Folarin Kehinde

Former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has stated that the port Harcourt refinery will not be operational by December.

Leading reporters recall that the minister of state for petroleum resources (oil),Heineken Lokpobiri recently said the Port Harcourt refinery will begin operations by December 2023.

Meanwhile, Obasanjo when speaking on the state of the refineries stated that the refineries will not work based on information gotten from shell when he was the president.

His words:

“Someone told me Tinubu said refineries would work by December. I told the person the refineries would not work. This is based on the information I received from Shell when I was president.

“They will not work as long as the government is keeping hold of them. When I was president, I invited Shell to a meeting. I told them I wanted to hand over the refineries for them for help us run. They bluntly told me they would not. I was shocked.

“I repeated the request and they stood their ground. When the meeting was over, I asked their big man (MD) to wait behind for a little chat. Then I asked him why they were so hesitant on not taking over the refineries.

“He said did I want to hear the truth? I said yes. He listed four reasons. One, he said Shell makes its money from upstream and that is where its interest lies. Two, he said they only do downstream or retail as a matter of service. Three, he said our refineries would be bad business for them, that globally, companies are going for bigger refineries because of the economics of refineries. Four, he said there is too much corruption in refineries.

“I thanked him for his honesty. I knew we had a big problem in our hands. I had virtually give up hope on the refineries when God did a miracle. Alike Dangote and Femi Otedola approached me and said they would be interested in buying two of the four refineries.

“They said they would buy 51 percent stake in Port Harcourt and Kaduna. I was over the moon. I said, finally, this burden would be taken off the neck of the government. They offered $761 million and paid in two instalments. Unfortunately, Umaru (President Yar’Adua) cancelled the sale and returned the refineries to NNPC. Today, we are still where we were.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has insisted that there is no going back on the planned two-day warning strike over the failure of the federal government to address the challenges caused by the removal of fuel subsidy.

The State NLC Chairman, Comrade Gabriel Amari, disclosed this during an interview with DAILY POSt on Monday.

The labour union is accusing the federal government of abandoning the negotiations and failing to implement some of the resolutions from previous meetings with the government.

On August 2, organised labour protested what it described as the anti-people policies of the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

Amari said Nigerian workers have been facing untold hardship since the fuel subsidy removal by the federal government.

The labour leader averred that all offices, including institutions, will be shut down and the nation’s economy will be crippled due to the federal government’s failure to listen to the cries of the masses.

He admonished workers in the state to adhere strictly to labour directive as they remain committed to fighting for the rights of Nigerian workers.

“Workers in Kogi State are fully ready for tomorrow’s warning strike as directed by our national secretariat. There is no going back until the federal government do the needful concerning fuel subsidy removal.

Ahead of his proposed trip to India to attend the G-20 summit, President Bola Tinubu has met briefly with his service chiefs for a briefing regarding their operations.

The meeting, which is a routine activity at the Presidential Villa, had in attendance the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Taoreed Lagbaja, his Navy counterpart, Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar.

The meeting held behind closed doors at Aso Rock fills the President in on the general security situation in the country, including a review of areas where service chiefs need to double up efforts to close gaps.

Tinubu would later in the day proceed to New Delhi, India to attend the G-20 Leaders Summit.

The father of a corps member kidnapped in Zamfara State, has accused security agencies and the National Youth Service Corps of showing no concern towards the situation.

Emmanuel Etteh’s daughter was one of eight graduates abducted while en route from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State to their NYSC orientation camp.

Leading reporters recalls that gunmen abducted eight members of the NYSC on a highway in Zamfara on Saturday, August 19. The corps members were travelling inside an AKTC bus from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, to Sokoto State, en route to Zamfara State, to take part in the mandatory national service.

In a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Etteh described the over two-week-long ordeal as devastating, given the lack of communication on the part of the authorities.

He said, “It is very devastating because, as a parent, I am very disappointed by the government. No one has been talking about or asking questions since this incident happened.

“Security agencies are not caring, NYSC leadership shows no concern, and everyone behaves as if nothing happened.

“Every activity is going on, and I keep on asking, ‘Is this a type of government we want for our country? Is this the type of security we can feel safer with?’ NYSC invited these children out of their homes to Sokoto.”

The concerned father expressed his disappointment with the Director General of NYSC, stating that he had hoped for a higher level of commitment from the organization. The father argued that the NYSC had not met the expected standards.

Etteh added that nobody cared to reach out to the parents or discuss the situation.

General Brice Oligui Nguema, who led a coup last week that toppled Gabon’s 55-year-old ruling dynasty, took the oath of office as interim president on Monday, promising “free, transparent and credible elections” to restore civilian rule but without giving a timeframe.

He also vowed to amnesty political prisoners, in a speech in which he insisted the coup had saved Gabon from bloodshed after elections that were “obviously loaded.”

Oligui, head of the elite Republican Guard, last Wednesday led officers to detain President Ali Bongo Ondimba, scion of a family that had ruled the oil-rich central African nation since 1967.

The ousting came just moments after Bongo, 64, was proclaimed victor in presidential elections — a result branded a fraud by the opposition.

In a speech after taking the oath of office, Oligui said the promised elections would be the stepping stone to “handing power back to the civilians,” although he did not specify any date.

He said he was seeking the participation of all of Gabon’s “core groups” to draft a new constitution, which “will be adopted by referendum.”

Oligui, 48, wearing the red ceremonial costume of the Republican Guard, also said he would instruct “the future government… to consider ways of amnestying prisoners of conscience” and “facilitating the return of all exiles” from abroad.

AFP