iwaeda:


The noise will be so loud. From Zamfara, Lagos, Cross River, Adamawa same noise of hunger and hardship. Tinubu need to be weary of Onanuga and Co deceiving him.

adenigga:



Source: https://punchng.com/Fuel-import-FG-working-against-local-refineries-operators-cry-out

The President of the Dangote Group has called on the House of Representatives to investigate the quality of diesel and petrol at filling stations.

Dangote made the call on Saturday when he received the leadership of the House led by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and his deputy Benjamin Kalu.

To carry out the investigation, he urged the House to set up a committee to test products at various filling stations across the country.

Decrying the damage being done to vehicles and engines by substandard products, also called on the House to investigate the quality of laboratories being used to test imported products and compare that with the one at the Dangote Refinery.


He informed the lawmakers, who had earlier toured the refinery, that he was also open to independent testing of his refinery’s products as that would only attest to their quality while exposing the problem with some of the products being sold by other players in the sector.

The management of Dangote Refinery has complained in recent months about what they say is an attempt by international oil companies (IOCs) to sabotage the refinery. It has also decried what it says is the importation of substandard products.

In turn, the refinery has been accused of essentially pushing for a monopoly.

Dangote, however, dismissed the monopoly claims insisting that the Dangote Group did not receive any special incentive when the refinery was being built.


He also said there was no effort to prevent other players from operating..

Islie:
Governors call for dialogue, say grievances receiving attention

Demonstration is a constitutional right

CSOs Northern students, others pull out

Security agencies place personnel on alert
Nawaoo




https://leadership.ng/states-on-edge-over-planned-hardship-protest/

Speaks on the construction of a refinery Nigeria banks on for economic revival, his frustrations, achievements, expectations

•It’s like swimming in the middle of the sea, getting tired but making efforts to swim out lest you drown

By Onochie Anibeze

Three places have been etched as outstanding experiences for me over my years as a journalist.

One was in St. Peter’s Basilica and some ancient churches I visited in Rome while touring Europe with the Eagles in preparation for the USA ’94 World Cup finals.

The Basilica is 452 feet high. Its dome is the highest in the world. As tall as it is, the church sits on the tomb of St. Peter, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. But the wonder to me is the use and the design of marble and tiles up to the last foot. There were no cranes when that church was built. How workers were able to brave the physical challenges to construct such an architectural masterpiece is a striking question.

The second place of wonder to me is in Egypt, the Pyramids. Everybody knows about the Pyramids but note this. The height of each pyramid (there are about seven of them) is about 139 metres and the average weight of a stone used in building them is 2.5 tons. The largest granite stones weigh 25 to 80 tons each. Now the wonder. These pyramids are in the desert. They were built between 2700 B.C. And 1500 B.C.

How did they move those large stones to the desert? How did they mount them one after the other to that height at the time when there were no cranes? You need to visit the Pyramids to appreciate why it is one of the wonders of the world.

Interestingly, a third wonder that I have just seen is not far from where I work in Lagos, Nigeria. It is the Dangote Petroleum Refinery at Ibeju Lekki in Lagos.

President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote led a large team of media and businessmen on a tour of the refinery last Sunday. A lot has been written and said about the engineering marvel. President of the Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba simply described it as ‘monstrous’.

I don’t know how to start capturing our tour last Sunday. But you may understand better when told that a tour we started at about 7.30 am ended at about 7 pm. It was a visit to the wonderland they say is seven times the size of Victoria Island. It covers an area of approximately 2,635 hectares.

It has a total storage capacity of 4.5 billion litres which can cover 20 days of crude requirement. The refinery has a 435 MW power plant that can meet the total power requirement of Oyo, Ogun Osun, Kwara, and Ekiti States. It is huge. It is massive. It is monstrous, as Eze put it. And in the words of Arise News Ojy Okpe, the elegant one Dr. Ruben Abati introduces as Ojynika Orjyyyy Okpeeeee, “It’s Dangote Planet”.

From one section to another, we rode on buses. At a time, I had the chance to ride in the same bus with Dangote himself and Devakumar Edwin, the Group Executive Director, Strategy, Portfolio Development and Capital Projects.

