Now I know how the dream of Nigeria made car was killed. though the car was not flashy.

http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/1stNigerianMadeCarNews.html


[size=18pt]Vanguard News, Sunday, March 19, 2006
*Design history, moulds of Nigerian made car stolen[/size]

An indigenous motor manufacturing company, Izuogu Motors Limited, Naze Owerri, Imo State, has lost property valued at over one billion naira to burglary.

According to the chairman of the company, Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu, some armed men numbering about 12 broke into Izuogu Motors factory, Saturday, March 11, between 1.00 and 2.00 a.m. and carted away various machines and tools including a design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the design history for mass production of Z-600 car, a proposed locally made car and the moulds for various parts of the car.

Izuogu, who has laboured for 18 years under very difficult circimstances to design and produce the stolen moulds, lamented that the moulds took 10 years to design and build.

“The perplexing thing about this theft is that it is clear that none of the stolen items can be sold in the market. Since the Z-600 is not yet in the market, the items stolen can only be used by the 600 phototype which is just one car,” he told journalists.

He wondered why other highly valued machines and tools in the factory were not touched by the robbers if they were looking for money.

“It seems that the target of this robbery is to stop the efforts we are making to mass-produce the first ever locally made car in Africa,” he stated, adding: “Other items stolen after a quick inventory conducted by the company soon after the incident include locally produced timing wheel, locally produced year camshaft, locally produced crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20 pieces each. Also stolen are 10 pieces of locally produced Z-600 engine blocks, 10 pieces of locally produced pistons, 4 pieces of engine block mounds, 4 pieces of top engine block moulds, 10 pieces of engine fly wheel and 2 pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.

The moulds stolen took 10 years to design and build. In monetary terms they are valued over one billion Naira. But the problem is not the money but the time and energy it took to design and produce these moulds. To worsen the matter, our design notebook has also been stolen.”

He regarded the loss as a national economic disaster were the nation to appreciate the value of technological and intellectual property.

Izuogu therefore appealed to the Federal Government, the security agencies and all well-meaning Nigerians to assist in the recovery of the stolen items.

The robbers had mercilessly beaten the security men and tied them up before forcing the factory open, he added.

IT WOULD BE VERY WELL WITH NIGERIA WHETHER (THE POSTER) OR ANY ENEMIES LIKE IT OR NOT.

With your mouth you shall confess. I will continue to confess good thinsgs either for myself, family, friends, community and my country.

Without a shadow of a doubt it is very sad to see a very noble and worthwhile invetion stolen. We all prayed that all those things that are stolen will be recorver in Jesus Christ name and all the culprit will be apprehended and dealt with seriously to deter other people.

So, my brother the fact that something happen bad as it may be should not mean we will rain curse on our nation. We can rain curse on all the enemies of Nigeria who are doing this woeful thing for our great wonderful people of Nigeria.

N.B just out of curiosity what happens if the thieves are foreigners, how can we then rain curses on Nigerians or Nigeria. If an outsider/foreign rain curses on us how would we feel.

We cannot curse the entire nations for the deed of some minority of people. You are a Nigerian,I take i, how would you feel GOD Forbid I say that it will never be well with 'your enemy' as I wouldn't like to refer to you directly.

Please let us continue to play for Nigeria whatever the circumstances. Today difficult, Nigeria will be better.

I THEREFORE URGE YOU TO CHANGE THE THREAD TO 'IT WILL BE WELL WITH WELL WITH NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS WHETHER OR NOT THE ENEMIES LIKE IT'

vigasimple:

IT WOULD BE VERY WELL WITH NIGERIA WHETHER (THE POSTER) OR ANY ENEMIES LIKE IT OR NOT.

With your mouth you shall confess. I will continue to confess good thinsgs either for myself, family, friends, community and my country.

Without a shadow of a doubt it is very sad to see a very noble and worthwhile invetion stolen. We all prayed that all those things that are stolen will be recorver in Jesus Christ name and all the culprit will be apprehended and dealt with seriously to deter other people.

So, my brother the fact that something happen bad as it may be should not mean we will rain curse on our nation. We can rain curse on all the enemies of Nigeria who are doing this woeful thing for our great wonderful people of Nigeria.

N.B just out of curiosity what happens if the thieves are foreigners, how can we then rain curses on Nigerians or Nigeria. If an outsider/foreign rain curses on us how would we feel.

We cannot curse the entire nations for the deed of some minority of people. You are a Nigerian,I take i, how would you feel GOD Forbid I say that it will never be well with 'your enemy' as I wouldn't like to refer to you directly.

Please let us continue to play for Nigeria whatever the circumstances. Today difficult, Nigeria will be better.

I THEREFORE URGE YOU TO CHANGE THE THREAD TO 'IT WILL BE WELL WITH WELL WITH NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS WHETHER OR NOT THE ENEMIES LIKE IT'

No offense @vigasimple , but I no fault you , but I don't think the POSTER is the one you should be rebuking but the idiots who stole africa's number on car plan

(SERIOUSLY LAUGHING NOW)

The car maker had no backup plans?

I am guessing it is a guy involved in this case, maybe they were too poor to afford backups of the plan or something cause I have no idea how else to explain the fact that the laptop contained all there was to this and no backup exists.

Sounds interesting that a company big enough to have investment worth billions would not have back ups and that they will not have the car design and the car design history anywhere else.

This is an old story and I don't see why all of us who are 'unfortunate' enough to live in Nigeria should be culpable for the loss of one man's car design? Yes it's a great loss, but manuscripts get stolen, houses burn down, someone said the richest place in the world is the cemetry because that is where dead dreams reside. How can it not be well with Nigeria because of the theft of a car design? I fearooooooo.

