President Muhammadu Buhari
By Michael Ogueke
When President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office as the Chairman of PTF under Abacha’s military regime, rather than importing vehicles, he helped resuscitate Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company Limited (ANAMMCO) Emene, Enugu. After revitalizing ANAMMCO in 1995, he mandated ANAMMCO to supply 401 units of MB 1414 buses to PTF.
The actual production & supply began in January 1996 and lasted till February 1999 when the last unit was successfully delivered, 736 buses in total (an excess of 335 of the original number ordered)
All tertiary institutions in Nigeria & federal government ministries benefited from this local vehicle production including indigenous transportation companies that were PTF partners in its mass transit scheme. This boosted ANAMMCO’s production and sales within this period. It also created thousands of direct & indirect jobs for Ndigbo.
I remember vividly that it was this 1414 buses that I patronized in my journeys from PortHarcourt to Kano during my youth service days!
In Igboland then, we refer to someone that is doing well for himself in his career or business with the phrase “o na-aru na ANAMMCO” meaning, he works in ANAMMCO!
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However, as soon as PDP took over government in 1999, They killed ANAMMCO.
Today, ANAMMCO has been revitalized again under the same man that did it in 1995 – Buhari.
Because of Buhari’s administration automotive policies, Dangote Group entered into a long-term agreement with Enugu-based automaker, Transit Support Services Limited, for the supply of Shacman trucks being assembled at the Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company Limited’s factory in Emene, Enugu.
Already, Dangote Group has purchased 3,500 trucks from the automaker worth 63 billion naira. The Managing Director of the company, Mr Frank Nneji comfirmed that supplies to Dangote amount to over 90% of all Shacman trucks assembled at the factory since the revival of the plant under Buhari in 2016 after a long period of abandonment.
Trucks Manufactured by ANAMMCO for Dangote.
In addition to the 3,500 units supplied so far, several other hundreds of the Shacman trucks have been ordered & delivered to the soon to be opened Dangote refinery in Lagos.
The resuscitation of ANAMMCO under this administration was also key to the resuscitation of the Onne seaport which was dormant for many years. The port is now used for the delivery of vehicle components supplied to the ANAMMCO plant by its partner Shaanxi Heavy Duty Automobile Import & Export Company.
Mr Frank Nneji, the MD of ANAMMCO, who is also the MD of ABC Transport Plc, the franchise holder of Shacman Nigeria, equally confirmed that the Dangote/Shacman truck deal has benefited the people of South East immensely through job creation and training of young school leavers with many workers of ANAMMCO who lost their jobs when the company was shut down seven years prior to 2016 coming back to work & local suppliers of lubricants, electrolyte etc returning to business all of which couldn’t have been possible without Buhari’s automotive policies that insist on local production of vehicles & patronage. Nneji was emphatic that the resuscitation of the ANAMMCO plant was made possible through the establishment of the Buhari’s administration auto policy which encouraged local production of automobiles.
Buhari’s automotive policies since assuming office in 2015 as a civiliain President has also seen another Igbo owned vehicle manufacturing company Innoson Motors come to prominence. In the past 2 years, Innoson has boosted tremendously it’s staff strength to over 3,000 workers & has expanded hugely its production line in order to meet up with supply contracts of thousands of vehicles for the armed forces, police, paramilitary & FG of Nigeria ministries, agencies & parastatals.
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Another Igbo auto maker that has benefited from Buhari’s administration automotive policies is Cosmas Maduka (Coscharis) who built his 5 billion naira, 20,000 vehicles a year Ford assembly plant in Lagos in 2017 & has since expanded tremendously his production line to meet up with huge orders & supplies of Ford range of vehicles produced at the plant in Lagos not only in Nigeria but within the West African sub-region.
Thus, under Buhari, three Igbo sons owned auto makers — Innoson, ANAMMCO & Coscharis have become auto giants employing thousands of Igbo sons & daughters, enriching local contractors, suppliers & South East state’s IGRs as well as that of other states in Nigeria.
This does not include the world class Automobile Industrial Park built by the Buhari administration in Nnewi to provide technological back up to car & spare parts manufacturing in the automobile cluster in Nnewi.
Also, the present ongoing project to power independently 68,000 shops in Ariaria market & it’s industrial/craft cluster in Aba equally deserves a mention here.
Allen Onyema’s AirPeace is now one of the biggest, if not the biggest indigenous Airline in Nigeria today with brand new most modern aircrafts in the world regularly been added to its fleet in the past 3 years & also licenced to fly international routes.
Ndigbo businessmen and politicians celebrating the arrival of one of the 15 new aircraft bought by Onyeama Ellen for Air Peace fleet.
Oilserv owned by Igbo business man, Emeka Okwuosa is presently constructing the first segment (200km Kogi – Abuja) of the 2.8 billion dollars 614km Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) gas pipeline being built by the Buhari administration.