There were about seven other buses. It was amazing how Dangote mastered the refinery and explained the technicalities and functions of many sections. Did he witness every construction? From the hangars or quays where crude oil can be evacuated into pipelines leading to the refinery and where refined oil can be discharged into ships, we then drove to the main refinery.

We saw different plants, Petrochemical complexes, Nitrogen plants, Hydrogen generating plants, Raw Water Treatment Plant etc. We drove past more than 80 storage facilities some more than the size of football pitches. Some could store 60m gasoline products. Inside the Dangote Industries Free Zone, there are 10,000 housing units for staff. Workers are up to 30,000. We visited the fertilizer plant and its storage facility. There’s a lab for fertilizer and another huge one for petroleum products.

The refinery is built to refine any type of crude. There are control rooms. Everything about the Dangote Refinery is extraordinary. When I got close to him I asked “must a refinery be this big?”

He smiled and said “It’s the biggest in the world, it’s the first of its kind.” There were other posers from colleagues. Were there times he regretted going into this and even thought of throwing in the towel? What lessons came his way while constructing this? He was at home with every question on the bus ride and during the question and answer time after the tour.

“We possibly could have had a second thought if we knew the magnitude of what we were going into. Yes, maybe we wouldn’t have started if we knew” he said. Many saw him. Could he have stopped? Were there frustrations that made him think of quitting?

“Yes, there were frustrations but it’s like when you are swimming and you’re in the middle of the sea what do you do when you’re getting tired? You have no option but to continue and swim out.”

The first frustration was finding out that a great part of the land they bought had to be sand-filled as the place was marshy. They spent hundreds of billions doing that. The next was from the indigenes who challenged any action on the land because of their shrines in the place. More compensation would have to be paid to appease the gods. There were many more. Dangote had to build a port as moving crude from the Apapa port was going to be a herculean job. Was that part of the original plan? Many other things came up as construction went on. And for the lessons, experiences, and challenges he encountered, Dangote plans to write a book. “I plan to write a book on project implementation in Africa,” he said.

They started construction of about 31 units of the refinery simultaneously. That was hectic and perhaps one of the things he could have done differently.

In Africa especially in Nigeria, you construct the roads leading to your projects, you provide your own water, security and many other things that are responsibilities of the government. But he was determined to surge on. It is always in his character to top the chart of any business venture he goes into. “We have so many things that deserve places in the Gunness Book of Records here,” he said, adding “soon we will invite them for a tour of this place to see for themselves.”

The Dangote Refinery will go public in the first quarter of 2025, he hinted. Production of fertilizer and some other items are on. The refinery is expected to start producing petrol in August. The visit to the Dangote Refinery was revealing, and mind-blowing to many. To me, it is one of the wonders of our journey as a country. It is a project Nigeria should be proud of and one government should pull all strings to ensure it benefits the people.

For better understanding of magnitude of what we have at the refinery, read 25 FACTS ABOUT DANGOTE REFINERY below. But before then, some words from Aliko Dangote may interest you.

“Our new petroleum refinery is coming with many benefits”

The Dangote Petroleum Refinery Project is amongst our many initiatives towards supporting the transformation agenda of the federal Government. The Government is focused on turning Nigeria into a manufacturing hub, by adding value to our natural resources through processing and refining.

Our goal is to produce within Nigeria most of the goods that were usually imported despite having abundant resources for domestic manufacturing of the same goods. Our investment in cement manufacturing has made Nigeria self-sufficient, thereby transforming us from an import-dependent to cement exporting nation. We commissioned Dangote Fertilizer Plant in March 2022. With the nation now self-sufficient in the production of fertilizer, the surplus is going for the export market thereby generating crucial foreign exchange earnings for the country.

We conceived Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals as an answer to the perennial shortage of premium motor spirit (PMS) in the country. The completion of the project is another milestone for us at Dangote Industries Limited. It is the largest single-train refinery in the world with 650,000 barrels per day refining capacity. It marks the attainment of self-sufficiency in domestic refining of petroleum products and provides excess capacity in refined products, which will now go for the export market.

