Every country protects her retail trade. WHY? Together with agriculture, retail trade provides easily accessible jobs for the less skilled amongst the population. It is also easier to start a retail shop than say-opening a factory. No one has said that the Chinese can not do business in Nigeria, after all they have been running their Chinese shops/towns for ages here, What every thinking mind has said is that they should not torpedo the retail sector of the economy with their cheap adulterated products, at a great risk to the economy.
When a Nigerian trader/business man makes profit in Nigeria, he spends most of it here thereby energising the economy. He builds houses, buying Dangote cement that is produced locally and owned by a fellow Nigerian. He sends his kids to government/private schools in Nigeria and pay handsomely. He buys land in Nigeria most times, and pays to fellow Nigerians thereby enriching the economy.
He banks with Nigerian banks that are owned by Nigerian from different regions, and makes shareholders of those banks to rip huge profits. Because he stays in Nigeria, most of his disposable income are spent here, with the attendant VAT payments and taxes. A Chinese seldom wait for all that. Likewise Indians. They are on the next flight out of town with their huge profits..
It is not like the federal government is not aware of all these. They are. It's just that some people in government have chosen to act dodgy for obvious reasons. Otherwise, why are businesses in other sectors being protected from skewed competitions from foreigners, but those areas dominated by easterners are willfully surrendered to foreigners irrespective of the great harm to the local economy?
It is also important to note that the uptick in the presence of the Chinese retail businesses in Nigeria today, is happening as the Chinese authorities start to tighten visa rules for Nigerian businesses/business men.. That is not a coincidence..
When there was a move to start importing beef into this country to augment the low quality products from the fulani herders, the federal government moved swiftly to stop that! Today, irrespective of the quantity or quality of beef produced by the fulani, we are forced to buy solely from them! Infact, a federal ministry of Livestocks have been created to take care of their demands. Buhari banned rice importation. How can a Chinese blatant take over of the economy enrich Nigerians??
When a foreign producer delves into wholesaling and retailing his products.., going as far as opening shops next to the same traders who just bought from him, then there seem to be a deliberately calculated programe to annihilate the "trader".. When the government of the day goes as far as defending the foreign nationals who will import goods into Nigeria, wholesale/retail and then spirit away their earnings back to their home countries overnight, in serious capital flight, and the government supports this, you need no one to tell you that a SILENT WAR is being waged against a segment of the population!
But we have seen this before. Someone invited the Lebanese and the Indians in the past, to come and do exactly what they want the Chinese to do today. Where are the bountiful results? Apart from the Chagoury and Chagoury?? Have we learned!? As long as we make national policies based on primordial disdain for certain groups in this country, we can never move forward. You can't cut your nose just to spite your face..
