Delta State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in 2007 and Country Director of Network for Good Governance (N4GG), Chief Sunny Onuesoke is vexed over the rustic nature of the Delta Steel Company (DSC), Ovwian-Aladja and in this interview he grated to the crew of National Reformer Newspaper of Tejiri Ebikeme and Francis Sadhere, he appealed to the Federal Government to do everything possible for the company to bounce back to life, saying the nation’s industrialization depends largely on a revived DSC. Excerpt:
You are a one man riot squad calling for the restoration of Delta Steel Company, what is your interest in DSC?
Personally I do not have a stake in it. I am doing this for the general interest of Deltans and Nigerians. Take the fact that I am an Urhobo man out of the equation. It is my place of birth. This is my region and my senatorial district. I know how it was when it was working just few years back. It used to employ about five hundred thousand workers and had a multiplying effect on other people. Some people were suppying scrabs, chemicals, gas, even food vendors were benefiting from it then. DSC is the industrial base of Nigeria, economically. I am using this opportunity to appeal to the federal government to come and restore that glory of DSC. If the Federal government knows that they have sold DSC and the people they have sold it to are not meeting up to expectation, it is the duty of AMCON to review the contract between the federal government and the Indians concerned. What are they waiting for? This is a company that has been existing for about 31 years and was producing steel to sustain the nation. This is a factory that was built with 2.8 billlion dollars way back in 1979 when the dollar was having a tussle with the naira. If you want to restore DSC back to its glorious days, the federal government should be talking about 35 billion dollars. But what is needed now is just 21 billion naira which will take care of maintainance, areas of workers, contractors indebtness, the burnt down DRT plant – which even our local power companies can bypass to kick off the plants.
How do you feel from your heart of hearts looking at DSC rusting away?
What I am feeling right now is that, if the Federal Government knows that they have entered into any kind of agreement with an Indian company and they have bought DSC, then there is an aberration by the privatization bureau. What I am saying is that if the Indians could not meet up with their contractual agreement, then they should repeal that contract. The federal government should take it over and do the needful. We are talking of 21 billion naira here and you are paying close to 3.5 billion naira to ghost workers in Ajaekuto Steel Company that has not produced one biro. DSC has been producing for about 31 years. I am feeling it and the federal government is feeling it today because they are importing steel that DSC used to produce with local scrap. We do not even import the materials we used here, apart from the limestone, we get everything locally. We even have limestone in Kogi. So we do not need any imported raw material to kick start DSC. The raw material needed to produce steel is locally generated here. So what are they telling us? If you pay 3.5 billion naira to ghost workers – I am quoting Justice Bego who said they are wasting that money in Ajaekota, and then you could as well restore DSC.
How much will it take us to restore DSC back to its former glory?
From what they are saying, we need a minimum of 21 billion naira. But with 5 billion naira we can kick off because it is going to be in phases. Their raw materials are mainly scrap and we have more than enough scrap here in Nigeria that we even export scrap.
What are we going to gain if we restore DSC?
Once we restore DSC the benefits are going to be enormous. The foundry department is going to be producing engine blocks, angle bars, cable bars, modern steel structure that will be used to produce chassis for vehicles, pillets and wires. The major thing in construction engineering is steel. Modern civil engineering houses you see today are constructed with steel. There is going to be a reduction of capital flight for the importation of rods because the scrap in Nigeria are enough to produce what we wanted. If they kick off today, it is going to employ up to 5 thousand workers. If 5 thousand people are employed, it is going to have a spilling effect, even to Abuja. The banks will be coming and Delta State will be booming economically.
Do you think somebody out there is against the revival of DSC?
What will be the benefit of the person if DSC is not restored? Rather the person will make gain if DSC is restored. So the idea that somebody is against the restoration of DSC is not true. It is just the negligent of the Federal Government and Asset Management Committee of Nigeria (AMCON). I do not believe that somebody is stopping it because whatever motive the person has is that he wants money and he cannot get money when the place is lying fallow.
Why do you say the Federal Government is neglecting DSC, does it has any political undertone?
There is no political undertone. It is just pure negligence by the Federal Government and AMCON. It is all about bureaucracy negligence. When AMCON came, I thought that they were going to inject some funds into DSC. But alas, they did nothing to restore the steel company.
So who are we going to hold responsible for this neglect?
