Human right activist, Aisha Yesufu has stated that Ajaokuta steel company and all refineries owned by the Federal government should be bundled together and sold for one naira.
Yesufu’s outburst comes following news on Wednesday that Bola Tinubu is set to spend the sum of N6.21billion for the salaries of workers of the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company between January and December 2025.
This was revealed after a careful review of the proposed 2025 budget.
Meanwhile, due to mismanagement, the Ajaokuta steel company has remained incomplete for over 45 years.
Recall that at the Russia-Africa Summit in 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on a revitalisation of the steel mill with Russian support and project funding from the Afreximbank and the Russian Export Centre.
However, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the agreement was abandoned.
In January 2024, Tinubu opened discussions with a Chinese steel company, Luan Steel Holding Group, to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Company.
However, the news of paying the sum of over N6 billion to the workers of an abandoned and incomplete project didn’t go down well with Nigerians including Yesufu who made a post regarding the issue on her X handle.
Her post reads,”Ajaokuta Steel Company and the whole of Nigerian Refineries owned by government should be bundled together and sold for one naira.
“That way we get to save all the monies currently wasted on them and deploy those monies to critical areas such as education, healthcare and housing.”
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