*Photo: Dr Dele Alake *
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake has assured that the seeming hardship in the country will soon be a thing of the past, saying Nigeria is going through a gestation period of economic restructuring and reforms.
Speaking yesterday at the commissioning of the Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) Seismic Monitoring Station-5, Alake assured Nigerians of the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to revamping the economy and putting it on a pedestal for sustainable growth.
Going down memory lane to the experience in Lagos State, the Minister stressed that the then Gov. Bola Tinubu in 1999 met a State that was almost insolvent with a N600m monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and a wage bill of over N1.1bn monthly , with little or no resources to cater to infrastructure and other sectors of the economy.
” President Tinubu took similar measures he is taking in Nigeria, in Lagos, to turn the tide and financially re-engineer the state and today, the state is the 5th largest economy in Africa, bigger than most African countries.
“What we are going through is the gestation period of reforms and policies for economic restructuring and like the President is wont to say, it is like throes of pregnancy, that a pregnant woman goes through. After delivery, she heaves a sigh of relief. I appeal to Nigerians to exercise patience as we are close to that period where things will stabilise and the results of reforms will evidently manifest and translate to prosperity for a greater number of our citizens”, he added.
Dr. Alake whilst emphasising that for the first time, Nigeria has a President versed in public finance, expressed confidence in the administration’s capacity to diversify the economy, plug leakages and redirect the economy to a path of sustainable growth.
” The future of this country is extremely very bright. What we need to do is to exude confidence in our ability and capacity to weather the storm of restructuring, economic, and societal restructuring. As we restructure our economy, putting in physical infrastructures, we must also restructure our minds and mental capacity to be at par with physical development, so that we can efficiently and judiciously enjoy the benefits of physical development. With the cooperation of Nigerians, the tide will turn very soon, and we all will be proud, “Alake asserted.
