EACH time people, out of mischief, or ignorance, raise my Volkswagen of Nigeria experience as a negative in my career, I am amazed at the ease with which people expose themselves to be showed up as ignorant and, sometimes, to being humiliated. Those who have tried it face to face at public events have walked away with bruises as the facts I will restate here, show. The amazing thing about this strange matter of Volkswagen is that it is for me the biggest manifestation of God’s favour to me as a decision maker. But first the facts.

I joined Volkswagen of Nigeria in 1986 as Corporate Affairs Manager. Before I joined, the Germans were already planning to pull out, given frustrations with the Nigerian government. You can read an interview in Europe’s Manager Magazine in 1987 by the former MD of Volkswagen of Nigeria Klaus von Bothmer. Indeed the head-hunting that brought me to VWN followed riots in the factory which weakened the commitment of VWAG who had waited years for the government to pay its second capital call of less than 80 million Naira.

Within two weeks of my joining the company Nigeria announced it was embarking on a Structural Adjustment Programme. In my view, assembly operations of an Import Substitution Industrialization Strategy like Nigeria was pursuing had no chance of surviving unless there was a quick change of strategy that focused on areas we were competitive in as an economy. I said so openly and wrote an opinion piece in This Week magazine predicting the demise of companies like VWN.

Few had an understanding of the point I was making. Some actually accused me of not defending the company I had just joined. I dared then to predict the de-industrialization that has since happened. One of those who understood the point I was making about redirecting competitive manufacturing in the direction export led industrialization and getting companies like VWN to focus on producing components in which Nigeria was endowed to compete in was then CBN Deputy Governor Victor Odozi. His call to commend my courage remains one of the high points of my involvement with the debate on the direction Nigeria’s then much troubled economy should take.

I would move up quickly from Corporate Affairs manager to Deputy Managing Director. In that position I tried to persuade the board that my view of the future of the company was in the VW Group assigning to VWN the business of producing one or two rubber components in the cars for deployment into the global supply chain of the company.

In my view that would create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Nigeria and fetch us foreign exchange income that could compete with crude oil, as Nigeria had one of the best yields per hectare in the world. I even made the presentation on this at the very first Nigerian economic summit in 1993 with then Michelin MD Jean Claude Deithel. Just as Michelin got fed up with the lack of seriousness of policy and eventually shut their factory in Nigeria, the VW people politely told me my country was not serious enough to risk such an ordinarily reasonable strategy.
Interestingly, one of the people who interviewed me at the time was a Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for African Economies at Oxford, Paul Collier. Three years ago UNIDO commissioned Collier to study China’s rapid industrialization and what Africa could learn from it. At the end of the study Collier told me that China had done precisely what I had recommended Nigeria do with companies like VWN. The consequence for China was that one local government in China produces 75 per cent of all the burtons in the world. The Nnewi, Aba or Kano clusters could easily have gone the same way had someone paid attention to me.

At an occasion where I discussed Nigeria’s unfortunate de-industrialization and job creation, a few years ago, I talked about my suggestions in 1988 and an American Labour Economist who had been on assignment to the BPE in Abuja said to me that my 1988 ideas were the stuff Nobel Prizes in Economics were made of. When I told him some poorly informed people actually think that run was a poor one and a basis for insulting me he laughed so much he nearly fell off his chair. Welcome to public discussion in underdeveloped environments.

What actually amuses me about these remarks is that many who make them are totally without clue about the times they discuss. One who raised it on a day I was in sour mood heard enough of what he did not know that he felt obliged to write a letter of apology and bring it himself, saying he was an undergraduate at the time with very little understanding of the issues. As I told him, my real puzzle is how if Pat Utomi was responsible for end of CKD assembly at VWN, the fact that it came two years after I served out my term and left on my own notwithstanding, who was responsible in Steyr and NTM and almost all of manufacturing that once contributed nearly 13 per cent of GDP but today contributes less than three per cent of GDP. Surely we would have to blame all the expatriate and Nigerian executives for the collapse of manufacturing.

Truth is that my struggle to move policy down the track that would have shaped a more prosperous future anchored on comparative advantage from value chains of factor endowments were not part of my remit as an executive at VWN and was really the outcome of share grace and force of personality. As spare tyre (deputy), with full management authority domiciled in the foreign technical partner, I should be of as much consequence in anything as the Deputy Governor of a State in Nigeria. People like Air Vice Marshal Mohammed Yahaya who are still around acknowledge like many of the former German executives my leadership role in keeping the company around long past the demise time forecast by Mr. von Bothmer at the time I was joining the company.

