The maiden meeting of the Inter-ministerial committee on securing Nigeria’s natural resources set up by President Bola Tinubu at last Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held on Friday in Abuja with discussions focused on strategies to secure the nation’s natural resources.
Dr. Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development who chairs the committee, said the ministers cross-fertilized ideas and brainstormed on modalities of achieving the presidential mandate of coming up with a blueprint for securing the country’s natural resources.
According to him, “We are here to deliberate on mainly the issue of security around Nigeria’s natural resources, as directed by the president. The president set up this committee. Solid minerals, marine economy, and forests all constitute Nigeria’s natural resources. So, all the relevant ministers are here to deliberate on how to efficiently and effectively curtail all the atrocious, nefarious activities of either illegal mining, deforestation, or pilfering in the marine economy.
“We will be having another meeting, an expanded one, comprising of all the other critical security agencies with a view to now finalizing strategies and presenting a report to Mr. President”, Alake added.
In his remarks, the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru, stressed that the committee will come up with a robust strategy that will culminate in rejigged security architecture to effectively secure the nation’s forests, blue economy, and solid minerals.
In attendance at the meeting were the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake; Defence Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru, his interior counterpart, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo; Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola; Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal and Minister of State for Police Affairs, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim.
