Senator Adams Oshiomhole has urged President Bola Tinubu to prove his commitment to the “Nigeria First” agenda by ordering the military to abandon foreign-made uniforms and adopt locally manufactured textiles instead.
Speaking on Monday, October 27, 2025, in Kaduna at the 37th Annual National Education Conference of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Oshiomhole argued that such a move could revive the moribund textile industry and generate millions of jobs. The event, themed “Industry, Labour and National Development,” attracted union leaders and policymakers nationwide.
The conference also saw the NUTGTWN Secretariat’s five-storey headquarters in Kaduna renamed “Adams Oshiomhole Textile Labour House” in honour of the former Edo State governor, who had served as the union’s Secretary General about four decades ago.
Oshiomhole urged the federal government to prioritise concrete action over rhetoric, stating that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, should ensure the Nigerian Army, Navy, and Air Force wear only locally made uniforms. “If we wear what we produce and produce what we wear, we can employ 20 million Nigerians. That is the real meaning of putting Nigeria first,” he said to loud applause.
He lamented the decline of Nigeria’s once-thriving textile industry, recalling that Kaduna alone employed 27,000 workers operating in three shifts. Oshiomhole blamed the collapse on misguided economic policies and unchecked trade liberalisation. “Those factories didn’t die of old age; they were murdered by bad policies,” he said, criticising Nigeria’s membership in the World Trade Organization for weakening the nation’s ability to protect local industries and jobs.
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