Reps warned against criticising cement manufacturers

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has said that it is concerned about the recent remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives on cement prices, which portrayed cement manufacturers in a bad light.

A statement signed by the CPPE CEO, Muda Yusuf, said most of the remarks at the session were capable of inciting the public against the cement manufacturers and putting their huge investments at risk.

It added that it was more troubling that the members had not listened to the manufacturers before rushing to judgment and castigating the manufacturers.

The statement read in part, “Members alleged that the manufacturers were exploitative as they engaged in arbitrary fixing of cement price. Some members even described the manufacturers as unpatriotic.

“These were narratives on the floor of the house which we consider to be most unfair to investors in the cement sector, especially when the perspectives of the cement manufacturers had not been heard by the members of the house.”

According to the CPPE, cement manufacturers were disparaged, denigrated and portrayed as deliberately inflicting pain on the Nigerians by arbitrarily increasing the price of cement.

The centre, which described the comments as unfair, said such weighty allegations should be premised on painstaking study, empirical facts and evidence.

It further stated that such commentaries represented negative signalling for an economy seeking to industrialise, attract investors and create jobs.

The CPPE noted that the principles of fairness demand that the cement manufacturers be allowed to tell their own stories before members could come to a fair conclusion and judgement.

It added, “But regrettably, they have been judged publicly, before giving them the opportunity to present their own side of the story.  We believe this is a breach of the norms and standards of fairness and equity.

“The business of manufacturing is perhaps the most challenging enterprise in the contemporary Nigerian economy.  Many foreign firms in that space have either exited the country or downsized their operations.”