It’s time to explore other mineral resources — Ekweremadu

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has said that the current financial challenges arising from the fall in oil price presents Nigeria with yet another opportunity to devote more attention to other mineral deposits in the country. A statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Uche Anichukwu, said tha Ekweremadu stated this in a keynote address at the 2015 Annual National Convention of the Enugu State Association, USA holding in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ekweremadu, who addressed the Convention from Enugu through teleconferencing in the early hours of yesterday, said Enugu and the other 35 States of the federation had not lived up to their full potentials even while sitting on rich mineral resources because extant laws bar them from doing so, while little attention is paid to agriculture. He said: “It is rather ironical that Enugu State is in financial distress considering that the state sits on enormous mineral and natural resources. “Unfortunately, like the rest of the 36 States, the hands of the state government is tied.

The Federal Government, which has the constitutional powers to exploit them, has not also bothered to do so because attention is fixated on free oil money”. He, however, noted that Enugu State was blessed with rich farmlands, stressing that the state could still blossom economically if the government took immediate steps to “move on to mechanized and commercial farming”.

The Senator urged the Enugu State Diaspora community to partner with the state government to boost agricultural, educational, health, tourism, and industrial sectors to create wealth and employment in the state. Ekweremadu observed that, while the government could not provide employment for everyone, it was its major business to provide the requisite environment and policies that would attract and help businesses to thrive. “The Enugu State Government needs to consciously activate private sector presence in Enugu State and set up industrial layout in every local government supported with the requisite infrastructure”, he added.