Now The Chinese Have Come For Your Trade. Funny How Life Works.

You Brought the Cheap Imports to Kill Yoruba Industries. Now the Chinese Have Come for Your Trade.

Funny how life works.

A few days ago, I wrote that anyone can trade, but the real respect should go to the people who manufacture what everybody else is selling.

Yorubas had a thriving manufacturing sector before you killed it with your cheap imports.

For years, you did not let the rest of us breathe with your ‘business genius’ and ‘we are the best entrepreneurs’ sermon. You say Nigerians are lazy and you? The most hardworking. Meanwhile, a significant part of the celebrated genius was buying what somebody else manufactured, importing it and selling it at a markup.

The old Western Region had a thriving manufacturing base. Textiles, food processing, vehicles, machinery, pharmaceuticals - we had industries. Your cheap imported goods, including those coming through trading networks, contributed to making life increasingly difficult for local manufacturers.

Now the Chinese are doing something remarkably similar to you:

They are cutting out the middleman and selling directly to the consumer.

And suddenly…

COMPETITION IS UNFAIR!

I laugh in Edo winshi and Isale Eko razzness.

What goes around really does come around.

Ṣe ẹni ẹ ò nígbọ́ l’ẹ́rọ ni? Ẹ má gbọ́ l’éle.

If the Chinese break Nigerian laws or breach their business conditions, the Nigerian government has the institutions and diplomatic channels to deal with them. But you? You are like the proverbial fish bone in our throats. You are Nigerian when you feel like and not Nigerian when you don’t feel like so, what can we do to you? Not much. But if the Chinese mess up, we can deal with them.

However, if the problem is simply that the manufacturer has decided to sell directly to the consumer, then welcome to the beautiful world of competition.

You wanted capitalism.

Here it is. Enjoy it.

You messed up the Yoruba manufacturing sector.

Suck limes.

For years, the mantra was ‘we are the best at business’. Now the manufacturer has arrived at the shop and said:

‘Oga, shift small. I want to sell to your customer.’

And suddenly you are discovering the importance of regulation, fair competition and protecting local businesses.

Maybe this little episode will teach you an important lesson:

Trading is not manufacturing. Importing is not inventing. Selling somebody else’s product does not automatically make you superior to the person who created it.

And perhaps, just perhaps, you can put down your shoulders, eat humble pie, stop telling the rest of Nigeria how uniquely brilliant you are at ‘business’, and learn the oldest lesson in commerce:

Competition goes both ways.