Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Ayodeji Adarabierin, has admonished the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr Dele Alake, to ensure that mineral resources in the state and Nigeria are exploited for the development of the nation.
Setting agenda for the minister, Adarabierin said: “I want to thank President Bola Tinubu for the confidence reposed in him. Alake is a known person to us. He was once a senatorial aspirant in the state in 2011. We want to appeal to him to start coming home, now that the ministerial slot of Ekiti has gone to him and we want to see his impact in the state.
“Fortunately, his local government of origin, Ijero, has the largest deposit of mineral resources in EKiti State, so we will not expect anything less from the minister to ensure that all the mineral resources deposited in his local government, other parts of the state and indeed across Nigeria are exploited to the benefit of all and sundry.
“Thankfully, a law has been passed by the National Assembly on derivation for places with mineral resources like those in the Niger Delta geo political zone, so if the these mineral resources are exploited it will help in shoring up our internally generated revenues in Ekiti State and the country at large and employment will also be generated.
“I am sure Mr President is looking in that direction to tap into the available mineral resources and the blue economy to attract more foreign direct investment to the country. We enjoined Alake to take advantage of all of these and make sure Ekiti benefits immensely during his time.”
Speaking with journalists in Ado Ekiti, the APC chieftain, who outlined what the Federal Government should do to tackle the country’s economic challenges, said: “Firstly, our refineries have to be fixed. Once this is done, the marginal cost of fuel, transportation and importation will be reduced.
“Thereby, Nigeria will be consuming what we are producing. That is, it won’t be a case of our crude oil is sent abroad for refining and sent back to be sold to us at higher cost. I read recently that the Port Harcourt refinery will commence operation before the end of the year and we hope and pray that Warri refinery too will soon start working.
“Although, the two refineries are operating below capacity, they were constructed over 40 years ago when our population was still under 100 million but now we are over 200 million. When they start working to full capacity, that will help in cushioning the effects of fuel importation.”
He also identified the pressure on foreign exchange (forex) as one of the major problems of the nation’s economy, hinging this on the use of US dollars for the importation of fuel.
“If we start producing locally, the pressure on forex will be reduced drastically. There won’t be any need for the Central Bank of Nigeria to be searching for dollars to import fuel again and this will improve our ailing economy.
“Also, there are some leakages occasioned by the oil theft in the Niger Delta. I read it that our oil production has dropped from 1.2m bpd to about 1m bpd. That is a shortage of about of around 200,000. So if we can work around that area, it will bring more forex earnings to the country.”
Adarabierin, who also stressed the need to fix the nation’s power, said it will revitalize our manufacturing companies and help us to produce what we can consume in the country.
“It is sad that over 70% of what we are consuming now are being imported . This is not good for our economy. Our country has been turned to a dumping site and are just consuming as a nation but not producing.
“We will continue to have deficit balance of trade, since our imports are higher than our export. There will be pressure on the forex and that is what is affecting our naira. With stable electricity, cottage and manufacturing companies will spring up. Sometime ago, we heard that over 400 companies have closed down and others relocated to another countries.
“We have raw materials for textile industries in the country but almost all of them had ceased to exist because of the issue of power. If the power is fixed, consumption and demand for fuel, diesel will reduce and industries will be stabilized, employment will be generated, internally generated revenue will increase and by this economy will boom,” he added.
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