By David-Chyddy Eleke
In 2009, as a young reporter in Anambra, I was still settling in after being posted to Awka by National Mirror Newspaper, when the owner of the outfit, Late Prince Emeka Obasi sold the company to billionaire businessman, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim.
The Turn-Around-Surgeon as Ibahim was then known, sent all the staff packing, on the excuse that he wanted to reposition the company. In a twinkle of an eye, those of us in the company landed in the job market.
The social media was only just coming on board then, but what was more prevalent were Yahoo Groups. Once a journalist, always a journalist – so even though I was still searching for a new media platform, as I was not intending to wait until Ibrahim announced that he had finished repositioning his company, what I always did then was that when I write on topical issues, I posted them in certain Yahoo Groups that I belonged, and for some, I sent as opinion articles to be published in the opinion pages of other newspapers.
One day, I wrote about MTN and its disappointing network. I wrote extensively on that topic and cited personal examples of how I had lost business deals because of their inability to render me service. I sent the piece to The Sun Newspapers, and to my surprise, it didn’t take as long as other pieces usually take, before The Sun Newspapers ran the story. I didn’t know the story had been published, but the volume of calls that were coming into my phone that day forced me to rush to the vendor stand to read. The piece had been published on a full page, and my phone number attached to it.
My phone buzzed almost the entire day, with many people commending me for the courage to write about that topic. I felt on top of the world.
I remember a certain guy from Onitsha who called me and thanked me. He asked if I was Igbo and I said yes. He switched to Igbo language and said to me, “MTN should go and thank their God that I did not go to school. If I did, this kind of thing you wrote today is what I would have been writing against them until they changed. Thank God that people like you who went to school are already writing the things we can not write.” He later sent me a recharge voucher in appreciation.
About a week after that article was published, I received an email from MTN, inviting me to a three-day training workshop in Lagos.
My immediate reaction was that MTN wanted to lure me to Lagos, so that it will be easy to arrest me. I shared the information with someone who told me it wasn’t true, that I should go. I called a phone number attached to the mail, and I was assured it was from MTN, and that they selected few persons for the training.
Long story cut short, I ended up spending three days in the very prestigious Eko Hotel and Suites, ate good food that was almost lacking in my life then, interacted with quality individuals, got impacted with higher knowledge, and came back home with lots of presents from MTN (the same people I had so harshly criticized).
During the training, we got to know the efforts the company was putting in, in a harsh economy like Nigeria (no be today Naija economy begin harsh), just to serve customers. I returned from Lagos with the strong feeling that MTN remained the giant of all telcos, and I do not think I was mistaken.
Besides the MTN line I was using then, which I still use to this day, I later added another MTN SIM when phones with two SIM cards started entering the market. Today, the SIM card in the desktop phone we use to connect our children at home is MTN. My business line is MTN, the SIM in the phone which our children use to browse their homework is MTN. Today, na me carry MTN for head like Gala.
Eric Umeofia’s Erisco Foods Limited missed an opportunity to make its customer and reviewer, Chioma Egodi, carry Nagiko tomato on her head like Gala, by toeing the part he did.
Who was Chioma Egodi before Erisco took her up? She was a regular Facebook user like myself, who struggles to get five comments and 10 likes in every post I make lol). But because of poor handling by Erisco, that singular post by Chioma has grossed likes, shares and comments in several thousands, thereby letting others who were not even aware of the review as handed by Chioma to become aware.
Save for the gra gra spirit of an average Nigerian big man, nothing stops Erisco group from quietly inviting Chioma to their facility for a tour, showing her around their sites, the processes the product goes through to come out what it is before it hits the market. In that way, a hearty laughter, handshake and even exchange of gifts would have followed. From there, Umeofia’s Erisco would have helped her sister, Chioma (I hear they both hail from Nnewi) to become a star, who would have gone ahead to sign other endorsement deals.
But in Nigeria, just pray that a big man does not target you, because if they do, you go explain tire, and they will still win by whatever means. That is why in the video on Arise TV’s YouTube channel, I kept hearing Chioma referring to ‘orders from above’.
When Chioma made her harsh review of Erisco’s Tomato last year, I read the post, and didn’t see anything damaging about it. She bought a product and simply said how it tasted. It’s her right. The only snag I saw was that a certain lady wrote in the comment section asking Chioma to desist from running down his brother’s business, to which Chioma replied, “tell your brother to stop killing people”. That I think was an extreme remark.
