ADAMAWA: Africola,Bluna,Zit or Vimto

Faro products

Within 30 minutes of putting up this picture of empty bottles of carbonated soft drinks which I used as the topic for this write up on my Facebook page, I got over 20 comments from people who actually remembered those drinks. Many of the comments were of nostalgia of the good old days when those drinks were produced by Faro Bottling company in Yola the Adamawa state capital.
Faro Bottling company then was owned and controlled by the government of the old Gongola state and to the best of my knowledge it provided the necessary refreshment to the extent that most of us as kids never knew of the existence of Cocacola .Most schools (which were also public owned apart from a few private schools) organised excursions to the factory were students were thrilled with the manufacturing process of the company.
Today Faro Bottling company has been privatized and is owned by a prominent indigene who served at the highest level of Government which has led some people to insinuate that he used his position to buy off the company. I don’t know of all the products they churn out now apart from satchet and bottled water, but I know that they no more produce these carbonated drinks which we enjoyed so much as kids growing up.

Sadly this is the story of industry and production in Adamawa state. To the best of my knowledge not a single worthwhile industry is functioning in the state.
We use to know of Lau tomatoes industry, inter state flour mills and Mubi burnt bricks industry all of which have packed up. River Benue use to be a channel were goods were transported to cameroun and at least 20 ferries load goods at ‘Bakin kogi’ for onward tranfer to central African countries via cameroun. A society which produces nothing cannot make any headway and this is the position Adamawa state is in now. Agriculture which involved crop cultivation and Animal husbandry was also a mainstay of the people but today no member of our generation is involved in any serious agricultural practice, we have been reduced to a predominantly unproductive people who depend on civil service jobs that pay monthly stipends derived from monthly allocations from the Federal Government. Most youths of Adamawa today will tell you that they are politicians, as if that is a worthy job.They move from house to house of politicians and political office holders and wait to be handed out some stipends(if you give a grown man N500 he will be so grateful you will be tempted to believe you mistakenly gave him N5000). When you visit Adamawa at a time when salaries are far off you will be tempted to believe that there is a plague in place. As soon as you arrive friends and relatives start trooping in to come and ‘welcome you’ and ‘collect what you brought for them’ as if you had signed a contract to that effect.

It is pertinent to point out at this junction that we cannot continue like this. A state blessed with both human and Materials resources and sharing Borders with cameroun is supposed to be a hub of production,commerce and trade. We as the new generation must find ways of forming productive networks that will regenerate the productive capacity of our people outside government. This can only be achieved through sincere introspective consultations and exchange of goodwill and ideas we must not make the same mistake our parents made believing that one day things will miraculously work out.