₦airaland Forum

Finally, Nigerians are beginning 2 question things and not blindly hold on 2 what some "leader" says. If he is really serious about helping Nigeria, why can't he start from d grassroots? Why must he be president when he knows he has no realistic chance of winning? He should seek 4 somewhere 2 put his head n work hard 4 Nigeria (if dat is really wat he wants). Its not about answering d title of presidential aspirant 4 life.
You don't av 2 be a politician 2 better people's lives. There are so many other ways.

blank:
Finally, Nigerians are beginning 2 question things and not blindly hold on 2 what some "leader" says. If he is really serious about helping Nigeria, why can't he start from d grassroots? Why must he be president when he knows he has no realistic chance of winning? He should seek 4 somewhere 2 put his head n work hard 4 Nigeria (if dat is really wat he wants). Its not about answering d title of presidential aspirant 4 life.
You don't av 2 be a politician 2 better people's lives. There are so many other ways.

Spot on babe!

Methinks he would have helped his party to chase out Uduaghan and PDP from Delta State if he had contested the governorship elections in that state. That is where he stands a good chance.

All his "turenshi" won't mean anything to the folks in the North. He is just being a dreamer.

blank:
Finally, Nigerians are beginning 2 question things and not blindly hold on 2 what some "leader" says. If he is really serious about helping Nigeria, why can't he start from d grassroots? Why must he be president when he knows he has no realistic chance of winning? He should seek 4 somewhere 2 put his head n work hard 4 Nigeria (if dat is really wat he wants). Its not about answering d title of presidential aspirant 4 life.
You don't av 2 be a politician 2 better people's lives. There are so many other ways.

Good point! Why must he start from President? I always distrust people that cannot get over their egos! He needs to perform in a smaller role to establish his credibility.

Its one thing to say the right thing; its another to do it.

Self glorifying bigot.a clear case of grandeur of delusion.how come he's now saint patrick.how come he's done no wrong when he's now vying for the presidential seat.

@ Mrjingles well said

No doubt, Pat is an intellect of high repute. However, he can not absolve himself of the rot in the Bank PHB. While he was the deputy MD at VWN, he should av resigned honourably if truly his opinions were not valued. But guess what, Africans are not good in that area. They preferred to be passive partner/director in as much as their salary and other entitlements are not tampered with. The same scenario goes for Bank PHB saga. I can say it categorically that he should be queried. If as a chairman or deputy chairman, he can not question any policy that does not tally with his belief/preaching/teaching, then I need not say that he is not what he claimed he is.

On the presidential ambition, like someone had said, why can't he started at grassroot i.e  from his state? Must he be at Aso Rock b4 he can affects lives? Let him start from somewhere and his performance will speak for him.

I like the points a lot of you guys a re making. Pat should start from the grass root. Let him graduate from Patitos gang into something more practical apart from being the president. He should also take some blame form the rot in Bank PHB.

Why couldn't import substitution for the automotive industry succeed ?

Cc grandstar

Babangida really killed this country. Some of you younger ones would not understand.

When I go to Awolowo Road Ikeja now n compare it with the level of industrial presence on that road in the 70s n 80s, I feel like weeping.At the end only Guinness remained for a long time on that road. So many lost opportunities that we can never get back. Countries are no longer as open with the transfer of their technology as they were in 60s,70s n 80s.


I don't know how we are going to make it. Only time will tell

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 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.

Please understand what he is saying.

At the time he came in, Volkswagen was in dire straits already. The company was already planning to quit the country and the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programmer was the final nail to the coffin. There's simply no way the company could have survived unless he urged a total ban on car importation so they could overcharge Nigerians on cars the way Dangote compels Nigerians to pay 50% more than the international price for cement.

Volkswagen set up in Nigeria as part of the governments import substitution policy. Government felt Nigeria should produce things locally rather than import.

However, import substitution policies has many critics. Countries do best when they focus resources in areas they have comparative advantage, areas they are good at. Import substitution policies focus on areas you suck at. If you have comparative advantage in something you do not need to bsn or put up high tariffs against imported varieties as the local producers will still thrive in the face of imports. You only protect areas you suck at.

Nigeria has no comparative advantage in car production. Volkswagen and Peugeot were simply assembling plants. They simply imported completely knocked Down parts (CKD) and assembled the parts.

Pat Utomi urged a change in strategy that Volkswagen move out from making cars in Nigeria and focus on a car part that Nigeria can do very well or has comparative advantage in.

Imagine Nigeria producing 5% of all fan belts used in cars worldwide? Or 10% of all brake pads? That is what he suggested but they were not keen.

Pat Utomi said the right thing. Volkswagen was practically dead and nothing he would have done could have saved it. Nigeria lacked the captive market then and now to provide the economies of scale to ensure competitiveness in car production.

The company was doomed to fail under any hand.

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!

If what he suggested was followed, the economy today would have been singing a different tune.

Import substitution and high tariff walls have failed woefully to industrialise the country.

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

Does the layman know what Creative Destruction is? Does the layman know what stagflation is? Does the layman know what pump priming is or quantitative easing is?

grandstar:
Nigeria has no comparative advantage in car production.

Can someone please explain why ? What makes Morocco have comparative advantage in car production that Nigeria doesn't have.

After all Morocco merely assembles as well.

urahara:
Can someone please explain why ? What makes Morocco have comparative advantage in car production that Nigeria doesn't have.

After all Morocco merely assembles as well.

Why Morocco can produce cars is probably because they have duty free access to the EU market. This enables car manufacturers to set up car plants there. The EU market which is their captive market provides the economies of scale to ensure cars produced there are competitive.

The foreign investors who set up plants provide the necessary technical knowhow. Also, some of their part suppliers will set up plants in Morocco so they can be near the car manufacturer.

I'm also sure Morocco has 24 hour power and probably efficient ports which makes importing and exporting a breeze.

grandstar:
Why Morocco can produce cars is probably because they have duty free access to the EU market. This enables car manufacturers to set up car plants there. The EU market which is their captive market provides the economies of scale to ensure cars produced there are competitive.

.

Why can't we set up a free trade agreement with the e.u too ?

urahara:
Why can't we set up a free trade agreement with the e.u too ?

Free Trade Agreements are usually very tricky.

The main sticking point is usually agriculture.

Most farmers in the EU and other developed countries receive lots of subsidies from their governments which makes their produce either competitive or very competitive. These subsidies are so huge that at times leave to a crash in prices due to a gtut brought on by overproduction.

Left to market forces and no subsidies, food production in these countries would collapse. Farmers from Nigeria aren't competing against foreign farmers but actually against treasuries.

If Nigeria should open it borders to 0% import duty on agricultural goods, it would lead to massive importation of food and would depress food prices and it will adversely affect local farmers.

When you realize that over 40% of Nigerians are engaged in farming to survive, it will impoverish millions of Nigerians and many will leave the land for the cities.

grandstar:
When you realize that over 40% of Nigerians are engaged in farming to survive, it will impoverish millions of Nigerians and many will leave the land for the cities.

Not 40 , 60 percent actually.

urahara:
Not 40 , 60 percent actually.

Wow

grandstar:
Wow

Yh , with this high number it still shocks me that the govt is still saying that people should go and farm.