LOVE FOR AFRICAN TIME IS AS DANGEROUSE AS LOVE FOR FAKE GOODS- SAYS STANDARD ORGANIZATION OF NIGERIA D-G
BY CERUTTI OSAGIE
Just recently,
the
Director-General, Standards Organization of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Odumodu was in
LAGOS for a world press conference to mark the 2014 World Standards Day in Lagos

He made alot
of revelations chief of which was how he plans to stop evil called African time, in his words, I HATE IT TO POINT OF
DEATH, when I resumed at Standard Organization of Nigeria as DG, we made a lot
of several hundred thousand naiara, by my creating a law, if you are late you
pay so so amount of money, if you are late for meeting or office you pay a huge
fine and we made big money to the extent that now no one comes late to our
office and we are no more making money’’ he CONFESSED
The
Director-General, Standards Organization of Nigeria, said Nigeria can win big
in the standard war te day they start respecting Time because time is money and
no wise man wants to waste money
At the
event, the Director-General, Standards Organization of Nigeria admitted that the level of substandard products in the
country has dropped to 40 per cent from 85 per cent in the last four years
Odumodu,
said the
huge national quality infrastructure deficit left by several years of neglect
contributed to the high rate of substandard products in the country with over
80 per cent recorded as of 2011.
The 60 per
cent reduction, he said, meant that four in 10 consumer products in the
Nigerian market were still substandard.
Odumodu
added, “Upon assumption of office, I commissioned a study to know the state of
affairs and discovered that substandard goods’ prevalence was above 80 per cent
in consumer goods. I was not aware of any other country with that kind of
statistics.
“So much has
been done to stabilize but we are not where we hoped to be by now or where the
rest of the world is. My conclusion is simple; borne out of global reality, all
hands must be on deck to pull us out of the wood and join the global standards
train.”
According to
him, despite the country’s huge Gross Domestic Product, it still participates
in the world trade as a provider of cheaper commodities, including oil and
other raw materials, leaving almost all the most lucrative trade in
manufactured products to countries that can add value to raw materials.
The SON boss
noted that the share of the global trade was a function of proven capability
and developed national quality infrastructure.
The
organisation, according to him, recently upgraded its testing laboratories to
five, covering less that one per cent of the product and service range, while
countries like South Korea and South Africa had about 7,000 and 340 testing
laboratories, respectively.
“Our large
population hungers and thirsts for the products and services of other
countries, rightly considering most locally made brands as inferior or
substandard,” he said.
Odumodu said
apart from a few brands, most Nigerian brands had remained largely local,
contributing little to the nation’s GDP.
“Standards
are universal; there is essentially nothing like Nigerian standard or Nigerian
time. Anything that falls short of the global setting is substandard.
Standards, therefore, must start with each person, organisations and
communities. Made-in-Nigeria for the world means thinking global even if you
are playing local,” he added.
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