By Haruna Salami
A ministerial nominee, Mr. Adebayo Olawale Edu (Ogun) has said most of what happened in Lagos under Tinubu as governor can be replicated at the centre.
Mr. Edu stated this Tuesday when he was screened by the Senate for appointment as a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
When he was given opportunity to give a brief about himself, the former Commissioner of Finance, Lagos state he has been highly privileged to have worked with others to help build enduring legacies and strong institution under the then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“In answering call to service in Lagos state, I’m proud to be a part of the sterling success achieved under inspirational leadership of Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu in whose cabinet I served as Commissioner for Finance.
Recall that Governor Tinubu took over at a very challenging time. He faced those challenges squarely, overcame them and was successful. I played my own part in the design, implementation of innovative, homegrown technology driven solutions that increased the resources available to government in revenue thereby giving the government the wherewithal to spend on infrastructure, social services and of course, job creation.
He said the situation in Lagos then was similar to the situation in the country today. “These are challenging economic times and need to be confronted, rescued and defeated in effort to build a competitive economy”.
“Aside from economics, I’m engaged in youth empowerment. I’m involved in international award for young people Nigeria, which forms Duke of Edinburgh Award. And haven been a national Amateur Boxing Champion during my student days, I hope you’re not too surprised at that. I haven taken great interest in working with State Boxing Associations in Ogun and Lagos states to channel the energies of young people in the right direction.
“In my view and in the view of many, Nigeria is too well blessed with human and material resources not to be successful. At the outset of the new administration, I’m hugely optimistic that success will come. On a personal note, success for me will be to retain a record of competence and integrity during my service.
“I’m Adebayo Olawale Edu, and I humbly seek your confirmation of my nomination so that I can join you in service of our great nation”.
According to him the economic and financial turnaround of Lagos state was because technology was robustly used.
“First of all, there was a commitment to technology; technology was unsparingly, robustly used to help increase revenue generation and blocking leakages.
“Secondly, there was total computerization of government operations and efficient use of resources, he said.
According to him Lagos was put in a position financially in terms of its records where it could access local financial market for long time financing, which helped Lagos a great deal.
On the state of the economy, he said as recently as 1990, the GDP of Nigeria was higher than of China. Today the GDP of China is $13,000 while Nigeria‘s is just a little over $3,000. You can see the gap. The reason is that production growth was stalled by insecurity, high inflation and wasteful government expenditures to a large extent.
However, he said in the last two months, there is real turnaround in the Nigerian economy, which gives room for “tremendous optimism”.
He assured that there will be continuous improvement in the fiscal situation at the federal and state levels, which takes care of the debt situation, adding that owing is not a bad thing as long as you have the revenue to service it.
“It is the commitment of President Bola Tinubu to curtail spending, inefficiencies and also to stay within the law in financing government operations”.
In what he will do differently to resustate the real sector of the economy so that Nigeria can produce, export and earn foreign exchange, Edu said the way the senators talked well of him has placed a burden in him, which he will not shy away from.
In another development, the Immediate past governor of Kaduna state ate , Mallam El-rufai has advocated an amendment of the Electricity Act of 2023.
He stated this during the screening of Ministerial nominees, in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him the problem in the power sector has defied all the past governments and emphasized that with the restoration of power all other sectors will pick up.
He said that Nigeria has about 13 thousand megawatt of installed generation capacity out of which only 4 thousand megawatt is used, and stressed the need for an attempt to address some basic issues in the sector.
In his Presentation Mallam El-rufai explained that the Act needed to be Amended to be “all inclusive”.
However, at a point in the screening, Senator Karimi Sunday (Kogi West) presented a petition against El-Rufai, but the Senate President explained that the duty of the Senate was not to receive petition, but to screen nominees, adding that the petition shall be referred to the appropriate quarters.
