IVM: Separating Facts from Cornel Osigwe’s Fictions!

AMBROSE NWAOGWUGWU 

A few days ago, a friend of mine shared a Facebook post made by Mr. Cornel Osigwe, the acclaimed head of the ‘marketing team’ at INNOSON Motors (IVM). In the post, Mr. Osigwe gleefully shared a photo of himself with another person, believed to be a member of his ‘marketing team surrendered by other vehicle brands,’ captioned: “The face of the IVM Marketing Team.” My friend commented while sharing the post, “I want to say something but…” This sparked a deluge of concerns in the comment section, where respondents lampooned the pedestrianism of the acclaimed marketing guru of IVM. They wondered why the supposed ‘face of IVM’ would be sharing a platform with a rival competitor in the market, specifically Mercedes-Benz, Toyota while touting to be the ‘face of IVM’.

Like every other concerned onlooker, they questioned what manner of a terrible marketer Cornel Osigwe is.

You may not take Nwaogwugwu’s words for it; here are a few respondents’ opinions about Cornel Osigwe’s carelessness as the chief marketer of a competitive brand like IVM:

First Respondent: “Don’t bother. Innoson has nti ike when it comes to vision, branding, and PR.”

Second Respondent: “Are they marketing Benz, Toyota, IVM, or all of the above?”

Third Respondent: “If they keep on with the low-quality marketing, the new NORD car product will take over the market, and that wouldn’t be a good thing for them.”

I could go on, but for the sake of space, I will stop here.

These comments underscore the pettiness, junkiesm and unprofessionalism of Cornel Osigwe and his team of marketers at IVM.

From many of his PR blunders and professional gaffes, as evidenced above, there is no doubt that Messrs Cornel Osigwe and his ‘team of marketers’ are precisely a weapon fashioned against IVM to fail.

Just yesterday, people started calling my attention to a Facebook post made by Cornel Osigwe on his Facebook handle, where he spewed fictions as facts against the #PeoplesGovernor of Imo State, His Excellency Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, CON, about a business transaction between the Imo State Government and IVM.

In his characteristic bricklayer ‘marketing’ style, Cornel Osigwe told fables as facts.

Some willing blogs, doing his bidding without recourse to hear from the second party, which is the Imo State Government, ran to town with the #FakeNews.

To set the records straight:

1. Imo State, through the Executive Governor, has clarified the facts on several occasions. In the video attached to this update, the governor clearly stated that it was IVM that had not kept its part of the bargain regarding this business transaction:

2. The Imo State Government procured a number of vehicles from IVM worth over 5 billion Naira, with both entities having business agreements that before the first tranche of payment, IVM would establish a service center for the vehicles’ maintenance.
In keeping with their terms of agreement, the Imo State Government provided the required enabling environment for the company to establish their workshop in Imo State.

3. Additionally, the Imo State Government paid over 3 billion Naira out of the 5 billion Naira contract sum, even when IVM had not provided a drop of shovel of sand for their proposed workshop site. They also promised to provide, in the interim, a mobile workshop to cater to the hundreds of vehicles the Imo State Government bought from them.

4. As a direct result of IVM’s inability to keep their part of the business bargain of providing a service center in Imo State for the procured vehicles, over 70% of the vehicles have developed faults. This includes the vehicles donated to Imo State civil servants for the free bus scheme, operational vehicles for security personnel, and those for senior appointees of the government, due to the unserviceability of the vehicles.

5. How can the weapon fashioned against IVM, a.k.a. Cornel Osigwe, be online shamelessly dragging the governor of Imo State when their company has not fulfilled any of the business agreements?

6. You agreed to provide a mobile workshop for servicing the vehicles pending the construction of the permanent workshop. Which of these did IVM provide?

In a business transaction of 5 billion Naira, where the state government has paid over 3 billion Naira, representing more than 60%, pending the fulfillment of other business conditions, which sensible business partner would pay 100% when the other conditions have not been met?

Cornel Osigwe is a significant professional problem for IVM. Why is the chairman of IVM frequently at Government House Owerri, lobbying to get the governor’s attention to settle the business rift, while the so-called ‘marketer’ of the company is online casting aspersions and spreading false narratives about a straightforward business transaction?

We challenge this Main Matket marketer to publish the entire business agreements for the public to judge, so the public can be fully informed and determine which party is cheating the other.

This is a business transaction, and should be treated as such, as no form of propaganda and emotion baying post clouded with sentiments will do here. IVM should fulfill their part of bargain of establishing service points for the vehicles in the state. QED!

As some respondents to his careless post commented: you entered into a legitimate business transaction with a state government and they defaulted, why have you not approached the industrial court to seek redress? Instead, Cornel Osigwe, the ‘Panel Beater Marketer,’ prefers to launch invectives online instead of doing the needful.

— Ambrose Nwaogwugwu, Senior Special Assistant to the Imo State Governor on Electronic and Creative Media.