The National Leader of Unity House Foundation (UHF), a non-profit advocacy group focusing on the promotion of peace, good governance, and social justice, Wenenda Wali, has urged the Federal Government (FG) to utilise the proceeds from the sale of the moribund oil refineries for the construction of the East-West road, should it decide to sell them.
Wenenda Wali, a Niger Deltan, made this statement in a release issued on Tuesday and provided to the press in Lokoja.
This was in response to a call from Senator Sani Musa, the Senate Committee Chairman on Finance, for the FG to sell the country’s ailing oil refineries and invest the proceeds in the mining sector.
The advocate for good governance, who supports the sale of the refineries that have remained inoperative and have become a conduit and drainpipe for decades despite significant expenditures on turnaround maintenance, said it would be the height of injustice if the proceeds from their sale were used to develop any other sector apart from the Niger Delta.
His statement reads: “While I welcome the suggestion that the refineries be sold, I will be calling on the people of the Niger Delta to resist any attempt to slap both sides of their cheeks, with the satanic suggestion that any cent, accruing from the sale of this cesspit of corruption, be used to develop any other sector in another region of the country.
The Niger Delta people must demand that, to the last decimal point, the sale proceeds be used to build the East-West road to the standards of the Lagos-Ibadan Motorway, the Third Mainland Bridge, the Second Niger Bridge, the Umaru Yar’Adua Motorway, and other roads in Abuja.
The East-West Road has become the biggest symbol of the oppression and suppression of the Niger Delta people.
The time to resist this class rape and state-sponsored infrastructural violence against the people of the Niger Delta is today. No more tomorrow.
“I’m therefore calling on the government to sell the refineries and remit every cent to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to be dedicated 100% to the construction of the East-West road.
“Ordinarily, the Federal Government of Nigeria should feel a sense of shame over the deaths arising from the Eleme-Onne, Ahoada-Kaiama, and Benin-Warri stretches of the East-West road, which incidentally is the axis of Nigerian wealth.
But this is a state that is deadened by callousness and utter disrespect for the people; they exploit their region for the growth of other regions. So, they don’t care, but they must be forced to care this time.
“No more tokenism in infrastructural development for the goose that has been laying the golden eggs for over half a century.
“In summary, sell the refinery, hand the proceeds over to the NDDC,, and in a tripartite arrangement of the NDDC, the the Federal Government,, and three reputable construction companies, fix the East-West road.
Any other arrangement should be resisted and totally rejected by the people of the Niger Delta.
“Truly, enough ought to be enough. And if the government goes ahead to do anything else with the proceeds of the sale, then the people of the region should en masse occupy the East-West road.”
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