- Military neutralised 9,303 terrorists
- Free two months train ride in FCT
Ministers yesterday gave accounts of their stewardship since their assumption of office on August 21, 2023.
The ministerial scorecard sessions started on Wednesday with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) George Akume giving an overview of the Administration’s performance and plans.
With him were Minister for Budget and National Planning Atiku Bagudu and host minister Muhammed Idris who is in charge of Information and National Orientation.
Yesterday was the turn of Minister of Defence Mohammed Badaru, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, Minister of Solid Minerals and eminent journalist Dele Alake, Minister of Steel Development Shuaibu Audu, Minister of Youth Development Jamila Bio-Ibrahim and Minister of State (Petroleum) Heineken Lokpobiri
Badaru said the military has neutralised 9,303 terrorists, bandits and criminals within one year of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration.
He said about 6,998 terror suspects were arrested, 4,641 hostages rescued and 9,562 Boko Haram /ISWAP fighters and their families surrendered.
According to him, 20 bandits and terrorist commanders were neutralised in the first quarter of this year.
Badaru listed the weapons recovered from bandits and terrorists as 61 HH Radio, 223 vehicles, 365 motorcycles and 551 mobile phones.
Wike said his ministry constructed about 120-kilometre roads in the six area councils to help tackle banditry. The roads will be inaugurated on Monday.
The minister also highlighted the establishment of the FCT service commission, the women’s secretariat, and the FCTA’s exit from the Treasury Single Account (TSA).
Badaru and Wike spoke during their presentations at the ministerial sectoral updates.
Apart from the rescue of 245 kidnapped victims, the Defence Minister said troops have denied the oil thieves of N91,247,052,565.
He confirmed the seizure of 92,547,601,541 litres of stolen crude oil, 61,469,999 litres of illegally refined AGO (diesel), 3, 920,549 litres of DPK (kerosene) and 3,303,040 litres of PMS (petrol).
Badaru said the number of arrested vessels by the Nigerian Navy has declined from 35 in 2020 to two in 2023 because of enhanced maritime security.
He said the Kaduna-Abuja Highway is now safer.
The minister confirmed the reopening of some roads closed due to insecurity, especially the Maiduguri-Bama-Gwoza-Mubi road and the Maiduguri-Monguno-Baga road.
He asked bandits and terrorists to surrender or be smoked out.
Badaru said: “From Jun 2023 – May 2024, our military troops neutralised 9,303 terrorists/criminals arrested 6,998 and rescued 4,641 hostages. Meanwhile, 9,562 BH/ISWAP terrorist combatant fighters and their families surrendered.
“We have neutralised no fewer than 20 commanders that commanded armies of bandits and terrorists.
‘When are you going to end this thing?’
“The instruction from the President is: ‘When are you going to end this thing?’ Those that refused to surrender, we will fight them and fight them hard.”
Badaru said the Tinubu Administration was determined to clear the nation’s highways of criminals.
He said the most important achievement of the administration was the release of students of Kuriga School abducted by bandits on March 31, and pupils abducted from a Tsangaya School in Sokoto
Free ride for two months on Abuja train
Wike, in addition to the 120-kilometre roads in the six area councils, said the Federal Government will offer two-month free ride services to passengers on the Abuja Light rail after its inauguration on Monday.
He said President Tinubu would inaugurate the rail project, and it would start commercial services on Tuesday.
“We’ll inaugurate commercial operations on Monday. If you are going to the airport, it takes 20 minutes. Seeing is believing. Go on Tuesday. We are going to allow for free rides for two months.
“Mr. President can even say: ‘Extend it to six months just to reduce the pain of our people.’ That is a renewed hope agenda. When you say something, you do it.
“The last administration awarded $128 million contract for 29 months for the CCECC to train our people on the operations of that metro line. When I came on board, I said we cannot do that and as I speak to you, we have reduced that to $75million, saving the government $53 million,” the minister said.
Wike called on the National Assembly to review the law against vandalism in the nation’s capital.
The minister noted that the extant law against vandalism in the FCT, which prescribes N10,000 fine on conviction, is not punitive enough.
