It is the season in Nigeria when one is confronted with exotic campaign posters that struggle to arrest the attention of voters. It is also the time when people who are into the business of printing should be smiling to the banks.
Unfortunately, many printers who had expected a boom from the elections have been largely disappointed. Rather than share the printing jobs among different calibres of printers, the current dispensation has seen the few giants in the industry cornering the lion’s share of the business.
Lamenting lack of business in spite of the electioneering campaigns and the posters that dot the landscape, Abdul, a Lago-based printer, said: “When the electioneering campaigns were about to start, I went to borrow money to buy a new generator with the hope that I would get sufficient jobs from which I would make substantial profit to repay the loan as well as the interest it would attract.
“Unfortunately, I have not got a single poster job. All the people who had promised to get jobs for me are singing different tunes. I am confused because I don’t know how to pay the money back.
“To make matters worse, my relations have continued to pester me for financial assistance because they thought that I would be swimming in money now because of the ongoing political campaign.”
Abdul was not alone in his state of disappointment. Visits our correspondents made to Shomolu and Mushin, two parts of Lagos reputed as the hub of printing business in the South West region and by extension the country, revealed that a good number of the printers also had their hopes and expectations dashed.
Some of them said they had little or no patronage before the campaigns but had hoped that their fortunes would improve when the campaigns eventually took off. Unknown to them, they were not in the plans of the political office seekers.
Prince Bade Abimbolu, a printer and member of Chattered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON), said: “I have not done a single poster since the campaigns began. I own a printing press, but if you get there now, you will find my boys doing nothing because the jobs are not forthcoming.
“It is only the privileged few who are close to the politicians that are benefiting from the ongoing political campaigns. If you visit some of these privileged ones, you would see a heap of posters that have been printed without the printer getting reasonable money to foot the bill.
“My family members are expecting that I would have sufficient money to give to them because they assumed that we would have jobs to do, but that has not been the case.”
Abimbolu blamed the boycott of printers on the fact that printing business has become an all-comer affair, adding: “It is those who do not know anything about this job that are benefitting from it this time around. I went to a higher institution to study printing, but it is people who have no idea of how it works that are benefitting.
“For example, if an in-law of a local government chairman is a tailor and she indicates interest in handling the printing job, he would give it to her. If she gets the job for N1 million, she could come here and give out the job for N300,000. At the end of the day, the printer, instead of making a profit of say N200,000, ends up getting peanuts like N20,000.
“They could even give a printing job to a medical doctor just to settle him. The few printers that are getting jobs are not getting them directly. It is always from one person to another.
“If a company wants to audit its accounts, it gives the job to chattered accountants. If you want to undergo a surgical operation, you go to a doctor. But it is not the same with printing business. They have bastardised it to the extent that a carpenter can handle printing job. A vulcanizer can handle it. Pepper sellers and others can also secure printing jobs once they have the right connections.”
Azeez Adeniran, another printer based in Shomolu, Lagos, also expressed disappointment at the development. He said: ‘’Before this electioneering campaign started, I must confess that business was very dull. We were looking forward to the time the campaigns would start with the hope that we would get jobs to do to make up for the periods we were idle.
“Unfortunately, the jobs didn’t come from the politicians. No politician has given me a single poster to do. It is unbelievable.’’
Kehinde Akitobi, a printer based in Mushin, Lagos, said: “Before now, we didn’t need to go after politicians for jobs. It was members of political parties that brought the jobs to us. But that has not happened since this electioneering campaign started.
“I did not get any political poster job this time around. I am not the only one who did not get it; majority of our people have not done any posters for politicians in all the political parties. I don’t know where the politicians took the jobs to.
“It is not that I did not make efforts to get jobs from them. I made good efforts, but at the end of the day, not even a single job came my way. Some of our colleagues even brought down their charges in order to attract patronage, but all of that was fruitless.”
While many of the printers lament low patronage, investigations by The Nation revealed that the quality of the posters displayed by candidates is an issue among the electorate. Hence most of the candidates vying for different political positions are going for high quality posters.
Some aspirants are said to have complained about the quality of the jobs done by these printers. In Shomolu and Mushin, two parts of Lagos renowned for printing jobs, many of the printers are said to be using outdated machines which are incapable of printing quality posters.
Realising the foregoing, a candidate in Lagos was said to have travelled abroad for his posters. Rather than print on process machine, the candidate printed his job on direct imaging.
Some printers admitted that the quality of printing in China and Dubai (United Arab Emirates) is better than what obtains here, but they believe it is not enough justification to take printing jobs abroad.
Explaining the low patronage, Akitobi said: “Politicians have printing press. Besides, there is what we call direct imaging now and because of this, many people may not need to have printing press to do their printing. They could decide to handle it by themselves.
“There is a particular politician who has been pasting posters that are of very high quality all around here in Lagos. The poster is about the most circulated in the state. Looking at the quality of those posters, I am sure they were not printed here in Nigeria. He must have produced them abroad or it could be that he did direct imaging.”
Eraolu Shopping Complex in Mushin, which used to be a beehive of printing activities during campaigns in the past, was a shadow of itself when our reporters visited the complex during the week.
One of the printers, who identified himself as Joseph Francis, said: “We are not making any money from the ongoing use of posters for campaigns. I think getting to have contracts to do posters for the politicians is absolutely hinged on what we call man-knows-man. Some of these politicians have printing outfits but may not be directly involved in their day to day running.
