Tuesday, 19th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

PENGASSAN mourns Yar’Adua

By By Dele Fanimo
11 May 2010   |   12:22 pm
OIL workers in the country have expressed deep condolence on the death of President Umaru Yar'Adua, who died on Wednesday and prayed that God will grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss.They congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan for taking over the mantle of leadership in full capacity and cautioned him to beware of sycophants…
OIL workers in the country have expressed deep condolence on the death of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who died on Wednesday and prayed that God will grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss.

They congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan for taking over the mantle of leadership in full capacity and cautioned him to beware of sycophants and praise singers, who are only in the corridor of power for their selfish reasons.

While expressing the condolence, the President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Babatunde Ogun, described Yar’Adua as a man of peace, who made the unity of the country as a focus of his administration.

He noted that despite the fact that sycophants surrounded the late president; most times, he maintained the honest and faithful traits of the patriot in him to favour the Nigerian nation and the masses.

Ogun said that his record as the governor of Katsina State for eight years showed that he was a man of the people that always implemented policies that favoured the masses (Talakawas).

He pointed out that some of the policies and programmes ran under Yar’Adua, especially the Amnesty programme and the development plans for the Niger Delta Region, the power emergency plan as well as the upholding of the Rule of Law were laudable ones that have been keeping the country going.

On the Amnesty Programme, Ogun said, “This is one programme that shows that Yar’Adua earnestly wanted Nigeria to be in unity. At the time, he put this programme in place, the crisis situation in the Niger Delta threatened the nation’s economy, cohesion of the country and the existence of Nigeria as one nation.

“The Amnesty programme doused the tension in the Niger Delta, as this is evident in the giving up of arms and ammunitions by the militants in the region and the planned rehabilitation of the repentant ones among the militants.

“This singular programme revived the hope in the exploration of oil and gas, which is the main stay of the economy in the region and caused a great increase in the number of barrels of crude produced by the country compared to the time before the implementation of the Amnesty programme.”

The union leader said that Yar’Adua demonstrated his belief in the Rule of Law by endeavouring to follow the tenets of the laws and the judgment of courts to letter.

Ogun said that though Yar’Adua could practically do nothing to improve power situation in the country, but that he laid the foundation for generation of more electricity for the country.

He therefore urged Jonathan to build on the good programmes of the past president to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people.

0 Comments