The First African Made Car of Igbo extraction..

Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu : How the Izuogu Z-600 dream was destroyed

In 1997, a brilliant Igbo Electrical Engineer and Lecturer at the Federal polytechnic Nekede, Dr. Ezekiel Izogu designed and developed the Izuogu Z-600, the first African indigenous manufactured car.
The car was described by the BBC as ‘ the African dream machine’ as 90% of its parts were sourced locally . At a projected sales cost of 2000 dollars, it would have taken the world by storm and become the cheapest and most affordable car on earth. With mass production planned under Izogu Motors plant in Naze owerri, the prospects of an industrial revolution in Igbo land and Nigeria, was in the making.

The car was equipped with a self made 1.8L four cylinder engine that got 18mpg and allowedthe car to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h. Front Wheel Drive (FWD) was chosen over Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) because a transmission tunnel, which RWD would require, would be more expensive to fabricate.
So 90% of the car’s components were made locally. General Sani Abacha set up a 12 man panel of inquiry made up of professionals to ascertain the road worthiness and authenticity of the car and after several days of probing, the committee gave Dr. Izuogu’s car a clean bill of health recommending that some of the bumps on the body of the car be smoothened. It is worthy to note that this was five years before India built their first car known as the Indi.

At a well organized unveiling ceremony which had General Abacha represented by Oladipo Diya, over 20 foreign ambassadors and thousands of people in attendance, the federal government promised a grant of 235 million naira to Dr.Izuogu.

An excited Dr Izuogu is still waiting for that grant till today. No dime was released to him. In 2006, the government of South Africa invited Dr. Izuogu to do a presentation about the car in the presence of several world class engineers . Being impressed with his presentation, they invited him to come and set up a plant in South Africa and begin the production of the car.

Dr Izuogu reluctantly agreed, though he wasn’t happy that the benefits of employment generation will be lost on the locals of Naze and the Nigerian human resources environment . On Saturday the 11th of March 2006, at about 2.00 a.m, a total of about 12 heavily armed men broke into Dr. Izogu’s factory in Naze and carted away various machines and tools including the design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the design history for mass production of Z-600 car, and the moulds for various parts of the car.

According to Dr. Izogu:
“It seems that the target of this robbery is to stop the efforts we are making to mass-produce the first ever locally made car in Africa. Other items stolen included locally produced timing wheel, locally produced camshaft, locally produced crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20 pieces each.
Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces of locally produced pistons, four pieces of engine block mounds, four pieces of top engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.”The inventor regretted that not only did they lose over one N1 billion in monetary terms, but also time (about 10 years) and the energy it took to design and produce the moulds. “To worsen the matter, our design notebook was also stolen,” he stated.

He regarded the incident as a national economic disaster because the nation had lost a technological and intellectual property. This Press was quiet about this story. The set back and governments attitude frustrated Izuogu and his dream died.

source:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=971535556241628&id=378378918890631


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Super story....The dream of a good and determined Dreamer can not be killed.

[size=50pt]am FTC again!!![/size]

Hmmmm
Naija gat brains

Biafra will be different from the rest of backward Africa.

Biafra will surpise the world. #Fact

Hmmm, the more you think you know, the more you realize how much you don't know.

OP, can you Google Awojobi and Autonov? That was the first attempt at making a car by a Nigerian.

I had opened a topic on this in the past.

https://www.nairaland.com/2444018/pains-loss-nation-trapped-retrogressive

When real Igbos demand for Biafra, we do so based on our conviction that Biafra have the human resources uncommon in the Whole of Black Africa, resources buried deep down our genes that can only be unlocked, nurtured, grown and given wings to fly by a Biafran nation free from the envy, jealousy and negative energies of retrogressive Nigerian groups, under the central progressive policies of a dedicated nationalistic Biafran government.

Igbo amaka... he contested for Governor sometime years back in imo state... Nigerian Government and promise affairs re like bread and butter.