We are going to hold the Federal Government and its agencies like AMCON responsible for their total neglect of DSC. They were responsible for the privatization of DSC and if they feel the terms of the privatization are not being met by the other party, then they have to revoke the terms. I am appealing to the Federal Government to revoke the contract sale of DSC with the Indian company it sold it to or they should come and revive it.
We have a senator representing Delta Central, but it seems he too is not doing anything about the situation in DSC, what do you have to say about this?
It is not true that the current senator, Chief Emmanuel Aguariavwodo is not doing anything about the problem of DSC. I am not the spokesman for the DSC. First and foremost Iam an Urhobo man from Delta Central, a policy maker in Delta State, I am a leader in Delta State and I see myself as a national leader too. So if any thing is wrong in DSC, I should be able to say something about it. Let me say this, any man who fails to talk in the face of injustice, one day it is going to bounce back to him. Why will I stay quite? I am close to DSC and it uses some of my materials. What I am saying is that the current senator, like senator Ewherido and Ifeayi Okowa, is very vigorous on how to restore DSC. I still remember when they visited DSC and Okowa told them why they needed to revive the company. The late Ewherido fought tooth and nail and when the new senator came, he took over from where he stopped. He must not shout out to the public like I am doing. If I am shouting to the public, Aguariavwodo is shouting underground.
If you see President Jonathan one on one today, what will you tell him about DSC?
Assuming I see the president one on one, I will tell him that, first and foremost, if he wants Nigeria to progress, the first thing he should do to stop capital flight importation is to kick-off DSC. If he really wants to industrialize Nigeria, he has to fix DSC first and it should be number one in his priorities.
Are you not disappointed that so many years down the drain, Mr. President has not done anything about DSC?
A lot of complicated issues are surrounding the privatization of DSC. We have the Minister for Steel and Mines. Why are we calling on Mr. President? Must the president do everything? Every problem we have, we pass the bulk to him like some people were saying he should go to Chibok and fight. You have the ministry of steel and mine for crying out loud. Is not the ministry that is paying Ajaokuta, so why are you calling the President? Is it the President that is paying Ajaokuta directly? When the minister of steel is asked to bring his budget for the year, he knows how to infuse the salaries of Ajaokuta plant, a dormant plant into the budget. But he does not know how to infuse funds to revive DSC. The whole blame lies on the minister.
We are preaching about local content all the time, how come the government gave out the contract to foreigners instead of our local contractors?
I want to say this loud and clear. The current crew of DSC workers can revive DSC if the funds are there. We do not even need the foreign partners because the workers there vowed before me that they can revive DSC perfectly well than the foreign partners who came to destroy DSC. The foreign partners came to destroy DSC and not to make it come on stream. The current engineers in DSC have vowed before me when I met them that they can revive the place if the funds are made available without the help of the foreigners. What this means is that the federal government is abusing the local content thing they are preaching because from my careful studies, the engineers there told me that with little funds they can kick-off DSC and that they can run it locally after paying their gas bills and power bills. Let me ask you a question, were they not doing it before the privatization? Was the late Senator Fred Brume not the head of DSC? Was it the white men that were running DSC when Senator Brume was there? It was the poor blacks that were running it. The staff said they can run DSC if government provide the funds to run it. All they need was five billion naira to kick off. And after investigations it was confirmed because the raw materials are generated locally. Nigeria is one of the latest scrap related economy in the world. We have limestone in the middle belt and we also have gas locally in the south south and so what else are we waiting for?
As a person, how do you feel about the plight of DSC workers?
I feel so pathetic about their plight because it is a very touchy situation. An average of two people dies every day while they are waiting for their arrears and wages in DSC. So something serious should be done about their situation. They have vowed that if the federal government provides the funds today, they will go and switch off the plants and in two weeks they will revive it.
What is the way forward for DSC?
I will advice the federal government to provide funds for the revival of DSC and terminate the contract of sales with the foreign partners. That is all. We really need DSC back because when the place was booming a lot of activities were going on in this area. And that is the multiplying effects we are talking about.
Do you think DSC can be fully revived?
DSC can be fully revived if the Federal Government can give DSC local workers five to ten billion naira and you will see that DSC will bounce back to life fully. If they give me the appointment to revive DSC, I tell you, in two weeks the place will be revived. The Federal Government can appeal to Nigerian Gas to supply us gas and the distribution companies to give us power.
