Few days back, after enjoying my delicious meal of greasy chicken, sugar packed soda and calorie loaded salad - haba, I had to eat Lagos KFC now - I couldn't help but notice a group of women angrily wearing the t-shirts you see above. Couldn't help but stop and ask, them fight with Chinese people in Balogun ne? Apparently they were campaigning against what they said was the exploitation of Nigerian markets by the Chinese with seeming support from the Nigerian government. They were complaining about easy access by the Chinese to Nigeria and Nigerian markets while the Chinese do not extend the same courtesy to us. They also said that too many inferior Chinese goods are being sold in the country as superior goods. They also said the Chinese were coming in and selling their own goods at cheaper prices than Nigerians who go to their country to buy, thus indirectly removing money from the pockets of Nigerian traders. In essence they are demanding that the Chinese traders do their trading in China. I later discovered that they are the association of textile dealers or something like that.
Now I don't know the whole story and can't tell truth from fiction, but I can imagine the pain of foreigners coming to ruin my market if I were a trader. Things may not be as bad as they put it or things could be worse than they put it. Whatever the case, isn't it time that Nigeria started creating, manufacturing and selling to the whole world instead of us consuming what the rest of the world makes? After all, we have what it takes don't we?
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