Senator Adams Oshiomhole has called on President Bola Tinubu to demonstrate his “Nigeria First” policy by directing the armed forces to stop wearing foreign-made uniforms and instead patronise locally produced textiles.
The lawmaker challenged government and citizens, saying: “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.”
Senator Oshiomhole, who spoke 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), said such a directive would revive Nigeria’s ailing textile industry and create millions of jobs. The conference, themed “Industry, labour and national development,” drew union leaders and policymakers from across the country.
The five-storey building housing the headquarters of the NUTGTWN Secretariat in Kaduna was renamed after Oshiomhole. The secretariat was built about 40 years ago when he was the Secretary General of the union. The edifice was hitherto called Textile Labour House, but it is now renamed Adams Oshiomhole Textile Labour House.
The former Edo State governor and ex-President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) urged the President to go beyond policy speeches and take practical steps to back Nigerian manufacturers. “As Commander-in-Chief, the President should direct that the Nigerian Army, Navy, and Air Force wear only uniforms produced and sewn in Nigeria,” Oshiomhole declared to thunderous applause. “That is how to put Nigeria first in action, not just in words.”
Recalling the days when Kaduna alone employed 27,000 textile workers running three shifts round the clock, Oshiomhole lamented that “reckless government policies” and unguarded trade liberalisation destroyed one of Africa’s most vibrant industrial sectors. “Those factories didn’t die of old age; they were murdered by bad policies,” he said. “When we joined the World Trade Organization, we surrendered our right to protect our industries and jobs.”
