The president, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has advice the federal government to urgently revisit the N1trillion textile revitalisation fund in order to address the gaps in the domestic cotton-textile value chain and check the influx of smuggled and inferior textiles into Nigeria. Ayuba, who spoke in Abuja at the 12th Delegates Conference of the union, noted that the developments would help in recovering the textile sub sector, creating sustainable jobs and further diversifying Nigeria’s economy. He lamented the dwindling fortune of the textile sector in the country’s economic environment, saying there was a time in Nigeria when textile factories in Lagos, Onitsha, Kano, Zaria, Kaduna and other places employed more Nigerians than the public sector. He said, “Today, the textile industry is a shabby relic of its former glory. From more than 175 textile factories, we can only boast of less than 27 surviving ones today. Many textile factories have been converted to religious and social centres owing to poor policy choices by government, breakdown of the domestic cotton-textile value chain, poor energy supply, counterfeiting and smuggling of cheaper but inferior textile materials.” He said Nigeria lags behind in Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) and must urgently innovate and industrialise in order to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030. He regretted the neglect of the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Company by successive governments in the country and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to deploy the requisite political will and funds to rid the country of this national embarrassment once and for all. “The potentials of a completed Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Complex for mass jobs, raw materials for machineries, industrial tools cum rolling stocks for our burgeoning railways expansion ambitions and as the ultimate springboard for the much talked about Nigerian industrial revolution cannot be over-emphasized,” he added. He also urged the government to ensure that the funds earmarked for 3050 Mambilla Hydropower plant project were judiciously deployed and the project is completed on time and to specification. He said rather than reap the benefits of privatisation of power, electricity situation has gone worse with chronic failures by the power distribution company to supply prepaid meters, exploitation of Nigerians through estimated billings and reluctance to attend to basic complaints. He urged the federal government to reverse the power sector privatisation because it has failed, just as he advocated the need for the resuscitation of the country’s four refineries and for the construction of additional public refineries, adding that the development would bring to an end the fraud associated with subsidy payment.
