Tinubu’s 1st anniversary: Wike, Alake, 5 others update Nigerians on ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’

By Stanley Onyekwere

As part of activities to mark the first anniversary of the President Bola Tinubu administration, a total of seven Ministers yesterday took turns to update Nigerians on the journey so far, mainly reeling out their performance scorecards.
Those that made presentations at the inaugural ministerial sectoral update for the present administration were: FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike; Minister of state, Petroleum Resources and Oil, Senator Heineken Lokbobiri; Minister, Youth Development, Jamila Ibrahim; Minister of Steel and Development, Prince Abubakar Audu; Minister, Solid Mineral Resources Development, Henry Alake; and Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar.
In particular, all the Ministers disclosed that they were assigned deliverables with specific presidential priories, aimed improving governance for effective service delivery, in line with the Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Ealier in his opening remark, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alh. Mohammed Idris, explained that rationale behind the inaugural ministerial sectoral briefing for the present administration was to abreast Nigerians with the journey towards realisation of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the government.
He noted that the commencement of the sectoral media briefings by the 47 federal minister is part of the low-key first-anniversary celebration of the Tinubu’s regime.
In his presentation, Wike, the FCT Minister, said within the period under review, the Tinubu’s Administration has been able to achieve reform of the FCT civil service structure with the establishment of its Service commission that allows for staff career growth.
He added that it also created Women Secretariat to encourage inclusivity in the Territory as well as exit of the FCT from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to pave way for the smooth pursuit of infrastructure and running of the city.
Furthermore, he disclosed the ongoing construction of 120km of roads in the six Area Councils in the FCT, expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The minister also revealed the completion of abandoned road infrastructure, National Assembly Complex, Vice President residence, provision of security logistics, completion of the rehabilitation works on Abuja Metro Line due for commercial operation on May 27 with two months free ride, building of 3 mega bus and taxi terminals in FCT.
Similarly, Minister, Solid Mineral Resources Development, Henry Alake, said Tinubu’s administration has started delivery on diversification of the economy through unlocking energy and national resources for sustainable development.
He added that there is revitalisation/ establishment of Nigeria’s Solid Mineral Company to engage stakeholders and investors in the sector, which is fully in stream in the sector.
According to him, effort to sanitise the operating environment of the sector led to two revocation exercises 1,619 licenses of operators that failed to fulfil their solid mineral mining obligations to the country, and this year, it also revoked 900 licenses that have been dormant.
He added that the ministry received almost 10,000 applications, with over 4,000 approvals of such applications since his assumption of office as minister.
For the Minister for Youth Development, Jamila Ibrahim revealed the establishment of the NextGen Bank, a specialised financial institution, which aims to support youth-led initiatives in strategic sectors, providing vital financial services with an initial government investment of 5 billion Naira, marched by contributions from the Bank of Industry and private sector partners.
Ibrahim said the Ministry has initiated a National Youth Skills programme to train 300,000 National Youth Service Corps members and 700,000 young people outside the NYSC scheme in the informal sector, which will serve as the administration’s non-kinetic approach to solving challenges of insecurity.
She also revealed that the Federal Executive Council has approved the establishment of the Presidential initiative of the Youth Entrepreneurship cluster, which according to her, the first six clusters will be activated in the coming weeks, and will empower 50,000 entrepreneurs, “creating up to 500,000 direct jobs and over two million indirect engagements for young Nigerians”.