Like a strawberry wife, that lays two or
three great strawberries at the mouth of her pot, while the rest in the pot are
diseased and tiny ones, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun
Aganga, may have initiated the idea of assembling vehicles to the Vaswani
brothers and other foreign auto companies, which they used to their advantage,
The Capital authoritatively reveal. Aganga, in a desperate yet successful ploy
has been able to hoodwink the federal government and the citizenry into believing
that a dawn of automotive and industrial bliss has berthed in the country
courtesy the much hyped made in Nigeria vehicles campaign.
The National Automotive Policy (NAP) which
was conceived with the intention of reducing Nigeria’s dependence on importation
of new and used vehicle may have run into troubled waters as KIA, Nissan and
the Vaswani brothers, owner of Stallion Motors, the economic giant contracted
with the project, are yet to show any evidence that the touted vehicles are
being assembled in Nigeria.
Stallion Motors’ much hyped and widely
celebrated claim of assembling new vehicles in the country has been discovered
to be untrue.
It was revealed that the components of the vehicles are actually
imported and assembled in the country and such cannot be referred to as
made-in-Nigeria. The Capital findings revealed that Aganga is the mastermind
behind the farce in order to reduce tax obligations on owners of Stallion
Motors, KIA, Nissan and other auto companies Nigeria. While indigenous
investors pay 70 per cent duty to import vehicles into the country, the
foreigners pay five per cent duty.
Sensing an easy way to subvert due process
and make profit, Aganga allegedly introduced the idea of assembling vehicles to
them, which they used to their advantage. Further findings revealed that, the
policy had been leaked to the Stallion Group before getting to other investors;
this has generated serious concerns amongst other investors and rivals of the
Vaswani brothers who believe that Aganga deliberately subverted due process in
order to benefit largely from the Vaswani brothers.
Not a few investors and industry pundits
have cited Aganga’s massive mansion in Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos as evidence
of his proceeds from the shady automotive deal he currently runs with the auto
companies. To perfect his plan, Aganga reportedly informed staff in his
ministry to avoid patronizing indigenous automobile dealers.
For several years, the dream of having
truly made-in-Nigeria vehicles had remained a pipe-dream; a fantasy that was
unrealizable owing to sundry obstacles including lack of government support to
indigenous businessmen and investors and outright sabotage. In 2003, a National
Automotive Policy (NAP) was developed to help the automobile industry assemble
vehicles locally and thus discourage importation of fully built vehicles. But
this plan was already compromised before it got to the local investors as it
was monopolized in favour of foreign auto dealers, especially Vaswani brothers
of Stallion Group, whose integrity in the Nigerian economic circuit has been
questioned severally.
The brothers who had been deported on
several occasions from Nigeria decided to put their troubles behind them and
remain committed to their business interests in Nigeria, which includes the assemblage
of trucks and buses at the Volkswagen of Nigeria plant in Ojo, Lagos. They
acquired this facility from the federal government few years ago under the
nation’s privatisation programme.
Pleading anonymity, a source close to
Aganga noted that, “If an indigenous manufacturer like Innoson Motors could
boldly invite the society to inspect its Nnewi plant, what is stopping an
international brand like Stallion Motors from opening its doors for the society
and the regulatory bodies to inspect?” The source requested that the federal
government institute an inquest into the workings of the foreign auto
companies’ made-in-Nigeria cars project. It’s a grand racket and fraud
perpetrated against the Nigerian state by the minister of industry and his cohorts,
the Vaswani brothers, claimed the source.
The Capital
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