Minister of solid minerals development, Dr. Dele Alake, has stated the resurgence being noticed in the nation’s economy shows that the reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration have started yielding fruit.
In a statement by Segun Tomori, the special assistant on media to the minister, Dr Alake made this comment when he hosted a delegation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Professionals Forum led by former Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda.
He said Tinubu’s progressive leadership and courage in taking difficult decisions is turning the tide, putting the economy on a strong footing.
“The president has chosen to leave a legacy of taking difficult decisions that will herald enduring structures that will not only outlast the administration, but also make it impossible for successive administrations to deviate from. The society would have become used to a certain standard of service delivery at the end of the Tinubu administration that Nigerians will no longer settle for anything less, ” Alake said.
According to the minister, it has become evident that the temporary pains of reforms are beginning to ease, citing the resurgence of the naira and emerging stability in the forex market.
He highlighted the administration’s efforts towards infrastructural renewal, citing the Lagos-Calabar coastal road which, he stated, on completion will shorten travel time to the Cross-River state capital to two and half hours.
“On completion of that coastal road, the amount of tourism that will be generated along that axis is unimaginable. It will be one of the longest tourism coast town drive in Africa, not to talk of the ease of movement of goods and services, the economic impact of ports along the route, and it will finally link up to Sokoto – a project which has been in the pipeline for more than 30 years,” Alake asserted.
The minister urged the forum, as a repository of knowledge and diverse professionals within the APC, to contribute their quota to the success of the administration, reiterating that the APC-led federal government is open to innovative ideas in its quest to deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians through the Renewed Hope Agenda.
In his remarks, former Bauchi governor Isa Yuguda congratulated the minister on his appointment, commending his efforts to sanitise and attract global attention to the mining sector, adding that solid minerals are key to Nigeria‘s economic prosperity.
Yuguda urged Nigerians and the federal government to support Alake with all that is required to transform the mining sector, stressing that solid minerals have all it takes to overtake oil as the mainstay of the nation‘s economy.
Explaining the mission of the APC Professionals Forum, Yuguda stated that the group is a foremost group of patriotic professionals in diverse fields committed to nation building. He gave the assurance that the forum will lead sensitization of the populace about government programmes and provide advice where necessary.
The visiting team was composed of Yuguda; former governor of Adamawa State, James Ngilare; former deputy governor of Anambra State, Dr. Nkem Okeke, and the forum’s secretary, Akeem Akintayo, amongst others.