This is a convenient way of telling us that the car project was flawed and mainly mere hype

Dr Izuogu has not yet told us the real truth.

donzman,
nice question

I-Man
i'm inclined to agree with ya statement.

9-2-5,
take it easy with ya utterances

Seun I do understand that I was a little over the top, but I thought is a free world, those words I used were exactly how I felt, I cant really see any point in changing the title of a well thought out thread. Though the words may sound offensive, but I was trying to make my view palpable, no time for bantering talk,
now you 've taken the fire in the thread, thank you.

Ezekiel Izogu, managing director of Izogu Motors Limited managing director disclosed this in an exclusive interview with BUSINESSDAY.

Izogu said the car was first launched in Owerri in 1997 by then Chief of General Staff Oladipo Diya during the regime of former Head of State Sani Abacha.

But the success story really began last year when Izogu was invited by South Africa to deliver a lecture on science and technology. Izogu said: "The South African Government encouraged me more than my own country. Mbeki sent his deputy-president to receive me and told me how ready they were to encourage me and to provide what I wanted.

"However, they said I must take the car to South Africa to let it be manufactured in their country. If they are putting up the money it is only fair that the car is made in their country".

He added that the board of directors at Izogu Motors was in the process of taking the car to South Africa, but he stressed that the Z600 would "lose its Nigerian identity".

For the car to be truly Nigerian, he said, the engine, chassis and body would have to be made in this country.

He claimed that "ethnic politics killed this product in Nigeria". "After the car's launch the Federal Government formed a high-powered team of scientists to probe my work. This team was led by the then Science and Technology Minister, Sam Momoh.

The team was drawn from research institutions in Nigeria. "They spent three days in Owerri investigating my job. Questions were asked and I answered them.

"When the team went back to Abuja, matters concerning the car were discussed at an executive council meeting which resulted in a commendation letter being sent to me.

[size=18pt]"But politics of ‘why must it be an Igbo man' came up. I was shocked!" [/size]

Despite these set-backs Izogu said "the world will feel and touch a car made in |South Africa instead of a car that should have been made in Nigeria".

"This car must be mass produced. It is worth doing that I as a Nigerian.


___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


@all

[size=18pt]The words I highlighted above were the reason why I said it would never be well with Nigeria, cause is obvious it wasn't foreigners that perpetrated the crime and is pellucid that the guys that stole the manuscript never did it for any gain rather than to slake the car manufacturer's effort in making the product see the light of the day, please pardon my out bust of emotion cause am equally into this kind of stuff.[/size]

toshmann:

Dr Izuogu has not yet told us the real truth.

.

9-2-5,
take it easy with ya utterances

You should have known by now that I only discourse things that are close to my heart , and I would not like to have you running contumely around telling me how best to air my views, don't mean to be rude, we 've had this before, so bro, slow it down, slow it down. I would advise you to deal with the issue at hand, rather than teaching NINETOFIVE manners, do I look like I care?

i'm sorry

The car maker had no backup plans?

This could probably be this case, this is possible, but at least now we know this could happen, is good to learn from other people's mistake.

Thank you bro, am sorry for my tone too.

NINETOFIVE:

This could probably be this case, this is possible, but at least now we know this could happen, is good to learn from other people's mistake.

Well, considering we are talking of building cars here and a model and stuff, your statement there really makes this seem like some sort of backyard shop. Is it what it was??

NINETOFIVE:

Seun I do understand that I was a little over the top, but I thought is a free world, those words I used were exactly how I felt, I can't really see any point in changing the title of a well thought out thread. Though the words may sound offensive, but I was trying to make my view palpable, no time for bantering talk,
now you 've taken the fire in the thread, thank you.

Babes, you weren't a little over the top. You were way over the top. Nevertheless, I agree that the title change has taken the fire out of the thread and has made some of our comments obsolete. It was the title that drew me to the page. And you were well and truly expressing your frustrations even though some of us took it personally. So it would have been nice to see the debate rage on with the old title. I was waiting for the first person to turn into an ethnic brouhaha as every political issue in Nigeria is turning out to be.

The car maker had no backup plans?

i have a N 135000 laptop. i am an employee of a company. i am an electrical engineer. I have a large number of present and proposed designs on my system.

i bought a n30,000 external hard drive. i back up all my project data every week( I should do it every day)

i am just an employee. how a man running a full scale business can choose not to utilise a back up system and insure his business is quite simply beyond belief! the cost of backing up his info etal, is negligible!

I agree. I find it hard to believe

oyb:

i am just an employee. how a man running a full scale business can choose not to utilise a back up system and insure his business is quite simply beyond belief! the cost of backing up his info etal, is negligible!

Kobojunkie:

I agree. I find it hard to believe

i no talk

oyb:

The car maker had no backup plans?

i have a N 135000 laptop. i am an employee of a company. i am an electrical engineer. I have a large number of present and proposed designs on my system.

i bought a n30,000 external hard drive. i back up all my project data every week( I should do it every day)

i am just an employee. how a man running a full scale business can choose not to utilise a back up system and insure his business is quite simply beyond belief! the cost of backing up his info etal, is negligible!

Really hard to believe Especially for someone living in nigeria

"Oh, so it's mr. Izogu's fault because he didn't have back-ups" you guys are truly *****s to the highest degree.

What ever the op's original title was I agree.

There is no point talking about "what ifs"

When it happens we should talk about it and congratulate the successful company.

btw have started a thread about Nigerian history, whisch Iam compiling using mainly television news archives, please if you know where I could get footage on youtube other video stream websites please let me know.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-693700.0.html