The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services, Sunday Karimi, who represents Kogi West Senatorial District, in the 10th National Assembly, has explained why the Nigerian lawmakers shunned the country’s car manufacturing companies for Toyota, a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer.
During a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday, Karimi claimed that the lawmakers chose Toyota because of evidence of quality and durability.
He said, Toyota products have been tried and tested while locally produced vehicles are still in the developing stage.
“Today, we decided for foreign, Toyota, because Toyota has a name and a law standing for quality and durability. We decided to go for Land Cruiser Toyota which is tried and tested. Tomorrow, we patronize as local manufacturing develops. We are going to patronize them.”
when asked if he and his colleagues are patriotic Nigerians considering how they shunned locally made vehicles for foreign-made ones at a time when Nigeria is struggling with forex earnings, Karimi said, “Yes (we are patriotic). I have just said something; as we develop in terms of quality and all that, we are going to patronize Nigerians.”
Meanwhile the distribution of Toyota SUVs worth N130 million to the lawmakers, generated a lot of negative reactions. For instance, the African Action Congress (AAC) has analysed how the allocated funds should have been used to better the life of the common man.
The party said that if the money was used judiciously, it would pay 12 months’ salaries for 48,000 workers if placed on N100,000 and would pay no fewer than 290,000 students’ cost of study allowance if they were to pay N200,000 per session.
