A political pressure group, Niger Delta Youth Coalition ( NDYC ) has urged President Bola Tinubu to take all necessary steps to ensure that the new Promise of getting the Port Harcourt Refinery does not fail like past ones .
The National Coordinator of NDYC , Prince Emmanuel Ogba , stated this last Friday while reacting to Tinubu’s promise following the protests by labour unions in the country.
Ogba regretted that there have been series of similar promises by past administrations without any being actualized even when billions of unaccounted dollars have been wasted on them.
He noted that when it is obvious that getting our refineries working remains the lasting solution to the perennial problem of hike in price petroleum products but regrettably government does not appear to be serious.
” We are disturbed at the inability of the Federal Government to fix our public refineries to enable the country end the shameful importation of petroleum products in our country with huge crude oil and gas.
” This has made such products that ordinarily should be in the export table to now become import goods with unspeakable hardship on the people.
” We wish to say that it is enough of these failed promises. We want to tell Mr President that December deadline is the last that we can take.
” Revamp our refineries and refine our crude oil here so that the numerous byproducts can be accounted for, so that thousands of job opportunities involved in the refining activities would engage our thousands of unemployed youths”, he insists
Reacting to the disclosure by President Tinubu that Federal Government has saved about one trillion naira from petroleum subsidy removal within one month, the NDYC boss said that was commendable, but urged President Tinubu to also disclose to Nigerians how much the country has made from crude sale within the same month, stressing that the people have the right to know.
He said if one trillion
is already saved from subsidy removal it means several trillions should have been saved from sales of crude oil and wonder why the economy of the country should still be on it’s kneels with these stupendous amount being reeled out.
He further advised President Tinubu to roll out the palliatives to save the lives of citizens who are dying daily because of the acute hunger in the country as a result of the hike in petroleum pump price.
Ogba expressed the believe that with the trillion naira already saved as Mr President said, there is more than enough fund to get the three references working at their installed capacity and enough palliatives for common Nigerians .
About Author
