Traders and producers of local fabrics known as adire in Ogun State have expressed their displeasure over the alleged failure of the federal and state governments to address the incursion of Chinese-made and adulterated fabrics into local markets.
The traders raised the alarm that the Chinese were massively producing and shipping adulterated adire fabrics into Ogun State.
According to the traders, the ‘fake adire’ has flooded local markets, threatening the survival of local producers and their centuries-old craft.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the imported adire fabrics are being sold at lower prices, making them compete favourably with locally produced materials in the state.
A Former Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, during a visit to the popular adire market in Itoku, Abeokuta, Ogun State, had disclosed the government’s plan to ban the importation of foreign adire products.
Also, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had urged the Federal Government to ban the importation of Chinese adire into the country to save the local adire market from imminent “bastardisation” by the Chinese.
Obasanjo pleaded with the government to use all its resources to safeguard locally made adire from Chinese imitations.
The importation of Chinese-made adire has continued unabated, according to local producers.
The manufacturers and traders of original adire fabrics blamed the government for failing to regulate the importation of textiles and enforcing policies that protected local industries.
They warned that the decline of local textile production could lead to significant job losses and economic instability in communities reliant on the trade.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, a leader of the Adire Market, Abeokuta, Michael Ogunfidodo, said it was regrettable that the government failed to intervene in curbing the incursion of adulterated adire fabrics despite efforts by the traders and other stakeholders.
Ogunfidodo stated that a threat to local fabric industries would have a ripple effect on the country’s economy.
He said, “Any nation that cannot protect its local industries, culture, and heritage is in big trouble.
“Production of adire fabrics goes through about nine stages and, at each stage, you have hundreds of youths and women earning a living. If you remove all these people from the stages of production, we will have a massive loss of jobs.
“For Nigeria to grow as a nation, we have to patronise our locally made products, but the influx of Chinese adire is a big challenge to the growth of our local economy”.
Ogunfidodo also berated the government for its perceived lack of commitment to addressing the issue, emphasising that authorities were aware of the importation of the fake fabrics and the measures needed to eliminate them.
“If the government really has the intention of banning fake adire, they will, irrespective of anything. The government knows what to do; they know the steps to take, but it seems they are not interested in ending this”, Ogunfidodo said.
Also speaking, the woman leader of the Adire Market, Mrs. Modinat Oyetola, expressed disappointment over what she called the government’s indifference to regulating the importation of fake fabrics, which had plagued the local industry for years.
“I don’t think the government is interested in regulating the importation of the foreign-made adire fabrics because we have been on this for a long time”, Oyetola said.
She maintained that only the government had the authority to curb the proliferation of fake adire fabrics in the country.
On her part, a promoter of adire fabrics, Adejoke Somoye, revealed that between 50 to 70 women and youths involved in the production and marketing of the local fabrics lose their jobs every three weeks due to the dominance of imported adire.
Somoye disclosed that 80 per cent of adire fabrics sold in Nigerian markets were ‘made in China’, a trend she described as harmful to the cultural and economic sustainability of the local industry.
“The people importing these fabrics are rich and powerful, and this is one of the challenges that I had when I started the campaign against fake adire. I received a lot of threats; these rich and powerful people are the ones selling the designs to the Chinese for mass production and importation into the country.
“I believe the people involved in this are untouchable by the government, and this is why it has been difficult for the government to take decisive action to end the influx of fake adire into Nigerian markets”, Somoye said.
