The Minister of Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu, has said that the Federal Government led by President Bola Tinubu will complete the ailing Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi State, to create wealth and employment in the country.
Also, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, called for support from the Geographic Information Society of Nigeria to enable the government to address the problem of insecurity and oil theft in the country.
The two ministers spoke during the 20th-anniversary celebration and Annual General Conference of GEOSON which ended in Jos, Plateau State on Wednesday.
They noted that globalisation had become the order of the day in the area of geo-information technological tools that contain spatial information.
They insisted that for Nigeria to make progress and join the league of developed countries, it must harness all the emerging potentials inherent in the geo-information system.
Alake said “The importance of GEOSON and geo-information science cannot be overemphasised in our national life, especially in the sustainable development of areas such as security, mineral exploration, mining, agriculture, tourism, geohazard monitoring and disaster management, etc.
The theme of this year’s conference -‘Emerging Geoinformation Tools and Techniques for Security Management: Opportunities and Strategies for Nigeria’ is apt and timely in light of various recent oil theft discoveries in the country. I hope that this gathering of well-informed professionals with fertile minds will look to proffer a solution to this.”
Similarly, Audu who acknowledged the role of the geo-information system in collecting, storing and processing scientific information for steel production, added that the federal government was committed to resuscitating the Ajaoktuta steel Industry to create wealth for Nigeria.
“Steel is everywhere in our lives for a reason. It is a great collaborator working with other materials to advance growth and development. With this, in mind, the present administration piloted by Tinubu is determined to complete the Ajaokuta Steel company to create wealth, and increase the employment of our people to become a manufacturing nation instead of being a consuming nation,” the minister represented by the Director General of National Metallurgical Development Centre, Professor Linus Asuquo added.
The Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, who declared the conference open said he had no doubts that the deployment of geo-information tools would assist both the state and the federal government in overcoming their socio-economic challenges.
Represented by the Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Peter Nyam, the governor assured the gathering that the state government shall key into science and technology.
“I propose that we establish a framework for knowledge exchange and capacity building. Our government is eager to tap into the expertise of the geo-information society of Nigeria to train our personnel and equip them with the skills necessary to harness the full potential of the geo-information tool.”
The National President, Geoinformation Society of Nigeria, Fitka Bilshakka noted that the association had grown its membership to over 1,200 across the 36 states in Nigeria
He however noted that the challenge being faced was the inability of state governments to key into her programmes to achieve set objectives and benefits.