Sometimes I wish decisions I made could be found related to where the industry is. I would acknowledge them as part of my failings from which I can fall forward. As one who believes in a great return on experience for failed effort I have never shied away from acknowledging failure. This particular subject is therefore a source of irritation because it is spurious and baseless and a great paradox because I am more proud of the choices I made back then than most things I have done since.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34392:utomi-utomi-and-volkswagen-of-nigeria&catid=38:columnists&Itemid=615
• Professor Utomi is a Presidential aspirant in the 2011 general elections

its clears some misconception

Enough said

Hmmmmmm. . . . Utomi wants Nobel prize for suggesting what the layman knows?

Why did he not resign when his opinion was not heeded?

All these he is saying is "after the fact". I am sure while he and other executives were killing d company, he didn't think dat one day he will have to account for his failures. I wonder why some people can't just admit when they have made a mistake. Remembers! they are typical politicians.

utomi for president

Insert Quote
Hmmmmmm. . . . Utomi wants Nobel prize for suggesting what the layman knows?
Posted on: Today at 01:30:11 PM
Posted by: sochan

@Ibime, and who is the layman that knows these suggestions? You people are too proud to acknowledge intellectual capacity and that is why we allow nonentities to direct the states of things in the country. This is a professor of Economics (Political Economics), a graduate of INSEAD and not only that with his initiatives in LBS, he has proven that he is not just a classroom Professor but someone who has knowledge and if given opportunity, can solve some of the myriads of economic problems facing the country. Always appreciate good things when you see one.

All these he is saying is "after the fact". I am sure while he and other executives were killing d company, he didn't think dat one day he will have 2 account 4 his failures. I wonder why some people can't just admit when they have made a mistake. Remembers, dey are typical politicians.


@ Blank, can you please substantiate your claim of he killing the company. What evidence do you have to the contrary? Have you considered all the issue raised by him in the post? Your statement depicts a lazy mind that could not careful analyse issue but would rather jump into conclusion that this is an excuse, if this is not the case, tell us the detailed accounts of how he contributed in killing the company.

The man was ahead of his time, tragically, and still is. Nigeria won't elect men like him, rather we will elect morons and brutes who are easy meat for the imperalists who want to keep raping the continent.

Ibime:

Hmmmmmm. . . . Utomi wants Nobel prize for suggesting what the layman knows?

I'll disagree here Ibime, hindsight makes us all geniuses. At the time he made those suggestions, the last thing on the layman's mind was that Nigeria would turn out this way.

blank:

All these he is saying is "after the fact". I am sure while he and other executives were killing d company, he didn't think dat one day he will have 2 account 4 his failures. I wonder why some people can't just admit when they have made a mistake. Remembers, dey are typical politicians.

This statement is regrettable. People that should be hailed as great thinkers are being put down by keyboard experts, who cannot even understand the crux of the matter. No respect for solid minds, that's the tragedy of Nigeria, our history has been lost to beer parlour arguments and younglings who get their history from hints magazine, encomium and city people. Big shame.

If a list of foremost Nigerian intellectuals and thinkers is ever compiled he would feature high up on it. But of course we don't do such things in this cash and carry, corruption promoting, mediocrity celebrating,morally bankrupt american tv addicted  country

Ibime:

Hmmmmmm. . . . Utomi wants Nobel prize for suggesting what the layman knows?

You fail to situate what he is saying in the stream of time. In the 80s when he mooted this idea NO ONE IN AFRICA and most parts of the world where thinking in that direction. We were trying to leapfrog from mostly primary agro products and raw crude to high end manufacturing. It was a tragic error in judgement. If we had gone low tech like utomi suggested we would have built on this and improved. Taiwan and China only proved it was a good plan. That is why you can smugly say that it is what a "layman knows" At the time it was pure Nobel worthy stuff. It would serve us well to retrace our steps to that template his idea is STILL the way forward.

AjanleKoko:

The man was ahead of his time, tragically, and still is. Nigeria won't elect men like him, rather we will elect morons and brutes who are easy meat for the imperalists who want to keep despoiling the continent.

nuff said brother

mrjingles:

This statement is regrettable. People that should be hailed as great thinkers are being put down by keyboard experts, who cannot even understand the crux of the matter. No respect for solid minds, that's the tragedy of Nigeria, our history has been lost to beer parlour arguments and younglings who get their history from hints magazine, encomium and city people. Big shame.

