By FLORENCE ONUEGBU

The National Union of Textile, Garment, and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) has called on the government at all levels to implement the Executive Order 003.

NUTGTWN President, Mr Peter Godonu, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.

Godonu said the order mandated government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to source their fabrics for uniforms internally, locally and not to import from abroad.

According to him, the order is not being enforced, as government has failed to patronise locally produced uniforms, hence, hindering the revival and survival of the textile industry.

“We have an Executive Order 003, and what that policy says is that government, parastatals, ministries and all the rest, should source their uniform internally.

“We have signed that during Buhari’s regime. So there should be an enforcement to that.

“Most of the parastatals, most of the ministries today, they still source their uniform outside, and we are saying that we want to revive the textile companies. How do we achieve that when the government is not even patronising us?

“If you think of the parastatals, the ministries, the agencies and whatsoever that are using uniforms, coupled with the secondary, primary school children today in Nigeria, you will see that the textile industry is a big market, if they can source the uniforms internally.

“But the government is also going outside to source for all this. So, how do we grow the factories in the country? This is a challenge,” he said. (NAN)