Many Nigerians are jubilating over the launch of made in Nigeria smart phone by President Muhammadu Buhari, describing the innovation as an excellent one, and hoping Nigeria will soon join the league of the developed world. Indeed it is welcome development that every Nigerian needs to be proud of as it’s the first of its kind; the innovation shows Nigeria’s readiness for growth and development. With this development, Nigeria can boldly stand on its feet as the “giant of Africa”.
But the question is, will Nigerians patronise the made-in-Nigeria phone? Nigerians are of the belief that our locally made products are not up to standard both in quantity and quality. The moment our teeming populace see made in Nigeria products, they easily neglect it. Our impression on made in Nigeria products is the product is fake, copied, not durable, among others.
Nigerians lack orientation of patronising locally made products, which is one of the factors undermining the nation’s economic growth and development. Nigerian economy is in a very bad shape not because we don’t have what it takes to move the economy forward but due to negligence; we neglect our local products and patronise others.
Moreover, Nigeria has been producing locally made products for long, but our major problem is, we don’t want to invest and patronise the products. Many industries in the country have collapsed for lack of patronage. Nigeria is in position to produce anything considering its huge resources but has failed due our poor mentality.
Usually, we blame government for inadequate manpower in our industries whereas poor patronage is the problem. Now, Nigeria is opportune to be producing smart phone which we all know that it’s a good development for our country but eventually, Nigerians hardly patronise them until we get to a point the company can no longer produce, then we begin to blame the government of not doing the needful while the problem is with us.
Therefore, the best way to develop our nation is to patronise our locally made products; the more we neglect made in Nigeria products, the more backward we are moving, while the more we patronise our products, the more industrialised we become.
Maryam Michael,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri