By Pascal Oparada
Social Media/Tech Reporter
Nigerians are canvassing for the Federal and state governments to give Innoson Motors the kind of patronage they give to Dangote across all spheres.
This is following a recent comment by Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-rufai that the southern part of Nigeria is more prosperous and better developed than the northern part of the country.
According to the governor, the north is like war-ravaged Afghanistan, deeply polarised, unhealthy, and underdeveloped.
“Looking at the statistics, Nigeria appears to be a middle-income country. But, if we segregate those statistics across states and zones, you will see that, in terms of human development indicators, Nigeria consists of two countries; there is a backward, less educated and unhealthy northern Nigeria, and a developing, largely educated and healthy southern Nigeria,” the governor said.
“We have to speak the truth to ourselves and ask why is it that northern Nigeria has development indicators similar to Afghanistan, a country still at war?
“We have the largest number of poor people in the world, most of them in northern Nigeria. Nigeria also has the largest number of out of school children, virtually all of them in Northern Nigeria.”
But most Nigerians disagreed with El-rufai saying that Dangote, the richest man in Africa, is from the north.
According to them, Dangote became rich because of the patronage and concessions he was given by successive governments in Nigeria.
They want the Nigerian government to accord the same patronage to local manufacturers like Innoson Motors.
Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode faulted El-rufai. He said any southerner that enjoys the type of support Dangote got over the past 40 years would be Nigeria’s richest man.
Others said that Innoson already enjoys patronage from states like Anambra and the Nigerian Army, which takes parts from the manufacturer for their vehicles.