Senator Adams Oshiomhole wants President Bola Tinubu to compel the nation’s armed forces and paramilitary agencies to stop using foreign-made uniforms and instead patronize locally produced fabrics.
Speaking on Monday in Kaduna at the 37th Annual National Education Conference of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Oshiomhole described the continued importation of foreign textiles as a betrayal of Nigeria’s industrial potential.
“If we wear what we produce and produce what we wear, we can employ 20 million Nigerians,” he declared.
The event, themed “Industry, Labour and National Development,” gathered union leaders, workers, and policymakers from across the country.
It also featured the renaming of the union’s five-storey headquarters—formerly known as the Textile Labour House—to Adams Oshiomhole Textile Labour House in honour of the former labour leader who once served as the union’s Secretary-General four decades ago.
Calls for Economic Patriotism
Oshiomhole challenged the President to go beyond rhetoric and take executive action.
“As Commander-in-Chief, the President should direct that the Nigerian Army, Navy, and Air Force wear only uniforms produced and sewn in Nigeria,” he told the cheering crowd.
He reminisced on Kaduna’s golden industrial years when textile factories employed over 27,000 workers operating in three shifts daily.
But he lamented that reckless economic liberalisation and weak trade policies had killed the once-thriving sector. “Those factories didn’t die of old age; they were murdered by bad policies,” he said.
The senator criticised Nigeria’s unguarded embrace of the World Trade Organization, arguing that it undermined domestic protectionism and left local industries exposed to cheap imports.
Labour, Insecurity, and National Identity
Oshiomhole linked the collapse of manufacturing to rising insecurity and social unrest. “When people had jobs, nobody cared about religion. Today, with factories shut and millions idle, we have produced anger, not cotton,” he said.
He praised the late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, for founding the Kaduna Textile Mills in the 1950s, a project he said “gave dignity to workers and reduced dependency on imports.”
The former Edo State governor commended Tinubu’s foreign exchange reforms for dismantling the old system of currency manipulation.
“Before Tinubu, people made money without effort—just with a phone call. Now, those distortions are being corrected,” he added.
Oshiomhole urged Nigerian workers to remain proud and resolute in their fight for justice and fair pay. “Don’t ever apologize for fighting for dignity. The primary purpose of government is the welfare of citizens, not the profit of business,” he stated.
He reaffirmed his lifelong bond with the labour movement: “From age 18, I’ve known no other calling. I will keep fighting until Nigeria returns to the path of production, not importation.”
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