By Jennifer John
Former Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Captain Emmanuel Ihenacho has thrown his weight behind the federal government of Nigeria in its quest to remove the subsidy on petroleum products.
Ihenacho who bared his mind while fielding questions from newsmen in Owerri, opined that it will be a good idea for the subsidies to be removed.
“The truth of the matter is, when you remove subsidies, a lot of people are going to benefit, because government will save a lot of revenue and if carefully channelled to welfare programmes that will positively impact the lives of the poor, then that is a better way to dispense the money, than just giving it to importers and car owners who are not actually poor”.
Speaking about his effort in establishing a refinery, the former Imo State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), said the business was harder than he initially thought, recalling that it has taken over five years of constant hard work to get to the level they are currently, even when he thought the project could be delivered within two years.
“Refineries are position specific. You can’t just put them anywhere you like. You can put them in a location because there are fields that are producing oil in the locality, or if there are no fields in the vicinity, but there are transport infrastructure, such as Dunks and Harbours, who can import crude oil and send to the refineries.
“So they are location specific, they are dependent on the infrastructure that you have and to certain extent, on the availability of raw materials that you need”.
On his ongoing filling station at Nekede Road, off Westend, in Owerri, which was being removed because of an ongoing project by the government, the oil magnet said there was no contention about it.
“We own the filling station, government wanted the land and told us they wanted the land, we said okay, you can have the land. They went ahead and took the land. If you go there, you will see that we are removing our stuff. If it were to be an issue of demolition, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to remove our stuff”.
On whether compensation was paid to him, he said, “The thing is that there was mutual understanding, there is no quarrel or disagreement between us and the government.
Captain Ihenacho promised his support for the present state government, even as he ruled out the idea of joining any of the political parties, saying there is no distinction between the political parties in the country.
On ways he intend to support the government for the betterment of Imo State, the former Minister said, “Why will we not support our government. All one needs do is take inventories of the skills one has and place it before the government, because you cannot impose yourself on the government.
“You have to let the government know the fields you are an expert and if the government is convinced you are an expert in those fields and you can contribute in creating more jobs and more opportunities for young people, the government will likely take the offer”.