The refinery is designed to maximize gasoline production, which will account for 53 per cent of the production capacity, compared to most of the refineries in the world which produce between 20 to 25 per cent gasoline. The petroleum refinery can meet 100 per cent of the requirements of Nigeria, of all the liquid fuel products – Gasoline (PMS), Diesel (AGO), Kerosene ( DPK) and Aviation Jet Fuel (JET A-1)

Our new petroleum refinery is coming with many benefits. Refined petroleum is the main source of energy in the transport and powering of machines. The byproducts are also the basic materials of many diverse products as plastics, pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and clothing.
Our strategy of producing local goods that were hitherto imported creates jobs in the domestic economy instead of providing jobs in developed economies, the source of the imported goods. With the coming onstream of this refinery, thousands of direct and indirect jobs are already being generated from the activities and operations connected to the project. These jobs are helping to address the challenge of youth unemployment.

We envisage that 60 per cent of the production capacity of this petroleum refinery can meet the entire requirement of Nigeria while the remaining 40 per cent is earmarked for export. Exporting refined petroleum products will not only save the huge amounts of foreign exchange but will also trigger a massive inflow of the same into the domestic economy. The retained market foreign exchange can be invested in other projects that will stimulate more diversification of the Nigerian economy.

We surmounted numerous obstacles in our journey to build this refinery. To bring Dimensional Cargoes close to the site, we developed a port with four quays, which has a quay loading bearing capacity of 25 tonnes per square meters. This was done to bridge the distance between Apapa Port and our project site. The company also invested in 2,570 construction equipment including 2,238 civil construction equipment and 332 mechanical construction equipment.

The Petrochemical Plant is designed to produce 77 different high-performance grades of polypropylene. Petrochemical is the source of raw materials for many manufacturing and assembling plants. Products from the plant will serve as raw materials for the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is used extensively across a broad range of industrial, technical, and everyday applications including widespread use in building, transport, packaging, electrical/electronic and healthcare applications.

These new projects will no doubt, create linkages in the Nigerian economy leading to the evolution of ancillary industries that will use their byproducts as starting materials.

Tegabadguy:
every way is a way

Hassanmaye:

Criminals I hate that Jobs, They can do anything for Money that's why they die miserably

LAGOS — BISHOPS of the Methodist Church in Nigeria have charged the Federal Government to implement policies that will tame inflation in the country warning that if the economic challenges facing Nigerians are not tackled, it may lead to chaos and anarchy.

This came on a day a popular Islamic cleric, Imam Muideen Salman, urged politicians to stem the tide of greed to reduce the level of hardship in Nigeria.

The Bishops spoke at the end of the 41st annual council meeting of Bishops of the Methodist Church in Nigeria with the theme, ‘Arise and Build’, held at Hoares Memorial Methodist Cathedral, Archdiocese of Lagos Mainland in Sabo, Lagos.

They insisted that concerted efforts from the government were important to alleviate the financial strain on consumers and sustain economic stability amidst ongoing economic challenges.

The Bishops in a communique read by the Prelate, Dr Oliver Ali Aba, said: “The Council expresses alarm at the high rate of unemployment among young people, which is linked to various social vices.

We urge governments and parents to take responsibility for empowering their children. The Council is concerned about the rising cases of teenage pregnancy, cultism, fraud, exam malpractices, political thuggery, prostitution, drug abuse, and other criminal activities among youth. We warn that if left unaddressed, these issues may lead to chaos and anarchy in the country, emphasizing the need for immediate action.

“The Council is calling on the Federal Government to step up its efforts to address the worsening insecurity in the country, condemning the violent actions of criminals such as bandits, kidnappers, and armed robbers. The Council demands accountability for recent attacks on public institutions and urges security agencies to work together to find a comprehensive solution to the country’s security challenges.”

Meanwhile, an Islamic cleric, Imam Muideen Salman, who delivered a lecture at the Fidau prayer of Mama Hajarat Akinleye, mother of the Chief of Staff to Osun Governor, Kazeem Akinleye, at the Osun NYSC camp in Ede, charged the political class to live the life of service rather than being selfish.

