Don’t Say No To Innoson, Never -By Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba

Timid people do not add to development. Only bold people discover new worlds, invent new machines, and create wonders. Timid people accept the world as it is, but bold people venture outside the known world. They dream and ask why not?

The Nigerian auto maker Innoson, has asked for a loan to help it make Nigerian Ventilators to help solve the COVID-19 attacks. There are not enough ventilators to meet world demand. Many educated Nigerians without thought have declared without hesitation “say no to Innoson”. There are several ways to say “yes” to Innoson.

There are many PhD engineers in Nsukka, Ibadan, Lagos, Ahmadu Bello, etc., universities twisting their fingers. Why not assemble the brightest of them at Nnewi in the campus of Innoson. Let them work with Innoson engineers to perform a reverse engineering of ventilators and perhaps “invent” a Nigeria ventilator.

Better still why not assemble six teams one in each zone? The teams will come up with a prototype. Each prototype will be manufactured by Innoson and road tested for efficiency and efficacy. Having 6 such teams would create competition which will speed up things.
To say “no” to Innoson shows a total lack of respect for Nigerian ingenuity; to believe nothing good can come out of Africa. Why is this so? Why is it coming from the educated class, who should be leading the way on encouraging Nigerians to take risks; to be creative and inventive; to explore the new world?
I don’t know the motivation but I am disappointed.
Saying “yes” to Innoson does not imply that Nigeria will put a stop to trying to import ventilators to be ready for the expected explosion of Corona Virus in the country. No. Nigeria can walk and chew gum at the same time. If the venture succeeds, that would diversify the country’s economy giving it an industrial base. There will be a large market for ventilators if and when COVID-19 becomes history.It will be a source of pride that when the world was short on ventilators Nigerian manufacturers stepped in and helped solve the problem.

The other option for Nigeria is to say no and wait until America and Europe and China have filled their demand and decide to ship the excesses to Nigeria, if there are Nigerians left at that time.What a shame. We could not even say we tried to help ourselves.

Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba, Boston, Massachusetts