ABUJA (Min of Mines and Steel Dev Report) – The immediate past Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Hon. Abubakar Bawa Bwari, has said that he and his former Minister, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, now Ekiti State Governor, succeeded in repositioning the Nigerian Mineral and Steel Sector and placed it on the world Mining map.
He stated this at the send-forth dinner organized by the Ministry in his honour on Monday, 10th June, 2019, in Abuja.
In his speech, the Minister recalled steps taken to revive the sector from a state of comatose. He commended the Management and staff of the Ministry for their unalloyed support and commitment towards ensuring that initiatives taken, achieved desired results, including the development of a road map for the sector,
He urged them to keep the tempo as the sector has great prospect in turning the economic fortunes of the country around if necessary polices put in place were religiously implemented.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Abdulkadir Mu’azu, who spoke earlier, commended him for his purposeful and credible leadership style, saying that that in terms of all the criteria you can think of, the Nigerian Mining sector has made huge progress in the past three and half years.
He continued that in the areas of investment drive, institutional capacity, revenue generation, combating insecurity in the minefields and even in the area of addressing the challenges of illegal mining, a lot have been achieved in the sector under the outgoing Minister of State’s leadership.
In the goodwill messages, Hon. Abubakar Bawa Bwari was variously described as a man of integrity, openness and sincerity whose leadership virtues were worthy of emulation.
Mr Patrick Ojeka who spoke on behalf of Directors in the Ministry, said, when the former leaders came on board, their leadership style brought motivation and impetus in the running of the Ministry, saying that the sector in the past three and half years witnessed remarkable growth.
Others who spoke in the same vein include the Director General, Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office, Engr Simon Nkom ; Alh Delson Jimoh, who spoke on behalf of the Dangote Groups, and Dr. Simba Tirima of Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF).
Tony Ekpo
SIO (Press)
For: Director (Press
