By Sani Idris
A Group, under the auspices of Concerned Northern Forum (CNF), has lauded the Ministers under President Bola Tinubu for their dedication towards contineous achievements of his renewed hope agenda, while rating the Minister for Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu as the best performing amongst the Ministers.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday in Kaduna to appraise President Tinubu administration as it marks one year in office, the group scored the Minister of Steel Development and his counterparts in the ministry of Federal Capital Territory, Works and Interior high for their commitment and dedication.
The National vice Chairman of the CNF, Muhammad Aminu, who congratulated President Tinubu for his impactful one year in office and hailed his Ministers, said their performance thrilled and gave Nigerians hope for a better nation.
Aminu said celebrating the Ministers was the group’s modest way of encouraging Nigerians to imbibe the virtue of hard work and excellence.
“Having done our due diligence and evaluated all the Ministers under the administration in the period under review, we have identified true patriots who have served President Bola Tinubu and indeed Nigerians as excellent Ministers and worthy ambassadors of the Federal Executive Council”.
Based on the group’s scorecard, he said those who made top of the list was Nyesom Wike, who according to them as a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, revolutionised the provision of infrastructure and land administration in the FCT within short period of time in office.
Aminu equally said Dave Umahi, the Minister of Works whose giant strides in road construction including the Lagos to Calabar coastal highway and Badagry to Sokoto highway and the indegenious use of cement for construction has drastically cut down the cost of road construction and reduced pressure on the nation’s foreign exchange.
According to him, another top performer was Bunmi Ojo, whose Interior Ministry employed innovative technology and cost saving means to clear the backlog of passport application, thereby ushering an era of instant passport application and collection.
He however, said the group’s spotlight was on the Minister of Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu, who he described as a ‘focused youth’ who has demonstrated enormous capacity in the Ministry of Steel Development.
According to him, Audu has more than all the other Ministers pioneered policies and projects which have the potential for the industrialisation and rapid economic development of the nation.
While appreciating President Tinubu for deploying technical parameters to measure the performance of all ministries using key indicators, the group maintained that even though Government has done well, the people who are direct beneficiaries of policies are equally in position to give their perspective on the performance of Ministers and their ministries.
“Hence, our spotlight on the Minister of Steel Development, Audu as our star performer amongst all the Ministers.
“To make our position known on the historic developments in the steel sector within the last one year and also bear witness to the fact that the Minister has performed well as he strives to revive the hitherto moribund steel sector including the comatose Ajaokuta steel complex,”he said.
Speaking further, Aminu said inline with the vision and blueprint of President Tinubu who is determined to stir Nigeria on the path of economic recovery and growth, Audu has already taken steps to explore the possibility of securing up to $5 million funding from the World Bank to finance the 10-year roadmap for the steel and metals sector.
According to him, the creative solutions gave hope to a sector that was unproductive due to negligence and lack of credible administrators and technocrats.
“Already, talks have been completed with Russia’s TyazhPromExport (TPE) Consortium, the original equipment manufacturers and developers of the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL) with a view to exploring options available for reviving the company.
“This collaboration and partnership equally is also likely to attract an additional $2 billion for the revamping of Ajaokuta Steel Company. The Minister is also at the concluding stages of raising ₦35 billion (over $25 million) from local financiers for the revival of the Light Steel Mill (LSM) at Ajaokuta”.
He also described critical, the plans towards the establishment of a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) park at the Ajaokuta Steel Complex in order to tap into the ₦100 billion fund set-up by the federal government.
He pointed out that the plan was a major step to bringing back to life the economically viable industry as well as the reviving of steel facilities and research centres in Jos, Plateau State and the National Steel Raw Materials Agency in Kaduna.
He assured President Tinubu of their continued loyalty to his administration who according to them has proven to be progressive and youth centred especially in the areas of industrialisation and job creation.
“As critical stakeholders and youths who are actively involved in the political and social development of our communities, we have great confidence in this administration’s capacity to create jobs and end youth unemployment and assure President Tinubu of our continued loyalty provided Shuaibu Audu remains in his cabinet.
“His sterling performance holds promise for other youths in successive administrations,”he said.(NAN)
