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Kogi State is one of those States in Nigeria blessed with milk and honey in terms of vital resources which are meant to compliment every other activities in the State for the benefit of the people but it’s so unfortunate that despite everything the people of Kogi State has enjoyed nothing from the available resources, rather majority of the people live below average, the State has recorded high rate of suicide because of the increased rate of poverty and we begin to wonder why?
As mentioned earlier, Kogi State is blessed with mineral resources hence we have Companies around that process our mineral resources to finished goods, we have Companies like Obajana Cement Plant, West African Ceramics Limited etc but all I see is a group of corporate entities that have made up their minds to extract the resources meant for all for their own interests, because despite the fact that the resources are there, the people of Kogi State has benefited little or nothing from these companies
The pictures below are roads that connect Itobe-Ajaokuta-Lokoja, this road has being like this for a very long time, along this road you will find West Africa Ceramics Limited, and I begin to wonder is there nothing like Corporate Social Responsibility anymore or we are still under the colonial era that the few take away our resources for their own interest and the people just sit and watch
Now what is trending is the road constructed by Dangote group of Companies, and I see a lot of people rejoicing; why? OCP- Obajana Cement plant is one of the largest single cement plant in the world, with four lines of production(13.25MTPA) and the fifth line under construction and for many years the people of Obajana hasn’t benefited from Dangote Cement Company, the people of Obajana enjoy little or no power supply, there is nothing for those people living in Obajana and because of the road we are rejoicing why? Do you really think Obajana – Kabba road under construction is for our own movement?
Although, I heard he is carrying out Corporate Social Responsibility, but the “high class members” of the community pocket them and then give positive feedbacks to the admin of OCP, I wanted calling it “rumour” but the situation of Obajana is so bad that I forced myself into believing it, then I wanted pushing blames on those greedy pot bellied men, but at the same time I will blame the admin of OCP, because if the people of Obajana means anything to them they will supervise whatever they have in mind for the people and coupled with the fact that for almost 2 years now there’s no trace of electricity in Obajana town and yet the company have capacity of generating 180MW which could even power the whole state, so what are we saying, not to even talk of the fly off dust(flue gases) that makes everywhere factually dusty to live in plus the already done damage to the environment especially in her limestone mine with three pits dug already
And before anyone starts rejoicing over the Obajana-Kabba road under construction you need to know that every company pays yearly tax to the government based on the profit they accrue that year, obajana cement plant’s tax for four years is to be used in building the road, so you should know that he isn’t doing it out of his own freewill
The truth is, these Companies are just there, Kogi sons and daughters aren’t employed, they mostly employ foreigners, and the few Kogites and Nigerians only act as slaves to there bosses, they work so hard and it reminds me of the colonial era and I begin to wonder what our youths and Kogi State has done wrong to deserve this suffering
Fine, we may not have the facilities to process the raw materials we possess, the most important thing is that we must benefit from our own resources, these companies must carry out Human resource development, construction of schools or fixing our roads, they should employ our qualified youths, Obajana must have electricity, do you know why! Because what they get from our resources can feed everybody in the State and Nigeria as a whole
I am writing this for anyone that knows Dangote, West African Ceramics Limited Other Companies in Kogi State to tell or share this with them, this is just the beginning, I won’t stop until I see changes, and unbehalf of the Okun and Kogi youths I am saying we need a change, we want positive changes in Kogi State..
Kogi State deserves more…
– Mercy Aiyenigba
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