Manufacturer Decries Government’s Refusal to Patronise Made in Nigeria Products

In this interview with our Correspondent, Paschal Emeka, in Abuja, the CEO/MD, Prince Interior Furniture and Furnishing Company Limited, Ambassador Emeka Egwuekwe, decried the penchant of those in authority to patronise foreign products, even when there are better locally manufactured products.

He disclosed that the situation did not change, even after paying visits to the President of the Senate, Godswil Akpabio and others and made strong points on the importance of patronizing made in Nigeria products.

He also bared his mind on other sundry and burning national issues.

Excerpts are presented below:

Local furniture manufacturers sometimes ago paid a visit to the Senate, and advocated patronage of made in Nigeria products and President Tinubu recently marked his one year in office. Is there an improvement in the patronage of made in Nigeria goods?

They are still buying foreign furnitures. If there is any difference, you will see us smiling to the banks, and because of non patronage and high cost of production, we may soon not only sack our workers, but also close up. National, State Assemblies and other government agencies are still buying foreign furnitures.

Last time, I heard Mr President ordering that the MDAs should be using made in Nigeria goods. This is a good one and if it is done, you will see the economy grow, but if it did not, some of us may close up.

Many roads were commissioned within and outside Abuja in within one year of Tinubu’s in administration, are you still experiencing bad roads?

In the area of roads, I give kudos to Tinubu and Wike, because most of the roads, including the one from Asokoro to this area of business has been completed and commissioned.

However, I urge them to extend such services to satellite towns, for them to feel the impact of Abuja too.

Can you tell us how you have been assisting the government?

We are assisting the government in creating employment. We have more than 70 staff and if there is no government, as I said earlier, we shall sack some of them, because it is not easy to pay salaries.

The organised labour was demanding N494 thousand as minimum wage and if it is taken, those of us in the informal sector will collapse, because we cannot pay that.

Mr President is sincerely trying all he can to address the economy, but it is not easy. To me minimum wage shouldn’t be above N70 thousand to N80 thousand.

What do you have to say about the public office holder’s remuneration?

This is where we need citizen’s empathy. A public office holder, like in the judiciary, where a judge is said to be collecting about N6 million monthly, and the legislators and other public office holders, who are equally placed on unimaginable remunerations, would not go down well with staff who receives about N80 thousand and N90 thousand monthly as the case may.

Under this condition, the criminals in the streets and even workers may be targeting them. The president of a particular country said he did not need salary; that his salary should be kept back.

Are you calling for reduction in the remunerations of public office holders, as well as telling organised labour unions to come down too?

Yes, I am calling for the reduction of their remunerations, including that of Mr President, who was stinkingly rich before becoming president. He did not come to steal money, but to address the economy.

The senate president has already made it before becoming senate president. Let them reduce their remunerations, so that others would follow suit.

As the M/D of Prince Interior, I don’t receive salary, and if I do, it won’t be less than a million Naira, and the staff will not be paid.

So labour should come down, because if they don’t, it will affect informal sector and other workers who are more in number than the employees of the government.

Can you tell us the difference President Ahmed Tinubu has made in the production industry in his one year in office?

He has made positive and negative differences in the industry, in the sense that in the area of infrastructure, especially on the highways and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), he has done well.

But in human capital development, you can see the hardships caused by fuel subsidy removal.

The Subsidy removal was not given its deserved thoughtfulness, and it is affecting the informal sector seriously. It has made prices of goods and services go up beyond imagination.

Subsidy is an organized corruption by the elites against Nigerians.

He understands the language of the elites and knows how to handle the issue of corruption. He should not have removed the subsidy, without putting a remedy in place. Before going into that, he should have gone into investigation, to find out if Nigeria is subsidizing for other countries, individuals or even for Nigerians.

The outcome of the deep investigation would make some Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) officials to go down. That some people are feeding from the subsidy is not an allegation, because, during the time of former President Goodluck Jonathan, a legislator was shown in camera, collecting money illegally fom an oil mogul, all in the name of subsidy.

How does all these concern a furniture company like yours?

It concerns me because prices of materials has been gone up, making our products very costly and as such, no patronage. The foam we used to buy at N52 thousand during Buhari’s regime is sold at N180 thousand and a set of upholstery we used to sell at N350 thousand is N1.2 million now and nobody is willing to buy them. That is how it is affecting us.

We used to pay N30 thousand monthly to our workers, but now, it is N60 thousand; for them to have something at the end of the month.

You decried that poor electricity supply is hindering production, hope that it is all over now?

There is no energy supply from the government. What I use to power my generator set is gas, which has been causing a lot of money in the field of production.

We planned to meet with Mr President, to have discussion on the way forward, but due to the issue of strike, we had to shift it to July. I heard that there is an executive Bill that food items, drugs, that is medical fields and raw materials should not be taxed which is very good.

But we should checkmate importation, because the more you give the people the opportunity, the more they go into excess importations, without going into productions exportations. We should also encourage production of what we can produce, instead of importing those ones we can produce. But those ones we cannot produce, we import, but we should not allow our importation to exceed our exportation. It is unhealthy to any economy.