By Nnamdi Ojiego
LAGOS — Minister of Information and Communications, Mr. Labaran Maku, has said that no part of the world could afford to ignore Nigeria considering the abundant human and material resources the country was endowed with and its giant strides in recent times.

Maku who disclosed this while commissioning the new ultra-modern News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Media Centre in Lagos said the most important resource Nigeria was blessed with was human capital and described the country as a young population with bunch of talents and urged the youths to take their place in the scheme of things in order to move the country forward.

According to him, “Nigeria is the largest concentration of Africa anywhere in the world. With over 150 million people in one place, no part of this world can ignore us. We are a country of a young population, a bright people, a culture of talents and we are making our marks in different fields of endeavour.”

He said due to long period of military rule and the political instability that ensued leading to economic difficulties, there were so many predictions about the country.

According to him, “many people have predicted that this country will not survive.  But I assure you that Nigeria is going to ripe, more rapidly than the world believed because we are getting it right now. You can see the country has continued to grow from strength to strength. This is because, our unity founded in diversity is the strength of this country.

“Our democracy is largest in Africa and we have just conducted a very good election which is acknowledged by the world as the best in recent time. Therefore, to consolidate our democracy, we have a lot of work to do to give our country a new image and to project who we are to the rest of the world.

Earlier in his address of welcome,Managing Dirctor, NAN, Mrs Oluremi Oyo, said the Media Centre was a testimony of man’s triumph over matter. According to her, the project was executed in line with the govt policies which mandated parastatals and agencies to raise their revenue profile to lessen the burden on the govt.

She, however, commended the Federal Govt for providing enabling environment for staff of the agency to excel, expressing hope that the project would be replicated in all the zonal centers across the country.