Bad Policies Killed Textile Industries —Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo on Tuesday in has blamed wrong government policy formulation for the extinction of the once-flourishing textile industry in the country.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria that the ‘death’ of those industries led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and those affected had to look elsewhere for their means of livelihood.

Oshiomhole expressed regret that rather than create employment opportunities for its teeming unemployed youths, successive governments only brought untold hardship to the people.

“That is why I lament the fact that Nigeria, and here we have to hold the Federal Government responsible, not necessarily the present, but successive governments at the centre.

“Through a combination of measures of fiscal and monetary policies, as well as tarried policies and corruption in the ports and in the Customs, the textile industry has disappeared.

“So we have lost an industry that was capable of providing over three, four million jobs.

“In Bangladesh, their textile sector accounts for 60 per cent of their national income, employing over eight million persons.

Oshiomhole told NAN that the textile sector would be useful to Nigerians because Nigerians had the penchant for dressing proudly, but they now buy more than 95 per cent of their dresses abroad.

He said government’s liberalisation policy, rather than grow the economy, brought tales of woes because government did not allow investors to take advantage of the exemption of the trade liberalisation.

“We killed the textile and plastic industries because of crazy government policies. Successive governments over the years made importation business more lucrative than developing our own local industries.

He said government abandoned all other sectors of the economy after the discovery of oil.

“People no longer think and plan because we extract dollars from the oil on monthly basis.

“I do not think this is development. I think that governance is about organising the people to work and earn money.

“It is government’s responsibility to provide infrastructure and the right environment for the people.”

On his plans to develop Edo, Oshiomhole said he met a demoralised and corrupt civil service which almost frustrated his ambition of revamping the socio-economic situation of the state.

He explained that the workers needed to adjust to the new order because “at a time, I started to say to myself if I was not too ambitious” about the desire to create massive employment because of the structural decay in the civil service.

Oshiomhole, however, noted that the workers gradually saw the need to move with him. new order of government’s direction.