The Senator representing Kogi West, Smart Adeyemi has called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to resuscitate Ajaokuta Steel Complex or hand it over to Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration for speedy completion.
Senator Adeyemi made the call while speaking with newsmen at the National Assembly, Abuja.
Adeyemi argued that Ajaokuta Steel, when completed, will induce full industrialization of Nigeria’s economy.
“Ajaokuta Steel Complex has the potential of providing gainful employment to over 50,000 Nigerian youth. It is saddening that a potential game-changer for the nation’s monolithic economy which started in 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 creation 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 are concerned but such legacies without completion of Ajaokuta and provision of functional refineries will not make much impact economically,” he said.
Senator Adeyemi admonished the federal government to use the current gains made from crude oil sales at the international market to fix the idle oil refineries or construction of new ones.
