Group welcomes Bonny NLNG Train 7 project

By Okafor Ofiebor

A group of technocrats from Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State under the aegis G 30 Ibani Voice has hailed the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Train 7 Plus project of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited approved by the company’s shareholders in Abuja, Nigeria on Saturday.

Founder and President of the group, Dr Fubara Dan-Jumbo described the project as “a good thing for the Bonny people” and “a major milestone”.

Dr Fubara Dan-Jumbo, a former lecturer at Coventry University stated that the project was in line with the ideals and principles of the group which was human capital development.

“First and foremost, as G30 Ibani Voice, our ideals and principles are tended towards human capacity development. This is a major milestone opportunity for the Bonny people. 40,000 job spaces coming into Bonny Kingdom is major. Available statistics show that we have about 9,000 people in Bonny.”

“So, if it is followed accordingly, every youth in Bonny, even those that are graduates and non-graduates and those who want to empower themselves by getting new skills to be gainfully employed, will benefit from the project. And this is what we want for our people even though we know that it is a temporary thing.”

“Apart from that it is also going to bring about a lot of businesses in the area. It is going to empower a lot of entrepreneurs in the kingdom.”

He, however, cautioned against disruption of educational pursuit by youths of the community, warning that such moves would be counterproductive for the progress and wellbeing of the community, urging the people of the area to learn from history.

“Don’t forget that sometime in July, we had a programme where we said that if this project comes the effect will be massive. And we also noted that while we are looking at all the things it will bring, we need to also look at the negative side of the project and how to ensure that the education of our people remains intact.”

“Our children should not say that the FID has been announced today and people who are in school should begin to drop out and say they want to go and work in the site. Our people should be very conscious about that. That also will affect our girls. They should not be dropping out because they hear that a lot of girls will be coming into the town and they will be making money based on prostitution. They should not drop out because it is a temporary project.”

“The project has a start date and an end date. Once the end date comes if they get themselves involved in this duration they will have themselves to blame because they stopped heading up in education. This is one of things I want to make clear. Yes, it is a good thing but we should be aware because we do not want to make the same mistake again.”