The cleric, while directing his sermon to politicians at the gathering, said they would account for their actions before God after leaving office and on judgement day.

He said: “It is important as politicians to prioritise the welfare of the masses on whose shoulders you ride to power. These masses are suffering because of politicians’ greed. To avoid the wrath of God, you must reduce your greed, and selfishness to make life liveable for the poor.

“You must all recognise that political authority is temporary and you will account for everything action after office and on the day of judgement.”

ABUJA – Reverend Esther Ajayi, the founder of the Love of Christ Generation Church, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to flood the market with food to ease the country’s economic woes.

Her advice comes as Nigeria grapples with rising food prices, insecurity, and economic uncertainty.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Rev. Ajayi, also known as Iya Adura, emphasized the need for the government to prioritize food production and availability to address the economic challenges facing Nigeria.

According to her, the current economic situation in Nigeria is not unique to the country, but a global phenomenon.

She cited her personal experience in the UK, where she spent £50 on electricity and gas twice in one month, highlighting the global economic strain.

Rev. Ajayi said, “In the past in England, if we bought electricity and gas for about £50, it would last us for six weeks. However, in May, I purchased £50 worth of electricity and gas twice within two weeks. This suggests that the economic issues are not limited to Nigeria but are affecting the whole world.

“Insecurity is not unique to our country. In this country, we are not asking for much. What we want is food on our table, good roads, electricity, and water.

“My advice to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is to flood the market with food. I know that there are some people who are always sabotaging the government’s good ideas. But I believe that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a bold and courageous leader. He is not someone who can be easily pushed around.”

The cleric commended President Tinubu’s efforts to address the country’s challenges, describing him as a bold and courageous leader.

She expressed optimism that the government’s efforts would yield positive results, urging Nigerians to be patient and supportive.

The Kogi State Police Command has confirmed the arrest and detention of a police inspector, Aminu Muhammed, for alleged robbery.

The cop was alleged to have robbed the residence of those around his duty station, the ‘C’ Division in Lokoja, the state capital.

Police spokesperson in the state, William Ayah, who confirmed the incident on Tuesday, said the police inspector has been arrested and is already in detention.

He added that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Bertrand Onuoha, has ordered a thorough investigation into the alleged misconduct.


Luck ran out on the inspector following the escapades of a notorious gang who specialised in robbing houses of household items and cars in the state.

A source told our reporter that a stolen car was found in the workshop of the policeman’s panel beater who was already working on changing the car’s colour at Ochadamu in the Ofu Local Government Area of the state.

Those who knew the vehicle and were aware of the robbery incident in the owner’s house on 14th June 2024, quickly raised the alarm upon sighting the car.

The car’s number plate had already been changed to an Abuja number just as a car dealer’s receipt, backdated to 2020, was presented by the officer as his evidence of purchasing it.

His panel beater had primed the car preparatory to changing its colour before the alarm was raised and policemen of the Quick Response Unit (QRU) attached to the Police Area Command, Idah, apprehended him.

Upon reaching the ‘A’ Division in Lokoja, where the QRU took the apprehended panel beater, it was found that the criminals who committed the robbery had already been arrested for committing another crime.

One of the members of the gang of armed robbers, who had also been on the police wanted list for other crimes, confessed to the commission of the robbery, and named the police officer as the mastermind.

He confessed that they were contracted to rob the house of the owner of the car for the sole aim of getting the car for the inspector.

The Naira yesterday depreciated to N1,555 per dollar in the parallel market from N1,545 per dollar last week Friday. Similarly, the Naira depreciated to N1,577.29 per dollar in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, NAFEM.

Data from FMDQ showed that the indicative exchange rate for NAFEM rose to N1,577.29 per dollar from N1,563.8 per dollar last week Friday, indicating N13.49 depreciation for the naira.

The volume of dollars (turnover) traded on the window increased by 21.3 percent to $153.53 million from $126.5 million traded on Friday.

Consequently, the margin between the parallel market and NAFEM rates narrowed to N18.8 per dollar from N18.8 per dollar last week Friday.

Almost six years after the federal government awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the Abuja-Kaduna highway, the project has still yet to be completed and portions of it have become nightmares for travellers.