He said: “For example, today you put streetlights, tomorrow night, it is no longer there. What happened? They have vandalised them. They cut off the cables. You arrest them for prosecution, and what does the law say on conviction – N10,000. So, they continue with the act.
“We have told the National Assembly that they must come to our aid by amending and reviewing the law to make it very tough to discourage vandals from vandalising our infrastructures.”
Wike said the FCT administration would build 10,000 affordable houses to be named “Renewed Hope City,” for the poor and the vulnerable.
Mining has yielded N16 billion, says Alake
Noting that diversification has yielded fruits, Alake said Federal Government had realised over N16 billion in the last year from mining royalties and fees.
He said the N10,566,635,560.24 target was surpassed by a surplus of N6,746,317,807.09.
Alake said the ministry generated N14,938,164,335.43 in December last year, representing 72.1 per cent positive variance and 172.1 per cent performance when compared with the annual budgetary target of N8,680,197,621.00 for 2023.
The minister noted that the vision to diversify the mono-economic status of the country through the development of the solid minerals sector has yielded positive results.
He said the ministry in the last year has recorded impactful achievements in line with the Renewed Hope Manifesto of the President.
Alake said in repositioning the sector, deliberate efforts were made to ensure that required legislation was in place.
He said the ministry, after a comprehensive review of the industry and the implementation of the existing roadmap, developed a strategic trajectory for the resurgence of the sector to resume its role in capital formation and wealth generation.
He said the initiative led to the formulation and adoption of a seven-point agenda for the sector in September.
The minister recalled that the ministry initiated the necessary legislative framework for the establishment of the Nigerian Solid Minerals Development Corporation (NSMDC).
He said the vision manifested in the supervision of two key agencies of the ministry – the Mining Cadastral Office (MCO) and the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF).
Ajaokuta: Fed Govt secures return of original builders
According to Audu, the Federal Government has secured the return of the original builders of Ajaokuta Steel Mill.
He said: “We have initiated discussion with the original builders of the steel plant to come back to complete the job. To complete that, we need about $2 billion based on estimates.
“The original builder has shown willingness and desire to help us complete the project bringing in the funding and using a structure that will be acceptable.”
He also said that reserve bidders from Nigeria, China, and India are waiting in the wings.
Audu said that a local financial institution has given the ministry a final offer for the N35 billion needed to re-energise the steel complex.
“I have done a cover letter and forwarded the relevant documents to the Minister of Finance to be able to take the financing on behalf of the Federal Government,” he said.
He explained that the facility had the capacity of producing 400,000 metric tonnes of iron rods per annum, and was critical in shoring up industrialisation in the country.
According to him, he is working closely with the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, to supply the iron rods needed for road construction projects from the section.
“There are so many roads being constructed, about 30,000km of roads across the six geo-political zones.
“We understand that the Ministry of Works needs about seven million metric tonnes of iron rods over that four-year period (first term) to construct these roads, Ajaokuta can produce 400,000 tonnes,” he said.
Audu added that advanced discussions were held with the Minister of Defence, who is in charge of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), to revive its engineering workshop to produce military hardware to enhance security.
“So what is required is that we have a Metallurgical Development Centre that has the ability to provide us with the lead and zinc required, to be able to provide and produce some of these military hardware,” he said.
The minister assured that the steel sector would “play an important role in ensuring that one trillion by the end of the first term of this administration” was achieved.
“The steel sector is very critical for the Renewed Hope agenda of Mr President whose desire is to grow the economy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to over one trillion by the end of the first term of this administration, thereby making us a G20 economy,” he noted.
Disbursement of N110bn capital to youth entrepreneurs begins soon
The disbursement of N110 billion capital to start-ups and growing business concerns will begin in the “coming weeks,” Bio-Ibrahim announced yesterday during the ministerial briefing.
Bio–Ibrahim also said that six youth entrepreneurship clusters are to be activated in the “’coming weeks” to empower 50,000 entrepreneurs, thereby “creating up to 500,000 direct jobs and over two million indirect engagements for young Nigerians.”
