…calls on FG to emulate industrial policy
Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North, APC) has commended Governor Abdullahi Sule for taking the bold step to industrialize Nasarawa State, stressing that that is the way to go.
Senator Oshiomhole, former Edo State governor gave the commendation while fielding questions on a political discussion programme on Channels Television as monitored from Lafia on Wednesday.
The former labour leader was particularly happy with Governor Sule for not crying over the situation he met in the state on assumption of office but for boldly taking steps to move Nasarawa forward.
“I am very excited Sir, you are looking out, not crying over the situation you met in Nasarawa, maybe a civil service state. You are boldly taking steps to become one of the industrialized states. That is the way to go,” Oshiomhole stated.
He particularly commended the Executive Order introduced by Governor Sule mandating companies coming into Nasarawa State to mine solid minerals to also process the products locally.
According to Senator Oshiomhole, both the Federal and State governments should emulate the Nasarawa State Governor towards encouraging investors to invest in manufacturing simply because that is where the jobs would come.
He emphasized that the prevailing security challenges confronting the nation can be traced to the fallout of social exclusion where young and the not so young Nigerians were socially excluded because they are illiterate or even where literate don’t have appropriate skills.
“And so we can look for all kinds of jargon to explain or to categorize banditry, insurgency and whatsoever. I think that going forward, for Nigeria to be stable, we must go along the line that His Excellency was talking about. Invest and encourage investors to invest in production. In the manufacturing sector. That is where the jobs are going to come from,” he said.
The former labour leader therefore challenged the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) not to limit its agitation to increase in wages only but to engage governments on industrial and trade policies.
“In the long run, the demand of labour should not just be about wages. They must engage government on industrial policies and trade policies. Why I speak about policy, I believe more in policy. If you don’t have the policy right, the outcome may not be right. Somebody should say and it should start with this government, if other governments have failed to say if you want to export for example tires to Nigeria, we give you X number of months or a year maximum, locate here. We must not be afraid to make the point that we need the level of protection of Nigerian industries. You can’t be part of a world trade when you are not trading.
“But when you are in a situation like the one we are in, minus oil, we have nothing else to sell to the world. Are we part of the world trading system? We are not. Those are the kinds of policies and what NLC would get the Federal Government to say how do we bring back the textile sector, the leather sector, even the petroleum industry, when we are exporting some of these products without adding value,” he added.
Explaining the rationale behind the successes being recorded by his administration in the area of industrialization, Governor Abdullahi Sule said he was baffled when on assumption of office he discovered that the Federal Government has issued 416 mining prospecting licenses in the state, with no records of these companies mining or processing anything in the state.
Governor Sule said that discovered led to the passage of an executive order mandating mining companies to henceforth undertake some level of processing of their products in the state.
“Therefore, we did exactly what he said the Federal Government should do. We now said we have no control over issuance of license but any company that is coming with the license to mine, you must also process in Nasarawa State. That is the Executive Order. That is exactly what has given birth to most of these companies setting up factories in Nasarawa State,” he stated.
He explained that the executive order put in place by his administration has given birth to the Lithium Rush in Nasarawa State, with President Ahmed Bola Tinubu scheduled to commission one of the largest lithium processing plant in the country on May 10th.
“We have five sites in Nasarawa State that have huge deposits of lithium. We have one site that the company has already drilled 40m deep and the deposit is showing us we can go 80m deep. We are now taking lithium through the elevator from the 40m depth all the way to the surface. They are already taking lithium and separating it from nickel and other rare metals.
“You don’t invite the President to tell him that is the company that is going to do lithium. The company is better be operating. I came from the private sector. Every time Dangote was commissioning a cement plant he was there. The plant better be working. So the plant is working, it’s producing cement. That is exactly what we intend to do. The lithium factory that would be commissioned by the President is already producing lithium,” he said.