I have great admiration for the Chinese. The doggedness with which they subdued their harsh terrain and inched their way into modernity to become the second largest economy in the world is quite admirable. I have often argued that they needed communism at the time the West referred to them as the Iron Curtain. Without strict state control in those lean years, there would probably have been a violent implosion and the country of 1.4 billion people we now know as China may have become splintered into many smaller countries.

When the Chinese decided to introduce elements of capitalism into their trade and industry, they learnt the tricks so fast that the West was left reeling. There is no meaner capitalist than a Chinese with capital. That is why I am not rolling out the drums to celebrate the disclosure that the Chinese are coming to Nigeria in a big way, having decided to make Nigeria a major manufacturing zone for China’s key industrial enterprises.

Speaking to our Trade and Commerce Minister Olusegun Aganga, the Director, Chongqing Liangjing New Area, China, Mr. Weng Jieming, said Chongqing had five key industries, including automobiles and motorcycles, petroleum and natural gas, equipment manufacture, new materials and high-tech industry, which had key investments in many countries of the world and that his country would “support the companies, especially in the motorcycle and automobiles industry, to make direct investments in Nigeria for local production.”

Aganga on his part said the availability of raw materials and a ready market in Nigeria for “quality” Chinese products would make the deal a win-win situation for both countries: “It makes economic sense for Chinese companies to come and manufacture in Nigeria because Nigeria is strategic, it has the market and raw materials. We would also focus on backward integration so that other industries can spring up and the value chain strengthened.”
[b]I am all for job creation to meaningfully engage the millions of jobless youth roaming the streets and fomenting mischief. But I do know that there is no free lunch anywhere. The Chinese are not coming here to play Santa Claus. Neither are they operating on the same philosophical plain with the Red Cross. Their motive is to make money – and there is nothing wrong with that because profit is the name of the game. The problem with the Chinese, even more than the Indians, is their tendency to export entire Chinese villages to run their factories. I watched with consternation when the Chinese Embassy in Maitama was being built. Labourers, carpenters, bricklayers, metal workers etc were all brought in from China. The situation is the same in many Chinese factories. Where they employ the local population, they pay slave wages.


Check out what is happening in Zambia where the Chinese control the manufacturing sector and employ a large chunk of the population. Zambians working in Chinese mines are some of the lowest-paid employees in the hazardous mining sector. Under the previous government, workers complained that foreign capital took precedence over workers’ welfare. Labourers continue to work under poor conditions and without proper protective equipment in the dangerous mining sector.

In Nigeria, we are not famous for insisting on minimum standards either of morality or product integrity. Before we bring the Chinese and their villages to further populate our country, the Federal Government has to design and insist on a set of standards regarding pollution, workers’ wages and quality of products. The Chinese would pollute every cubic centimetre of your air if your local laws allow them. When somebody offers to clothe you, the first thing you have to do is check out what the person is wearing. China does not have a good environmental record.[/b]

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