Chinese exploit us, threaten local industries – Kano bizmen

From the moment Nigeria embraced globalization and signed up to free movement of goods and investors through its borders, Kano State began to witness steady stream of Chinese investors and their goods. Every part of the commercial city’s economic landscape now has a significant Chinese presence, dominating important sectors of the economy. Apart from the […]

From the moment Nigeria embraced globalization and signed up to free movement of goods and investors through its borders, Kano State began to witness steady stream of Chinese investors and their goods. Every part of the commercial city’s economic landscape now has a significant Chinese presence, dominating important sectors of the economy.

Apart from the ubiquitous Chinese goods that flood the markets, Chinese expatriates have become big names in manufacturing, trading and eatery businesses.  Some pushback is beginning to appear. Indigenous businessmen and labour unions, uneasy about the trend, have accused the Chinese of killing throttling local industries through supply and manufacture of substandard goods and exploitation of their Nigerian workers.

In Kantin Kwari textile market, the largest in West Africa, the Chinese are reputed to control 95 per cent of trading activities, according to the president of the National Harmonized Traders’ Union (NAHATU) and former chairman of Kantin Kwari Market Traders Association, Alhaji Bature Abdul’aziz. The Chinese achieved the feat of “hijacking” such a large stake in just six years, Alhaji Abdul’aziz alleged, through sale of substandard goods and unethical business practices.

“After ordering the substandard goods from their home country, they act as wholesalers and retailers for the same goods in our local market. That puts them at a position which their Nigerian counterparts cannot compete with,” the union leader added. “They have now become a threat to the survival of the local business and an obstacle to any attempt to revive our local industries”, he charged

Alhaji Abdul’aziz’s view was echoed by Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Tsauni of Bayero University’s Economics department, who claimed that the Chinese “bypass the principles” of globalization, by choosing to flood Nigerian markets with inferior goods. The economist observed that the Chinese were able to gain the upper-hand over their Nigerian counterparts because of their commitment to research and development on one hand, and the death of the manufacturing sector, especially in Kano, on the other.

Dr. Tsauni further argued that the success of the Chinese in flooding markets with low quality goods was aided by the country’s regulatory agencies, which for reasons that he blamed on corruption, turn a blind eye on the practice.

Apart from the Chinese gaining unfair advantage in Kano markets, they are also accused of being in the list of employers linked to exploitation and abuse of the rights of their Nigerian workers, because the large chunk of manufacturing companies that have not been crippled by the industrial crunch ravaging the state is owned by them.

The Kano chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is known to be having a running battle with some of the Chinese firms, over the non-implementation of the national minimum wage legislation, staff welfare, and unionism in accordance with the nation’s labour laws. The NLC has not reported any success, according to its state vice chairman, Malam Auwalu Mudi Yakasai.

One of the companies where the struggle to entrench regime of favourable working conditions and worker rights still rages, is the giant Lee Groups conglomerate owned by a Chinese industrialist, Mr. David Lee. Three subsidiaries – Asia Plastics, Standard Plastics and Bally – under the group have been in the past of ‘unconventional working conditions’, Mudi said. “The workers are not paid as per the national minimum wage and they are made to work longer than the conventional 8 hours, and for meagre remuneration,” he alleged, adding that welfare provision for injured workers was absent.

Over 3,000 employees work on two shifts (7-7) in Asia Plastic alone. Of recent, an attempt by the workers to unionise and press their rights was successfully resisted by the Chinese owners, who responded by firing those they identified as the kingpins of the movement.

One of those sacked, Garba Isma’il, who was once voted as secretary of the workers’ union, was dismissed for allegedly instigating workers to demand the reinstatement of a colleague, Ibrahim Yunusa Ibrahim. Isma’il’s dismissal letter informed him that his services were no longer required by the company because he “fuelled the fire of and forced workers to go on strike.”

There had also been previous reports that some of the staff lost the day’s wage for returning to work at least 2 minutes late from official 30-minute break. There have also been cases of staff receiving suspension for visiting toilet more than twice in a day, even though they were on 7 – 7 shift, a 12-hour cycle.

The same stories abound about discriminatory treatment meted out to Nigerian workers vis-à-vis their Chinese supervisors. Some of the workers provided details of how they were exposed to hazardous chemicals without protective devices like exotic face masks that are worn by the Chinese.

Illustrating the alleged unfavourable working conditions in the company, and its welfare scheme for staff, Isama’il related the story of another worker who lost both upper limbs while operating a machine. A compensation document in respect of the staff made available to Weekly Trust shows that the affected staff member was paid a little above four hundred and eighty thousand naira as compensation claim for the life disability he suffered.

Investigations also showed that he has since been redeployed to the security department of the company as gateman. Also, another staff member had two fingers on his right hand chopped off by a machine, but was not paid a kobo, according to Isma’il.

Dr. Tsauni accused the Chinese employers of maltreating Nigerians. He asserted that they were getting away with it because of high level of unemployment and attendant poverty, and above all he said “corruption and laxity in the implementation of rules by the government for the protection of its people.”

Expatiating on the point, the university lecturer cited an assessment of a company in Kano which cramped thousands of workers in a factory that had no functional cooling system.  Dr. Tsauni explained that the assessment was shortly followed by an inspection visit to the factory by personnel of the relevant state government ministry.  However, he observed that nothing was done afterwards, either by the factory or the government agency, to correct the serious anomaly which he said persists to this day.

Mudi said that the Kano chapter of the NLC was handicapped because the law does not allow it to intervene in labour matters involving company staffers that do not belong to a union. He said the NLC could only throw its weight behind workers that succeed in unionizing their activities and that the Chinese are aware of the provision, so they always capitalized on it to stand in the way of the employees forming an organization to protect their interests.

He however disclosed that the NLC at the state level had initially intervened in the case of Asia Plastics’ workers, but after refusing to be influenced through alleged bribes to abandon the matter, the officials became targets of the Chinese attempts to create cracks within the ranks of the state NLC leadership, and sponsored negative campaigns against the labour body, until the time the national leadership of the NLC waded in and took up the matter for settlement at the national level.

It was due to the poor staff policies of the company that that some West African countries are wary of allowing them to set up factories in their territories, Isma’il and Yunusa told Weekly Trust. The two former workers who had been elected chairman and secretary, respectively, of the aborted Asia Plastic Union in 2008 before their dismissal recently, disclosed that an attempt by the company to spread its tentacles to Ghana failed purely on labour grounds, while it was only allowed to open a factory in Niger Republic on the condition that it would secure its workforce elsewhere. “So they have to transport some of their staff from here to go and work in the Niger factory for two to three months before they can be replaced,” one of them added.

“No one can predict the real threat and the actual danger that Chinese presence will portend for Kano economy in the near future,” Alhaji Abdul’aziz observed.

Meanwhile, all attempts to speak with the management of Asia Plastics and Mr. Lee were not successful. However Weekly Trust understood that the company’s management issued a directive to the company’s security not to admit journalists and labour officials into the premises.