WE join other delighted Nigerians in applauding
the recent deal between the Nigeria Air Force NAF
and the Nnewi, Anambra State-based Innoson
Vehicles Manufacturing (IVM) Company Ltd. Under
this deal, IVM manufactures spare parts for the Air
Force to keep its Alpha Jets platform fully
operational in the war against the Boko Haram
terrorists in the North East.
According the Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, the NAF
Director of Public Relations and Information, the
Force would have been made to ground the Alpha
Jets had it not been for the gallant efforts of the
indigenous motor manufacturer “as no help was
coming from outside the country”. The IVM,
according to the Air Force Spokesman, helps to
modify and overhaul the brake assembly of the
MB-339 for adoption on the Alpha Jets.
The significance of this collaborative effort is
fundamental. It is a wonderful example and
prompter on the need for us as a country to begin
to look inwards for solutions to our problems,
which we had foolishly depended on external
sources to provide for us.
We are particularly cheered by the fact that this
collaboration is part of the vision of the current
Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar,
to forge strategic partnerships with both
government and public organisation for enhanced
research and development.
At a time when the nation’s economy is suffering
from foreign exchange crunch due to worldwide oil
glut and the rapidly dwindling value of the Naira
against foreign currencies, we must now make self
reliance a broadbased national policy. Nigeria has
what it takes to produce most of the things we
have been importing from other countries. Innoson
is just one of the many local resource platforms
that have been neglected in preference for foreign
suppliers of manufactured goods, some of them as
mundane as toothpicks.
This great example demonstrated by the NAF and
IVM, if emulated in other areas, will go a long way
in reducing the high level of mass unemployment
and the prevalence of violent crimes among the
restive youth. It is a wonderful way of keying into
President Muhammadu Buhari’s agenda of
diversifying the economy and creating jobs.
We must seize the opportunity provided by the
current economic downturn to explore the vast
human and natural resource potentials of this
nation and turn them to our advantage.
The authorities of the Nigerian Air Force deserve
commendation for leading the way in looking
inwards for solutions as opposed to their
predecessors who are being accused of
misappropriating funds given to them to source
for weapons to defend the nation.
No nation ever becomes great by depending on
the finished goods of other countries. We must
join Innoson and other local manufacturers in
saying: “Yes, we can”.
Everybody say...WE DEFINITELY CAN DO IT.
Bits and bits,we would surely get there .

Mynd44 what says you?

we will get there...

lekkie073:
we will get there...

O yea!We would surely get there.Go read stories of the FIRST WORLD countries,they did not just stand up and walk...no and no,they crawled and crawled real bad before they stood up and hit the ground running.We love to quote the saying “Rome
was not built in a day” but we fail to
remember that Rome was eventually built,
and it must have been so magnificent that
when people admired it, they were told that it
didn’t happen in just a day. The question,
then, is: if Rome was not built in a day, how
was it built? Answer: It was built every day....

Sai Baba keep it up..
Each time we always blame government for our woes, but we're always circumnavigating around corruption in our individual level..