An appeal has gone to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Nigeria Union of Mines Workers to summon the political will and inject fund for the completion and operationalization of Ajaokuta steel plant to create jobs and revenue for the country.
The Chairman of the union, Ajaokuta steel branch Comrade Mohammed Abdulsalam Jimoh made the appeal in Lokoja on Tuesday while addressing newsmen.
He said the moribund Ajaokuta steel plant if completed is capable of generating over 50, 000 direct jobs aside the jobs that will be created under the downstream industries that will evolve which he noted can reduce 50 per cent of unemployment rate in the country.
“Since one of the agenda of the President Buhari’s administration is to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth and to also fight the high rate of insecurity in the country , if the President can focus on Ajaokuta steel company and make the industry operational significant percentages of the country’s unemployment problems will be solved permanently.
“Apparently, most youth that indulges in various heinous crimes today was as a result of lack of jobs to engage them. Ajaokuta steel company stand a better and reliable source of addressing the unemployment challenges in the country”
“Also if the power plant of Ajaokuta steel industry is functioning, it will add appreciable quantity of megawatts to the national grid and the issue of poor power supply will also be reduced tremendously. Therefore we are appealing to the federal government to summon the political will in the interest of Nigerians to complete the giant integrated steel plant in Africa” he said
Jimoh who said that Ajaokuta steel industry and other rolling mills in the country are alternative to crude oil noted that the Sole Administrator of the company Engr. Ismaila Abdul-Akaba has shown commitment toward the realization of the functional steel industry, appealing to the government to give him the needed support to actualise his dream for the steel plant.
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Also speaking, a human rights activist, Chief Haruna Ahmed Osike appealed to the northern governor and the members of the national assembly to be proactive in the quest to complete Ajaokuta steel plant.
Osike who also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to pay a one-day working visit to the moribund steel company to enable him decide whether the industry should be allowed to remain uncompleted said government at all level can not keep on promising to create jobs when the sources of job creation remained dormant for over three decades.
“Ajaokuta steel has remained moribund for over thirty years, crude oil which forms appreciable percentage of the country revenue is nosediving consistently and this is the right time for the federal government to commence the search for an alternative which in my opinion is the steel industries.
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