I have a friend, who keeps telling me about Zara Stores bread. He said their sardine bread is super. One day, while coming back from work, I ignored Roban bread which has been my family’s favourite, I stopped at Zara stores and bought their Sardine bread. I got home and tasted it, and it tasted so great. I was happy I brought it. My wife thought it tasted good too, but my children rejected it. With time too, my wife said it didn’t taste so good, my children said it smelt. But you know what, I liked the bread, and I stored them and was enjoying them until the two loaves I bought finished. I still like it till this day. What tastes good to one person, may not taste good to the other. Nagiko tomato may taste good to Eric Umeofia and other customers, but may be too sugary for Chioma Egodi, except Erisco is saying the lady didn’t have any right to say how a product she bought with her hard earned money tasted. But I will never say because my children disliked Zara bread, that it is killing people. That was where Chioma got it wrong.
In the less than 30 minutes Arise TV video, I saw Chief Eric Umeofia swearing and cursing, insisting that Chioma had no right to review his product, and that she has never reviewed any product before, “why should she start with us? Go to her Facebook page, she has never reviewed any product.”
That she has never reviewed any other product does not rob her of the right to review one, which she thinks didn’t meet her taste. There is always a first time for everything, and for her, Nagiko tomato was her first, and Erisco is hell bent on ensuring that she never thinks of a review in her life again, if she ever gets out of this one.
I saw a news article which showed that in 2015, Chief Umeofia himself had granted an interviewing, claiming that importers of tomato paste were killing Nigerians. I’m still trying to know how different that comment by Umeofia is from the one by Chioma. The only difference I see in both remarks is that in Umeofia’s remark, a court is likely to say that you can not libel an amorphous group. IMPORTERS OF TOMATO PASTE will be classified as amorphous group, which referred to no one in particular, whereas in the case of Chioma, she was particular about Erisco’s tomato, Nagiko killing people.
Now, let me say my own opinion, except of course we have all lost our rights to say our opinions as one big man may start tormenting us, and orders from above will come for us to be locked up somewhere.
My opinion is that Erisco lost a brand ambassador in Chioma. Another of my opinion is that the current saga is neither doing Erisco any good, nor Chioma. Erisco is losing money in legal tussle, and may lose something more than money, which is the name it is trying to protect if it doesn’t handle this matter well; whereas, Chioma is losing sleep and being traumatized.
Another of my opinion is that Chief Eric Umeofia is slowly branding Erisco in the name he fighting to remove from her. In the Arise TV interview I watched, Chief Umeofia wearing his beautiful suit, made of Ankara material, which had Erisco plastered all over it, sat in his office, with bulging eyes, spitting fire, and showing every trait of a Nigerian big man, who will go to any length to crush with someone who stood in his way. Severally, he swore that nothing would make him drop the case, and I thought to myself that it wasn’t necessary.
For poor guys like me who hasn’t read much or had cause to meet Erisco Foods that much, with the number of viewers that video on YouTube is raking in for Arise TV, I think a time will come when if you mention Erisco before novices like us, the only picture that will flash in our mind will be that of a dark skin burly built fellow, with red bulging eyes, siting over us and spitting fire, threatening to deal severely with anyone who stands before it, including a customer. Once that picture forms well in our heads, I wonder what will become of Eric Umeofia’s most cherished brand, Erisco and her products.
I think certain people need to intervene at this point. Unlike Umeofia who was swearing everywhere, I sincerely think that there is no problem that cannot be resolved if the right people preside over it.
I once watched the story of Erisco Foods on TV. It was a beautiful documentary of how the company started, I think in the North. With the unemployment problem facing Nigeria, the country needs more Eriscos to come on board. Again, guys like Chief Umeofia who still run businesses in Nigeria’s harsh economy deserve a tumb up, but that doesn’t mean that people cannot review their businesses, positively or negatively (you can’t please everyone at the same time).
Chief Umeofia deserve to be commended, and I think from the pictures of the big people he has met as seen in his office during that interview, shows that he has also been getting accolades for what he does. Voices like Chioma Egodi that are condemning what Umeofia does are in extreme minority, and Umeofia himself should not use his resources to advertise those voices, when he can in fact advertise the commendations he has received.
May I implore Charles Chukwuma Soludo who is governor of Anambra State, where Umeofia and Chioma Egodi both hail from, to wade in and see a way to settle them amicably. This is also a small case, compared to what the ebullient Senator Dr. Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah, who is senator representing Anambra South and a notable son of Nnewi, where the duo hail from has waded in and solved before. I wish a win win ground can be brokered for both individuals, where Erisco products will begin to rake in customers because of a positive review this time, and where Egodi will smile to the bank with an endorsement deal from the company. There’s nothing to hard to settle for two people who genuinely want peace.
