Forty Six Years Later, What Happened to Us?
An Oblong Media Commentary
As of 6 October 2026, Nigerians are once again confronted by the brutal reality of what has happened to the value of our currency.
Depending on the market and source used, today’s exchange rates run into well over one thousand naira to a single US dollar. The official Nigerian foreign exchange market was quoted today at approximately ₦1,332.90 to US$1, while other retail and parallel-market quotations differ.
Now compare that with 1980.
In 1980, the official exchange rate was approximately ₦0.55 to US$1.
Put differently, ₦1 could buy approximately US$1.82.
The naira was worth considerably more than the American dollar.
But this is where the discussion must go beyond nostalgia.
The important question is not simply:
What happened to the naira?
The more important question is:
WHAT HAPPENED TO NIGERIAN PRODUCTION?
Because forty six years ago, Nigeria had an industrial economy that manufactured, assembled, processed and produced far more of what Nigerians consumed.
We had Peugeot Automobile Nigeria in Kaduna and Volkswagen of Nigeria in Lagos producing vehicles through domestic assembly operations.
We had Leyland Nigeria in Ibadan, Steyr Nigeria in Bauchi, National Truck Manufacturers in Kano and ANAMMCO in Enugu as part of an ambitious national automotive programme.
Nigeria had a direction.
Peugeot’s production reportedly rose from just 2,259 vehicles in 1975 to about 48,235 vehicles in 1980.
ANAMMCO’s Enugu factory was commissioned in July 1980, with installed capacity for 7,500 trucks annually on a single shift.
Nigeria’s automobile industry eventually developed installed capacity for approximately 108,000 cars, 56,000 commercial vehicles and 10,000 tractors annually.
Think about that.
We were building an ecosystem.
Vehicle assembly created demand for batteries, tyres, glass, upholstery, cables, rubber products, paints, plastics, engineering services, transportation, maintenance and thousands of skilled and semi skilled jobs.
Then there were the tyre manufacturers.
Michelin produced tyres in Port Harcourt. Dunlop produced tyres in Lagos.
Nigeria had rubber plantations capable of supplying part of the raw material chain. Both companies eventually ceased local tyre manufacturing as Nigeria’s industrial environment deteriorated.
Look at textiles.
Nigeria once possessed one of Africa’s significant textile industries.
Kaduna alone became an industrial centre containing Kaduna Textiles, Arewa Textiles, United Nigerian Textiles and other manufacturers.
By 1980, United Nigerian Textiles Limited was supplying printed cotton textiles not merely to Nigeria but to other West African markets.
At its height during the 1970s and early 1980s, Nigeria’s textile industry was reportedly producing 400–600 million metres of cloth annually, supporting enormous numbers of industrial jobs.
We manufactured.
We processed.
We assembled.
We employed Nigerians.
We trained technicians.
We created industrial supply chains.
We attempted to substitute locally produced goods for imports.
That Nigeria was not perfect. It was still dependent upon petroleum exports. Its manufacturing sector had weaknesses, and some supposedly Nigerian products depended heavily upon imported machinery and components.
But there was something critically important that today’s Nigeria desperately needs to rediscover:
AN INDUSTRIAL AMBITION.
We wanted to make things.
Today, walk through a Nigerian supermarket, electronics shop, car dealership, clothing market, pharmacy or hardware store and ask a simple question:
How much of what you see was actually manufactured in Nigeria?
Our crude oil leaves our shores.
Our minerals leave.
Our agricultural commodities leave.
Then manufactured products return through our ports at multiples of the value.
We export jobs.
We import finished goods.
We export raw materials.
We import inflation.
We export foreign exchange.
And then we hold conferences asking why the naira is weak.
A currency cannot permanently be strengthened by prayers, slogans, central bank interventions or patriotic speeches.
Ultimately, a country’s currency reflects, among many other factors, what that economy produces, what it exports, what it imports, its productivity, investment flows, confidence and the demand for its currency.
If millions of Nigerians continually need dollars, pounds, euros and yuan to purchase things that Nigeria cannot produce competitively, pressure on the naira becomes inevitable.
That is why the real battle for the naira will not ultimately be won inside a Bureau de Change.
It will be won inside factories.
It will be won on farms.
It will be won in refineries.
It will be won in steel mills.
It will be won in textile factories.
It will be won in automobile plants.
It will be won in petrochemical complexes.
It will be won through technology.
It will be won when Nigerian raw materials are processed into Nigerian finished products by Nigerian workers before being sold to Nigerians and exported to the world.
Our political conversation therefore needs to change.
Before electing another governor, senator, president or legislator, ask them:
What exactly is your plan for production?
Not palliatives.
Not bags of rice.
Not political appointments.
Not endless government contracts.
Not another convoy of SUVs imported with scarce foreign exchange.
What are you going to help Nigeria produce?
How many factories?
How many industrial clusters?
How much agricultural processing?
How many megawatts of reliable electricity?
How many kilometres of rail connecting farms, mines, factories and ports?
How many Nigerian made products will replace imports?
How many Nigerian products will enter African and international markets?
And above everything else:
HOW MANY SUSTAINABLE JOBS WILL YOUR ECONOMIC POLICIES CREATE?
Nigeria has the population.
Nigeria has the land.
Nigeria has petroleum.
Nigeria has gas.
Nigeria has iron ore.
Nigeria has limestone.
Nigeria has gold.
Nigeria has lithium and other strategic minerals.
Nigeria has agricultural resources.
Nigeria has entrepreneurs.
Nigeria has engineers, scientists, technicians, academics and an enormous diaspora.
What Nigeria has lacked consistently is disciplined, competent and visionary leadership capable of converting these advantages into industrial power.
The tragedy is therefore not that Nigeria cannot produce.
The tragedy is that we once demonstrated that we could build substantial productive capacity, and then allowed much of it to deteriorate.
The abandoned factories scattered across this country are not merely abandoned buildings.
They are monuments to lost jobs.
Lost skills.
Lost technology.
Lost exports.
Lost foreign exchange.
Lost communities.
And ultimately, a lost naira.
So when somebody shows you the exchange rate, don’t merely complain about the dollar.
Ask what Nigeria is producing.
When somebody complains about unemployment, ask what happened to our factories.
When politicians arrive during elections distributing money and food, ask them where their industrialisation programme is.
Because no serious nation becomes prosperous by consuming what everybody else produces.
Nigeria must return from consumption to production.
We have done it before.
We have the people.
We have the resources.
We have the market.
We have the knowledge.
And with competent leadership, consistent industrial policy and the political courage to think beyond the next election, we can do it again.
The naira did not simply lose its value.
Nigeria progressively lost too much of the productive economy that should have stood behind it.
Rebuild production.
Rebuild industry.
Rebuild exports.
Rebuild confidence.
And we begin rebuilding the naira.
Nigeria can produce again.
Nigeria must produce again.
Duruebube Chimazuru Nnadi-Oforgu
For
Oblong Media global intelligence.
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