So we all woke up one morning, earlier this year, and the national call encouraging everyone to buy locally manufactured goods took over the media. This was occasioned by the alarming rate at which our Naira is dipping against the dollar.

As expected, hashtags like #buynaijatogrownaira #buynaija and a couple of others began to trend on social media. Opinion leaders, public analysts, industry experts, politicians etc started analysis and counter-analysis on radio, TV and print media . In this part of the world, it is also expected that this Cause will soon fizzle away with the same fervor with which it began. All we need is another story to distract us.

In fact, we’re already being distracted. The agonizing queues for fuel in the filling stations have resumed, full time. By the time you spend some hours in the scorching sun, with your car, jerrycan or even your generating set, in a no-paddy-for-jungle scene; and then the filling station stops selling just before it gets to your turn - hehehe, every spirit of ‘buynaija’ in you will find their way!

A little bit of sincere soul-searching. What exactly do we manufacture in Nigeria today?

It is common knowledge that the Nigerian manufacturing sector is in a state of comatose, the signs are everywhere. Within the last three months, no fewer than 1,500 workers had been sacked and another 3million on the verge of suffering the same fate. I checked some major online stores in Nigeria: Konga, Gibadi.com , Jumia, Dealdey. You can count the number of ‘made in Nigeria’ products listed. Enter the urban malls and the reality is the same.

Can we criticize this trend? The majority of locally manufactured products are easily recognizable through their characteristic poor quality, though many Nigerians are still willing to buy anyway. We can’t blame the manufacturers either; the odds are stacked against you if you produce in Nigeria. As a minimum, you must provide your own power supply to survive. Now, foreign exchange is the new headache - the raw materials are not locally sourced.

So here is the task, before you make too much noise about buying made in Nigeria, look around you; and if you find any made in Nigeria product (That is not foreign owned) share that #MadeInNigeriaStory here http://gibadi.com/madeinnigeriastory_nominate.html