Ogheneruona Tejiri, Jesse, Delta
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been called upon to urgently renew import licences to Cement New Entrants Forum of Nigeria (CNEFN) as part of measures to bring down the price of cement with a view to make the product readily available to Nigerians.
This appeal was made by HRM Monday Obukohwo Whiskey, Udurhie 1, Ovie of Idjerhe kingdom in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State while conducting Journalists round the abandoned multi billion naira Madewell Portland Cement Company located in his kingdom that is rotting away after huge investment by an indigene, Prince David Iweta, the President of Cement New Entrants Forum of Nigeria(CNEFN).
HRM Whiskey, Udurhie 1 attributed the spiralling prices of cement across the country to the non renewal of licences for the importation of the product, since 2008, 2009 to compliment the local production of the commodity.
The Ovie lamented that if the importation of cement had been sustained as espoused by previous governments, most of the members of Cement New Entrants Forum of Nigeria would have been engaged in local production of cement by now and would have helped in lowering the prices of the product instead of the current skyrocketing state.
He was particularly saddened that Madewell Portland Cement Company which provided over 2,000 direct jobs for his subjects and 10,000 indirect jobs for Nigerians, when it was established is now lying fallow because of inconsistent policy of the previous administrations.
Accordng to HRM Whiskey, “you can see the massive plants put in place by Prince David Iweta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Madewell Portland Cement Company in Jesse rottening away. Is it the giant generating sets, the jetty built at the bank of River Ethiope and others we should talk about? The roof of the plants are already being removed by vandals. It’s so annoying and despicable that previous governments abandoned the policy in favour of a few cabal in the industry.
“As a king of this kingdom, I feel pained seeing my subjects, particularly the youths idling away while a company that could keep them engaged is lying waste because of bad government policy. The cabal in the cement industry have really drawn us back. Look at the prices of cement today. It’s on the high side whereas if that cement importation policy has been sustained alongside with local production, we won’t be battling with astronomical prices now”, he lamented.
The Idjerhe monarch spoke further, “you can see, we are standing on the bank of the river. This is river Ethiope, one of the deepest river in Africa. I saw it 15 years ago or let’s say 12 years ago, when this project was brought down by Madewell in the cement industry. It already created over 2,000 direct jobs and over 10,000 indirect jobs to the Nigerian economy.
“As a king of this land, I feel pained and I believe that with the coming of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A man who is business oriented, a man who knows the importance of the cement sector to the Nigerian economy, he will revive this project and others to encourage the investors”.
The monarch recalled that Madewell Portland Cement was granted licence to import 500,000 metric tonnes between 2008 and 2009 but succeeded in bringing in only 50,000 metric tonnes while 450,000 metric tonnes were left in China at the time the policy was cancelled.
He commended Prince Iweta for not towing the path of other investors that took the Federal Government to court when the policy was cancelled adding, “some of them went to court. They collected huge amount of money from the federal government. But he didn’t go to court because he believed that a day like this will come. And I believe that Mr. President as a listening President will listen to this very important cry and order the reopening of this factory by granting it importation licence for cement”.
