By Monday Ocheja
Most former workers of closed down textile companies in Kaduna have continued to narrate their plights and wallowing experience over uncompensated labour.
Some of the companies closed down due to erratic power supply, lack of raw materials including cotton, as well as the patronage of foreign fabrics to the detriment of local ones.
A 52-year-old Philemon Bako, a father of 5 was working with Kaduna Textile Limited (KTL), where he put in more than 10 years of service, but suddenly in year 2002, the company closed down.
“I got married while as a textile worker,” he told AFRICA PRIME NEWS. “You know, in those days, if you’re not the lazy type, you will make good money while working due to the company’s overtime policy,” he said.
The company had put in place strategy for its workers to earn more money, “now that it’s closed, and with 5 children to feed and school fees to pay, tell me how can I cope?” he asked.
“Even from the security guard job I do, the salary is very poor, and the Okada (motorcycle taxi) business I do to support the family, the state policy is not favourable,” he said.
With large number of dependents who rely on the workers for sustenance, the industry kept an estimated 17 million Nigerians going, according to information obtained from Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association.
Mr. Bako added, some months, he finds life difficult and is forced “to seek for loan to pay school fees and other bills.”
“I am even lucky my dad has a house in Narayi community, I had since moved in to cut expenses, but those who are not lucky were thrown to the streets with their families.
“You see government is not been fair to former textile workers, what is the benefit of the Textile Development Fund? He asked!
73-year-old Francis Laah, a former employee of Arewa Textile Ltd, was lucky to have retired before the closure of the company, but life seems difficult. He receives N4,000 as monthly pension allowance, which hardly buys anything meaningful in Nigeria today.
“At my age where will I go, and who will employ me without a skill with millions of able bodied roaming the street without employment? who will employ me?”
“We meet every Thursday to discuss with our union leaders, but it seems nothing is forth coming for now, hundreds of our colleagues had died waiting for their benefits to be paid, while many others are on their sick bed,” he said.
The closure of the companies “didn’t only affect the ex-workers alone,” Mrs Esther Maji, a food vendor, says, its impact is felt by “contractors, traders, farmers, whose money were owed by some former textile workers for goods and services provided before the closure. They are also on the list of people negatively affected.”
Findings by AFRICA PRIME NEWS show that in the 1970s and 1980s, when the textile industry was booming in Nigeria, the sector was attractive and seemed to be one of the best destinations for most school leavers and graduates joining the labour market in the country. It is on record that nearly half a million individuals were directly employed to work in the sector, this was aside the opportunities it opened for auxiliary markets.
The Nigeria’s textile industry, before it collapsed was generating about $9billion in annual revenue.
Statistics from Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association show that there used to be about 180 textile industries in the country which engaged both Nigerians and foreign Nationals.
In Kaduna, where the three biggest and oldest textile mills of the country were located, about 30,000 individuals were on the textile’s payroll.
The textile industry witnessed a downward fall in the late 1990s, and by early 2000s, the Kaduna mills alongside those of Aba, Kano, Lagos, Gusau, Asaba, Funtua and Lagos collapsed, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers jobless.
Government Efforts at Resuscitating the Industry
Successive governments in Nigeria had made various efforts aimed at reviving the textile industry. The first attempt was made by former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, when he introduced the payment of liabilities.
His administration approved N70 billion Loan for Textile manufacturers through the NEXIM Bank and cheques were issued to beneficiary manufacturers to cash them.
The cheques were however not meant to be cashed, according to a Daily Trust Newspaper publication which says “the cheques bounced and government gave a plausible explanation, arguing that the cheques were merely symbolic and not cashable financial instrument. Clearly, NEXIM Bank and the Federal Government were unable to source funds when Merryl Lynch backed out of the deal. Thereafter, United Bank for Africa (UBA) came to the rescue.”
The UBA approach did not work, until the administration of President Umaru Yar’adua, which reworked the policy and increased the fund to N100 billion.
Part of the money, N10 billion, was only released to beneficiaries by the Bank of Industry in 2010, during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
The disbursement did not however reach all those targeted by the policy, leaving a huge gap in the revival drive.
From the foregoing and the question being asked is that, any hope for the former Workers?
Any Hope for the Former Workers
All the textile mills in Kaduna are under lock and key in spite of N120 billion the Central Bank of Nigeria said it had spent on the industry in 2020.
Only United Textile Limited (now Unitex Limited) with head office in Lagos, accessed the fund through the help of a former northern Senator, an influential figure in PDP.
So far, Chelco Ltd, is the only textile company operating in Kaduna, producing blankets and towels.
The coalition of textile workers comprising Arewa, Finetex, and KTL whose majority members are above 70 years of age and yet to be paid, are not giving up as they still hold meeting every Thursday.
These former workers are hopeful that one day their liabilities will be paid, and if possible, the textile industry in the region will return to life.
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