Action Democratic Party (ADP) has called on the Federal Government to create employment for the teeming unemployed youth by fixing the Ajaokuta Steel Company and stop its unhealthy political blame game in the completion of project.
Yabagi Yusuf Sani, the party’s National Chairman, while reacting to the Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite’s visit to the company, remarked in a statement on Saturday, that the company was yet to produce a single steel rod for local consumption or export.
Ajaokuta Steel Company, it would be recalled, was established as a metallurgical process plant and engineering complex with other production equipment, siting on an expanse of land of over 24 hectares in Ajaokuta, with several billions of naira appropriated for it in yearly budget.
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Sani maintained that, Ajaokuta Steel Company, as a public asset, was capable of generating about a million jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the host state and across the country, if developed to real production level.
He said that with a lot of untapped mineral resources in each of the states of the federation, government must be very proactive to have immediate, medium and long term economic plans, beyond just media show, to demonstrate real capacity.
The ADP boss said it was worrisome that a company capable of creating over one million jobs was abandoned without any serious effort to get it fixed.
While urging the minister to use the N3.796 billion in the 2020 budget to take the steel company to a completion stage, he advised government to collaborate with continental and foreign firms, such as African Export-Import Bank and the Russia Export Centre, in the overall interest of the nation.
