* How she Runs a slave camp
It is the eyes of a child that fears a painted devil, so goes a popular saw, but when the painted devil is a ravishing female sitting atop a big company, she becomes a terror of sort. It takes a discerning mind and clinical intellect to see through her plots and sidestep her maneuverings.
There is infinite wile in the heart and smile of a painted devil. If by virtue of her sass and unrivalled wiles, she wins the heart of some people in government, she succeeds in turning them into her parlour pets and gets them to wag their tail in utter submission to her craziest whim.
If she is devious enough, and as a foreigner, she exploits her position to amass great fortune for herself, often at the Nigeria’s expense. She wields money like a utility weapon; sometimes like a hideous cloak, often like a deadly dagger. She adds inordinate vile to her already chilling nature and thus becomes terror to the most valiant of men.
She is Diana Chen, the chairperson of CIG Motors Limited and a dealer in GAC brand of automobile. Yes, she could ruin a man with an imperceptible smile. Chen is as scary as that. And men and women who had been on the receiving end of her Machiavellian and ruthless plots have only gory stories to share.
According to the news doing the rounds, Diana Chen reaps immense profits from doing business in the country by perpetuating a business culture that is in contradiction of Nigeria’s employment and labour laws.
Investigations revealed that CIG’s business model is basically rigged and operationalized with no regard for the local legal requirements, corporate guidelines and ethical procedures which it so vocally espouses in all its areas of operation. CIG operations sheds light on the parasitical nature of the company through its flagrant disregard of local legislation and ethical practices.
CIG Motors Limited whose 90 percent shares are owned by Chen, signed a pact with Guangzhou Automobile Group Motor Co Ltd (“GAC Motor”), to establish and manage distribution network in Nigeria, West Africa, a situation which was believed to be of great benefit to Nigerians, but suddenly snowballed into a “Chinese affair”. Chen has kicked out several Nigerian automobile dealers from importing cars from China especially GAC brand of automobile.
“She is trying to monopolize GAC brand of automobile”, a source who is familiar with her dealings, “she has blocked Nigerian dealers from importing the vehicles to make it cheaper for us”, the source added.
Recently, GS8, a product of GAC Motor was awarded the exclusive honour of “2018 Top Safety Car” among 7-seater SUVs from C-NCAP, the highest national recognition for automotive safety.
Speaking on the development, a source familiar with Chen’s administration in Nigeria, told us that despite the high demand for GS8 and other GAC products in Nigeria, the Chinese automobile distributor might lead the brand into extinction in the oil-rich West African country if her excesses are not checked by GAC Motor.
“Although GS8 manufactured by GAC Motor is a good car with high demand in Nigeria, the company is not well represented in Nigeria by Diana Chen”.
We gathered that representatives of GAC Motor came to Nigeria late last year to meet with some Nigerian dealers with the aim of granting them ‘dealership’ but upon getting to China; Chen got hold of the information and thereafter blocked the deal in China.
GAC Motor has taken decisions several times to get new dealers in Nigeria but Chen suppresses the move all the time with an allegation that she “has a relationship with the Nigerian government more than Nigerians”.
We gathered that Diana made this allegation because she was able to organize the first edition of the Nigeria-China Governors’ Investment Forum which held in Guangzhou, China. The event was attended by several Nigerian governors including Abia, Zamfara, Nasarawa, Delta, Benue and Borno state governors.
The forum was organized four (4) years after CIG Motors Co., Ltd introduced GAC Motor vehicles in Nigeria.
However, there is a cap on the growth of Nigerian human resources within the company even as foreign staff from the ages of 19 upwards are sent to Nigeria to manage positions. It is instructive to note that many of the company’s so-called expatriate staff are unqualified for the positions they brought in to occupy, customarily, they are trained by more competent and experienced Nigerian staff working with the company before they are deemed fit to assume duty.
CIG has developed an expertise in quota trafficking and, at any point in time has many Chinese nationals expatriate on its payroll. Besides the lack of merit of its recruitment style, the company perpetrates a very gruesome and dehumanising social and workplace culture. The company’s expatriate personnel have taken full advantage of the corrupt practices instituted by CIG and work in line with instructions from the company’s management to diminish the growth opportunities for local companies with draconian policies, delayed payments and frequent contract breaches.
To make matters worse, she hardly keeps a Nigerian in her employment for a period of six month without looking for an excuse to get rid of him or her, according to her staff. This is after she would have illegally deducted their salaries, despise them in the presence of her fellow Chinese country men and unfairly treat them as criminals.
