President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday reassured Nigerians that the implementation of National Automotive Policy approved last year by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is not to inflict pains on them.

He said the new policy will save the nation an average of over $4 billion spent in importing vehicles, adding that the money when invested here will create jobs.

Read more: http://frontiersnews.com/index.php/news/7096--jonathan-insists-ban-on-tokunbo-cars-not-to-cause-hardship-to-nigerians

What was done with the money "saved" from the Subsidy removal??

Now they want to "Save" more money by this policy.

Why not manufacture brand new cars alongside imported cars and leave people the choice of choosing brand new cars with value for your money or Tokunbo??

Why are G.E.J's Policies that are supposed to save money end up taking more money out of the average man's pocket??

Wizkid gave a nairalander his wrist watch worth 1.5 million https://www.nairaland.com/1561486/wizkid-gave-wrist-watch-worth/1

Let him lead by example.

Further increasing the gap between the minority rich and the majority poor.

I'm not sure, but I suspect that this policy may have to do with balancing trade with some countries.
Nigeria's export to certain countries are dwindling, so Nigeria may want to neutralize the impact on balance of payment, BUT I don't know if Nigeria can afford to do this.
Just my humble opinion.

When did Executive arm of government begin to make law? Why would Federal Executive Council make law? I thought the legislative arm of government should be the one making such law. Someone needs to take GEJ on this policy.

GEJ overstepped his boundary here.

Legislature My arrrse!!
Do you have a legislature in Nigeria??
THAT SENATE "A comedy theatre of every imaginable absurdities"
Is David Mark dead? Or doing RIP in jonathans pocket
Approve more Jets and don't remember to save money and creat Jobs!!!!
God will Certainly Purnish that Jonathan and Urgly Wife!!

Oga Jona,this policy would only enrich the neighbouring country,smugglers,police,and custom officer.

That one dey think? Him get sense? What stops u from implementing your automobile policy and leave the normal tariiff and duty 4 importation of cars. Let ur policy face stiff competition and leave the choice to we Nigerians... If to go for locally Made (GEJ Suv) or foreign ones, trust me price and effeciency wud determine!

placing the cart before the Ox again in yet another poorly thought out policy.

why not give incentives and tax holidays to automobile manufacturers?, make entry requirements low and favorable, provide the land and basic infrastructure for production like POWER, then allow market forces determine where Nigerians spend their car money....replicate this in other sectors and see if Nigeria wont achieve Industrial Lift off!... FG policy makers are clearly not in touch with reality and the President consistently fails to apply independent thinking to these policy suggestions.

cotonu,customs, smugglers and police will benefit from this way more than Nigeria.

otokx: Let him lead by example.

He will never. I can swear with my life this govt. will still buy lots of goods (and cars) from abroad at inflated prices as usual. They did the same while telling Nigerians in 2012 to save money by buying THEIR fuel expensive. Their fücking refineries yet can't meet local demand hugely driven by generators despite the $hit Allison said on TV during that period.

No Pain No Gain

no pain no gain. yes when is it buhari or ibb taxed the auto manufacturing industry and left the importers did the importers need to import many cars at first before the tax hike no, instead when the tax hike kicked in they all started to import many cars. therefore I believe that the higher tarrif will on the ither way round encourage local manufacturing of cars. by the way we alteady have one that is innoson . the Japanese ambassador already affirmed that Japanese car manufacturers are ready st start building car manufacturing factories here in Nigeria. the only opposition is because of Nigerians' penchant for foreign goods. look at how they talk down aba made products without first of all comparing and contrasting

Time for customs officers to make .money through smuggling. They should learn from ban on the import of rice, don't we have imported rice all over.

Well gej should lead by example by having only made in Nigeria cars in his convoy

phransix147: That one dey think? Him get sense? What stops u from implementing your automobile policy and leave the normal tariiff and duty 4 importation of cars. Let ur policy face stiff competition and leave the choice to we Nigerians... If to go for locally Made (GEJ Suv) or foreign ones, trust me price and effeciency wud determine!