If a list of foremost Nigerian intellectuals and thinkers is ever compiled he would feature high up on it. But of course we don't do such things in this cash and carry, corruption promoting, mediocrity celebrating,morally bankrupt american tv addicted  country

Aptly put, sir.

vislabraye:

Why did he not resign when his opinion was not heeded?

please don't tell me, you will resign from your job because
the government,management or board did not buy your ideal.

Ibime:

Hmmmmmm. . . . Utomi wants Nobel prize for suggesting what the layman knows?

if you think or say so, its not a bad ideal

blank:

All these he is saying is "after the fact". I am sure while he and other executives were killing d company, he didn't think dat one day he will have 2 account 4 his failures. I wonder why some people can't just admit when they have made a mistake. Remembers, dey are typical politicians.

he  did not kill the company, the Nigeria government did, pat is not corrupt.
do you know he is payed for his abroad, we don't know his worth, foreigners do

blank:

All these he is saying is "after the fact". I am sure while he and other executives were killing d company, he didn't think dat one day he will have 2 account 4 his failures. I wonder why some people can't just admit when they have made a mistake. Remembers, dey are typical politicians.

he  did not kill the company, the Nigeria government did, pat is not corrupt.
do you know how much, he is payed for his speech abroad, you don't know his worth, foreigners do

Excuse me if Im dumb but asking for Nigeria to focus on areas where it has competitive advantage is not Nobel prize winning and Utomi should not be comparing his idea that Nigeria should focus on the production of rubber parts to Nobel Prize winning stuff.

If so, Awolowo would have won Nobel prize for directing the Western Region economy to its area of competitive advantage - Cocoa production!

@Ayubam,

I have fought this war for so many years. I must admit there are some of us that just wont accept the truth. We see someone like Utomi who can offer so much to the country, but we would rather talk him down, and some would even group him with the thieving politicians.

Meanwhile these same people are not prepared to raise a finger to help our country. I am sick and tired of Nigerians, we are just an absolute useless bunch, probably worse than Atiku and CO

@Ibime,

how do you know that? Are you privy to the paper and concept he proposed? Please let us learn to celebrate those amongst us who have done well, and are PREPARED to give thier one kobo to help us

Utomi has not done any wrong

Ibime:

Excuse me if Im dumb but asking for Nigeria to focus on areas where it has competitive advantage is not Nobel prize winning and Utomi should not be comparing his idea that Nigeria should focus on the production of rubber parts to Nobel Prize winning stuff.

If so, Awolowo would have won Nobel prize for directing the Western Region economy to its area of competitive advantage - Cocoa production!

you and i know that the nobel prize comment was not the crux of the matter.
Why not address the crux of the matter and leave such side comments.

Though I do agree with his theories and respect his personal,

I Stronly believe it's not yet His time tom be Nigerian President else ,
He'll cause more confusion like the one we already have

[s]
[size=16pt]It Takes a  mAD dOG to drive nIGERIA mAD cOWS, UTOMI is not mAD eNOUGH[/size][/s]

mrjingles:

This statement is regrettable. People that should be hailed as great thinkers are being put down by keyboard experts, who cannot even understand the crux of the matter. No respect for solid minds, that's the tragedy of Nigeria, our history has been lost to beer parlour arguments and younglings who get their history from hints magazine, encomium and city people. Big shame.

If a list of foremost Nigerian intellectuals and thinkers is ever compiled he would feature high up on it. But of course we don't do such things in this cash and carry, corruption promoting, mediocrity celebrating,morally bankrupt american tv addicted  country

Don't worry, the 'breath of fresh air' kid is on the block.
Suddenly, all shall be well.

mbulela:

you and i know that the nobel prize comment was not the crux of the matter.
Why not address the crux of the matter and leave such side comments.

You would know I dont need to hail the man. His record is there for all to see as one of our respected citizens.

However the Nobel Prize comment is a jor oh! moment!!!

my problem with Pat and progressives of his kind is their inability to form a viable collation to dislodge these barbarians in power.
Instead they go around forming mushroom parties that will not win a single ward election and postulating high sounding manifestos that the average Nigerian cannot relate to.
I am beginning to think that the progressives are as much to blame as the barbarians at  the gate.
Why can't men of like passion put their selfish desires and dreams aside and come together and rescue this entity called Nigeria.
Now i want to vote and i can't find a decent aspirant with a chance of wining to vote for.
Maybe i will just settle for Buhari.