The contract for the Abuja-Kaduna section of the project was awarded alongside the Kaduna-Zaria and Zaria-Kano sections on December 20, 2018, by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, and had an initial completion period of three years.

The reconstruction of the 375.9km dual carriageway from Abuja to Kano was first awarded at the cost of N155 billion. But the cost was reviewed in 2021 to N642.2 billion. Again, it was increased to N797.2 billion.

In January this year, the current Minister of Works, Engineer David Umahi, said the contractor, Messrs Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, had asked for a further upward review to N1.35 trillion, an amount the minister said the government could not afford.

The contractor handling the project had de-mobilised from the Abuja-Kaduna section of the road project severally, even as motorists continued to drive through difficulties.

The ‘Trunk A’ Abuja-Kaduna Highway links the southern part of the country with the North West and North East geopolitical zones, and serves as the major artery for the movement of people, food items and other goods.

The project, which was contracted, and is being funded through the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund, has seen little progress on the Abuja-Kaduna section, though the other two sections are nearing completion.

Daily Trust commissioned its reporters on Thursday last week to take a drive from Zuba, which is 58km from the Abuja city centre, through a stretch of over 150km to Gonin Gora, a settlement that is 14km away from Kaduna, and they reported about the state of the road.



They also sampled the views of drivers, passengers and residents of settlements along the way about the state of the road, as well as the delay in reconstructing it.

Our reporters said the road is now a mishmash of new-tarred portions, with some parts abandoned midway, as well as old sections replete with potholes.

Further findings by our reporters show that on a daily basis, commuters plying the twin-lane road frequently suffer from back pain, spinal issues, and posture-related problems due to the constant jolting and vibrations at various points, and that it is also replete with recurrent accidents, which result in loss of lives and property.



Over 100 potholes dot road

Our reporters recorded 78 minor potholes and 47 major ones within the slightly above 150km they journeyed on the Abuja-Kaduna section of the road during their drive on Thursday.

They said the cracks on many parts of the road impede normal movements as drivers have to accelerate with caution.

“For instance, seven potholes were counted from Zuba Park to the military checkpoint adjacent the Zuma Rock, while a further movement to Gauraka community exposed more potholes of different sizes.

“Motorists took turns to swerve around the holes, which recent rains have turned into ponds.

“A few meters out of the community and at Zuma barracks, motorists connect with the first reconstructed part of the highway, with its smoothness tempting many to increase their speed.


“The reconstructed part terminates a few kilometres to Diko junction in Niger State. This part is one of the most dreaded for truck drivers as the two U-turn points are severely bad due to huge craters on the road, which are filled with water.

“This is evident with two trucks that have broken down on the road. One had its content spilled on the ground while the other had its axle damaged”, they said.

Moving down to Tafa town, in Tafa LGA of Niger State, our reporters found that the road also features potholes filled with water.

“But on the other part of the town which is in Kaduna State, another section of reconstructed road emerged which terminated a few kilometres to Maraban Isa.

“The community has a diversion which is overrun by a huge crater holding water.

“The diversion indicated that the construction company was previously working on part of the lane, thus forcing inbound and outbound vehicles to share one lane,” they further found.

Our reporters said the situation is the same with the section that passes though Jere LGA of Kaduna State, as motorists drive carefully as they meander their way through the many ‘craters’ on the road.

Different sizes of potholes dot the road through Rijana, which has forced drivers to abandon the outbound lane, though it is not under construction.


“However, there is a sigh of relief after Rijana down to Olam Farm and Hatcheries,” where our reporters stopped their journey, as the reconstruction

of the road has been completed.

Although neither staff of the construction company nor their equipment were seen throughout the journey, its outpost in Rijana, however, had some activities going on with trucks conveying some materials seen on the road. It was later gathered that the company was working on the Gonin-Gora section of the road, which is few kilometres away from Kaduna town.

Residents, motorists, others speak

At the diversion at Maraban Isa, Abdulhadi Saleh, one of those selling soft drinks to commuters and travellers said: “Since it is our business area, we usually use stones to fill the potholes to enable drivers to access the diversion point.

