Nigeria’s first indigenous car: 16 years after,
designer, Izuogu yet to get FG grant Sixteen years ago, history was made when an
engineer, politician and researcher, Dr. Ezekiel
Izuogu, invented the first Nigerian car after eight
years or research.The invention was celebrated with,
at least 20 foreign ambassadors and over 50,000
other dignitaries, including Gen. Oladipo Diya (rtd.), who represented the then Head of State, the late Gen.
Sani Abacha, when it was unveiled in Owerri, Imo
State. To compensate him for a commendable effort, the
Federal Government promised to motivate him with
N235 million after the panel of inquiry gave the car a
clean bill of health, certifying it road-worthy.
However, 16 years down the line, Izuogu, lamented
that he was yet to get a dime from the Federal Government approval, even when the amount was a
paltry sum compared to N1.5 billion government
gave a foreign car manufacturing company then. Narrating his frustrating and efforts of his to enlist
Nigeria as industrial nation, Izuogu disclosed that he
even had to reject a huge offer from a country that
promised him $400 million if he could transfer the
technology or design to them. The scientist further disclosed that his pain was not
the failure of the Federal Government to release the
fund to him, but where the car would have placed
the country. He said apart from producing the
cheapest car in the world, the mass-production
would have engaged millions of Nigerian youths currently involved in militancy, kidnapping and
insurgence . The invention Nigerian leadership snubbed my inventive efforts.
But in fairness to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, who was
in power when I invented the car and who even
unveiled it through his deputy, Oladipo Diya, he made
commendable efforts. I remember that more than 50,000 people, including
about 20 foreign ambassadors from far and wide,
gathered in Owerri, Imo State, during the unveiling.
They actually came to ascertain the truth in a Nigerian
actually producing a car from first principles. All the South-east governors were equally there at
the unveiling. The international media took it up,
their Nigerian counterpart also did fantastic publicity.
They told government that the car would provide the
country opportunity to make Nigeria a world power. The car I produced was to sell for $2,200 and
everybody acknowledged that it was the cheapest
car in the world. That car came five years before India
produced its first indigenous car called Indi car.
Before then, all the cars produced in India were only
assembled. It is on record that I produced my car four clear years
before Indi car, but the India government saw theirs
as an opportunity to change the economy. They
pumped in money into the project. Today, the car is
exported all over the world. In my own case, there were attacks from left, right
and centre. They questioned how I, an electronic/
electrical engineer, not even a mechanical engineer,
could have built a car. There were so many organised
attacks against me until at a time I had to ignore
them. I ignored them because I only wanted to perfect the
product and have it in the market to prove that it is
possible. I never really wanted to settle down into
mass-producing cars since I was doing other
researches more important to me than the car. I
thought government was going to take the invention up by giving me just a little settlement for my efforts. I worked for eight years behind the camera. It was
my company that funded it and I worked round the
clock, combining it with political campaign. I would
go for campaign at 7.00am, return by 7.00pm, sleep
for about three hours, wake up by 10.00pm, go into
my lab with my task force and work till 5.00am. I would then drop them off and go home. That was
how that car was build for eight years. People were
shocked when we unveiled it. FG probed the car So, when we got it out, of course, the Federal
Government did the right thing by setting up a 12-
man probe panel to investigate the authenticity of the
car. They did the right thing by drawing experts from
the various research centres. The panel came to
Owerri, spent three days and probed every part of the car. They wrote their report to the Federal
Government at the end of their visit. The Federal Government wrote to congratulate me,
stressing that according to the report of the probe
panel, the work was a very credible one even though
there were bumps on the body of the car. They told
us to smoothen the bumps in addition to other
things. Of course, I was not surprised with the bumps
because the car we did was a prototype, not the real
thing. We knew that we have to make moulds that
would give exactly the same thing if we want to
mass-produce 1000 cars. The prototype was done
with just plane hands. The Federal overnment acknowledged that it was a
fantastic work, but at the end of the day, the amount
approved to support me in the further development
of the project was N235m even when they were
giving foreign companies operating in Nigeria N1.5b.
However, they still sit on it and up till today, not a dime has been released to us. Foreign interests A foreign country invited me to give lectures on the
technology, but by the time I finished the lecture, the
president called me for a meeting. I met with him and
his deputy and they confessed they did not actually
invite me for the lecture but to inform me that they
were interested in the car. They told me they were ready to put down $400
million for mass production on the condition that I
bring the car from Nigeria to their country. I rejected
the offer, insisting that my country must produce it. Nigeria missed it So, I have done my best to Nigeria to acquire the
technology about 16 years ago. If Nigeria had mass-
produced that car, we would have been talking of
producing one million of it annually to march the
current Nigerian population. It would improve the
economy and the naira would be equal to a dollar. All these young men into militancy, kidnap and
insurgency would have been gainfully engaged
because none of them would earn less than
N100,000 monthly from that car alone. However,
nobody listened to me. I have put it behind me and
as a researcher, I have continued with other researches because there are so many other areas to
explore.

Imagine and they are busy wasting Billions of Dollars on irrelevant things....... SMH 4 this Country

Where is the pix to support it?

Wasted oportunity.

where all these rich men? I think the inventor did not do well enough too. Foreign companies or investors would be interested in a marketable design and he could have just made manufacturing it in Nigeria a part of their agreement. 16 years is too long to bury a dream project especially one that would launch me to global relevance and national importance.

Were is the source and pix