“MADE FOR NIGERIAN ROADS”

CredoWriters- Wakdok,Samuel Stephen.

If we looked back at the history of advertisements in Nigeria, can we still remember the Peugeot advert of about 22- 25 years ago? “Made for Nigerian Roads.”
Peugeot was definitely one of the best brands you could find then in Nigeria among the likes of Volvo, Benz, Fiat, Passat, Land Rover etc. Toyota was still relatively alien and Honda had barely graduated from manufacturing motorcycles and generators.

The advert looked great on TV especially with all the GLs, GRs, SRs, brands of Peugeot 405,504,505 and the ultimate 505 Peugeot Evolution. I recalled seeing brand new Peugeots cruising in the adverts on TV and Newspapers while they sold for as low as N79, 000.00 as recent as 1989. The advert then made a lot of sense and it was a selling point for PAN that their cars were strong and rugged enough for our roads. In retrospect I want to interpret that advert as either an insult on the Nigerian nation that we needed such rugged cars for our bad roads, or I rather euphemistically say the advert should have been a wake up call for the various agencies of government saddled with providing roads and other critical infrastructure to have read in between the lines. Funny enough this was a period when we had DFRRI (Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure) under the Babangida regime running concurrently with the Federal ministry of works and housing on one hand and the various states ministries of works and housing on the other.

Today, we have FERMA (Federal Road Maintenance Agency) and the works ministries but that Peugeot advert is gone. I would have been happy if that advert was obliterated on the ground that Nigerian roads do not need an advert for rugged cars. I would have been happier if as Honda and Toyota were taking over the Nigerian and world automobile markets, Nigerian roads were gradually been transformed. I would have been happiest if Peugeot which way back found the winning formula to be the king of Nigerian roads had no need of improving their brand since our roads not only became deadlier but unable to be fixed; even with all the gulf war oil windfalls of 1991 and the N300 billion naira of Mr. ‘Fix It’. Paradoxically, Peugeot went into Research and Development to come up with 406, 306,206,307,407 and 607.Where as Peugeot like other automobile manufacturers saw the need for innovation and transformation, Nigeria saw no need to improve upon her roads or other infrastructure.

If we walked and drove on rugged roads during the Peugeot advert, we now drive on death traps a quarter of a century after. If we walked on untarred roads to schools during DFRRI and the famous Peugeot advert, we now hop on refuse dumps and pot holes in the era of FERMA and exotic cars. The pitiable news is this, if Peugeot saw the need to use steel and durable spare parts during the life span of their “built for Nigerian roads” adverts because there was care for standard and safety, they are now driven by competition, innovation and efficiency of factors of production to use fibre. If cost went down, then standards also went down. If our roads went from bad to worse, then the quality of cars on the road nose dived too. But they cared less because very few Nigerians asides government agencies can afford the brand new Peugeot automobiles as we have become a Tokunbo Nation, a pack of Cotonou Drivers, and a proud set of Belgium car owners. The unvarnished truth is that Peugeot does not care to run adverts on papers and TV anymore, because they can no longer describe the state of the Nigerian roads either in print or graphics. If they now attempt to measure their comparative advantage by the level of Nigerian roads as a competitive edge; their international certification may be withdrawn because our roads have attained a negative status.

Major General A. A. Adisa (RTD) a former works Minister died in a motor accident as a result of bad roads; you may call that the law of retributive Justice. But what about the countless Nigerians prominent and classless who have died per minute on our roads? Innocent school children have been killed by reckless drivers who are products of a notorious road regime in Nigeria. The condition of Nigerian roads have become so terrible that we no longer go through driving schools to obtain our driver’s licenses, there are as many unqualified drivers as the unsafe un-motor able roads that dot all corners and cross all highways in Nigeria. Last week the Chairman of FERMA asserts that one trillion naira is needed to fix Nigerian roads. All the hundreds of billions of naira hitherto earmarked for the roads have worsened (but bulged pockets and accounts) rather than alleviate the situation. And the most recent casualty of the Nigerian road is Hajiya Fatima Ibrahim, the former Minster of Energy in charge of Power at the commencement of Yar’adua’s regime.

I can’t tell which of these will be harder for Peugeot to achieve. Get another slogan for a new advert that will surpass the old one which boasts: “Built for Nigerian Roads” or really manufacture cars that will withstand the oddities of the present state of Nigerian roads which they were able to achieve in the time past? Funny enough Nigerians are now born and like the Peugeot cars of yore made for Nigerian roads and that is why many more Nigerians are dying on Nigerian roads.



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