The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has demanded probe of the N150 billion injected into the textile industry.
The Congress lamented that despite the huge purported funds, especially, the recent N50b Textile Revival Implementation Committee (TRIC) to resuscitate the Cotton and Textile and Garment (CTG) sub-sector, the industry is still struggling.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said this at the 13th National Delegates’ Conference of the National Union of Textiles Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), in Abuja.
Noting that Nigerians would want to know what happened and why the sector is still struggling, Ajaero said the country has witnessed publicised efforts made by past governments to resuscitate the sector but it does appear that the louder the noise of doing something to revive the sector, the more it goes under.
He said: “We have witnessed the N100b and the recent N50b Textile Revival Implementation Committee (TRIC) to revamp and revive the CTG Sub-sector. One wonders what has happened to all these funds voted for revamping the sector. Were the funds ever accessed or were they mismanaged or misapplied?”
The NLC chief stated that no nation jokes with its textile sector because of its value chain and the great potential for job creation both directly and indirectly.
He recalled how the sector employed millions of Nigerians in the over 200 full-fledged textile companies that dotted the landscape, utilising the nation’s cotton to produce various textile products that were consumed internally and exported to neighbouring countries.
However, he lamented that until the union became heavily impacted by the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which opened he said the nation’s economy to all manners of unhealthy competition via imports, the sector went down the drain.
He said the vibrant sector which would have served as the basis for national industrialisation began to wane.
Describing the policies as neoliberal “marketist” philosophy, he lamented that finished textile wears and materials poured into the country “and this sounded the death knell for our local textile industry that was struggling with power and increasing cost of imported inputs and production machinery.
“Companies shut down their operations. We cannot count the number of Textile factories that closed shop and laid off thousands of workers all around Nigeria. Our nation is still reeling from the shock.
Ajaero, however, called on the workers to join hands to rescue the nation’s textile sector, stressing that the union played a critical role in getting the government to raise the revival funds.
He expressed the Congress’ readiness to co-create a compelling engagement with national stakeholders to save the textile industry, adding that another “Save the Textile Sector Initiative” had become imperative.
Noting that the textile industry holds a pivotal position in the tapestry of the nation’s development, the NLC chief stressed that it is not merely a sector of economic activity but a cornerstone upon which the foundation of sustainable industrialisation was built.
According to him, the textile industry has historically been a major employer, contributing significantly to job creation and economic growth in the nation.
He added that the sector catalyzes the development of downstream industries and the expansion of the value chain, thereby fostering inclusive growth and prosperity.
“That is why this conference under the theme ‘Building Union Power for Sustainable Industrialisation and the Future of Work,” epitomises the resilience and vision of the trade union movement in navigating the challenges of our time.
It offers hope because it demonstrates the understanding that when we build power, we can use it to checkmate the forces that have kept not just the textile industry down but our entire economy backward and comatose,” he said.
