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Nigeria As China's Dustbin
Dustbin, a Nigerian parlance for garbage, trash or refuse disposal container may become an apt description of the country as a Chinese market outlet, a 170 million strong potential for all kinds of goods from edible items, clothing, car parts, building materials, toys to the most insignificant such as tooth picks.
The goods are cheap, cheaper than anything manufactured locally or imported from anywhere else but they are also of very inferior quality. They break apart easily and are sometimes dangerous. There is no doubt that China is one of the most advanced economies in the world, but at the same time, it holds the distinction of being the one most likely to push substandard goods.
The average Nigerians patronize these goods largely because they are gullible and oblivious of the real cost to their health. Others knowingly purchase the items because they are affordable and make the economic hardship more bearable. Then there are the service contractors and traders who peddle these items of low quality simply to rip-off and con unsuspecting customers despite saddling them with fat bills for promised high quality materials. The substandard and dangerous nature of these goods in most cases always outweigh the benefits. That is why these goods cannot be exported to any advanced nation of the world due to local rigorous import regulations and effective enforcement agencies. Only quality Chinese exports make it to the US.
Frankly, the cost to Nigeria impacts every facet of life. In May 2016, for instance, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) banned the use of automobiles with expired tires in Nigeria, blaming the tires for many fatal accidents on the roads. Such regulation or ban cannot be found elsewhere. In the United States, used tires are lawful as long as they pass a mandatory yearly automobile safety inspection. Perhaps, the real cause of Nigerian auto accidents may be more attributable to the substandard tire imports from China, unlawful retreading in Nigeria and the dangerous nature of the roads. Unfortunately, Nigeria does not enforce annual mandatory automobile safety inspection regulation to ensure that vehicles are road worthy. Moreover, governments are not liable for the dangerous nature of the roads unlike in the advanced nations where governments pay dearly for avoidable accidents on bad roads.
American consumers have faced numerous issues with products imported from China; lead-laced toys, melamine-tainted toothpaste and pet-food recalls are a few incidents that come to mind. Americans have also faced the dilemma of whether they should trust their life to bargain tires from China.
In 2014, Matt Edmonds the US vice president of TireRack.com, a massive online retailer that sells all kinds of automotive parts responded to autoguide.com's inquiry on whether people in US should buy made in China tires, saying:
“We have not, quite honestly, found tires that are up to the level of the performance that we need them to be in order to offer them.
“It comes down to you get what you pay for.”
He also said that some Chinese companies have been sued for directly copying tread patterns from other well-known tire makers but just because their products looked the same didn't mean they performed equally. The knock offs were missing the advanced engineering found in name-brand tires and as a result they “didn't work well at all” Edmonds told autoguide.com.
If Nigerians have not detected the import of lead-laced toys, melamine-tainted toothpaste and other toxic goods from China as the US did, it may be due more to inefficient import inspection infrastructure and compromised personnel than the absence of such dangerous goods.
Further, it has been observed that, many beautiful new buildings around the country are fitted with low quality shiny faucets, door handles and electric outlets imported from China which quickly turn rusty in a few months of usage. Also, many recent building electrical problems and fires are directly the result of these inferior, low gauge, electric outlets, wires and other electrical parts some builders use in new homes. Nigerians are aware of these substandard goods, yet pecuniary and often get-rich-quick fraudulent considerations still make the use of these materials ubiquitous.
The full spectrum of these dangerous Chinese imports are yet to be discovered but the rising cases of cancer and similar diseases should seriously put Nigerians on the alert.
While the Chinese see an easy and largely unregulated governmental business opportunity in Nigeria, the largest black nation in the world and perhaps one of the most import dependent economies, Nigerian business collaborators are quick to pounce on the questionable opportunities to fleece fellow countrymen.
