The need for both the federal and state governments to as a matter of urgency, take steps to reactivate and complete all abandoned projects across the country to boost the economy and create the much needed jobs, has been highlighted.
Edmond Dakoru, a one-time minister of petroleum and the Amayanabo of Nembe, stressed these needs recently when he spoke with BusinessDay at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa.
The former minister said that unless the Federal and state governments looked inward and took stock of the abandoned projects and take necessary steps to complete them, that whatever efforts being made to revamp the economy and create jobs for Nigerian youths would be elusive.
According to Dakoru, the inability of the Federal Government to complete projects like iron and steel company projects and the abandoned farm projects like the Risonpalm in Rivers State, the Imo and Ada palm, the Bayelsa Palm produce and the Delta Palm farms, was responsible for the death of jobs across the country. “How can you abandon these projects that can employ thousand of people and expect to revamp the economy and create the much needed, jobs for the Nigerian Masses?”
The Chinese people, he noted, make up over half the population of the whole world and yet they are able to cater for their people because of their agricultural power. He wondered why the Federal Government of Nigeria and the various state governments have failed to emulate them.
Agriculture, he explained, holds sway to the nations’ problems: “Agriculture holds sway and was our foundation long before we got into manufacturing because we ate what we produced before we started manufacturing.”
On the restiveness among the youths in the Niger Delta, the king pointed out that they were misguided in their demands from both the Federal and State governments.
The Niger Delta youths, he said, should be unanimous in their demand for jobs and not involve in the so-called restricting or succession from the present Federation of Nigeria, because according to him, these issues were bigger than what they know. “Yes, they should challenge and put the pressure on the governments to show than where to work. This is the positive way to rent their anger and not in killing human beings they cannot create.”
The former minister further pleaded with the youths to make reasonable demands and that he would not fail or hesitate to carry plays card and join them in their demand for jobs because that would be reasonable. “I will carry play card and join them because that is a positive demand but to demand for the division of the country, it means they do not have the understanding of what they want!! Yes, they should leave these demands for the elders to pursue”.
The Amayanabo however, expressed confidence in what the present government and in the Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbe’s current efforts to revamp the agriculture sector. He noted that agric, being what it is, takes a long circle because it takes up to one year before it produces result.
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