Ibime:

You would know I dont need to hail the man. His record is there for all to see as one of our respected citizens.

However the Nobel Prize comment is a jor oh! moment!!!

Noted and i agree it is a jor oh! moment indeed.
When i read the article and saw it, i blushed with my black face
okay, let us move on.

Ibime:

You would know I dont need to hail the man. His record is there for all to see as one of our respected citizens.

However the Nobel Prize comment is a jor oh! moment!!!

I get your point and it does look like a bit of bigging himself up , neither do I think its deserving of a Nobel price but then we don't know the full details of what he proposed.
What his statement shows me personally is how the wrong choices by a few people can drag a country down.

@Mbulela and Ibime,

Listen guys, Utomi means well, but I get your point about teaming up to provide a formidable and credible opposition. It is hard in Nigeria where everyone wants to rule. Pat has a deep conviction about wanting to lead Nigeria in the right direction. but let us keep watching. I have great admiration for those willing to risk all to try. Lets not forget that to participate in elections in Nigeria remains a serious risk to life

sochan:

@Mbulela and Ibime,

Listen guys, Utomi means well, but I get your point about teaming up to provide a formidable and credible opposition. It is hard in Nigeria where everyone wants to rule. Pat has a deep conviction about wanting to lead Nigeria in the right direction. but let us keep watching. I have great admiration for those willing to risk all to try. Lets not forget that to participate in elections in Nigeria remains a serious risk to life

in that sense, he is no different from Atiku and Jonathan.
many of us believe in him,the same way we believe in Ribadu, Falana et al.
The question is why can't they come together and form a team strong enough to dismantle this evil force holding us hostage?
How feasible is it for him to conquer while forming all these cheesy parties that i can't even identify?

Many a time i don't quite understand Nigerians, we are all here comparing who to vote among three rogues(GEJ,ATIKU and BUHARI) yet we have a decent and progressive man like Pat Utomi in the same race and nobody have ever mentioned of voting him even if he did not win.

Can anybody tell me what might be behind all this.

mbulela:

in that sense, he is no different from Atiku and Jonathan.
many of us believe in him,the same way we believe in Ribadu, Falana et al.
The question is why can't they come together and form a team strong enough to dismantle this evil force holding us hostage?
How feasible is it for him to conquer while forming all these cheesy parties that i can't even identify?

Guy, truth is all the progressives you mention don't have the kind of money to dole around like the "bados"!

Money remains a big factor in Nigerian politics as it is the only language understood by the over 40 million (of our total 70 million voters) in the rural areas. They don't listen to much news, many of them can't read and probably can't tell much who is a good guy or bad guy. They just want bread and it does not matter who provides it. Give them bread, they will vote for you.

These people remain our greatest problem and the progressives have not been able to map out strategies that will buy these people over from the "money bags". Go and check all the wards where elections were annulled by the courts in the last elections. 90% of these wards are in villages and remote towns where literacy/awareness is very low.

Utomi and other progressives must seek to conquer these voters if they want the much needed opportunities to change Nigeria.

I guess this contribution is worthy of a nobel prize as well[size=8pt][/size]

Many a time i don't quite understand Nigerians, we are all here comparing who to vote among three rogues(GEJ,ATIKU and BUHARI) yet we have a decent and progressive man like Pat Utomi in the same race and nobody have ever mentioned of voting him even if he did not win.

Can anybody tell me what might be behind all this.

@ Presido: While I appreciate your response on canvassing support for Pat Utomi's candidacy, I am however taken aback by you grouping Buhari as rogue. It is a known fact till today that Utomi and Buhari have been working together under the umbrella of SDM towards resting powers from PDP until recent times that Buhari has to join CPC and Utomi forms his present party. I have attended lectures where Utomi clearly stated that he will work with the likes of Buhari, Olu Falae and some others based on their credibility and support for good governance in the country. Learn to separate issues from person. Calling Buhari a rogue simply means you are not informed about the political activities in this nation. You are however misinformed that any past leader in this country is a rogue forgetting the fact that Utomi at the age of 29 was an economic adviser to one of these past leaders? Does that make him a rogue?

Please, Buhari may not have the intellectual capacity like Utomi but be informed that intellectual capacity in itself is not only sufficient to rule the country, you need strength of character, integrity, firmness and discipline and good governance is a team work not one man showmanship. The earlier you know that the better for us all because we will need the vote of the people that have been wrongly labelled as ALMAJIRIS as well to win presidency or are they not Nigerians?