No Respite Yet For Kaduna Textiles, Staff

The major textiles in Kaduna still remain in shambles despite promises by the government to revive the collapsed companies.

Some of the moribund companies were shut down between 2002 and 2004, rendering more than 9,000 workers jobless.

Investigations revealed that there was no immediate plans to revive the textiles, though both the federal and state governments had assured the revival of the closed industries.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP Weekend, the general secretary of the National Union of Textiles, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Ali Baba, said the collapse is total and irreversible in its current state.

He noted that the Kaduna textile industries can no longer be described as operational in any meaningful sense.

“The textile industry in Kaduna has fully collapsed and can no longer be described as operational in any meaningful sense. What remains today is only a memory of its former strength,” he said.

He explained that despite repeated assurances from government at different levels, no concrete steps have followed years of promises to revive the sector.

According to him, stakeholders have engaged both state and federal authorities on several occasions, but those engagements have not produced tangible results.

“Despite repeated promises from government at different levels, nothing concrete has been done.

We have engaged government many times, but nothing substantial has followed,” he added.

Ali Baba insisted that the situation goes beyond revival efforts, arguing that the industry must be completely rebuilt due to the obsolete state of existing facilities.

On the fate of former workers, he painted a grim picture of hardship and neglect. Many ex-workers, he said, are still owed entitlements years after the closure of the mills, leaving them in prolonged economic distress.

Ali Baba added that the situation has become increasingly tragic, with reports of deaths among former workers who continue to wait for their entitlements.

On their part, former workers under the auspices of Coalition of Closed Unpaid Textiles Workers of Nigeria, Kaduna State chapter, pleaded with the government and other Nigerians to intervene for the payment of the unpaid gratuities and compensation.

In an interview, the coalition’s president, Comrade Jeibe Wordam, lamented that majority of the former workers were not just hopeless but impoverished as many died for their inability to afford healthcare services.

The front space of many  textile industries located along Kachia Express Way, Kaduna were taken over by car dealers as they displayed their vehicles in search of customers.