The Northern Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has expressed concern with the continued increase in the price of cement in the country.
The youths observed that the continued increase in the commodity is meant to ensure that poor Nigerians are turned into destitutes in their own country.
Comrade Isah Abubakar, President of the council, stated that the group received the news of the declaration of over N500 billion profit before tax and over N350 billion profit after tax by Dangote Cement with mixed feelings.
It added that the declared amount is a sad reminder of how Nigerians and Nigeria are being ripped and raped by a monopolist that enjoys government protection and patronage.
The youths lamented that the average price of a 50kg bag of cement has since increased in the country, saying that currently it is being sold at over 240 percent above the global average price of the commodity.
“Looking inward, Northern Nigeria where Dangote hails from has a larger chunk of this poverty and other frightening negative economic and social variables,” the statement further lamented.
Rather than making this easy for Nigerians, the statement alleged that Alhaji Aliko Dangote is all out to ensure that poor Nigerians are turned to destitute in their own country by his continued inflation of prices of commodities he has control over.
The statement alleged that as Muslims all over the world are about to commence Ramadan fasting, Abdulsamad Isiyala Rabiu, the CEO of BUA disclosed the plan by Alhaji Aliko Dangote to mastermind the increase in the price of sugar on the table of every poor Nigerian.
The statement observed that as stakeholders in the Nigeria project and voice to voiceless northerners, the group ought to be happy that their son is making tremendous progress and holding the title of the richest man in Africa while poverty keeps on rising in his home front thereby leading to rising insecurity.
The group called on the members of the National Assembly and key policymakers to ensure that companies that keep on releasing outrageous profits provide evidence of cooperate social responsibility that is commensurate to their earnings.
It noted that following the rising price of cement that has led to an increase in the rent of most houses, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has to lift the ban imposed on cement import so that healthy competition, rather than what it called “heartless capitalism devoid of empathy”, would determine the price of the commodity in the markets.
