Former Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Alhai Issa Aremu, today stated that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari offers the last chance for the nation's industrialisation and development.
Aremu who is also the General Secretary, National Union of Textile, Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria , argued that failure to revive the thousands of the collapsed industries, especially the textiles factories in the country, would impact negatively on the economy.
Speaking shortly after receiving an award of fellowship from the Association of Textile Technologists of Nigeria at its 3rd International Conference held at the Kaduna Polytechnic today, the labour leader maintained that the Buhari government remained the last hope of the people in terms of reviving the nation’s collapsed industries.
Aremu added, “President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration offers the last chance for Nigeria’s industrialisation and development.
“Nigeria must hit the ground running to revive the railway and iron and steel industry, falling which industrialisation will elude Nigeria.”
He urged the President and his deputy, state governors, ministers as well as lawmakers to endeavour to visit closed factories with the sole aim of reopening them.
He also urged governments at all levels to patronise made in Nigeria uniform as a way of encouraging the textile industries in the country.
Aremu added: “We urge the President, governors and incoming ministers of industry, trade and investment as well as finance to use the occasion of that day to stop smuggling because the bane of the industry is unfair competition from China.
“The new Comptroller General of Customer, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), must justify the popular confidence reposed in him by commencing a total war against smuggling.
“Government must equip the custom and provide generous incentives to motivate confiscation of the contraband. We must treat smugglers as insurgents, who are destroying thousands of lives.
“Government should patronage Made-in-Nigeria textiles for uniforms for schools, military and para-military organizations.
“The key to reduction in prices of domestic fabrics does not lie in exposing domestic products to unfair imports but in lowering domestic cost of production by providing cheaper and efficient infrastructure and initiating industry-friendly policies.”
The labour leader, however, knocked the Nasarawa State Governor, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, for signing a contract with the Chinese to build a cargo airport in the state.
He argued that the so-called airport might further underdevelop the country through the dumping of inferior goods from China.
Aremu wondered the goods being produced in the state that would require the construction of a cargo airport there.