Leader of the All Progressives Congress in the North Central state, Alhaji Sulaiman Wambai has advised the Federal Government to look in the direction of the geo-political zone for its economic diversification drive.
The APC National Vice Chairman (North Central), Wambai made the call at the weekend during the North Central Zonal Meeting/Mini-Convention, where the position of the National Publicity Secretary of the party, occupied by Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu from Kwara State was also ratified.
Recall that Issa-Onilu replaced the immediate past national publicity scribe, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi who incidentally is from the same Kwara State.
Wambai said the nation could tap into the abundant mineral deposits in the zone to complement the nation alternative revenue from its present mono-cultural status.
The APC national vice chairman also called on governors of Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Plateau, Niger and Benue states to evolve strategy towards regional integration and economic development.
He said: “While it is true that we rely mainly on oil from the South-south geo-political zone for national revenue, no one can deny the fact that the North Central remains the food basket of the nation. There are a lot our states can do and achieve together if we work closely to take advantage of our resources. We can gain a lot economically if we use our location to our collective advantage.
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“Each of our state in the zones has better and bigger arable land than Kebbi State. It is a surprise that billions of Nigerian money is being deployed to Kebbi State through the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrower Programme for agriculture and rice production.
“Our zone should naturally attract these billions with the land we have to grow rice. Our state government can take full economic advantage of this through collective bargaining. We lose huge revenue that could come from our location because we currently do not have a North Central agenda for economic development. We are due for an economic summit in the zone. We urge our governors to look into it.”
The zonal chairman, who noted that the North Central zonal chapter was the most politically stable in the ruling party said the zone deserved better placement in appointments.
“If we want to mitigate the full contribution of our zone to be equitable with our reward, we need to have a better and more improved synergy with our legislatures, governors, as well as the party; by doing so, we would take full advantage of the national policy by getting better ministries, agencies and parastatals.”
While acknowledging Lafia, the Nassarawa state capital as the headquarter of the APC North Central zone, Wambai proposed that for administrative convenience, an office be cited in Abuja for secretariat work and meetings.