The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, yesterday, appealed to northern elites to support programmes and policies of President Bola Tinubu under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
According to a statement signed by Alake’s Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, Alake made the appeal while delivering his acceptance speech following the conferment of the award as the ‘Most Impactful Minister’ of the current administration by the Arewa Think Tank. In it, he (Alake) said the impact recorded was made possible by the collaborative style put in place by the President.
The Minister asserted that under the Tinubu-led administration, sanity had been established in the nation’s solid minerals sector, where the government went ahead to establish the Mining Marshals through the joint efforts of the Ministries of Interior and Defence and the success of marketing the mining sector abroad through the support of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Investment as evidence of Tinubu’s style of governance in action.
However, he pointed out that single-outing the most impactful Minister may not tell the whole story, as each Minister’s success results from the collaboration of many ministries.
Meanwhile, the Minister went down memory lane as he told the audience, including Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, former Defence chief, Retired General Martin Luther Agwai, former Kaduna State Governor Ramalan Yero, and Special Adviser to the President on Public Communications, Sunday Dare, about the remarkable feats achieved by President Tinubu. At the same time, he served as a Senator in the Third Republic and Lagos State Governor between 1999 and 2007.
He said, “As Governor, he (Tinubu) brought his skills as a visionary development strategist and financial tactician to the governance of Lagos. He restructured the domestic economy to create wealth for those who could take the risk and welfare for those left behind.
“His 25-year projection for the Lagos State economy has recorded a roaring success and given birth to a new economic template. If logos are working, Nigeria, in his hands, is destined to work better.”
Meanwhile, he (Alake) maintained that the current pains Nigerians are going through arising from the policies of the Tinubu administration entailed sacrifices to secure the future of generations unborn, adding that citizens of the countries where Nigerians are emigrating to today made similar sacrifices.
The Minister also reiterated that the Tinubu administration’s policies seek to transfer power to the people by liberating their energy for wealth creation and plugging the loopholes that stalled the nation’s development.
“He has taken the battle to the profiteers of the subsidy regime in the downstream petroleum sector, cabals who took advantage of the cheap fuel meant for the masses to become rich by smuggling them across the border.
“Now that the margin has become unprofitable, he has taken the elephant from the room. You can bet that the next challenge of bringing down the cost has already started with the resumption of petroleum production at the Port Harcourt Refinery. It is a testimony to his doggedness to put smiles on the faces of the masses at all cost”, he said.
Earlier, the Chairman of the occasion, Gen Martin Luther Agwai (Retd), urged the Tinubu-led government to prioritize agriculture in view of the threats posed by climate change and insecurity.
In another remark, the Kaduna State Governor, Sen. Sani Uba, who represented, and other governors commended the Arewa Think Tank for its consistency.
Uba also highlighted several achievements of his administration in agriculture. According to him, the standard of living of farmers in his State has significantly improved due to the policies implemented.
In a poignant moment, the Special Adviser to the President on Media & Public Communications, Chief Sunday Dare, reiterated in the Hausa language the achievements of the Tinubu administration, emphasizing that it needs the support of all Nigerians to succeed.
