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The late Executive Director of Nigeria Auto Manufacturers Association (NAMA), Mr. Arthur Madueke, has been honoured by the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association {NAJA} at its recent awards night held at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.
The post-humous honour was one of the high points of the 2016 NAJA Awards that saw many vehicles and companies winning laurels, while some prominent investors in the sector, including the President of the Coscharis Group, Dr. Cosmas Maduka, were also honoured.
In a brief remark ahead of the presentation of the plaque, the Chairman of NAJA, Mr. Frank Kintum, told guests at the event that late Arthur Madueke was being remembered by the motoring journalists for the important and useful contributions he made towards to the development of the auto industry.
Until his death on Monday, July 7, 2014,Madueke was in the vanguard of the efforts by the Federal Government, and the auto industry represented by National Automotive Design and Development Council {NADDC}, NAMA and the auto sectional group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria {MAN}, to ensure a viable local auto industry.
Unfortunately, he died less than one week after the automotive policy {officially called the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP), which he dedicated his life to actualising, took effect, on July 1, 2014.
Perhaps, only next to the former President Goodluck Jonathan and the then Industry, Trade and Commerce Minister, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, late Madueke was one of the most untiring advocates of a virile auto industry to be driven by to the policy.
In one of his many no-hold-barred interviews with the Daily Sun in support of the policy, the late NAMA Executive Director had said: “I only wish that the government of President Goodluck Jonathan was in existence 20 years ago: then the story would have been different today. If this kind of decision had been taken in the 1990s or thereabout, by now you would have had the impact on the Nigerian automotive industry.
“But, be it as it may, I think that the policy by the Federal Government is appropriate. It is one of the best things that history will record as having happened in Nigeria, because it is not only going to impact on the whole engineering sector of the Nigerian economy, because as we keep on repeating ourselves, a unit of vehicle has about 2,500 parts. So, the value chain is immense and numerous. Therefore, this singular policy, if well implemented and stuck with, is one of the best things that will happen to the Nigerian economy”.
On who deserves the credit for the auto policy, he remarked: “Government consists of the President and his cabinet. So, even if you say the President and the Minister, you are still talking about the government. I think the private sector has been pressing for this for a long time. For over 20 years, it has been pushing that this is the right policy for the industry. Several regimes came in and they did not do it.
“So, I think the credit goes to both the private sector and particularly to President Goodluck Jonathan and his cabinet that took this decision. The previous governments lacked the courage to do what he has done, and he has provided a turning point for the industry. I think credit should go to him for taking this decision which others were shy in taking.”
The late NAMA E.D’s award was received at the NAJA event by his son, Bosah Madueke, who expressed his family’s gratitude to the journalists for the honour done to his father.
