President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday 23rd July, 2019, in Abuja
said that the priority of his administration “is to create as many jobs
as possible.”
Speaking at an audience with the National Executive Council of the
National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers led by its
President, Comrade John Adaji, at the State House, President Buhari said
in the last four years, the Federal Government deployed limited
resources to job-creating sectors like agriculture and mining.
Lamenting the closure of textile factories especially in the North which gave rise to crimes.
He said:-
“We promoted policies that will support local industries such as
import restrictions. We introduced programmes that provided affordable
and accessible capital to both large and cottage industries.”
He added that:-
“We also introduced Executive Orders that encouraged the procurement of Made in Nigeria goods and services.”
According to the President, his administration would continue to
support the above policies and programmes in the years ahead, stressing:
“We will not allow Nigeria to return to the days of exporting jobs
through the importation of food and clothing items which can be produced
locally. We owe this to the over 200 million Nigerians.”
The President noted that the textile and garmenting sector has the
potential to create millions of jobs and will therefore, remain one of
the priority sectors for the administration.
Referring to his recent directive to all Government uniformed
institutions to use locally produced garments, President Buhari said
unbelievable number of jobs will be created when the military, police,
para-military organisations including the National Youth Service Corps
(NYSC), fully patronise local industries.
He urged State Governments to buy into this policy for their schools, hospitals and other institutions.
On the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which
Nigeria recently signed, President Buhari said, “We have developed a
comprehensive strategy to fully optimise the benefits” with necessary
safeguards in place. He stressed that “Our priority remains to create
jobs in Africa for Africans using a large proportion of African raw
materials.”
Speaking on behalf of the Union, the General Secretary, Comrade Issa
Aremu, commended President Buhari for being the first Nigerian leader to
grant the 41-year-old body an audience, and making the revival of the
textile industry a campaign topic.
Bemoaning the closure of hundreds of textile factories which used to
employ “millions of workers more than the workforce of the Federal
Government in the 70s and 80s,” he also saluted the textile-friendly
policies of the administration such as the interventions by the Central
Bank of Nigeria and the Executive Order on the use of local garments by
uniformed organisations among others.
Pledging to support the administration to “keep our youths out of the
streets,” the Union urged that the incidence of smuggling be checked in
order to maximise the job-creating benefits of the textile industry.
President Buhari was decorated as the Life Patron of the Union in appreciation of his textile-friendly efforts.
