The textile companies were spread across the land in the years following Nigeria’s independence. Kano and Kaduna states had a large concentration of these industries in the northern part. In Kaduna, the localization of the textile industries was at the Kakuri/Makera industrial axis. The United Textiles popularly called UNTL, Kaduna Textiles known as KTL, Arewa Textiles. Others were Supertex,Nortex and a host of other subsidiaries.

The textile industries provided a huge source of employment for all kinds of labour from skilled,semi skilled and unskilled labour. People from different parts of the country and even expartraite workers came to work in the textiles. The textiles were among the factors that contributed to the cosmopolitan life of Kaduna state due to the melting of different tribes,religions and people in the former known liberal state. There were geographical,occupational,vertical,horizontal mobilities of labour. School leavers who could not afford further education had a chance of starting and earning a livelihood with little or no skills.

The textile companies were spread across the land in the years following Nigeria’s independence. Kano and Kaduna states had a large concentration of these industries in the northern part. In Kaduna, the localization of the textile industries was at the Kakuri/Makera industrial axis. The United Textiles popularly called UNTL, Kaduna Textiles known as KTL, Arewa Textiles. Others were Supertex,Nortex and a host of other subsidiaries.

The textile industries provided a huge source of employment for all kinds of labour from skilled, semi skilled and unskilled labour. People from different parts of the country and even expartraite workers came to work in the textiles. The textiles were among the factors that contributed to the cosmopolitan life of Kaduna state due to the melting of different tribes, religions and people in the former known liberal state. There were geographical, occupational, vertical, horizontal mobilities of labour. School leavers who could not afford further education had a chance of starting and earning a livelihood with little or no skills.

The textile industries helped in booming the economy of Kaduna state and steered the state away from depending solely on civil service jobs. The multiplier effect was a corresponding rise in income earners whose expenditures and savings led to increased commerce and trade, increased investment, increased industrialization and rise in the standards of living of residents.
There was serious linkage between the industries and suppliers of the textile raw materials like cotton farmers on one hand and the textile semi finished goods served as forward integration to other industries. Another linkage occured between the textiles and distribitors, merchants, sellers among others. The food industry got a boost from the massive employees of these textiles. The landlords benefitted in no small means, same for the schools of their children and the beer industry. The government got a huge chunk of taxes from their personal income tax, VAT, corporate taxes and ad volerem taxes.

That kaduna was a bubbling town, that the economy of kaduna was healthy, that people thronged kaduna from every where, that businesses thrived in kaduna, that schools multiplied in kaduna, that farmers became rich in kaduna and that many people could live more decent lives were all attributed to the localization of the textile industries in Kaduna.
The harmful government policies of the eighties which exposed the textiles to unfavorable conditions. The rise in smuggling and dumping of cheap fabrics from Asia, the fall in power generation, transmission and distribution, the increase in cost of provision of private power through diesel run generators, the penchant for buying and selling rather than creation of value, naked management and government corruption, lack of innovation and use of obsollete equipments all contributed to the gradual and eventual collapse of this once vibrant and viable sector.

Unfortunately most of the workers had spent between twenty and forty years working for the textiles, meaning their productive years were gone. Also the fact that many were semi and unskilled labours made it a barrier for reentry into the labour market in the knowledge economy era. Also, due to the division of labour and specialization which restricted them to performing one aspect of the job caused them to be redundant outside the textile industry. Unfortunately, the textile industry is a huge cost capital intensive industry which could not be transfered. All these led to thousands of able bodied men thrown out of work.
Regrettably, the crises in the textile indutries that got to an alarming rate in the mid 90s caused a back log of unpaid salaries accumulating in months and years of salary arrears. The worse was for those who had worked for ten,twenty,thirty,forty years who were hoping to retire with their gratuities to cater for them and their families but never got a kobo. Their dreams collapsed, their lives were shattered and their hopes got dashed after waiting for a decade.

Their economic misfortunes became social woes, personal traumas,health problems and they could not even feed or fend for their families. Helplessly,most started taking ill from the mid 2000s and started dying having seen their worlds collapsed. Their productive years gone, their unpaid salary arrears and gratuities still not paid about 20 years after. Some became hypertensive, some slumped and died, some became protractedly ill with no money for medical care. Some got thrown out of their rented homes and some could not see their children through schools.

These once strong, agile, hardworking, dedicated Nigerian workers became weak, frail, sick and took turns in dying. Textile became another sure but unfortunate means of death. Some were stronger and struggled to this age, yet daily they die of hunger, ill health, harmful chemicals they inhaled decades ago, frustration and disappointment.
While the government had over the years claimed to release billions for the textile intervention funds, nothing concrete has been achieved apart from that of United Textiles.

No labour union or government agency has taken the case of their unpaid salaries or gratuities even when the owners/ management of these textile companies and their expartriate management team were complicit in some corrupt conducts that helped in decapitalizing these firms sending so many to their graves, and many more to squalor and dehumanizing conditions.
I write this for all them who have died in Narayi, Barnawa, Nasarawa, Kakuri, Television, Sabo, Angwan Mission, Tirkania, Kudendan and far beyond.

I pause for the father of my childhood friend who was already a mid management staff in the 80s who despite the harsh situation that followed the textile crash, remained a humble, simple, pious, cheerful man even after losing his wife; he remained faithful in the lord until he gave up the ghost and is being buried today. Rest in Peace Mr. Innocent Agbo and all the others who have died. I also remember Mr Bernard Gowong who is five years gone this week and many others. May you and all sleep in Christ.
Death by textile, the untold story of Nigerian workers who worked their lives out, but have been left to die.

By Samuel Stephen Wakdok

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Death by Textiles: The untold story by Samuel Stephen Wakdok