APC Presidential aspirant, Dr. Ibrahim Bello-Dauda, on Friday said that Ajaokuta Steel Project is central to his economic agenda for Nigeria if elected as president, come 2023.
“This is because the Ajaokuta steel project is the backbone of the industrialization breakthrough but ignored over the years,” Bello-Dauda disclosed this in a chat with newsmen in Lokoja.
Bello-Dauda, a former Coordinator, Buhari Support Organization (BSO), expressed dismay and pain over the state of the nation but quickly assured, “there is hope for Nigeria in the near future.”
The APC presidential aspirant, said, “Someone like me with a multivariate professional background, particularly in management consultancy and years of experience in practical politics, I have what it takes to fix Nigeria on the path of economic growth and development.”
“In fact, my participation in Nigerian politics has given me exceptional insight into the nation’s industrialization needs and challenges.”
“While successive Nigerian governments have made policy declarations on the Ajaokuta Steel project, none of them had the political will and economic competence to walk the talk.”
“Steel production is the bedrock of any real and sustainable industrialization drive of a Nation simply because industrialization is the only way to break Nigeria’s over-dependence on oil and make it an export-oriented economy.”
“With steel production, we can compete with other industrialized and advanced economies in the world. Therefore, if we must diversify to create jobs and increase our revenue generation, we must embark on large-scale industrialization, which is based on steel production.”
“Today we witness how these advanced countries in Europe are producing cars, ships, armaments, and their likes, allowed to the role steel production is playing in their economic advancements,” he explained.
He further pledged to effect entrepreneurial development of the nation by transforming and empowering existing institutions of governments, including the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), with a target on the teaming youths.
According to him “Majority of our youths will be trained and their energies will be redirected towards the private sector and we are going to remove most of the red tapes and bottlenecks in accessing funding.”
He said that he was going to do a lot in liberalizing and opening up the economy in such a way that the common and average Nigerian could have the opportunity to showcase his or her God-given talent.
“As a focused government, we will ensure that the entrepreneurs, especially within the private sector, produce goods and services to be added into the pool of what we already have in the market.
“The government will take charge of setting up commodity and exchange centers so that whatever these young men and women produce will be taken up by the government.
“Government will open up the equivalent of what is known as China town, called ‘Nigerian town’, in strategic areas across the country for the government to market those products.
“We are going to take it over from there, move it to countries where we feel we have a very good trade and bilateral agreement. Open up a Nigerian own mall and market those products,” Bello-Dauda pledged.