Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, on Thursday challenged Nigerians to adopt a culture of economic patriotism and buy, wear and eat Nigerian-made products.\n<\/p>\n
Soludo said this is a faster route to industrialisation and job creation than any government policy alone could achieve.\n<\/p>\n
Soludo spoke as keynote speaker at the presentation of the book \u2018Economic Diversification and Structural Transformation in Nigeria: Past, Present, Future,\u2019 written by Abdulmumin Jibrin, at the State House Conference Centre, Presidential Villa, Abuja.\n<\/p>\n
President Bola Tinubu, who wrote the book\u2019s foreword, was the special guest of honour, while BUA Group Chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, presented the book as Dr Reuben Abati served as reviewer.<\/p>\n
The former Central Bank governor, who appeared in traditional Akwete fabric, argued that development was fundamentally a matter of attitude and self-belief.\n<\/p>\n
He noted that individual consumer choices, multiplied across Nigeria\u2019s population of over 200 million, could transform the country\u2019s economic landscape more decisively than structural reforms alone.<\/p>\n
Soludo said, \u201cImagine for a moment if all Nigerians only eat and wear made in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine the millions of jobs and the FDI that will relocate to exploit the Nigerian market.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Soludo said he had been wearing Akwete fabric as his daily uniform since his daughter introduced him to it in 2020 and disclosed that the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, had announced she would wear the fabric at President Tinubu\u2019s second-term inauguration on May 29 next year.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSince my daughter introduced me to Akwete in 2020, it has been my daily uniform, and I thank the First Lady of Nigeria who has announced that she will wear it for the second term inauguration on May 29 next year,\u201d he said, adding that the eagle symbol on his attire was Nigeria\u2019s own coat of arms. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I carry my own Nigeria on my head every day,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
The former CBN chief said the practice extended to his administration in Anambra.\n<\/p>\n
He stated, \u201cAt the Governor\u2019s Lodge in Awka, we only offer made-in-Nigeria food and drinks, except on exceedingly rare occasions.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you come to Anambra, we offer you wine, not champagne.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called for a national campaign to mainstream Nigerian pride in consumption habits, specifically proposing that Nigerian fabrics be made mandatory at all official events.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWear only Nigerian fabrics at all official events, and later then every day, and all the fabric-making companies in the world will start flooding to Nigeria,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
Soludo urged Nigerians to look inward rather than blame external forces for the country\u2019s economic challenges.\n<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cLet us point the fingers at ourselves for once, rather than at them. What are you doing every day to create jobs, reduce poverty, improve diversification and transformation? Simple habits and preferences add up.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
He said development was not primarily a technical or institutional challenge but one of consciousness.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cDevelopment is attitude; it is self-belief. Nothing ever got built or sustained without the team or society believing in themselves or a national consciousness,\u201d he argued, adding, \u201cI am Nigerian. I am proud. I wear made in Nigeria.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, on Thursday challenged Nigerians to adopt a culture of economic patriotism and buy, wear and eat Nigerian-made products. Soludo said this is a faster route… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}