Despite the call for the suspension of the planned national prayers that was billed to begin on Saturday, the special prayer session is currently holding at the Isyaku Rabiu mosque at Goron Dutse area of Dala Local Government, Kano.
A social media user, Rabiu Sharma, had taken to Facebook to post, “A Quranic recitation from here Khalifa Isyaku Rabiu mosque, Gorondutse, Kano for a prayer for the situation our country is in, may we find solace. Amin.”
Daily Trust reports that a National Prayer session scheduled to begin on Saturday, 10th August at Isyaka Rabi’u’s Mosque, Goron Dutse and across other states but was announced cancelled by one of the organisers due to security reasons.
Recall that the #EndBadGovernance nationwide peaceful protest that started on August 1st, 2024 was marred by a series of violent attacks on public and private properties across some states, resulting in looting, killings and injuries.
On its website, the company said it directly employed about 10,000 workers at the first phase of commissioning while the upstream and downstream industries that would evolve all over the nation would engage no fewer than 500,000 employees.
Ajaokuta Steel Plant, aptly known as the Bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialisation, is more than just a rolling mill—it’s an Integrated Iron and Steel Plant.
It boasts four distinct rolling mills: the Billet Mill, the Light Section Mill, the Wire Rod Mill, and the Medium Section and Structural Mill.
The plant utilises blast furnace technology, which is the most prevalent method for steel production, representing about 70 per cent of global liquid steel production.
By 1994, the plant was estimated to be 98 per cent complete in terms of equipment installation.
While some units of the plant were operational at various times, 40 out of the 43 planned units had been constructed.
However, due to mismanagement, the project remains incomplete over 45 years later.
At the Russia-Africa Summit in 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on a revitalisation of the steel mill with Russian support and project funding from the Afreximbank and the Russian Export Centre.
But it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the agreement was abandoned.
In January 2024, Tinubu opened discussions with a Chinese steel company, Luan Steel Holding Group, to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Company.
That discussion has not yielded any results.
Despite its inactive status and reports of an ineffective workforce, the company continues to receive substantial annual budget allocations from the government.
Furthermore, the salaries of its employees are still accounted for in the government’s annual budget.
A breakdown of the company’s annual budget between 2014 and 2024 showed that it paid a total of N29.11bn in salaries and wages, and N9.8bn in allowances to its staff.
Further analysis revealed that the government disbursed N3.82bn for personnel costs in 2014, reduced marginally to N3.8bn in 2015, N3.55bn in 2016 and N3.84bn in 2017.
In 2018, an unverifiable number of workers at the company received a total sum of N3.76bn for salaries and allowances, N3.2bn in 2019, and N3.5bn in 2020.
The cost increased to N3.89bn in 2021, and N3.94bn in 2022 but dropped significantly to N1.22bn in 2023.
The company didn’t announce any retrenchment exercise during this period. The cost, however, increased by N3.07bn to N4.29bn in 2024.
At an investigative hearing recently, the lawmaker representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, took up the Sole Administrator of the Steel Company, Summaila Akaba, on several workers collecting salaries from the N4.2bn appropriated for personnel costs in the 2024 budget.
Due to the degeneration of the protest, some groups of youths called for a nationwide prayer as an alternative option to seek God’s divine intervention.
The cancellation of the National Prayer was announced in a video clip posted by one of the organisers of the National Prayer, Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan in Kano.
According to him,’’ Kano Commissioner of Police, CP Salman Dogo Garba, and DSS director in the state, Alhassan Muhammad, have alerted us that some evil forces in the country have faithlessly prepared to send some miscreants to penetrate the law-abiding worshippers and use the gathering to their advantage.
“It is suspected that they would lead some youths into looting, shoplifting and freebooting once again as it happened on 1st August, the day the national protest began. Hence we cancel the massive gathering to avert the possible chaotic mayhem in the state.
“We ask the general public to remain in their respective quarters’ mosques and recite as much Qur’an and pray there as scheduled. The prayer goal could be achieved wherever we are as Allah Hears us wherever we are!
‘’I also use this opportunity to ask the general public to be extra vigilant against any infiltration by any stranger who might be carrying some suspicious objects. Let us pray hard for the betterment of the country.’
Daily Trust
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