The President of the association, Mr John Adaji, who also is Co-Chair, Industrial Global Union, Sub-Saharan Africa Region, made the plea in an interaction with Voice of Nigeria in Lagos State, South-west Nigeria.
Mr. Adaji said that government must intensify efforts to stop importation of foreign fabrics to encourage citizens patronize locally made fabrics.
“We commend President Buhari; he signed Executive Order 003 to compel government institutions to patronize local products. Of course it will be signed, it will pass, but we must walk our talk.
“Our cry is that we have government institutions that use these clothes: Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Immigration, Customs, Unity Schools, Youth Service Corps.
“If all those clothes are produced in Nigeria, used by them, I can bet you, fifty percent of these closed down factories will come back.
“The negative impact of China, India, these are where they make use of child labour.
“They can produce all rubbish and dump it to any country and they continue to push it with the aid of bad guys in Nigeria, who aid them.
“Go to Kano, you will see, in trucks they come in, you see Customs accompanying those trucks.
“In 2016, they discovered from three ware houses forty-one billion Naira worth of goods in imported fabrics.
“…As if they would be seized, but they were later released to the market. Government institutions should do their job, custom must do their job,” he added.
He charged Nigerian leaders to lead by example by wearing only made-in-Nigeria fabrics.
“I listened to Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, a working President. He addressed the nation, talking about production, and he emphasized how South Africans must produce what they use and use what they produce.
“…And leading by example, he gave the name of the garment factory that produces the clothes he wears.
“…So you can go verify. He also gave the factory that produces the shoes he wears. That is leadership by example.
“What I wear is produced in Lagos State here, ‘Nichemtex’ but since two years now, since COVID-19, it has not re-opened, it’s shut down.”
Mr. Adaji relived the days when the Nigerian textile industry used to be the second largest employer of labour after the Federal government:
“…When they say we need to get to where we ought to be, it is as if we were not once there.
“Nigeria in the old was there. In 1970s/1980s, textile sector was the largest employer of labour second to Federal government. This is the office, it was built by members’ contributions in early eighties. This structure was commissioned in Lagos here.
“Textile factory was in virtually every street, but now the whole place has been turned to mosques and churches.
‘Then, if you put the employment rate of the textile sector together, not even State, it was only the Federal Government that beat the sector to it.
“In the whole Africa, Nigeria was third, Egypt was number one and South Africa was number two.
“Today even Mauritius has overtaken us. Ethiopia has overtaken us, the problem is where we ought to be.
“Investors were there that time. The environment was conducive; cottons were available; electricity was available to the industry and it was affordable.
“To compound the problem was the opening of the border to all carriers of all sorts of clothes- you cannot control it,” he lamented.
Mr. Adaji added that reviving the textile industry means more job opportunities in the country.
