The issue of illegal refineries and environmental effects of such activity in oil producing communities is still generating debate among young people in the Niger Delta.
Speaking in an interview with The Tide correspondent last Saturday in Port Harcourt, a former President of the Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Peace and Progress, Kennedy West attributed it to the neglect of the Niger Delta youth which has led to the proliferation of illegal refineries in the region.
“We need to know that we have our destiny in our hands and we need to chart a course that will enable us bequeath a better society for our children and grand children.
The problem with the youth of the Niger Delta is all about neglect and when we talk about neglect it is not just from the federal government, but parental neglect, government neglect, neglect in school, a total abandonment of the youth in the Niger Delta and this spanned about four decades”, West added.
West, who is the current Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State Governor on Niger Delta Youth Affairs also frowned at Federal Government’s plan to approve only just two modular refineries for each of the oil producing states in the Niger Delta.
He advised government to assist youth that engage in illegal refining of crude oil to meet international standard for setting up modular refineries.
“The Niger Delta youth that are involved in this illegal refining first of all have the capacity to refine this product, what they do not have is compliance to international standard, now if they have the required capacity and what they have is not complying to the international standard, that means they are doing it in a crude way, how do you settle that in order to come out with a more mechnised standard that would conform to international standard”, he questioned.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana