₦airaland Forum

This man dey give me joy....very down to earth.Abeg this man no get wahala.

Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu : How the Izuogu Z-600 dream was destroyed

In 1997, a brilliant Igbo Electrical Engineer and Lecturer at the Federal polytechnic Nekede, Dr. Ezekiel Izogu designed and developed the Izuogu Z-600, the first African indigenous manufactured car.

The car was described by the BBC as ‘ the African dream machine as 90% of its parts were sourced locally. At a projected sales cost of 2000 dollars, it would have taken the world by storm and become the cheapest and most affordable car on earth. With mass production planned under Izogu Motors plant in Naze owerri, the prospects of an industrial revolution in Igbo land and Nigeria, was in the making.

The car was equipped with a self made 1.8L four cylinder engine that got 18mpg and allowed the car to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h. Front Wheel Drive (FWD) was chosen over Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) because a transmission tunnel, which RWD would require, would be more expensive to fabricate.

So 90% of the car’s components were made locally. General Sani Abacha set up a 12 man panel of inquiry made up of professionals to ascertain the road worthiness and authenticity of the car and after several days of probing, the committee gave Dr. Izuogu’s car a clean bill of health, recommending that some of the bumps on the body of the car be smoothened. It is worthy to note that this was five years before India built their first car known as the Indi.

At a well organized unveiling ceremony which had General Abacha represented by Oladipo Diya, over 20 foreign ambassadors and thousands of people in attendance, the federal government promised a grant of 235 million naira to Dr. Izuogu.

An excited Dr. Izuogu is still waiting for that grant till today. No dime was released to him. In 2006, the government of South Africa invited Dr. Izuogu to do a presentation about the car in the presence of several world class engineers. Being impressed with his presentation, they invited him to come and set up a plant in South Africa and begin the production of the car.

Dr. Izuogu reluctantly agreed, though he wasn’t happy that the benefits of employment generation will be lost on the locals of Naze and the Nigerian human resources environment. On Saturday, the 11th of March 2006, at about 2.00 a.m, a total of about 12 heavily armed men broke into Dr. Izogu’s factory in Naze and carted away various machines and tools including the design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-MASS, containing the design history for mass production of Z-600 car, and the moulds for various parts of the car.

According to Dr. Izogu:

“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. Other items stolen included locally produced timing wheel, locally produced camshaft, locally produced crankshaft, locally produced engine tappets, all 20 pieces each.

Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced Z-600 engine blocks, ten pieces of locally produced pistons, four pieces of engine block mounds, four pieces of top engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.”The inventor regretted that not only did they lose over one N1 billion in monetary terms, but also time (about 10 years) and the energy it took to design and produce the moulds. “To worsen the matter, our design notebook was also stolen,” he stated.

He regarded the incident as a national economic disaster because the nation had lost a technological and intellectual property. This Press was quiet about this story. The set back and governments attitude frustrated Izuogu and his dream died.
Credit: Comr Charles c agubor

No be Nigeria again!, deceiving the Masses. Am yet to see new ideas from this government that is geared towards the masses....and some people wants to vote this government,chai!.

Y auditing, what happens to building a project. The last project that was commissioned in Niger delta was done by Jonathan. The only comission done by this present administration is ogoni clean up,which we know is a smoke screen.

Fayose my man,the true Nigerians are with you 100%....squandering our national resources on demons they created....Abeg I wan ask,the war no dey finish?.

Gtbank,that 1 na bank......anyone still banking with gtbank is on there own.

Bad belle no dey pay.......say no to illegal arrest.I Stand with in no son,if you no like am,Oyo is your own.

This senate is totally independent. Weldone able senators for standing for the Truth. Imagine wat would have happened to Nigeria without these senators

How I love this senate,total independent. Weldone my able senators.....

Every month the same thing, yet no change.

I stand with innoson on this.

Nice 1 ma,your son is a great man.Simple man from a simple mother.....apple does not fall far from a tree.

Atiku I know!, every other person is on their own.Mediocrity should not be place above competency..... ATIKULATE2019.

Abeg make we hear word.If you seriously want your voice to be heard in PDP, baba deliver SW to PDP.Next person please

These BMC guys are something else.....wicked people, you want Nigeria to disappear from the world map.No nation has ever survived 3 recession.

Am interested in the smart watch g19..how d I get it.

I have seen this similar case at least 5x this month alone.please let's be careful of the kind of kerosene we buy to avoid this kind of incidence. RIP to the deceased. Get well soon[color=#006600][/color]

Na tinibu television station.... APC came to celebrate but met there Waterloo.

Looking at the pictures, is obvious he is giving them his personal money from his pocket.Is not even up to 1k.

The person above should read the post again.They said is the PDP prayer house.For your information dokpesi is not going anywhere. The race is between Bode George,jimi agbaje and gbenga Daniels.One of these men will lead the party to 2019 election.

Till you lose your wife your eye go open.When it comes to health, your friend or not does not matter but life.Get that into your head.

If fayose should win PDP primaries,then he has my vote likewise every reasonable youth out there.Thanks.

ducane:
which bank are you using

Diamond and GTB cards,is there anything to activate on the card,cause I see no reason why they are finding it diff to deduct the money .I really need to sort things out.

Mikeshiangala:
That means your card has no cash....update your account with cash and try again.

.
I have used both diamond nd GTB cards,all with cash on them.

I'll reward anyone with possible solution..
8months gone still yet my Facebook page has been on lock down.I ran a sponsored post early this year,when it was time for Facebook to deduct it from my Card they said they are unable to deduct it from the card.
Both master and visa cards all proved abortive.
Please I need advice on what to do next,I really need to get this sorted asap .

8months gone still yet my Facebook page has been on lock down.I ran a sponsored post early this year,when it was time for Facebook to deduct it from my Card they said they are unable to deduct it from the card.
Both master and visa cards all proved abortive.
Please I need advice on what to do next,I really need to get this sorted asap .

Am in,How do I contact you sir.

Tell them o,evil people everywhere. MMM STAND GIDIGBA!!!

Please Abeg am confuse!,does Kaduna state have oil.?

God should help us.

This woman should be a role model to anyone that believes in meritocracy!

You sold a fake goods,at least now you can collect it back and give us original.