“Most of the time, we witness a lot of accidents and the trailers do crash when trying to turn and in avoiding the big potholes. Some cars also break down there causing massive gridlock,” he said.

“Recently, the container on a truck fell on a car and two people lost their lives due to that incident.

“The place is very bad during rainfall. Some of the drivers don’t even follow here. They avoid it by following the other side of the road which is also under reconstruction before it was blocked with concrete,” Abdulhadi further said.


According to him, the company handling the project has not been on site for a while. “It has been over five months since we saw them last. They moved their construction vehicles back to their yard. The only thing they do for now is that their security officers come to put on the generator for the diversion light at night for people to be aware that it is a diversion,” he further said.

While urging the government to urgently intervene “as the road is a busy one”, he said if the road is properly fixed, accidents will be reduced there.

Also, Aliyu Abubakar, who was seen fixing the bad part of the road going through Jere, said he and his friends engaged in the act to save lives. “We are fixing it to reduce the rate at which these vehicles, especially trailers, have accidents.


“Some drivers do give us money for filling the potholes with stones. We usually go into the bush to get the stones, then we get a vehicle to bring it to the place where we fix the road to reduce the rate of accidents,” he said.

When asked if he had the number of accidents that occurred on the road, he said: “I don’t have the exact numbers, but containers, small vehicles and trailers do fall here a lot, and they end up causing traffic gridlocks.”



‘I need N2m to fix my accidented truck’

The trunk of Ibrahim Ladan’s truck was seen lying on its side in the midst of the potholes at Diko Junction, thereby blocking other vehicles that needed to access the road to make a U-turn en route to Kaduna.


Ladan said the truck, which was conveying timber, was on its way to Kaduna when it overturned due to another accident that happened two days earlier.

“The accident led to the closure of part of the road while personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were giving directives on where to follow, but on getting to the U-turn, my truck overturned with all the goods I came along with going down,” he said.

“Thankfully, the goods are not fragile so we packed them; but my fuel spilled completely. I will require at least N2 million to fix the truck,” he said.

Another driver, Abdullahi Yusuf, said his truck suddenly got stuck a few meters from that of Ladan after making the same U-turn, a development that affected the back axle of the truck.


“This Diko junction U-turn is really bad and it is affecting us. It causes problems for the drivers using this road. This is the second time it has spoilt the back axle of my truck.

“The road has turns and deep potholes that when your vehicle enters some of them, it can break or remove the spring.”

He appealed to the government to fix the road, saying: “Take a look at how that trailer fell while trying to take a U-turn because of the bad road. It is pathetic,” he exclaimed.



There won’t be delay anymore – Works minister


Speaking during a briefing with contractors in Abuja on Friday, July 12, 2024, a day after our reporters travelled on the road, Works minister, Umahi said the project will be completed in 12 months from now.

“There is no delay; we just fully procured the budget and we are going to work and looking at 12 months for (Julius) Berger and the rest of them. Some of them are going to finish before 12 months,” he said. He said the Dangote Group was responsible for the first part of the road under the tax credit scheme and is working with Hitech Construction Company Limited.

He said the work to be done in the areas included concrete pavement, adding that the remaining portion to be constructed is 120km.

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He also explained the abandonment of some sections, saying, “We directed them (the contractors) to face one carriageway; the 82km that is left under their scope. We can take the right-hand side of the carriageway, let them face it and conclude and maintain the left-hand side. This is so that we will get proper funding,” he said.

The minister had, while on an inspection of the road in January this year, tied the delayed completion of the road to paucity of funds.

The completion timeline for the project has been shifted several times.

On Friday, July 7, 2023, the permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Works had during a tour of the road assured of its completion in the first quarter of this year. He attributed the delayed completion to “insecurity and funding challenges”.

The immediate past Minister of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola, had said that the project would be done in phases with the first phase being the 74km Kaduna-Zaria section, which is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022.

Fashola said the second phase, which is the 137km Zaria-Kano section, will be completed in the first quarter of 2023; while the last phase, the Abuja-Kaduna section, should be completed in the second quarter of 2023.

denko:
How much is the total cost of the refinery and how much did NNPC contributed.