*** Urges Government To Harness local ideas for production of Petroleum products
A Niger Delta environmentalist who is also the National Coordinator, Center for Peace and Environmental Justice, Comrade Sheriff Mulade has urged President Mohammadu Buhari to accord Niger Deltans the platform to create jobs for themselves, saying that this will curb Illegal refining operation carried out in parts of the country which has led to crude oil theft and environmental damages.
In Abuja, Comrade Mulade in his New Year Goodwill message to usher all Nigerians into 2019, expressed displeasure over the reluctance of the federal government to remediate the badly polluted Niger Delta environment .
The Activist noted that training and integrating those who are locally refining petroleum products illegally in parts of Nigeria will help to develop manpower and the technological competence required to reposition the petroleum sector for increase productivity.
According to him, harnessing local ideas to end the aged long importation of petroleum products, illegal oil bunkering and environmental degradation will contribute to the nation’s GDP, improve its capacity to create jobs and engender sustainable development, adding that it was time for Nigerian government to save itself and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC from incurring N623.17 billion on fuel subsidiary cost incurred between January to November 2018.
Comrade Sheriff also said that Nigeria government needed to look inward to harness local ideas for economic Recovery, Growth and job creation as a means of positively utilising the rapid population growth being experienced in the country.
