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First Private Refinery to Absorb 4,000 Youth
Published by:
This Day (Lagos)
November 22, 2002
Posted to the web November 22, 2002
John Iwori
Yenagoa
Photographs: Izon Link
As contractors mobilise to site to commence the clearing of land for the construction of Tonwei Refinery Limited, the first private refinery in the country, not fewer than 4,000 jobless youth would be engaged by the company.
The design and survey of the site had been completed and clearing is expected to start before the end of the month, the chairman and chief executive officer of the company, Prince Timi George Tongubor, said yesterday in an interview with THISDAY in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
President Olusegun Obasanjo had on October 19, during the foundation laying ceremony of the refinery in Agge, Ekeremor Local Government, said the granting of the license for private refineries was one of the positive results of the Federal Government liberalisation policies in the oil sector.
"A lot of hands would be needed. But for now, we want to absorb at least 4,000 youth in the first instance, Tongubor said.
"While some will be involved in manual labour, others will be engaged in carpentry, weaving and other sundry activities on site. There will be no idle moment at the site. A greater number would be trained to become expert in selected skills required in the oil industry," the refinery boss said.
Explaining the reasons the company was focusing on unskilled labourers instead of experts required in the industry, Tongubor said his dream was to address the problems of youth restiveness in the region.
"We have experienced a lot of killings in the Niger Delta region. Several precious lives that would have lived to become pillars tomorrow have been wasted in the area.
"By the time, our youth are fully engaged in productive enterprise that would yield them reasonable income, not the peanuts they are given by the multinational oil companies, youth restiveness would be greatly minimised if not totally eradicated," he said.
He expressed dismay at the level of youth involvement in violent political activities in the country.
The Chairman of Tonwei Refinery Limited, "if all the youth in the country are gainfully employed, politicians will not have anybody to fulfill their selfish desires of winning elections at all cost."
Tongubor said that politicians would not use their own children or wards in thuggery and violence but the children of the poor who have nothing to do.
He disclosed that a soft loan would be given to youth who excelled in the training scheme of the company.
He said it was not compulsory for those who were train by the company to work with it at the end of their training programme.
"This is why I have set aside a lump sum of money to serve as a soft loan for those who will like to do something else at the end of the training," he said.