Memoir launch spotlights Nigeria’s textile industry collapse

The recent public presentation of the memoir “Do the Needful: Chronicling the Life and Times of Comrade Dele Ariyo” in Lagos has brought a stark reminder of Nigeria's fallen textile industry. The event, attended by stakeholders from academia, labor, and the manufacturing sector, served as a platform for a former Minister of Environment, Lawrencia Mallam, to lament the industry's collapse, unequivocally labeling it a "national shame" and a significant contributor to the country's unemployment and insecurity crises.

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The textile industry in Nigeria is dead. In Kaduna alone, we had over five major textile companies that were very active. Today, they are no more. Cotton production, which used to sustain these industries, has also collapsed.

Mallam pointed to the shutdown of major textile companies, especially in Kaduna, once a vibrant industrial hub, as evidence of prolonged policy neglect and infrastructural decay. The most critical factor hindering any potential revival, she stressed, is the persistent erratic electricity supply. "You cannot revive the textile industry without electricity. Let the government fix power, and investors will come," she asserted, emphasizing that stable power is the bedrock upon which not just the textile industry, but many others, could spring back to life.

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You cannot revive the textile industry without electricity. Let the government fix power, and investors will come. Not just textile, many industries will spring up again.

The memoir's launch also highlighted Nigeria's lost status as a leading African textile producer, now heavily reliant on imports, particularly from China. Prof. Olufemi Lawal of Lagos State University described the book as a crucial historical account, detailing the sector's past economic contributions and the structural challenges that led to its demise. The author, Olusegun Ariyo, son of the late union leader, framed the publication as both a tribute to his father and an urgent plea for policy action, urging the government to "do the needful" to revive the sector and, by extension, tackle the pervasive issues of joblessness and insecurity.

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It is China that produces what we wear today. That should not be so. Nigeria used to be among the top textile producers in Africa, but today, the industry is nowhere to be found.