“I have one who is a local government chairman in my state, but because of his clout in his party, he gets printing jobs and does them in his press.”
Explaining why the quality of posters from abroad are better than the ones produced in the country, Akitobi said: “It is because they are using the latest machines, which are improvements on the machines we are using here. Most printers here in Nigeria don’t have such machines. The best you can find around are the fairly used variants of the machines they are using abroad. By the time you are buying a second-hand variant of a particular type of machine, they would have gone a step further in manufacturing another one with higher qualities.
“The few printers who have the resources to acquire new machines that can be compared to the ones abroad bought them at very huge cost. As a result, their charges are always very high because they would have to recoup their money and get some returns on the investment.
“Most of the politicians cannot afford to engage such printers because of the cost. This is simply the major reason why some of them who are quality-conscious take their jobs abroad.’’
Reminded that the low patronage could have resulted from the domination of the political landscape by two prominent parties, he said his expectations were high when the campaigns began, arguing that the printers’ fate was not because there are only two dominant parties in the country.
He said: “We looked forward to a boom in the business going by the way the campaigns took off. I don’t think our inability to get political posters to print is because there are two dominant political parties. We equally had two dominant parties in 2011, yet we had jobs to do.”
But while some printers are experiencing a gloom, it has been a boom for some others. Ade, a Shomolu-based printer, says he has benefitted immensely from printing posters for different politicians.
Ade said: “It has been a wonderful time for me because I have been getting jobs. If any printer is not getting jobs in this season of electioneering campaign, he should go back to his village to check himself.’’
Another printer, who gave his name as Sunday, said he wished that elections in the country would hold every month.
“My brother, this is a season of relief for me because the dryness I experienced before now has disappeared at least for now. I really wish they could be doing elections every day,” he said.
Printing paper sellers, others not left out
Investigations by The Nation revealed that the lull in printing business had spiral effect. The paper sellers are also lamenting the loss of patronage
Akitobi said: “Apart from those of us that are printers, the people that are selling printing papers and other materials are also lamenting. If they are not selling, how would we get jobs to do? It is when their business booms that ours will also boom. Our level of engagement depends on their volume of sales. All these put together make one to keep wondering where the politicians and their allies are getting all the posters they are pasting all over the country.”
Katchy, a wholesaler of printing paper, was surprised to hear that there were posters everywhere. “Are there many posters pasted by politicians? he asked, adding: “I am not aware of that. I have been thinking that most of the politicians have been making use of flex instead of posters.
“It is true that sales are very low compared to what we had in past elections. My thinking was that it was as a result of the restriction placed on the pasting of posters in the state. Sincerely, I am not aware that there are many posters in the society, because we didn’t see that in terms of sales.”
Implication of printing works abroad
Checks by The Nation revealed that some printing outfits had closed shop, especially those who had anticipated boom in the business but were disappointed. The worst-hit were those who had borrowed money in anticipation of a boom.
Akitobi told The Nation that some creditors were already running after some printers to recover their money.
The implication of taking jobs abroad, according to Akitobi, is that “it is worsening the level of unemployment and poverty in the country. The money that should have been circulating in the country and bringing about improvement in the standard of living of the citizens would end up being used to develop the lives of people of other nations.
“Instead of taking the jobs abroad, the politicians, in the interest of the economic development of the country, could give them to bigger printing outfits in the country. When this is done, the bigger outfits may not be able to do all the jobs alone and would push some to the smaller ones. The industry is really suffering.”
Prince Bade said it has the implication of running down their income on a daily basis and appealed to the government to address the problem of power supply in the country to help the industry.
He said: “Things are not going well at all for most of us. We are appealing to the government to tackle the challenge of power supply because that is the major problem that the country has. Government at all levels should also adhere strictly to what is stipulated in the laws of CIPPON established by an Act of Parliament in 2007.
“The law says that any government must make sure that its printing jobs are given out solely to chattered printers. They are not supposed to patronise anybody who is not a licensed printer. Unfortunately, those who are supposed to implement the laws are the people doing the contrary. This is why those of us who are licensed have nothing doing and have continued to idle away.
“Now our institute has pegged National Diploma as the basic educational requirement for anybody who wishes to be a printer. So, with the way things are going, if you don’t have the requirement, you will not be allowed to operate as a printer.
Challenges in printing industry
Aside from the disappointment suffered by a good number of printers from not getting posters to print, Prince Bade expatiated that the industry has long been crippled by the economy.
He said: “I have been in this business for the past 23 years. Our industry has been the worst hit by the economy, especially by the challenge of power supply. The cost of materials has also skyrocketed. We don’t get patronage from the local government to the federal level.
“Before the advent of politics, the months of October to December used to be printers’ season because this is when companies would start printing calendars, diaries and so on. It has not been so in the last four years.
“Throughout last year, I printed calendars for just a company. I used to print for no fewer than seven companies. Some others that approached me could not raise funds to finance the project after we had begun.”
Azeez recalled that clients used to pay about 50 per cent of their charges before work would start on their jobs in the past.
“They don’t do that again. They always want us to use our resources to do the job. If as a printer you have five jobs to do, where will you get the resources to do all that before getting your money from the clients?
“When you even finish some jobs, to get the balance is always a tug of war. When you go to some companies to collect your balance, there would always be a long queue of people waiting to collect money from you, not minding if you made profit or loss. A
“And if for any reasons you don’t give it to them, you will not get another job from that company. It is really frustrating.”
