A Professor of Geodesy and former Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences in the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Prof. Dagogo Fubara, has made a case for the establishment of Niger Delta Energy Corridor.
He said that the establishment of such corridor zone became necessary, stretching from Cross River State to Ondo State, since all the oil and gas are produced in the Niger Delta region.
Prof. Fubara, who disclosed this while speaking to Aviation correspondents at the weekend, said such energy corridor in the region would create room for the establishment of industries that will create jobs for the idle youths.
“Some years ago, precisely in 2012, we proposed to the government that we in the Niger Delta should have Niger Delta Energy Corridor, stretching from Calabar to Ondo State, since all the oil and gas are produced in the Niger Delta.
“If you build five or more refineries, petrochemical, and all the ancillary industries and companies that have to process the oil and gas, then we could create about 5,000,000(five million) jobs in the Niger Delta.
“At the same time, we will process the crude oil and gas and get the part we need. Instead of importing the finished products from outside, we export crude oil and import finished petroleum products from outside.
“Those countries we import from who refined them are developing their own economy. No nation develops by depending on exporting of raw materials alone. You must add value and focus on processing your raw materials and then add value.
“You will make more money up to five times when materials are processed than when it was not processed.
“When five million jobs are created in Niger Delta, first of all, it will remove insecurity. All the youths will be employed, and will no more have time for criminal activities. Some of them go into criminality because they are idle, but when they are gainfully employed and happy, they won’t think of criminality”, Fubara said.
The university don also called on the Niger Delta governors and leaders to think well on how to promote industrialisation, fishing and agriculture in the region, regretting that food consumed in the region are produced outside the region.
He also called on prominent citizens In the region to invest like Dangote, rather than taking their resources to other countries of the world.

Corlins Walter