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• Cites coal, iron ore, cement as key programmes
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By Sunday Ani
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Chief Uche Nnaji, has spoken of his plans to anchor his programmes for the development of the state on industrialisation and the employment it would generate, pointing to three primary industrial programmes: coal, iron ore and cement.
Nnaji spoke at the Alaba International Market, where Igbo traders in the market and the Auto Spare Parts and Machinery Dealers’ Association (ASPAMDA) in the Trade Fair Complex hosted him recently to exchange ideas on his plans for the state when he becomes governor.
He said his focus on coal, iron ore and cement as anchors for the development of the state stemmed from the fact that Enugu has these natural resources in abundance.
“My administration will focus on three industries that we expect to attract more than $4 billion in foreign direct investment. These industries will absorb more than 50,000 people in direct and indirect employment. We need to help our people. That is what I am interested in. I am not interested in making money as a governor, I am not interested in acquiring money. God has helped me already and it is time for me to help my people and to make Enugu work again,” he said.
Recalling that when he first won an election as a senator in 1999, he voluntarily relinquished the seat to Chief Jim Nwobodo, out of respect and the belief that Nwobodo had more experience and would make a better senator at the time, he said: “It was the appointment given to me by Bola Tinubu as a minister of the Federal Republic that exposed me to the benefits of having people-oriented leaders in government, otherwise I was not interested. Before then, I had won a senatorial seat for my constituency. I won that election but after reflection, I concluded that winning a senate seat and going there without a plan to help anybody was not the purpose I wanted for myself, so I just gave the ticket to Chief Jim Nwobodo.”
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On his plans to industrialise Enugu, he emphasised that coal, iron ore and cement were key to his plans, saying: “What we are going to do in Enugu with these industries is to maximise value extraction from them. If you are from Awhum or areas around Awhum, you will know that these days, they just dig our coal without considering the effect on the environment. If you go there at night, you will cry seeing the number of vehicles carrying raw coal away; at least 100 trailers of raw coal are trucked away every day from our land, leaving behind no benefit to the community. You can send any of your people to investigate this.
“On the average, there are 100 trucks leaving this part of Enugu everyday but this natural resource is benefiting only the government and not the people on whose soil the coal is dug out from.”
He decried what happened in Awhum, especially the lack of government presence in the area, even though the government collects N250,000 for each truck of coal taken out of the community each day. He condemned the poor attention paid to the area by the government of the day, saying his administration would make such areas attract related development projects.
“That is why we want to pay attention to this area by creating coal-related industries, an industry that has many multiplier and value-added effects. From coal, we will get a product like dimethylethyl and from dimethylethyl, we will get methanol. When we start producing something like methanol, companies abroad would be willing to pay for the product for a five years supply upfront. If we move it to ammonia or urea, we will get huge values as well, and that means more income for the state and its people.
“Indorama is producing 3,000 metric tonnes of urea daily and it exports everything. A friend of mine that has a five percent equity stake in this company gets N42 million every December. So, if we can do that in Enugu, the sweat equity we will give to the government can take care of the area where we have the industry, with enough for other government’s activities. And we will not be sitting and waiting for the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) every month, before we can do anything in the state.
“This is what a thinking government should know. From methanol, if you want to extend it, you can generate other products like polypropylene and polyethylene, which is the largest selling commodity in the world.
“We can also go to cement. We can go to iron ore. The areas from Nachi in Udi and Oji River going all the way to some parts of Anambra and some parts of Nsukka, have deposits of iron ore in commercial quantities. But even if we restrict what we want to do to coal alone, you will discover that having coal could turn out to be better than having crude oil. I found this out in Malaysia, and it was because Tinubu gave me the opportunity to serve as a minister under his government that availed me the opportunity to find out about all these things. I have visited the place twice as a minister and I was a part of the commissioning of one of the plants,” he stated.
