NASCO as a victim of Jedwood Justice
By Clement Oluwole
What is today known as NASCO (an amalgam of Nasreddin and Company) commenced operation in 1963 as the Jos Fibre Factory with the manufacture of jute bags for packaging agricultural produce as its main focus. The pioneer technical staff members of the factory were pooled from the Kuru Technical School and sent overseas to acquire the knowhow in the handling of the equipment.
From that humble beginning, the mustard seed has not only grown to become a colossus in the Nigerian manufacturing space but also one of the most enduring enterprises north of the Niger.
Looking in the direction of many industrial hubs in commercial cities like Kano and Kaduna, all you can see are cemeteries of firms that have failed. But NASCO has endured and blossomed to an oak, surviving the (rampaging) economic vicissitudes that have become the lot of the nation.
As the foremost manufacturing firm in the Tin City, NASCO has become synonymous with Jos. As you drive in from the Bukuru axis, besides the cool weather, the irresistible aroma oozing from the sprawling confectionery complex along the road confirms that you have arrived Jos, Nigeria’s own Europe.
The temptation is always there for motorists to slow down to savour the pleasant whiff that leaves them salivating behind the wheels.
Over the decades, while going through its metamorphoses to become a conglomerate, NASCO has enjoyed wide acceptance as a brand and its products are widely accepted all over the country and beyond. For students and pupils within and outside its corporate headquarters, any excursions that do not include visits to the NASCO premises are regarded as a waste of time and energy. Thus, the conglomerate must have been the envy of many.
It was indeed a great shock to those that have been following the trajectory of the organisation to be fed with the recent, so-called investigative article authored by one David Hundeyin entitled “Cornflakes for Jihad”.
The piece attempted to trace the root of Boko Haram and pigeonholed NASCO as the midwife of the dreaded terrorist organisation. Nothing can be farther from the truth. This assertion is a classical instance of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
Even the lousiest student of local history will pass with distinction when asked to trace the origin of the sect. What later became the Boko Haram emerged as a religious sect founded by the late Mohammed Yusuf in 2002 in faraway Maiduguri, hundreds of kilometres away from Jos where NASCO is based. Its official byword is Jama’atAhlis Sunna Lidda’awatiwal-Jihad.
In 2003, a political bigwig in Borno state needed the support of the sect and its massive followership to capture the seat of government, promising the leader, Yusuf, a foothold in his cabinet. After achieving his goal, he reneged on his promise. Feeling used and dumped, the leader went underground along with his numerous indoctrinated followers and reemerged with the horrifying concept of Boko Haram, meaning “Western Education is sin”.
As far as the sect was concerned, the promise-breaker had bitten the fingers that fed him. The sect bit back and the corollary was the madness that almost consumed the entire North-east axis, spreading to different parts of the North.
The sect turned against the new government, wreaking havoc first on the communities in and around Maiduguri. Security forces hit back and by 2009, the leader of the sect was captured and killed. What followed is a familiar story. There is nowhere in the annals of the Boko Haram that NASCO and its founder were overtly or covertly linked with the foundation of the dreaded group.
In the first place, it smacked of sheer conspiracy to have linked NASCO to terrorist activities. Although its late multimillionaire founder, Ahmed Idris Nasreddin, and a number of his business interests in Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Morocco and the Bahamas were included in the UN Security Council sanctions list in 2002 as international terror financiers, due diligence was not followed… such as giving him the opportunity to offer his defence. This amounted to serving the Jedwood Justice, where someone is hanged on mere suspicion first and tried afterwards.
Even then, NASCO Group Nigeria and its associated companies which were independently owned and managed in the country were never included in the sanctions list.
Six years later, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) asserted that the procedures used by the UN Security Council to blacklist suspected individuals and groups were completely arbitrary and a violation of basic human rights.
By late 2007 and early 2008, Dr. Ahmed Nasreddin and NASCO International were fully exonerated from being involved in the financing of terrorism anywhere in the world, as per UN Security Council Resolution S/2008/25. This also put to rest all the false news/articles that had previously been circulating in some US publications. It was clearly established that none of the NASCO International business entities ever had any connection or involvement with terrorism financing.
The only association Dr. Ahmed Nasreddin had was being a director on the board of Bank Al Taqwa, owned by Mr. Youssef Nada, also accused of oxygenating terrorism. Nonetheless, in 2009 (the very year the Boko Haram blossomed), Mr. Youssef Nada and his Bank Al Taqwa were also fully exonerated from being involved in the financing of terrorism anywhere in the world.
Subsequently, Mr. Youssef Nada sought redress at the European Court of Human Rights for the injustice suffered. The lawsuit was ultimately won, with the international court ruling that his fundamental human rights were abridged by the arbitrary listing.
It is 14 years now since the NASCO Group and its late owner were cleared of the crime not committed in the first place. The question for the self-styled investigative journalist lacking the basic principle of that critical arm of the profession is: Why is he still bent on throwing dirt at NASCO? Does his motive not suggest an attempt to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?
By constituting himself as the accuser, the jury and the judge, using the instrumentality of his discredited online medium, does he not come across as a promoter of corporate cannibalism? But who are those that want to bring NASCO down so that their own enterprises could thrive? They have all failed!
What he has succeeded in achieving from the comfort of his self-exile is giving investigative journalism a bad name.
For me as a living witness to the tremendous impact the conglomerate has made not only on its immediate environment but also beyond, having lived in Jos for more than three decades, I cannot but rise in the defence of the conglomerate.
I am a soccer aficionado. One singular act of corporate social responsibility that endeared NASCO to me was its rescue of the Mighty Jets Football Club of Jos in the late 80s. Arguably one of the best clubs to come out of the north of the Niger, the Jets FC, the pride of Jos, ran into ownership storm and was on the verge of crashing into oblivion.
But the conglomerate came to its rescue and renamed it NASCO Jets. The management took over full responsibility of the club and ran it successfully until it was safe to revert to its old arrangement.
I was also a regular caller at its corporate head office where the late Chief Emmanuel Elayo (he later became the Osana of Keana in Nasarawa state) was the Group Personnel Manager. Chief Elayo and I became close when, in the late 70s, he was made the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Plateau Publishing Company Limited, Publishers of The Nigeria Standard Newspapers of Jos where I was a senior editorial staff.
He had cause to introduce me to the Nasreddin brothers and I found them very humane, peace-loving and accommodating.
If Hundeyin enjoys sciamachy as a pastime, he is advised to look elsewhere. No one can fell an oak with bare hands.
