By Our Correspondent
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Privatization, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has expressed that the economic hardship in the country has reached a critical stage which requires the urgent intervention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Kalu who represents Abia North stated this on Tuesday while fielding questions from news correspondents of the Senate.
According to the former governor, the economic suffering in the country has hit all Nigerians regardless of social status including himself, forcing them to take painful austerity measures in order to cope with the challenges.
Orji Kalu who has just returned from a long vacation to join his colleagues to resume in the Senate noted that urgent measures are needed to ease the pains of Nigerians.
Narrating what he is currently experiencing, Kalu said “h yardship is true, people are suffering. We have hundreds of thousands of workers, we have about 10,000 workers in our group that we run.
“We need to pay those salaries. If I fly at any time, buying fuel and maintaining the private plane takes almost $10,000, $20,000.
“Even in my village, everywhere I go, companies, everybody, there is hardship, but I appeal to the federal government, the President to know how he can bring succor quickly to the people of Nigeria.
“He has to do something not yesterday, but today. He must do something like yesterday because the condition of the Nigerian people is not too good. I believe that no president in the world elected by people would want his people to suffer.
“I called our senior members in the group and said when I have to make my sacrifices it is not for the federal government, it is for the good of the company.
“So I said fly no more, fly commercial and saved the money for restructuring our workers both in Nigeria and West Africa so that everybody must feed in this time of hardship.
Kalu however commended some of the Policy measures undertaken by Tinubu to tackle the challenges.
He said “we feel that the reformation going on now has not happened in the last 60 years, no president dared to do what President Tinubu is doing now. It is about courage. The man is very courageous. Possibly, if I’m president, what he is doing now to reform the economy, I won’t do it, I might come slowly.
Asked on clamour for return of subsidy, he said ”I’m not in the economic team, I have not seen the President or anyone to ask, but this is what the president has to sit with his economic team to discuss, but the decisions he has taken is what no president in the 60 years of the republic, has been able to take”.
On last Saturday’s Edo State gubernatorial election which the candidate of his party, the All Progressives Congress emerged victorious the former Chief Whip said “the national chairman, the national secretary, and members of the NWC, and including the senators, have worked so hard for Edo and I believe that whoever works hard for the election deserves to win.
“The election is about numbers, when you have the numbers on the ground, you win. When you don’t have the numbers you don’t win. INEC has declared the winner and they (Okpebholo) deserve the win, because it is the most organised party, in terms of togetherness”.
See also Dangote Refinery makes case for 100% Nigerian crude …as Senate probes alleged sabotage in petroleum industry By Our Correspondent The Dangote Refinery has made passionate appeal to the Senate, NNPCL, NUPRC, NDMPRA and other stakeholders in the industry to help supply the refinery its crude oil need 100 per cent from Nigeria. Group Strategy Officer, Dangote Refinery, Aliyu Suleiman made the appeal at the Senate Ad-hoc Committee probing alleged economic sabotage in petroleum industry at the Senate Complex, Abuja on Wednesday. He said right now, the refinery bought about 50 million barrels of crude out of which about 60% comes from NNPC. Mr. Suleiman who expressed gratitude to NNPC for their support, added that, essentially, all they are asking is for them to get their crude requirement from Nigeria 100%. “Let's be very clear, we are happy to pay fair prices. We hope that we'll work with the regulator and we'll get their support so that the refinery can get 100% of its crude from Nigeria and buy the crude from companies that produce it in Nigeria not from international middlemen. “We count on support of the committee, the regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that the refinery succeeds, because if it does, aside from the other obvious benefits, like forex generation, job creation and the rest, most importantly, there is the psychological benefit of making, giving Nigerians, Africa in general, the confidence that we can succeed. Giving a progress update on the refinery, Mr. Suleiman said since the refinery started full trial production in January and then full time production started in March, we processed about 50 million barrels of crude. “We have produced about five million tons of petroleum products. And these petroleum products have been sold to various parts of the country and Jet oil has been sold in Europe since May. He said other products have been sent to places as far as Asia, US, Brazil, and so on. So the refinery has been making a lot of progress. He emphasized the importance of deliberately protecting local industries for the over all economic development of the country. According to him, “the US, for example, has done that, to protect their own industries against attack by China that subsidize their own industries and then sends them to the US. So that's the first question. We want to urge the committee to consider if we deserve protection against them”. He posed three basic questions that revolved around protection of local industries for the consideration of the committee and Nigerians at large. The questions are: “Do local refineries deserve protection from NUPRC? “Should Nigeria protect its infant industries in order to improve investment? “Should local refineries have preferential access to Nigerian crude? He said Dangote found itself competing against Russian products that were produced with oil that is valued at $60. “We all know that because of the cap that has been put Russian oil, the value of Russian oil today in the market is $60. And that's what Russia is using to produce their products and those products are being sent in large quantities into Africa to compete with products that are produced in refineries that buy crude at $90. “We don't think this will be a fair competitive environment and I think that when you have such unfair competition, it is normal to put protective measures. “I think even in the animal world, the moment a new baby is born, they don't just go and leave it out in the wild. “What we want is to sell more of our products in Nigeria, because we believe we can do that, we can compete. And even though there are concerns that have been expressed around monopoly, that is a problem that has been identified. The right thing to do is to say, how do we address this problem? If monopoly is a risk, how do we address this risk while at the same time ensuring that we protect our domestic industries? The good thing is that in the PIA, there are provisions around that, you can monitor and take action if you feel there's monopoly.
Kalu who used the opportunity to debunked the rumours that he died during his long vacation outside the country said:
“Listen, there was nothing wrong with me. I took permission from the senate president about seven days before the senate closed. I went for a little study in one of the universities that I paid for myself not that anyone paid for me. I went to do some courses for two months so I used the holiday period to do courses on democracy and the economy.
“I did not die. I didn’t go for any medical check-up, but if people say I have died, we give thanks to God.”