Maybe cos NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD that has a functional AutoIndustry have done what you are suggesting??

taharqa: Maybe cos NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD that has a functional AutoIndustry have done what you are suggesting??

Canada does that.

Jonathan is increasing import duties on used vehicles when the companies that PROMISED to produce cars in Nigeria have not even thought of raising money, discussing it at their board meeting or even conducted feasibility report not to talk of clearing the land for the equipment and machineries. So, manufacturing of new cars cannot start in the next 2 years.

Yes, go on Jona, punish them, punish all the poor masses that voted for you. You have banned importation of rice, fish, turkey. Poor masses should eat their eba without fish or turkey. The price of Ijebu Garri has also doubled since you got to Aso Rock, so poor masses cannot even eat Ijebu Garri but your Agic Minister keeps giving us statistics that he is working while prices of rice, beans, garri and other food items have increased by more than 100% since Jonathan got to Aso Rock.

Now, you have banned importation of used vehicles. Minimum wage is 18,000 naira, how can a salary earner afford over a million naira to buy a new car. Well, the distance from Ikorodu in Lagos to Jibowu in Lagos is a straight path through mile 12, Ojota, Maryland, Palmgrove and finally to Jibowu, no corner, no turning. So, those that can not afford the BRT can take a walk, exercise is good for the body. The distance from Abeokuta, Ogun state through Lagos-Abeokuta expressway to Nigerian Breweries in Abute-Metta Lagos is also a straight path from Abeokuta through Sango, to Iyana-Ipaja, to Oshodi, to Ojuelegba and finally to Costain, no corner, no turning. Poor masses who cannot afford the fares of the old commercial buses can talk walk for body fitness. The distance is less than 100 kilometer

Now, imagine a pregnant woman in labour whose husband cannot afford a new car, the husband will carry the woman to the bus-stop, they board a commercial bus to the hospital and from the nearest bus-stop to the hospital, the husband carries his wife in labour to the hospital while Dame imPatience Jonathan flies to German hospital whenever she has headache while Gudluck Jonathan goes to London hospital whenever ogogoro gives him running stomach and headache.

Keep punishing the poor masses, they deserve it for voting you into Aso-Rock. Thank you for giving us good statistics through your Agric Minister and Finance Minister. Thank you for giving us good GDP, CPI and other statistics. Poor masses will eat statistics, GDP and CPI while you eat over 1.3 billion naira food and your animals also eat millions of naira food as you have budgeted in 2014 budget.

Which kain strong-head pikin be this?

This policy and its sincerity cannot be taken seriously till GEJ agrees to replace his entire convoy of cars to the available locally produced ones (Innoson for now).

Very inconsiderate policy. Why not wait for the locally produced alternatives to be available before enforcing higher import tariffs?

Very good.
I was afraid GEJ would succumb to pressure from car importers.
Thank God.

Just another case of a poor implementation of a good policy. Our governments over time have always managed to put the cart before the horse.

Let them make provisions of manufactures first then they can ban importation of used cars.

Fast Shipping: When did Executive arm of government begin to make law? Why would Federal Executive Council make law? I thought the legislative arm of government should be the one making such law. Someone needs to take GEJ on this policy.

GEJ overstepped his boundary here.

it is called delegated legislation

government use this means to test new policies

simpleseyi: Jonathan is increasing import duties on used vehicles when the companies that PROMISED to produce cars in Nigeria have not even thought of raising money, discussing it at their board meeting or even conducted feasibility report not to talk of clearing the land for the equipment and machineries. So, manufacturing of new cars cannot start in the next 2 years.

Yes, go on Jona, punish them, punish all the poor masses that voted for you. You have banned importation of rice, fish, turkey. Poor masses should eat their eba without fish or turkey. The price of Ijebu Garri has also doubled since you got to Aso Rock, so poor masses cannot even eat Ijebu Garri but your Agic Minister keeps giving us statistics that he is working while prices of rice, beans, garri and other food items have increased by more than 100% since Jonathan got to Aso Rock.

