Chapter 3 Of 13: I Is For Industry And Infrastructure Revival.
By Akin Samuel Kayode.
We move to I because after Accountability and Transparency, comes Industry. Without I, Nigeria will never work. What you don’t produce, you will forever import.
And because for eleven years, Nigeria has lived without I. Without industry. Without infrastructure. Without light.
In June 2023, when Tinubu removed subsidy and floated naira, MAN — Manufacturers Association of Nigeria — warned: 767 factories will close if power remains 4 hours. By December 2024, MAN confirmed: 767 factories closed, 335 became warehouses for imported goods. In 2023, Unilever left after 100 years. In 2024, GSK left after 51 years, Procter & Gamble left, Guinness sold majority share, Jumia cut 900 jobs, PZ Cussons said Nigeria is no longer profitable. All because one thing: no industry can survive on generators.
That is not reform. That is deindustrialization as policy.
Under Tinubu, Aso Rock has become a warehouse where industry does not enter.
Inside the Villa, there is 10,000 diesel in storage for generators and inverters worth N15 billion solar for 24 hours light. Outside, a tailor in Aba spends N3,500 daily on diesel to sew one shirt that sells for N5,000. Inside, Aso Rock budget has N40 billion for cars that drive on a good road inside Villa. Outside, a tomato farmer in Benue loses 50% of harvest because the road from farm to market is gully, no cold storage, no truck. Inside, the N15 trillion coastal highway is awarded for tourism. Outside, Kano-Kaduna rail abandoned, Apapa port road is 12 hours traffic, and the national grid collapsed 12 times in 2024 alone — the most in Africa.
How can you build an industry without power? How can you build infrastructure without a plan?
Why does a government that says “we are building infrastructure” also kill industry? Because to build a tourism road without a power road is to build a coffin. When you have not run a factory, you think the generator is the industry. When you have not managed power, you think solar in Villa solves grid collapse. When you have never produced a toothpick, you think the import is economy.
Vietnam and Ethiopia were once as poor as Nigeria and chose leaders who built industry.
Nguyen Phu Trong of Vietnam published one plan: 10,000MW every 2 years, one industrial park per province, one port linked to rail. Today, Vietnam exports $400 billion yearly — from shoes to phones — and gets $36 billion FDI because the factory has power. Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, despite war, built 5 industrial parks, revived Ethiopian Airlines, and dammed GERD for 6,000MW. Both understood you cannot have infrastructure without industry, and industry without power. Nigeria under Tinubu builds highway to beach while the factory dies.
I is also for Industry we lost.
When Tinubu took over on 29 May 2023, Nigeria had one final industry window: 200 million people needing shoes, shirts, phones, food, N4 trillion subsidy savings to fund 10,000MW, and $33 billion reserves to guarantee industrial gas. Any industrial leader would have used that window to do 5 things only: fix power first, fix rail first, fix gas for industry, give manufacturers cheap loan at 5%, and ban import of what we can produce — toothpick, pencil, palm oil. Instead, he floated naira, power tariff jumped 300%, diesel N1,700, and Customs raised import duty 300%, so manufacturers pay more to produce and Nigerians pay more to buy foreign. Result: inflation 34.6%, factory shutdown, youth jobless.
This is the second industry lost. The first was 2015-2023 under Buhari and Tinubu’s APC that promised industrialization but closed 707 factories with no power plan. The second is 2023-2027 under Tinubu that will close another 1,000 factories with the coastal highway as a distraction. Twelve years, no industry. Twelve years where Vietnam built 20,000MW and now makes Samsung phones, Bangladesh built the garment industry and now exports $50 billion clothes, and Benin Republic built industrial zone and now takes our factories. We wasted the window. They built the future.
Under Tinubu, the answer is always the same: endure today, industry tomorrow that never comes. But no nation eats tomorrow’s industry. Nations build industry today, so tomorrow eats.
Now set beside this collapse the man who has built industry and infrastructure.
Between 1999 and 2007, Atiku Abubakar as Vice President chaired the economic council that revived industry: cement — he pushed backward integration that created Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, Larfarge, moving Nigeria from cement importer to Africa’s largest producer. Telecoms — he pushed telecoms liberalization that created MTN, Glo, Airtel, 200,000 direct jobs and 2 million indirect jobs. Banking — he pushed bank consolidation that created strong banks that fund industry today. Power — he pushed the first Independent Power Project (IPP) with Agip, ExxonMobil, and proposed a 10,000MW target that was abandoned.
As a private citizen, he lost no chance to build: Adama Beverages produces Faro water and employs thousands, farms in Adamawa produce feed, maize, livestock with cold chain, American University of Nigeria (AUN) Yola runs on 24 hours power via gas, not national grid, proving he knows how to run industry without waiting for government.
For 2027, his committed plans will end this darkness and revive industry by law.
He will sign a Presidential Industry Revival Act that mandates 10,000MW new power in 4 years tracked live — 5,000MW gas, 3,000MW hydro, 2,000MW solar — with punishment: Minister of Power loses job if grid collapses more than 2 times yearly, and mandates every ministry to buy made-in-Nigeria first — army, police, schools wear Aba shoes, Kano textiles, Innoson vehicles — by law, not by speech.
He will declare a 4-Year Infrastructure Priority Plan that uses subsidy savings transparently to do 5 things only: Apapa to Kano standard rail completed, 5 industrial zones with 24 hours power (Lagos, Aba, Kano, Onitsha, Kaduna) with tax holiday 3 years, 5,000km of farm-to-market roads, gas to all industrial zones at N500 per cubic meter, and 1 million youth trained as factory technicians, electricians, welders, with no coastal highway until power and rail are done.
He will create a Presidential Power & Industry War Room that meets every Monday live on TV with MAN, NACCIMA, DISCOS, GENCOS, and youth manufacturers to answer one question: how many factories opened last week, how many hours of power did they get, how many jobs created? So Nigeria gets $20 billion manufacturing FDI in 2 years, not warehouse economy.
One man lost the greatest industry window Nigeria ever had — when Dangote refinery, 200 million market, and subsidy savings were all available. The other plans to recover it and double it by making Nigeria produce what it eats. Any candidate can promise industry. Only one has created industry before: cement revolution, telecoms revolution, banking consolidation before presidency.
We started with A for Accountability, T for Transparency. Now I for Industry. Without I, A and T are grammar. With A, T and I, Nigeria begins to produce again.
On 16 January 2027, stand up, collect your card, and vote for the man who built cement industry, built telecoms industry, built his own water and farm industry, and will build Nigeria’s industry again. If I is for Industry and Infrastructure Revival, then ATIKU IS COMING.
Akin Samuel KAYODE.
Member, The Narrative Force.
