The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, has said that leaders before President Bola Tinubu lacked the courage to take tough decisions needed to reset Nigeria’s economy.
Alake made the remarks on Thursday in Abuja while speaking at the 2026 NRS-MSMD Joint Stakeholder Sensitization Forum (North Central), themed “From Resource to Revenue: Aligning Solid Minerals Operations with the 2025 Tax Reform Act.”
The minister traced the nation’s economic challenges to a societal shift from local production in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s to a heavy import-dependent consumptive culture.
This, he said, led to the closure of factories, massive job losses, and the weakening of the naira.He recalled that in the early 1980s, the official exchange rate was $1 to 52 kobos, while the black market rate was $1 to 80 kobos.
“We were importing everything importable, including toothpicks and orange juice things we could produce internally and were producing before when our currency was strong,” Alake said.
He criticised past leadership for failing to address these challenges, resulting in excessive borrowing to pay salaries and the printing of over ₦20 trillion in local currency, which further damaged the economy.
Dr Alake praised the Tinubu administration for demonstrating the needed courage to implement difficult reforms, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy in 2023, which he said prevented a total collapse of the economy.
“What would have happened to Nigeria by September 2023 if the president had not removed fuel subsidy? The economy would have crashed completely,” he stated.
He described the ongoing reforms as necessary steps to stop further economic decline, block leakages, reset the economy, and change the nation’s mindset and values.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, also spoke at the event, stressing the need to reposition the solid minerals sector for economic diversification, job creation, and revenue optimisation through compliance with the 2025 Tax Reform Act.
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