The Minister stated that the well-being of Nigerians is of utmost importance to the administration.

 

Tunji-Ojo made this statement on Wednesday while fielding questions on Arise Television’s Morning Show programme.

 

The minister, who used the opportunity to highlight some of the achievements in his ministry, was responding to criticisms allegedly made by some officials of the previous administration.

 

He said that the current administration inherited the ECOWAS passport center, which was not completed at the time.

 

The Minister said: “Let me say this very clearly in the first place, this particular government is not in competition with anybody. What’s most important is the welfare and well-being of Nigerians.

 

“But nevertheless, I would like to say this clearly: when we came on board, it was very clear that a lot of these things—the data center, the command and control center, the solar farm we had at that time—were started from the foundation.

 

“What we inherited was the incomplete ECOWAS passport center. But as for what we have done, this government started it. We are happy to say that it’s for the benefit of Nigerians, without trying to take any credit for it.

 

“You know what an 8.3 petabyte database is and what that entails anywhere in the world. I don’t need to go too deep. And we have a command and control center that oversees all regular migration points across Nigeria, including 447 km of our land borders and five airports in real time. It’s not a joke—it’s a massive achievement by this particular administration.

 

“And to be able to implement the Advanced Passenger Information system, which wasn’t just a policy but a resolution of the UN Security Council—Nigeria never did that until this government came on board and implemented it.

 

“We went beyond the API that was expected of countries and moved to the level of interactive API. We also built a data center that IITA referred to as the ‘lighthouse project of Africa.’ I think we should not diminish the relevance of all these achievements on the basis of ego. We should just let Nigeria be the winner in it.”