The Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Otunba Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, has warned that Nigeria cannot achieve true national security without rebuilding its industrial backbone, especially its automotive and technology-producing capacity.
Addressing senior military officers and strategic actors at the National Defence College, Abuja, Osanipin told participants of Course 34 that industrial revival is no longer an economic option but a defence necessity. His lecture, themed “Revitalizing Nigeria’s Industrial Base for National Development: Indigenous Technologies in Focus,” repositioned industrialization as a critical pillar of national readiness and internal stability.
He argued that nations that dominate global security frameworks are those that control their own production lines—vehicles, machinery, defence assets, and key technologies. Nigeria, he said, must follow the same path.
Drawing from the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP), Osanipin noted the progress achieved so far—over 30 registered assemblers, 423,000 installed capacity, and more than $1 billion in investments within eight years—evidence that Nigeria has the foundation for a strong industrial base.
But he also highlighted the vulnerabilities: dependence on imports, limited financing, weak infrastructure, and inadequate research funding. These gaps, he explained, undermine not only economic growth but the nation’s ability to respond to security threats with locally engineered solutions.
Osanipin called for a new era of defence–industry–academia collaboration to expand indigenous technological capabilities. With the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) opening new market frontiers and local innovators emerging across the country, he said Nigeria stands at a turning point.
He urged the strengthening of automotive and technology hubs in Nnewi, Lagos, and Kaduna, alongside aggressive investment in skills development, industrial clusters, and technology transfer.
“Industrialization thrives on local innovation,” he said, adding that Nigeria’s long-term security and prosperity depend on empowering its engineers, artisans, and manufacturers.
An interactive session followed the lecture, where participants linked industrial resilience with national security, defence logistics, and the country’s capacity to withstand global supply disruptions
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