signboards. Why have they been penalised too? 

The matter is really so sad, because it again shows a complete disconnect from policy to implementation. We increasingly see the government as one who only talks the talk. They can make speech but that is all. It is clear that the agency does not fully recognise what its role is. It is a failure on their part to not properly regulate and police signage that will in the first place occasion such an occurrence. What message do they send to the world? “We want you to come and invest here. There is no light and no water, and the roads are not the best yet. But Nigeria has plenty natural resources and you can come and develop them further but God help you if you put up a sign showing that you have actually taken the plunge, the risk, are employing Nigerians, who are therefore not idle and a burden on the state and guess what are also contributing to the development of the country by paying their taxes! But the company cannot let you know where they are, as we will not let them put up their signage to notify potential customers that they are there.” Isn’t this rubbish?

If the FCT’s reason for this obnoxious act is to check environmental degradation, then its authorities should note that Idu is an industrial park, and like any of its kind all over the world, signage is important in locating the numerous factories operating there. If, on the other hand, the purpose is an aggressive revenue generation, we warn that the FCT should critically weigh its revenue generation drive against boosting industrial and commercial activities in the territory, especially considering the difficult conditions that these companies are operating under and the dire lack of employment opportunities here.   

   

 Simply put, Nigeria’s industrialization policy lacks the ingredients to effectively drive the economy. A government that has not adequately invested in human capital and infrastructure is frustrating and averting enthusiastic investors who are risking all to run their businesses in such unfriendly circumstances.   Government officials, instead of sitting in their offices, should visit Idu and other industrial parks and see what is being manufactured by some of the factories there and try to help them improve; except, of course, if they are content with our importation culture, starting from the chair and desk that they are sitting on.  

A Yoruba proverb says, “Ile ti ko ni’lekun ni asinwin n ko wo” (It is the house that has no doors that the madman enters). It is clear that we have no doors in the house of our forefathers who have through sweat, deprivation, selfless denials and risks built this nation to evolve to the geographical expression called Nigeria. We have let in lunatics; we need to take risks, chase them out and hang the doors.