…..decry poor management of NILEST, failure to harness hides and skin in Nigeria

The Oodua Youth Parliament has faulted the decision by the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) to site the ₦350 million worth tannery in Daura, Katsina State.

Speaker of the parliament, Hon. Abdulmajeed Oyeniye while addressing a press conference in Abuja argued that it is unfair that an Institute located in the Northwest Geopolitical Zone will choose to site such project within the same region.

“Are other states like Lagos, Oyo or Ekiti not part of the country again or was the institute established only for the Northwest region? This is unacceptable to the generality of Nigerians and must be reversed in the spirit of federal character and fairness,” the group queried.

The parliament expressed dissatisfaction with Director General of the institute, Professor Mohammed Kabir Yakubu alleging the institute has failed to live up to the expectations of providing job opportunities to Nigerians and help boost the economy.

The group thereby called for the immediate sack of Yakubu with with the aim of replacing him with a competent hand that would reposition the institute for service delivery.

The group alleged: “NILEST was conceived with the aim of harnessing the vast potentials in the flourishing livestock industry in country especially in northern Nigeria.

“With over 100 million of cows, goats and ship with thousand slaughters daily, Nigeria was projected to be a net exporter of hides and an industrial hub in the leather and skin industrial sector. More than 20 years down the line nothing has changed and it got worse under the present administration of Professor Mohammed Kabir Yakubu.

“The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has shown that Nigeria exports less than 100 tons of hides and skin. In fact it’s questionable if this quantity is exported to neighboring African countries and whether it’s just raw skin or actually hides.

“There has not be any visible footprint of NILEST anywhere in Nigeria even though there are abattoirs spread across the country from Maiduguri to Lagos and Port Harcourt. All attempts made at skinning and preservation are done at the individual level with no input from a supposedly professional body.

“Thus crude practices and techniques still exists making it impossible for the country to produce leather fit for domestic consumption talk more of exportation.

“Prof. Yakubu has done nothing to justify the huge taxpayers money invested in the Institute has headed for years. Nigerian animal skin especially cow skins are only useful for local consumption as ‘ponmo’. There is no industry in Nigeria that processes animal skin, not even the laboratory in NILEST. While the machines and manpower is on standby, there no management direction and input from anywhere making government investments a total waste.

“Nigerians still prefer Italian shoes and bags and belts. The raw materials for these are made from the same cows we have here in abundance. If NILEST was incapable of pioneering research in skin and hides preservation, it should have at least partnered the local tanner’s in Katisna, Zaria, Kano, Borno and elsewhere, but as we speak there is none such partnership and no capacity building of any kind. This is totally unacceptable and must be stopped.

“By sheer lack of foresight, NILEST has cost Nigerians millions of jobs. With the resources and capacity available to the research institute, millions of Nigerian youth ought to have been trained in skinning, preservation and collection of hides across the country for onward processing at designated centres for export and use by local shoemakers.

“Imagine 5 employees per an abattoir across the country. Imagine the indirect jobs that would have come with this arrangement. The value chain from animal skins and hides would have been enormous. The inability of this professor to deliver is enough to send him packing back to the classroom where he came from.

“The Director General of NILEST has performed abysmally. Infrastructure development under his tenure is poor with nothing to show for so far. Aside house personal comfort, there has been no staff promotions and further studies grants since he assumed office.

“At a time Nigeria is seeking to diversify and shift from high dependence on oil, we don’t want a leader that thinks only about their personal interests. A new DG that will reposition the Institute and revive the research culture for industrial gains and economic development is what we want at the moment.

“While we call on President Buhari to use his good office and sack professor Yakubu, we urge the President to equally bring a replacement that will prioritize youth training and partnerships that will address the dependence on foreign leather products and create jobs for teeming Nigerians.

” Policies aimed at stopping the consumption of ‘ponmo’ should be backed by concrete actions aimed at harnessing the abundant skins and hides for a vibrant leather industry.”