Most Nigerian Mechanics Are Out Of Date – Shonaike

Kunle Shonaike
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The Chief Executive Officer, Automedics, an automotive engineering firm, Mr. Kunle Shonaike, in this interview with Okechukwu Nnodim, speaks on why automobile mechanics in Nigeria cannot compete favourably with their counterparts globally

People complain that many mechanics are not qualified in this country, what would you say about this?

 What I have noticed in the field is the lack of education. What I mean is that before the advent of the Internet or information technology, most of these guys (mechanics) were used to the old ways of doing things. And this is because most of the vehicles that were running then hadn’t much technology involved when manufactured. But these days, there are so many technologies involved in the vehicles we drive. The vehicles we drive, right from 1995 are computerised and we are getting more computerised vehicles in the market. So what we drive today are more or less computers on wheels.

 We’ve found out that most mechanics are still in the 70s in terms of what they know. These are some of the challenges, and in the process they do a lot of guess work. By so doing, they damage the vehicle more. We will want to correct that in any way we can, and this will benefit the mechanics, the car owners and the entire society.

 Is there a way in which the government can support engineers in the automotive sector?

There are so many ways, but one thing we realise is that if you wait for government in Nigeria, I don’t care if it is federal or state, you may not make the necessary headway. This is because the people in charge of those organisations, what they think about is how to make money for themselves. There are so many things that we’ve done that we tried with the government but they failed.

So we don’t wait for the government and that is the challenge many mechanics are facing. Some of these guys are being used by the government after it has promised to train them in one skill or the other. We’ve realised that government use them as a conduit to make money and that is why we don’t wait for government again. We would love it if the government would come in, but I don’t really want to talk about them because it’s annoying what they do.

 We can produce our cars here in Nigeria if we get the required support from government. For example, we blame those from the east that they make fake parts, but for me I don’t call it fake. I call it substandard. If the government will come in and aid them in acquiring the right materials and the right tools to do these things, we can make things that will stand with any other spare parts from any parts of the world.

 Are you saying Nigeria has enough expertise to manufacture vehicle parts?

From my experience in dealing with some of our guys as the CEO of Automedics, I have realised that most young engineers who studied mechanical engineering in universities have this mind and brain to do these things. But they don’t have the wherewithal. These are the kind of people we are encouraging and we support them in any way we can financially.

The truth is that we can’t do it all ourselves. So if the government will come in then we will make some good progress. But the problem is just that when they come in, the challenge we face is ‘what’s in it for me?’ If we can move past that mentality and associate our names with the development of a project, then our names will be in history. And at the same time you will still make money. There are so many things we can do in this country and I believe we have the expertise.

 What brought about your company’s visit to Abuja?

We run a free seminar on automotive engineering quarterly because what we figured out in Nigeria is that information dissemination is a bit poor. This is because a lot of people hoard information and it is not helping the society. With me and my team sitting together, we told ourselves that we cannot work on all the vehicles in Lagos, not to talk of working on all vehicles in Nigeria. So we need to be able to pass this information around so that others can ultimately benefit from it.

 The belief most of us, Nigerians, have is that when I hold on to certain information I make more money for myself. But we fail to realise that in the process of trying to do that you may kill yourself, because you can’t do everything by yourself. And when you pass down this information it helps. In fact some of these people will still come to you for other things that you can even make money from. So we’ve found out that passing information across has helped a lot.

 How many states have you covered since you started the automotive seminar?

Abuja is the second location in terms of states that we’ve covered. We started in Lagos and the reason why this is so is because of the financial constraints, for we carry all the expenses. The reason why we do this training is because of the passion and the legacy we want to leave in terms of how we impact the society with our knowledge.

By coming back to my people in Nigeria I should be able to say this is what I did for my society to better the lives of the people here. There are other people that are helping out in this course too. We are more or less apostles of automotive for we are trying to change the industry. So that when it comes to automotive, Nigeria will be a country to reckon with.

 Tell us a little about yourself and what motivated you into becoming an automotive engineer?

I am an automotive engineer and I started the trade in 1975 and had the opportunity of travelling out of the country. I actually wanted to start as a computer information technologist, which was what I went to study. But while I was in England, I realised that that was not really what I wanted to do and that I had a passion for automotive.

While some of my mates were working in different places, I decided to work as a mechanic in front of my flat and that was what gave me my sustenance. So I enrolled in one of the colleges in England and I was there for about two years before I moved to California, United States. I went to college thereafter, sponsored by Caterpillar to study hydraulic, diesel and automotive engineering. I’ve been doing automotive works since then. I relocated to Nigeria in 2005.

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