General Steel Mills Limited Pays Asagba Of Asaba A Courtesy Visit

BARRISTER Andrew Odum SAN recalled how his journey with General Steel Mills (GSM) began when Hon. Justice Mathias Unokiwe Odita (former Chief Judge and former legal counsel to GSM) introduced him to Mr. Benny Cheung, the chairman of GSM, as his successor. He acknowledged the vital role played by the Justice in his all-round growth, and publicly extolled Justice Odita’s benevolence in the presence of His Majesty.

Barr. Odum specially thanked His Majesty for his all-round support and commitment to ensuring he became a Senior Advocate, a gesture he would never forget.

GSM, he explained, is the highest private employer of labor in Delta State with over eight hundred workers of which Asaba indigenes have benefited. Their expertise is in steel rods production for both export and local use. In addition to that, they also produce plastics for local use.

He expressed gratitude for His Majesty’s intended visit to the company, describing it as a welcomed development that would enable business owners have that sense of purpose, that their host community is interested in their welfare and growth. However, Barr. Odum elucidated that their delayed visit to the palace wasn’t a slight but rather as a result of Mr. Benny Cheung’s absence of which his majesty have been briefed in details.

He enumerated their challenges of which electricity tariffs topped the chart. This challenge, he informed Agu, have led to the closure of many businesses including Eastern metals, a sister steel company in Asaba, which had over six hundred youths in their employment list. He bitterly explained that the business haven’t made profit in recent times and is faced with same fate of closure, if the federal government doesn’t review cost of power.

Furthermore, he revealed that he brought up the situation with some governors at an industrialization conference, stating categorically that, “for us to solve the infrastructural deficit or begin to interrogate it at some reasonable level, there must be regional economic collaboration to generate more power
The above means that governors of various regions must come together to budget for power generation in their region, because as individual states, they can’t afford the cost of power needed to be generated and must collaborate to build power plants and railways that terminates at ports, especially in the case of Delta State to make it a maritime hub and aviation hub.”

In conclusion, he pleaded with His Majesty to interface with the government because of his expertise in law on the matter tabled.

As custom with His Majesty, Agu welcomed the delegation warmly to his palace and expressed condolences to Barr. Odum on the passing of his father.

HRM summed the aim his visit to Asaba companies into three categories :

•To use the platform to mobilize and re-energizing Asaba people and non indigenes who are interested in investing in Asaba on industrialization growth in the kingdom.

•To form a relationship with these companies.

* To see how well Asaba people can fit into the companies especially the youths who make up about 70% of the population. Employment he buttressed is a tool to cub youth restiveness and he will not rest on his ores, until a greater percentage of the youths are employed.

Agu enunciated that the visit to Geepee and other companies afforded him a much needed wider perspective of the nature of the businesses done in his kingdom stating, “for me, the visit is the most informative excursion I have ever embarked upon, and no amount of visitation from the members of those companies could have opened my eyes to what I saw on this land. Unbelievable, highly impressive in terms of facilities, man power amongst others.”

Agu expressed satisfaction on the convergence of production and consumption in his kingdom despite its closeness to the international market in Onitsha and clarified without equivocation that, Asaba remains a thriving market for steel companies because of the continuous emergence of estates, hospitality industry, etc.

He indicated optimism about visiting the GSM company, to see firsthand how the company works, compare notes and give ideas of things obtained from other companies for growth in general.

Speaking on the challenge of power supply,  HRM adviced them to seek alternative means of energy generation, as Chinese-owned companies seek to collaborate with other Chinese-based energy-producing companies, that can mature into a commercial production of energy.

His Majesty mentioned with regret that, given the present trajectory of the country’s power supply, many companies may become comatose because power remains the engine of production and employment.

“My visit to those companies is a platform to send messages to the government that civil service is not enough to employ labor in the country and there must be plans to diversify into establishment of industries,” His Majesty proclaimed.

Agu noted that the only government-established industry (TEXTILE MILL) in Asaba, since the creation of Delta State, is moribund and no other government, state or federal, have established companies in Asaba since its independence. “For me, the only way out is private investment, hence my decision to move out of my comfort zone to go and look at those private investments to encourage other people to do the same even if it means equity participation or holding investment,” His Majesty categorically stated.

He reiterated that he is fueled by the desire to engage the youthful population of Asaba to avoid any form of restiveness due to idleness.

Agu enlightened them on the importance of sharing knowledge and encouraged them to visit GEEPEE to exchange knowledge and also interact on how they deal with power generation to reduce cost of production.

Finally, His Majesty sorted to know the statistics of employed Asaba indigenes, buttressing that it remains paramount, and hence needed to be reminded of their corporate social responsibility to Asaba.