Obviously, the federal government bears the principal blame for turning Nigeria into a Chinese dumping ground in the name of business partnership and receipt of questionable development loans. Although, loans may be necessary economic tool, both the federal and state governments should remember that their primary obligation is the protection of life and property of its citizens. Therefore, legislating for proper product standards, import regulations and enforcement of regulations should be a priority and primary focus of any government. But the reverse appears to be the case in Nigeria. Can one affirmatively posit that the country's standard organization has commendable import standards regulations, and that the custom service is doing a wonderful job of protecting the country's borders from peddlers of inferior goods?
For the services sector, Nigerians currently complain that most of the Chinese technical expatriates of construction companies handling projects in the country hardly speak or understand English language and therefore cannot effectively transfer any technology or technical skills to Nigerians, thus negating the essence of their development agreement.
In the late 90s, Nigeria began a deliberate shift in international business and political relations towards Asia. The military generals ruling the country were under severe political sanctions from the Western nations of Europe and America for civil rights violations, especially after they annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential elections so they turned to Asia for friendship. Meanwhile, China seeking outlets for its growing manufacturing sector and economic influence was eager to expand to willing Africa. China, unlike the West, ignored the politics of dictatorship and poor human rights records of African leaders and Nigeria was the biggest prize with corrupt leadership, a very large but subdued population where no one asks questions; where practically anything goes so long as you bribe a few people in authority.
The Asia policy continued after civilians returned to power in 1999. General Obasanjo who became President continued to work with China, giving many infrastructure development contracts, top of which was the rehabilitation of Nigerian Railways, to the Chinese. The next president, Late Musa Yar'Adua and his deputy who later became president, Goodluck Jonathan continued and brought the Chinese even closer. Now they construct roads and major infrastructure projects around the country.
Indeed, China has Nigeria hooked. It was willing to “loan” money to the country to fund some of these projects, incentives to further open up the country's doors to its influence. The latest of such loans was a six billion dollars infrastructure development agreement reached in April 2016. The Nigerian foreign minister was then quoted as saying that all Nigeria needed to do to access the funds was to identify the projects.
Soon Nigerian businessmen followed the movement to Asia in droves. It became easier for them to obtain visas to travel to China and import cheap goods and shiny ornaments and sundry of questionable quality than going to Western Europe and America. Soon the local Nigerian made goods began to disappear. Even the locally made tie and die fabric (adire) became imported from Chinese manufacturers. The die pits of Kano went dry overnight for lack of patronage. The small-scale chewing stick makers in the backyards of southern Nigeria suddenly disappeared because China has taken over and Nigeria is today worse off.
While this was ongoing, the most senior Nigerian-born US Military officer and one of the highest ranking men in the United States military, Col. Lawrence A. Anyanwu was completing a strategy paper “Supplanting Chinese Influence in Africa: The U.S. African Diaspora”, for his Masters of Strategic Studies degree at the US War College in which he raised an alarm, highlighting the damage China would ultimately do to Africa. Col. Anyanwu, aptly warned that:
“China zealously protects its own national interests and has determined access to African mineral resources and markets is in its best interests. Therefore considerations for good governance, human rights and regional stability do not rate as highly for China as they do for the U.S…China has garnered the trust and confidence of most African leaders, particularly those engaged in dubious practices.”
Anyanwu believes that Chinese policy in Africa will in the long run be inimical to the promotion of good governance and democracy, achieving economic independence, resolving health issues, conflicts and other transnational issues on the continent. He went on to identify factors contributing to Africa's persistent under development.
According to him, “they run the gamut from pervasive corruption, unstable and dysfunctional governments, to weak economies. Other critical factors include: inadequate basic infrastructure, high unemployment, rapid population growth, diseases, insecurity, and ungoverned spaces that could give harbor to terrorists, pirates, and narcotics, human and other illicit smuggling. In essence, the majority of Africa's issues stem from a lack of fundamental structural programs anchored in education, innovation, technology, and the respect for human rights and rule of law. The erosion of intellectual capital due to migration is equally distressing, but presents an opportunity worth maximizing in achieving the objectives of the U.S. for stable and representative African states that are self-sustaining.”
Read more about Col. Anyanwu under Nigerians of Diaspora.