The senator representing Kogi West, Smart Adeyemi, has said the abandoned Ajaokuta steel complex has the potential to provide gainful employment to over 50,000 Nigerian youths, noting that it should be resuscitated to boost industrialisation.
He also urged the federal government to use the current gains being made from crude oil sales at the international market to fix the country’s oil refineries or build new ones.
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Speaking during an interactive session with Senate correspondents in Abuja, the lawmaker said if the federal government was not ready to complete the Ajaokuta steel project, it should be handed over to the Kogi State Government.
He said, “It is saddening that a potential game-changer for the country’s monolithic economy, which started in the 1980s, is still at the stage of abandonment.
“If the federal government is not ready to see to its completion and functionality, it should be handed over to Kogi State, which, I believe, will do the needful the way the Kaduna State Government built an iron ore firm recently with potential for thousands of jobs for the youth and quantum wealth generation for the state.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari-led government is, no doubt, trying, as far as building of infrastructures is concerned, but such legacies without the completion of Ajaokuta steel and provision of functional refineries will not make much impact economically.
Adeyemi, who chairs the Senate Committee on Aviation, also said proceeds from the oil windfall should be channelled into fixing the country’s comatose refineries or building new ones.
“To me, it is inexplicable and shameful for a country that is producing crude oil in large volumes on a daily basis to be importing refined ones. It is like somebody who has a functional borehole in his or her compound and yet buys water from other sources.
“Refineries must be made functional or new ones put in place to prevent huge capital flight bleeding the country’s economy from refined oil importation,” he added.
