The Sun was the official newspaper of the Ofala festival marking the 98th birthday and 60 years on the throne of one of Nigeria’s longest-reigning monarchs, Igwe Kenneth Onyemaeke Nnaji Orizu,Igwe Orizu III of Nnewi. MAGNUS EZE who covered the activities writes on individual strides, communal efforts and the seeming ‘arrested development’ in Africa’s hope of industrial leap.
•Industrial plant in Nnewi
Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, recently visited the industrial city of Nnewi, where he inspected facilities at Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing plant to encourage and support the company. He said that the move was part of his determined effort to boost the local economy and promote job creation.
•Soludo’s visit to Innoson plant
Owner of the vehicle manufacturing plant and an illustrious son of Nnewi, Dr. Innocent Chukwuma, has all these years practically squeezed water out of stone because of the difficulty of doing business in Nigeria, especially in the manufacturing sector.
Soludo said during the visit: “I am delighted to visit this manufacturing plant today and see firsthand the impressive work that is being done here. This company has been an important part of our state’s economy for many years and has created many jobs for the local people. I am committed to ensuring that we continue to provide a business-friendly environment that encourages companies like this to grow and thrive.”
•Ulasi
Speaking at Innoson’s new expansion site, which sits on three hectares of land, Soludo described the site as a massive and bold statement that signifies that Africa is rising.
He said, if the company could go into heavy machinery industrialisation, it would truly signify that Africa is rising in industrialization.
Innoson is one of the many inspiring stories from Nnewi since the late 1970s, when indigenes of the place took to local fabrication and industrialisation with clusters at the Nkwo-Nnewi axis.
• Nzewi
Businessmen from Nnewi were already scattered in parts of Nigeria, including Kano, Lagos and Aba, in the 1930s. Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, father of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, gave the light in 1920s.
In the 1940s, businessmen from the town controlled the long-distance commercial transportation sector through Ojukwu Transport, Ekene Dili Chukwu, Izuchukwu, E-Ekesons, and others, which commuted from Nnewi/Onitsha to other parts of Nigeria, moving people and goods.
This first generation of Nnewi entrepreneurs and businessmen, led by Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, had their bases largely in cities outside Nnewi. The second generation, led by Chief Augustine Ilodibe of the Ekene Dili Chukwu Transport fame, also operated from outside Nnewi, but they opened bus terminuses in the town. This gave birth to the motor spare parts business after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.
The third generation of Nnewi entrepreneurs emerged chiefly from the Nkwo-Nnewi Market. They changed the narrative as they domiciled their businesses in Nnewi, not minding that roads and other infrastructure were either terrible or almost non-existent.
From the late 1970s to 1980s, they operated majorly from Nkwo Nnewi and with time built the commercial and industrial hub that Nnewi is today. Those in this category include Chief Cletus Ibeto (Ibeto Group), Chief Alex Chika Okafor (Chikason Group), Engr. Obiajulu Uzodike (Cutix Plc/Adswitch Plc), Chief John Anekwe (John White Industries), Chief Innocent Okafor (Cento Limited), Chief Mathias Onwugbenu (Omatha Holdings), Chief Louis Onwugbenu (Louis Carter Group) and Sir Dennis Ofodeme (Uru Industries Limited), among others.
Later came Chief Innocent Chukwuma (Innoson Group) with a vehicle manufacturing plant in Nnewi.
Remarkably, the transformation of Nnewi from a semi-urban town in the 1960s to a commercial town with a big motor and motorcycle spare parts market by the 1970s and an industrial city by the 1980s had the imprimatur of Igwe Orizu III all over it.
Unfortunately, while these enterprising efforts were being made, many policies of the Nigerian government remained unbeneficial to industrialists in Nnewi. Successive governments failed to take conscious efforts to enable the town become an industrial giant.
For over three decades, power and bad road network have remained an albatross to industrialists in Nnewi, leading to the closure of once burgeoning businesses.
A notable member of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Chukwuemeka Nzewi, an engineer, said: “For a very long time, we have been crying about power issues, that’s electric power. It is a major cause of industries closing and it’s also a major cause of industries not springing up. When we talk about power, we talk of roads. Roads and electric power are the major infrastructure in Nnewi that hamper further growth.
“A long time ago, we used to have industries springing up until about the 1990s /2000s, when it started going down before the new ones but, if we have power and the roads are good, Nnewi will be great. They said Nnewi is the Japan of Africa. I have told them, Nnewi is not the Japan of Africa. Nnewi is the Nnewi of Africa, not Taiwan,” Nzewi said.
Nzewi has urged businesses in Nnewi to go public so as to outlive their owners or founders. He explained that the businesses could not talk about generational wealth unless they are quoted as public companies.
He praised owners of Cutix Nigeria Plc and Adswitch, saying that they are the only companies in the town that have taken the initiative.
“Going public is a viable option for businesses in Nnewi; it is the best option. Although only two companies have done that, we are hoping that more companies will do that. Cutix and Adswitch have done that, but the thing is that they are from the same family. But it’s Cutix that is public. Adswitch has been subsumed into Cutix; it used to be one family,” he said.
Also, the Crown Prince, Obi Orizu, observed that almost 400 industries have packed up in the town in the past few years.
He noted that there was a time when industries at Nkwo Nnewi produced everything about vehicles, including pistons, exhausts, rings, brake pads and the rest, but at some point, because of the power situation, all that reduced.
He lamented that attempts to make the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida intervene failed even when he had promised to fix the Nnewi power issue.
“When Babangida came to Anambra, we did a Made-in-Nnewi trade fair for him. The man was shocked and he promised that they were going to put Nnewi on a special pedestal in terms of power. He failed to do that. President Olusegun Obasanjo came, he failed also.
“Somehow, subsequent governments have refused to see our plight,” the prince said.
Prince Obi disclosed that Nnewi people are already looking into an alternative source of energy, noting that once they achieve that in the next two years or so, people will be shocked by the massive industrialisation that would go on in the area.
He said: “We are technology-driven people. We have that capacity to manufacture things. If you go to Nkwo Nnewi now, there are pockets of small industries but if they tell you what they are churning out every day with the little incentive they have, you will be shocked. And when you give such people a little opportunity to grow, you will see that the sky will be the limit of these young enterprising industrialists.”
Chief Dan Ulasi and other indigenes of Nnewi expressed happiness over the recent security arrangements in the town. They noted that the introduction of technology has further boosted people’s confidence in the security of life and property in Nnewi.
A remarkable security strategy adopted in Nnewi is to profile every resident of the town. Prince Obi Orizu confirmed that the security approach was already paying off, as, according to him, “every effort is being made so that the landlords would know who their tenants are and from the landlords the immediate village is expected to know everybody living in the village and then the community. When you start from the household, then to the kindred, to the village, to the community, you see that we are caging the security situation.
“Those are the things that we have put in place because people are trooping in every day. Everywhere you see money changing hands, people must come in because they also want to be part of the success story of the area.”