The N110 billion, which is meant to energise the National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) this year, was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
The minister said: “The council also approved the establishment of the presidential initiative for youth enterprise clusters. The cluster initiatives have proven to be successful when you’re inquiring and with high impact.”
Bio – Ibrahim added that a NextGen Bank has been established in partnership with the Bank of Industry to nurture youth entrepreneurs with loans and business support.
“We will operationalise the NextGen Bank by August 2024 to provide enough financial services to youth ventures and implement NYSC reforms to integrate skills development and entrepreneurship in the service here to scale up the National Youth Skills programme to train more young Nigerians,’’ the minister said.
She also announced the establishment of a committee to drive comparative reforms and economically beneficial programmes for young graduates.
The minister emphasised the commencement of robust NYSC reforms, including skills building to better position Youth Corps members.
“Through the National Youth Skills programme, we have initiated, we intend to train 300,000 corps members and 700,000 young people outside the NYSC scheme,” she added.
‘Oil firms that left are returning’
Lokpobiri said some oil and gas companies were returning to Nigeria with about $16.5 billion in investment and asset acquisition.
He also said one of the firms would be coming with $10billion investment in deep offshore, the second company with $5billion and the third with $1.6billion.
The minister said the Federal Government’s projection is to earn $20billion from the sector this year.
He said the investors, who left the country, have decided to retrace their steps to Nigeria because the oil and gas business environment is now predictive.
Lokpobiri said: “We are already bringing back investors’ confidence in this our administration. We have done what a government is expected to do to attract investment.
“Somebody was asking me if Total announced $6billion of proposed investments in Angola.
“But there is a company that will in the next few weeks announce a $10 billion investment in deep offshore.
“They are in town waiting for me. These were companies that left Nigeria because they believed there were inconsistent policies, and the atmosphere wasn’t favorable.
“But following this administration’s policy of deliberately creating an environment that is predictive globally, they are all coming back. Another company will invest about $5billion, and $1.6billiin investment commitment in oil and gas asset acquisition.”
The minister rejected the claim that Angola is now the leading oil producer in Africa, insisting that Nigeria is the continental giant in the industry.
Lokpobiri said: “Angola cannot be compared to Nigeria. In Africa, Nigeria is the leading oil and gas producer and we are still dominating that position.”
On $20billion investment target, he said: “Our target in this 2024, having worked very hard to create the enabling environment, is to ensure that we have a minimum of $20billion investment this year.
“The only way you can sustain an increase in production and generate money that the government needs to finance our economic programmes is the oil and gas sector. The quickest way to economic prosperity is the oil and gas sector. Every country that has oil prioritises investment and Nigeria can never be an exception.”
The minister also explained that Schlumberger has retraced its steps to the Nigerian petroleum industry.
He said the firm has returned to a drilling project of 100 oil wells, which will attract billions of dollars.
Govt information portal re-launched
Idris re-launched the Nigerian National Information Portal as the official digital gateway to comprehensive information about Nigeria.
It was done at the commencement of the ministerial sectoral briefings.
Idris said: “We use this opportunity to launch the Nigerian National Information Portal. Of course, it was in existence before but it has been so badly managed that the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation has resuscitated this new portal.
“It is a gateway to all the information you require to know about this government; about Nigeria, people, and our cultures. So, join me in clapping for Nigeria for having this re-launched new National Information Portal.”
The link to the portal is www.nigeria.gov.ng.
Idris said the President has started laying a solid and enduring foundation that will make life better for the people of Nigeria.
He said: “Landmark initiatives like the Consumer Credit Corporation, the Nigeria Education Loan Fund, Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas, the N200 Billion Presidential Grant and Loan Scheme, our agriculture and food security efforts (including the launch of Dry Season Farming, and massive fertilizer distribution), the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund(RHIDF), Renewed Hope Cities and Estates programme, our reform efforts in the Electricity Sector, and in the area of Taxes and Fiscal Policy, and the negotiations for a befitting new National Minimum Wage – are some of the many policies and programs that will directly touch and improve the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of Nigerians.”
