The Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers said it selected Nasarawa State to co-host its annual conference scheduled for November in Abuja because the state is the centerpiece of solid minerals in the country.
Engineer Mahmud Abubakar, Chairman, Conference Planning Committee disclosed this when he led a delegation of the society on a courtesy visit on governor Abdullahi Sule at the Government House.
Engineer Abubakar said the state was selected to co-host the conference because it is the centerpiece of solid minerals and agriculture, two key issues informing the theme of the conference.
“For this conference, we designed the theme to focus on Nasarawa State because our primary concern for those of us who are practicing in Abuja, it‘s FCT and Nasarawa. There‘s no much of activity commercial or agricultural production that is happening in the FCT but Nasarawa State is the headquarters of solid minerals in this country and also the food basket of the country,” he said.
He explained that the two key areas of the theme for the conference, “Solid Minerals and Food Security” were deliberately selected with a focus on Nasarawa State.
The conference planning committee chairman further disclosed that the President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Adewumi Adesina will deliver the keynote address, with experts who have extensive knowledge in the solid minerals sector and agriculture, particularly in Nasarawa State presenting lead papers during the event that is billed to hold at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.
He added that the organisers of the event intends to showcase the potentials of Nasarawa State as the Home of Solid Minerals as well as the food basket of the country, before the experts that are coming to the conference, funding agencies like ADB, policy makers, and entrepreneurs.
“We planned two roundtable discussions. One focuses on agriculture, and the other one focuses on solid minerals. What we are looking are the issues that prevent us from taking advantage of the opportunities that exist in our solid minerals and agricultural sectors. What are the areas that we need to develop capacity, and what are the things that we need to do differently?
“We are also going to have four parallel sessions for technical research just in these two areas. At the end of the day, we are going to harmonize this and bring out actionable plans on the solutions to harness the potentials that exist in these two sectors,” he stated.
Engineer Abubakar emphasized that the selection of Nasarawa State to co-host the event with the FCT was not by accident but as a result of the tremendous inroads being made by governor Sule in the areas of solid minerals and agriculture.
He added that a member of the society attended the recent Nasarawa Investment Summit from where the national executive council of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers decided to select Nasarawa in order to support the efforts of the state government.
“One of us was present at the investment forum that you had and it was on that basis that we decided we should go with solid minerals. It was also at that stage that the national executive council of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers said we should host this chapter to focus on everything to support on building on all the efforts you are making,“ he said.
He said the purpose of the visit was to seek governor Sule‘s consent for Nasarawa State to co-host the event, as well as to seek for financial support towards making the conference a success.
He thereafter requested the governor to nominate a contact person that would be integrated into the conference planning committee in order for the state to benefit maximally from the event.
Also speaking, a former president of the society, Professor Sam Adefila, who stood in for the president of the society, described Africa as the center of solid minerals on earth, Africa having more than 60 percent of the solid minerals on earth.
Professor Adefila equally identified Nasarawa State as the center of solid minerals in Nigeria.
“This year, the conference of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers is being hosted by the FCT/Nasarawa State chapter. But like we said, Nasarawa is the host because of the solid minerals‘ wealth. We want His Excellency to have a very robust outing at that conference,“ he stated.
Responding, Governor Abdullahi Sule appreciated the members of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers for identifying with the efforts of his administration, especially the selection of solid minerals as part of the theme for their annual conference.
“As the Professor mentioned, he captured it correctly. Indeed, Africa is the centerpiece of all activities about solid minerals resources. With all sense of humility, you also captured it correctly that Nasarawa State is the center here in Nigeria.
“I have mentioned it over and over to the people of Nasarawa State. I am happy that experts from outside Nasarawa State are confirming to them that Nasarawa State has no reason to be poor because we have always had these opportunities,“ he said.
While noting that the era of dependence on fossil fuel is fast waning, the governor, however, expressed confidence that solid minerals will readily provide alternative energy as replacement.
He said even though Nasarawa State is discovering its oil at a time fossil energy is disappearing, the abundance of solid minerals in the state points to a brighter future, especially that the future of energy as a whole is in solid minerals.
“Whichever way, we can say Nasarawa State is blessed. It‘s only for us to find the right people who would manage it and the right people who would actually process it. People who would come in and ensure that it is of benefit, not a curse. Because any of those things could be a benefit or a curse,“ he stated.
Governor Sule cited examples of how the Middle East utilized its potentials in oil and gas to become what it is today.
“Oil has been a great blessing to the Middle East. Middle East was nowhere whatsoever on earth, because it was mostly desert and the rest of that. Today, oil has made the Middle East what it is. Dubai that everybody is talking about is because of oil. Before now ideas came into their leaders to develop tourism and other things. If you go to Qatar, Qatar is famous not even in oil but in gas. Bolivia today is so rich and famous because of gas,“ he added.
He pointed out that his administration is working hard to explore the oil potentials in the state before fossil oil disappears completely.
The governor accepted the invitation to co-host the event, promising also to support the organizers of the conference.
He, however, advised them to also reach out to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike being also the co-host of the event.
He nominated the state Commissioner for Science and Technology, Professor Umar Mika‘il Gurku as the contact person for the state, urging the team representing the state to ensure they participated actively in the planning and holding of the conference to enable the state benefit maximally.
“We will implement the communique that you will come up with. Part of the problems we have in Nigeria is to have events and come up with communique and then we dump them on the shelves to be gathering dust. For us in Nasarawa State we want to be able to implement every communique that we came up with,“ he stated.