THE Adamawa State chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Dauda Maina, has said that the rise of Dollar against Naira will encourage Nigerians to developed the taste for locally made goods in the country. 

The NLC boss who spoke to The Guardian on the ongoing economy crisis in the country, pointed out that many Nigerians have chosen to depend on foreign goods, which he said is affecting home made goods. 

“To me the increase in exchange rate of Dollar is a new opportunity for our local manufacturers to take advantage of the situation and improve on the quality of their goods, this will encourage Nigerians to start patronizing our home-made goods.”

“Nigeria has the best rice in Africa, but because both government and comfortable Nigerians depend on foreign rice, our farmers are not encouraged to engage in modern farming. Individuals, businessmen and women keep importing rice into the country to the detriment of our economy. We import tooth-picks, matches, soaps, in fact, what remain for us to start importing is human beings,” he said. 

Dauda said that importing of goods that are manufactured in Nigeria is economic sabotage.

“If the local goods are patronized it will encourage the companies to expand and the more the firms grow bigger, the more they will employ workers. People talk about quality but the China products they are importing are far below the standard of goods that are manufactured here, they import expired drugs into Nigeria to make high profit, but the same drugs are manufactured in Nigeria, so they are doing it for their selfish interests.”
 
The NLC boss said that without any policy to halt the importation of goods that Nigerian manufacturers can produce, the dream of turning around the agricultural sector for high revenue generation will not be achievable, noting that it is only when there is high patronage that farmers will be encouraged to expand their farming.

“If farmers produce and there is no market for their products, the following year, they will reduce the seize of their farms, but if there is high demand for their products, they will expand and more jobs will be created. More graduates would prefer to go into farming using modern technology than looking for jobs that can only pay them between N30,000 to N40,000 per month. So this policy will not only boost the internally generated revenue of the country, it will also generate jobs for our graduates,” he stated. 

Dauda appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the policies of the new government, pointing out that the gains of the policies will return the country back to its lost glory and that children yet unborn will be the major beneficiaries of Buhari’s policies. 

“Even in your house, if you want to bring new changes, you encounter protests either from your wife or your children and the reason is simple- as human beings we are always afraid of changes because we are not sure whether it will favour us or not. But at the same time some people are doing the protest out of mischief and to antagonise the government in power, while for others it is just out of the normal fear of change,” he said. 

He said that the economic crisis is a temporary setback, assuring Nigerians that the Dollar would collapse when Nigerians patronise home made goods. Dauda also pointed out that the new policy would affect those who have stolen public funds and will help government to recover the money since it will be difficult for them to use it to import substandard goods into Nigeria. 

“Those who are frustrating the policy will soon lose the battle, because they are fighting against the interest of the common Nigerians, they are fighting because they know that this policy will stamp out corruption in the system, people who import tooth-picks in Government Houses, Presidency will have no contracts to do again,” he said.