Now, you have banned importation of used vehicles. Minimum wage is 18,000 naira, how can a salary earner afford over a million naira to buy a new car. Well, the distance from Ikorodu in Lagos to Jibowu in Lagos is a straight path through mile 12, Ojota, Maryland, Palmgrove and finally to Jibowu, no corner, no turning. So, those that can not afford the BRT can take a walk, exercise is good for the body. The distance from Abeokuta, Ogun state through Lagos-Abeokuta expressway to Nigerian Breweries in Abute-Metta Lagos is also a straight path from Abeokuta through Sango, to Iyana-Ipaja, to Oshodi, to Ojuelegba and finally to Costain, no corner, no turning. Poor masses who cannot afford the fares of the old commercial buses can talk walk for body fitness. The distance is less than 100 kilometer

Now, imagine a pregnant woman in labour whose husband cannot afford a new car, the husband will carry the woman to the bus-stop, they board a commercial bus to the hospital and from the nearest bus-stop to the hospital, the husband carries his wife in labour to the hospital while Dame imPatience Jonathan flies to German hospital whenever she has headache while Gudluck Jonathan goes to London hospital whenever ogogoro gives him running stomach and headache.

Keep punishing the poor masses, they deserve it for voting you into Aso-Rock. Thank you for giving us good statistics through your Agric Minister and Finance Minister. Thank you for giving us good GDP, CPI and other statistics. Poor masses will eat statistics, GDP and CPI while you eat over 1.3 billion naira food and your animals also eat millions of naira food as you have budgeted in 2014 budget.

are u sure all this are not just fiction?the price of goods are determine by forces of demand and supply ,
the government can just susidize the product by putting up favourable policies and grant and loans (gej should work on this)

on the issue of higher tarrif for importing car this is the prize we have to pay for better nigeria
the government should endeavour to revive ajaokuta steel and improve our eletricity for us to attain industrialisation

this first phd holder president keeps pissing me off with his policies ... shakes head and walks out of thread

I pity for poor people in Nigeria.Where is d subsidy money?.Th policy is nt good for nigeria becos majority ar poor.

Sirgen05: Further increasing the gap between the minority rich and the majority poor.

after the foolish and incompetent budget that further enriches the rich by allocating more than 70% of the whole budget as govt running costs!

Why is it that Nigeria government always implement good policies that make sense but at the wrong time? This policy would have made so much sense now if His government had encouraged the auto industry in Nigeria 4 years ago to start car assembly and production.

Also, why do we not learn from the mistake of the past? Obasanjo did the same thing, and research showed that smuggling of used vehicles across our boarders increased and corruption by Custom officers at boarder post also increased.

If GEJ's government encouraged some of the major auto manufacturers to set up plant in Nigeria years ago with some very attractive schemes, I am sure by now Nigerians would even be the ones crying out loud for this policy to be implement.

Anyway, GEJ has only 15 months left to go and any obnoxious policy would be reverted sharp sharp by the new president in 2015

This is a very stupid policy, supported by stupid people and designed to please the likes of Elizade and Coscharis.

If you support this policy, you're a traitor. Pure and simple. There is no iota of common sense behind this policy. None at all.

GEJ:
He commended the RTEAN for its support for the policy,saying: “ We cannot come up with policy that will punish Nigerians, else I will abort it immediately.

I predict that this policy of 250% increase in tariffs on Tokunbo cars will be reversed within 6 months of its implementation. It will be aborted as promised by GEJ.

My question is, why couldn't GEJ promote and assist the auto manufacturing industry without this absurd increase in tariff. What happened to waivers, tax incentives, and outright grants? This administration is clueless as to the number of jobs which would be lost as a result of this policy. This administration keeps digging its own grave. SMH