National leader of Unity House Foundation (UHF), a non-profit advocacy group, Wenenda Wali, has asked the federal government to sell the moribund oil refineries and use the proceeds of the sale to construct the East-West Road in the Niger Delta region.
Wali said this in a statement in reaction to a call by the chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, for the government to sell the country's ailing oil refineries and invest the proceeds in the mining sector.
In August, the minister of state for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, said the Port Harcourt Refinery will begin operations by December 2023. The minister stated this during an inspection tour of the rehabilitation work at the Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) Limited plant.
A statement by spokesperson for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Garba Deen Muhammad, further quoted the minister as saying, "Warri will come on stream by the end of the first quarter of next year, and Kaduna will also come on board towards the end of next year."
Nigeria currently has four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, which have been shut down for years.
However, Wali, who backed the call for the sale of the refineries, said it would be the height of injustice if proceeds from their sale were used to develop any other sector other than Niger Delta region.
He advocated that the proceeds of the refineries' sale should be handed over to the NDDC, and in a tripartite arrangement of the NDDC, Federal Government and three reputable construction companies, to fix the East-West Road.
He lamented that refineries have remained inoperative and have become a conduit drainpipe for decades despite gulping billions of dollars for turnaround maintenance projects.
The UHF statement read: "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 thereof, be sent 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 must be used to build the East West road to the standards of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, The Third Mainland Bridge, The Second Niger Bridge, Umaru Yar'Adua Expressway and other roads in Abuja. The East West road has become the biggest symbol of the oppression and suppression of the Niger Delta peoples. 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, remit every cent to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to warehouse and to be dedicated 100%, to the construction of the East West road."
He said the federal government should ordinarily feel a sense of shame by the deaths arising from the state of the Eleme-Onne, Ahoada-Kaiama and Benin-Warri stretches of the East-West Road, that are incidentally 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."
He said there will be no more tokenism to infrastructural development of the goose that's been laying the golden eggs for over a half of a century.
"In summary, sell the refinery, hand the proceeds over to the NDDC & in a tripartite arrangement of the NDDC, Federal Government & 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 any other thing, with the proceeds of the sale, then the peoples of the region should en masse OCCUPY THE EAST WEST ROAD. Period," Wali added.
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