The Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) has given reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari refused to sign the Continental Free Trade Agreement recently signed by 44 African countries to promote free movement of goods produced within the African continent.
In an interview with our correspondent in Lagos last weekend, the Director-General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir disclosed that the President did not endorse the document because he needed to consult widely as consultation on the matter was inadequate.
Ajayi-Kadir however exonerated President Buhari of any wrong doing as according to him; the African Union itself required that the private sector be carried along in the entire process of determining what to negotiate and the process of negotiating the agreement.
He pointed out that the President had the responsibility to take care of the interest of Nigeria adding that Nigeria was not the only country that did not sign the agreement as, “Only 44 out of 54 signed. The President of South Africa which is the second largest economy in Africa only signed the declaration, he didn’t sign the agreement”.
“So, I think people are having issues with the President not being physically there but probably, the President must have weighed the cost and the options and said look, since I am not going to sign this agreement as it is, I need to consult, why go there? And there is more work to be done at home.
“So, I think that he took the right decision, I am not one of those feeling embarrassed, when you are ready is when you are ready. Like I said on the NTA programme that I participated in, I said when you wake up is your morning and there is going to be another AU meeting in Mauritania in July, if we are ready at that time, we sign, if we are not ready, we sign at another time. And everybody in the world knows that Nigeria is the target market, so, we cannot expect to behave the same way like other countries will behave”, he said.
He opined that although the fear of Nigeria being a dumping ground for goods from other African countries at the detriment of the made in Nigeria products, the fear was not peculiar to Nigeria as according to him, the manufacturing sector in Nigeria will suffer if dumping was allowed.
In his words,” In the US, Trump is taking a lot of measures to check the influx of Chinese products. When you are strong you are strong, when you are not strong, you are not strong. I think that people should be mindful of how we go about this thing and stop being more Catholic than the Pope.
“The truth of the matter is that if I am going into a negotiation, it is a negotiation and every sane person negotiates to cover his weakness and strengthen his advantage. So, I don’t understand why, if I see that my infrastructure is not developed enough, that I need to develop my infrastructure is my business and I will do it. But I will not say because I have not developed my infrastructure, come and overrun me. That’s stupid; no politician will take that decision.
“Some people in the comfort of their offices, when they are doing calculations for their business, they can do that, if you do that, you can have unemployment in your hand. We have security issue, we have unemployment issue, you are asking me to go and sign an agreement that will complicate it just because of some amorphous aspirations about unity and so on. At the end of the day, everybody takes care of his own and so, we should give some credit to our leaders in this particular matter. There is no way the President will go and sign anything no matter how lofty it is that is not going to be to the benefit of the people”.
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