Douglas Baye-Osagie
It is sobering to see the Vice President of Nigeria lead a team of Governors to the Benin Republic to study the operations of a textile mill. Vice President Shettima flew into Cotonou, and pictures from his official verified Facebook page, Kashim Shettima, on 24th July 2026 carried a sentence: “drawing practical lessons from Benin’s approach to agricultural value chain.” The images tell a story we should not be telling in 2026.
Not long ago, the story was reversed. People came to Nigeria. Buyers came. Investors came. Technicians came. They came to learn how we did it. The textile industry provided millions of jobs for Nigerians across different classes.
There was a time in the 70s, 80s and 90s when the world came to Nigeria for textiles. Our mills ran 24 hours. Our markets were full of “Made in Nigeria” fabrics.
We had functional textile mills across the country. That was not a projection. That was reality. Spindles turned. Looms moved. Paychecks were issued every month.
