Mohammed Onawo
Mohammed Ogoshi Onawo is a Nigerian politician, a businessman, a philanthropist, and a member of the 10th Senate from Nasarawa South Senatorial District on the ticket of the People's Democratic Party (PDP). He was a member of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly from 2003 to 2011 and the Speaker Nasarawa State House Of Assembly from 2003 to 2007. He was also a member of the 7th and 8th National Assembly - House of Representatives.
Quotes
[edit]- “They said we are losing 400 billion every month. And they said the palliative is N500 billion to share N8,000 to 12 million people. How did they come about this figure of 12 million?"
- “The best thing to do is, if the palliative is to solve the problem that the removal of subsidy has caused, why not take up something that will reduce hardship especially as it concerns transportation?”
- “So, if this is really intended to help people, not to enrich the richer people, then the government will need to rethink on what to do with this money."
- “If there is a government that comes up with positive policies that will touch the lives of my people, I’m in for it, but to come and say we want to start giving 8,000, I’m opposed to it."
- “They take away millions on a daily basis, they go to our local governments, give our local chiefs 5,000 dollars, 10,000 dollars and they look at it as a lot of money,”
- "The journey has been rough, and tough but as the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, that is how it has been, we have been able to survive the situation. You know I came in here as a member of the opposition, we came through a very turbulent election, one of the most costly elections in the history of the country, when we came to the Senate, we also met a turbulent situation, where we had to elect a Senate President, and we were pitted among two camps, the Akpabio camp and the Yari Camp, it was not about the North and South as some people call it, it was not about Christians and Muslims as people call it, but at least who you feel you know, who you feel can deliver, but at the end of it all as it is always said it is God that gives power, God gave Akpabio power and we are now with him and he is piloting the affairs of the Senate now."
- "I have three bills currently in the works, and I have a bill for the Solid Mineral Development Area Commission, which is intended to give all the Solid Minerals Areas at least a benefit of what their land is being degraded for and it is supposed to help regulate of Illegal miners. As you can see in Niger State just last week it was speculated that 50 persons died, that the mine collapsed on them, this commission is supposed to help in monitoring and regulating everything every miner is doing, it is supposed to reduce the activities of illegal miners. It is supposed to help the ministry in making sure that the revenue profile of the solid minerals industry is shored up because if you look at the country today, we are supposed to get more revenue from Solid Minerals than we get from Oil because every aspect of the Solid Minerals is more costly than the oil."
- "Unfortunately, the Solid Minerals industry is capital intensive, it is not supposed to be an all-comers game, and it is supposed to be for those who have a passion for it, but you see a lot of things are happening now that everybody wants to go into it and because the regulations and things like that, the cost aspect of mining, that is why you find many people cannot afford it, some of these minerals abound in the backyard of people, but they do not have the money to go through the process of getting a license, and even if they get a license, they do not have the money to mine, because you have to go through recognizance, exploration, then you go into small scale mining before you go into proper mining, so all of these things are not things you can do if you don’t have money for it, I doubt if you can count up to 5 or 10 miners in Nigeria who has done proper exploration."
- "To do an exploration of a mining site, you have to go through all the processes, including core drilling, you have to spend nothing less than two million dollars before you do a proper exploration to determine the quantity of the mineral or minerals you are looking for, it is not easy and so how many people can afford that and that is why illegal mining is abound. Unfortunately is not investing enough in the sector, because if it is investing enough, it would have gotten more than what it is getting from oil. Everybody who can afford to get a license gets a license, and you have more speculators in the mining sector now than actual miners. What do I mean, many people go and get a license, keep it, and look for an investor to come and give them peanuts, and then sell or transfer the certificate to the investor or they partner with them. If you look at what foreigners are doing to this country in terms of degrading our lands and taking away what this country has without the country necessarily benefiting from it, you will weep for this country."
- So this bill is supposed to help the ministry monitor the miners, regulate their activities, and then see how it can help the government get more revenue. I also have a bill that has gone through the second reading for a National Eye Hospital Doma, the reason being that in the whole of the North-Central States, there is no single national eye hospital. Anybody from Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Plateau, and Kwara alongside the FCT, just has an option of either going to a private hospital or going to Kaduna, now with the risk of traveling, even between Abuja and Kaduna, you and others have been writing on what has been happening, so it is risky sometimes, and to bring Government closer to the people I feel that as a Senator representing my people I should propose a bill that will bring this hospital to Doma where it will bring health care facility closer to the people instead of leaving from Benue to Kaduna or leaving from Taraba to go to Kaduna, you can come here and Doma looks central.
