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“The problem is that we don’t value what we have,” Adiele says,
A passer-by may think that Ugwueze Adiele is welding a tank or container but he is actually constructing a dredger that will be deployed to Imo River at Owerrinta for a large-scale sand scooping business from the river.
His workshop is so ordinary that the only conviction that he is building a sand dredging machine is a Detroit-built engine that will power the dredger. The engine is propped up on two iron bars while the top is covered beside the room-size dredger under construction.
Adiele specialises in the fabrication of engine boat, barge and dredger; he has more than 15 years of experience. The last dredger he constructed before this has already been deployed to the site in Oguta Lake, close to the home of Arthur Nzeribe, a former senator from Imo State.
“If it is salt water, we have engine for that but Imo River is not salt water and that is why I’m using this engine,” Adiele says in a mixture of English and Igbo, rubbing his stained hand on his polo before lifting the cover from the engine.
Last year, he was invited to Okirika, in Rivers State, to work on a new dredger that was imported from abroad but failed to start until he operated on it.
“If the Oyibos do their own, we also do our own here in Aba but I know you would not want to do a dirty work like this,” Adiele says with a smile, probing the interviewer to know if he could ditch journalism for “this dirty work”.
He explains that importing the dredger would cost about N50 million but he was constructing one with N8 million. Although he concedes the imported dredger will be finer, he says his will be more durable because he uses stronger local materials. It will also be easier to fix if it breaks down.
“The problem is that we don’t value what we have,” Adiele says, lamenting how Nigerians do not recognise the technologies made in Aba. “But those who understand come to us. Imagine a dredger that will cost you N50 million to import from abroad and you are getting it N8 million here in Aba.”
Due to the fact that machine fabrication is capital intensive, he usually produces whenever there is an order and he produces according to the specification of his client. He says it takes him about two months to construct a dredger.
***Part of a post published in icirnigeria.org the website of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR)
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