The invention of Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu

The Invention of Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu.

In 1997, a brilliant Igbo Electrical Engineer and lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Dr. Ezekiel Izuogu designed and developed the Izuogu Z- 600, the first African indigenous manufactured car.   The car was described by the BBC as " the African dream machine" as 90% of its parts were sourced locally.

At a projected sales cost of $2000, it would have taken the world by storm and become the cheapest and most affordable car on earth.  With mass production planned under Izuogu Motors plant in Naze Owerri, the prospects of an industrial revolution in Igbo land and Nigeria was in the making.

The car was equipped with a self made 1.8L four cylinder engine that got 18mpg and allowed the car to achieve a top speed of 140Km/hr. Front wheel drive was chosen over rear wheel drive, because a transmission tunnel, which a right wheel drive requires is more expensive to fabricate. 90% of the components were locally made.

General Sanni Abacha set up a 12 man panel of inquiry to ascertain the road worthiness and authenticity of the car. The committee gave Dr. Izuogu's car a clean bill of health. Note that this was five years before India built its first car called The Indi.    At a well organized unveiling ceremony with Abacha represented by Oladipo Diya, over twenty foreign ambassadors and thousands of people in attendance, the federal government promised a grant of #235 Million to Dr. Izuogu.

   An excited Izuogu is still waiting for that grant till date. In 2006, the government of South Africa invited Dr. Izuogu to do a presentation about the car in the presence of several world class engineers. Being impressed with his presentation, they invited him to come and set up a plant in South Africa and begin production.

Izuogu reluctantly agreed, though he wasn't happy that the benefits of employment generation will be lost on the locals of Naze and the Nigerian human resources.

On Saturday, 11th of March 2006, at about 2:00am, a total of about twelve heavily armed men broke into Dr. Izuogu's factory in Naze and took away various machines and tools including the design history notebook of Z-600, the design file Z-Mass containing the design history forbmass production of Z-600 car and the moulds bfor various parts of the car. According to Izuogu, "it seems that the target of this robbery is to stop the efforts we are making to mass-produce the first ever locally made car in Africa.". Other items stolen includes: locally produced timing wheel, Camshaft, Crankshaft, engine tappets all twenty pieces.

Also stolen were ten pieces of locally produced pistons, four pieces of engine block moulds, ten pieces of engine fly wheel and two pieces each of rear car and front mudguard moulds.  The inventor regretted that not only did they loose over #1 billion in monetary terms, but also time ( about ten years); and the energy it took to design and produce the moulds.  He regarded the incident as a narional economic disaster because the nation had lost a technological and intellectual property. The set back and governments attitude frustrated Izuogu and his dream died.