By Agha Egwu
December 27, 2017
If you bribe in Nigeria it is not always a sin. It is usually a necessary act of survival. A better word is extortion and we must differentiate between bribery and extortion. Bribery is when you use cash or kind to induce a government servant to get what you don't deserve. Extortion is when a government servant demands cash or kind to give you what you deserve.
In Nigeria both are classed as briibery and corruption. What should naturally come to you is blocked by unscrupulous government officers. They demand bribe. You are forced to use underhand routes. You may even carry out criminal actions like forging documents in order to get good things done. Years later they can use these instruments they forced you to do as a reason to clamp you in jail when they caused it in the first place. If you did not do what you had to do, you would fail to achieve the great dreams you set out to achieve.
Consider Innoson. Here is a young man with an incredible dream - to build Africa's first true car manufacturer. It is a thing to be hailed by EVERY African. Goodluck Jonathan responded by declaring 30% of government car purchases must come from Innoson. That is the right thing to do. Buhari responded by cancelling that order. That is the wrong thing to do.
Nevertheless patriotic government officials have been ordering from Innoson. That is the right thing to do. Some other government departments, led by the EFCC, have joined in the effort to pull down the company in the name of law enforcement with their usual spurious charges, backed up by more spurious propaganda. That is the wrong thing to do.
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Ben Bruce, a non-Igbo, an Ijaw, responded by promoting it on the floor of the Senate. That is the right thing to do. Many Yoruba responded by declaring the boycott an attack on a Yoruba bank. That was the wrong thing to do.
If you believe GTB, they responded by giving a loan. That was the right thing to do. Then when certain financial obligations could not be met they blocked clearing the goods from the customs. That was the wrong thing to do. Innoson needed to clear the goods in order to achieve the dream of Africa's first car manufacturer - a great achievement.
Customs did terrible things. They seized and sold Innoson's spare parts. They extorted Innoson, probably after some hanky panky, to clear the goods and pay off GTB. It is either somebody in GTB released the documents or customs created documents but what had to be done, had to be done, for the dream of Africa's first car manufacturer to survive. It was not a crime by Innoson. It was an extortion on Innoson to ensure survival of a great dream.
Years later, enter Buhari, a despotic bigot who wants to destroy Igbo businesses, and despite court victories for Innoson, his attack dogs, dredged out documents of bribery and forgery to try and destroy the great dream of Africa's first car manufacturer. They committed the crime of extortion but they are blaming Innoson.
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So they line up GTB, Customs and EFCC to do the damage and destroy Innoson. They have done it to Ibeto. They have burnt Igbo markets deliberately. We know this is real.
Let me make it clear that this is not a fight for Igbo alone. It is a fight for all of Africa, all black people everywhere, that the Nigerian Government out of either envy, ethnic hatred, religious zeal or some foul emotion, wants to destroy Africa's first manufacturer instead of going out of its way to support it.
Mali, an Islamic country, is specially ordering Inosson cars to support an African manufacturer. That is what all African leaders should do. But the incredibly narrow minded Nigerian leadership wants to destroy it.
I call upon all Igbos, all Southerners, all sensible patriotic Nigerians and all true Africans to fight this evil ideology of the Nigerian Government. We cannot fight Nigerian customs or EFCC with demonstrations, but we can fight GTB by closing down our accounts.
We have to fight GTB not because it is a Yoruba led bank, but because it is a bank that instead of finding ways to support Africa's first car manufacturer, they are teaming up with the agencies of an ethnic, nepotistic, despotic government to destroy Africa's greatest manufacturing pride.
WE MUST NOT ALLOW IT. GTB is the only soft underbelly of this evil dancing python and smiling crocodile that we can attack. It is because we attacked GTB that they in GTB appealed to the Federal Government to let Innoson out of jail. That attack must continue until they drop all trumped up charges against Innoson.
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Reading the Daily Trust Newspaper, a propaganda sheet of the Buhari Government, you could have thought Innoson was the worst crook in Nigeria ever. He is reported to have forged documents, bribed and assembled thugs to fight the police.
Wow! It sounds more like a Colombian drug lord than the most successful business man in Africa - why the most? What he did is unique. He did not use Dangote's monopoly, he is not merely buying and selling, but his is science and technology by a young man who had no university education. That is unique for Africa.
THE BOYCOTT AGAINST GTB MUST CONTINUE until GTB sues for peace and stops the Government pythons and crocodiles or GTB goes down. To relent now is to allow evil to win.
This is because our first attack let Innoson out of jail but they intend to continue to prosecute and harass him. Clearly GTB has not learnt its lesson.
If you have closed your account, find someone who has not closed their account, show them this article and urge them to save Africa's only indigenous car manufacturer by closing their GTB accounts or moving money.
Let me make this quite clear. GTB is one of many great banks in Nigeria. We do not want GTB to go down, but it is better for one of many great banks to go down than for Africa's only car manufacturer to go down. No Igbo, no Southerner, no patriotic Nigerian, no true African, no concerned blackman, no responsible global citizen should let this happen.
Let GTB do the right thing and call off the dogs of ethnicity, nepotism, bigotry and despotism before we halt our attacks. But if their pride will not let them, let them go down.
At the same time we must all rally round Africa's Innoson and give it the support it needs by making your next vehicle an Innoson. Let us demand wherever we are that our government departments, our companies, our states, our countries buy Innoson. Let Africa protect and grow Africa's first
true indigenous manufacturer.
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The Biafra Times
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