The leadership of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to order an investigation into the mismanagement of the moribund Ajaokuta Steel Company Ltd.
NANS president, Comrade Lucky Emonefe, who made the call in a statement yesterday in Abuja, said all those involved in the mismanagement of the company must be immediately brought to book.
The students, however, commended President Tinubu for the effort put so far into the development of the Ajaokuta Steel Company and National Iron Ore Mining Company, Itakpe, since he assumed office.
Emonefe said from history, apart from the late President Shehu Shagari era, this would be the first time that the steel company would be having this kind of unusual support from the federal government.
According to the student body, the steel plant when completed and come alive would be a haven of massive employment opportunities for Nigerian students upon graduation as well as being a technology site where potential engineering students all over the country could come and experience technological innovations at its peak as they aspire for greatness in the field of engineering.
Emonefe lamented that in spite of the huge funds committed to the projects in the past, Ajaokuta Steel Company and National Iron Ore Mining Company have remained un-operational, adding that now that there were ongoing plans to resuscitate the projects with the attraction of investors in topmost gear, there was the need to probe the management of the company overtime.
He also called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission ICPC) to launch investigations into the management of the steel company.
The NANS president who also called for decentralization of power in the steel company, observed that having a sole administrator for the past 12 years to oversee a public and national company like Ajaokuta Steel was not good enough.
He added that the practice has given room to corruption in the sense that there would be no one else to check the excesses of the sole administrator.
He said, “The government and the stakeholders alike are working assiduously to see that the company comes back to life. This is a good omen for the Renewed Hope Agenda to continue to flourish amidst the global economic crisis that has engulfed the world right about now.
“It is also worthy of note that the set of individuals who brought the Ajaokuta Steel Company to this comatose are still walking the street uninvestigated and unpunished.
“These people who have been indicted to the tune of several millions of US dollars further siphoned $496m in September 2022 through Buhari’s administration, have neither been probed nor punished.
“This is not a good precedent at all and if unchecked would create an avenue for dabbling into President Tinubu’s efforts at resuscitating the steel plant.”
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