[b] Here is how Father Joe, one of the Irish Rev. Fathers who worked in Igbo land for a long time and stayed in Biafra throughout the Biafra-Nigeria War, described the Ibo (Igbo) to a team of reporters from Life Magazine in 1968: “Life (Magazine) has been dispatching teams to Biafra since June 1968, and now September, the beginning of the hot season, was on hand, we noticed a profound change. Wherever we went, people tugged at our sleeves and held out their hands, hoping for a coin, a cigarette, or a kola nut. This begging was altogether new.” “The Iboman never begs.” Father Joe said. “He's much too proud, he wants to pay for what he gets. The Ibos are wizards at saving money. When one of them gets a job, he starts saving right away; first for a bicycle, then a transistor radio, and next a bit of land. Then he builds a house on it, gets a wife and before the first child is born, he is already putting money by for the kid's school fees. The Ibos are mad for education.” He continued, “Ach, you should have known the Ibo before the war, shrewd, clannish, competitive – exasperating and proud. Some called them the Jews of Africa and others said they were as bad as the Irish, and I'd consider it a compliment either way. You know that we Holy Ghost Fathers all ran schools here before the war? The way we played on the Iboman's competitive instinct was absolutely shameless.” “What kind of parish is this? I would say to the elders. The school of the other village has an upstairs – Ibo talk for a second story – so they'd build me an upstairs and then I'd say, how can I be the Father here? There is a village not five miles from here that has a primary school and a secondary school as well. Do you expect me to spend the rest of my life rotting in a village that has no secondary school? So, up would go the new school and then I'd really put the screws to them: There is a settlement down Owerri-way that sent one of their boys to a university in Europe. Wouldn't it be a grand thing to have a university graduate of our own? And by God, somehow the village would scrimp and save until they had one: All that seems a long time ago now.” The determination and resourcefulness that once characterized the Ibo also preoccupied Father Joe. We were driving out for a last look at Emekuku Hospital when Father Joe remarked: “There was a time when it was impossible to have a car breakdown in Iboland. You'd find yourself stuck somewhere way out in the bush and first thing you know, three loafers – two of whom had probably never peeked under the bonnet of an auto in their lives – would saunter up to see what was the matter. In no time at all using rags and string they'd have you on your way again.” Father Joe shook our hands before we boarded the flight out through the flak and said, “Remember now: however this thing is settled militarily, somehow, somewhere, something called Biafra will continue to exist.”(Breadless Biafra). This is the Igbo the world used to know and which has been destroyed by Nigeria. [/b]

No mind dem

“There was a time when it was impossible to have a car breakdown in Iboland. You'd find yourself stuck somewhere way out in the bush and first thing you know, three loafers – two of whom had probably never peeked under the bonnet of an auto in their lives – would saunter up to see what was the matter. In no time at all using rags and string they'd have you on your way again.”

This is the Igbo man, this is what will make Biafra a great nation, those who are obsessed with crude oil they have no control over have got no clue why sensible patriotic Igbos remain die hard Biafrans.

Remember now: however this thing is settled militarily, somehow, somewhere, something called Biafra will continue to exist.”(Breadless Biafra). This is the Igbo the world used to know and which has been destroyed by Nigeria.

Of course, Biafra will continue to exist, as long as a single drop of Igbo blood exists on this earth, it's a spirit that can never be killed.

The further the Igbo stay in Nigeria, the more we lose the very things that make us who we are, the greatness in us, the creative spark, the love for freedom and the loathe for slavery and bounds.

Nigeria is like a cancer to the Igbo nation, it will destroy us, if we don't root it out fast, we are running out of time as it stands, it only takes a pure heart like this old European reverend father to see that.

The oil drunk lazy zoo keep asking how Biafra will survive without SS and i laff at their stvpidity.

Na today?

I'm sure if it was an Hausa man they would have given him d said fund. it is sickening the way we decieve ourselves in this country. by this story up there, does the action of d General in any way depict the re-integration of the igbos into Nigeria?

This is not the right place to post a topic, not a politic.

This is madness.

In satellite section.?

Chai. These bigots