By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, has called on the federal government to focus on Ajaokuta Steel Company to enable the country attain the proposed Vision 20-20-20.
Omar made the call yesterday at the maiden visit to the company to assess the level of work.
He said the steel complex, if completed, would no doubt lead the country to industrialisation while Vision 20-20-20 would be attained.
The NLC boss, who said the company “can never be regarded as obsolete,” said the Complex had modern equipment and abundant potentials for economic development if harnessed by the government.
He said “if former President Shehu Shagari can put the steel complex to the level it is today within four years, successive presidents should complete it.”
He assured that NLC would partner with relevant agencies and trade unions to impress it on the government on the need to complete the Complex for the benefit of Nigerians.
Earlier, the Sole Administrator of the company, Engr. Isah Joseph Onobere, said the project had suffered serious setback due to inadequate funding.
Onobere, who said other countries that started the project the same day with Nigeria had completed their plants long ago, stressed that apart from funding, conspiracy between local and international detractors “who see steel development in the black nation as a threat to their economy” was responsible for the moribund stage the company “is facing for the past 30 years.”
He said: “We all know full well that economic and social transformation of any nation is engineered majorly by steel sector development. It is a fact of history that no nation has ever developed without a vibrant steel industry.”