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Tag: Osinbajo

  • Osinbajo at Ondo House-to-House campaign: Buhari is a sincere leader

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday noted that Nigeria needed a sincere and honest President like Muhammadu Buhari to lead the country.

    According to him, only a sincere leader can be saddled with the responsibility of administering the country.

    He said anything contrary would retard the growth and development of the nation.

    Osinbajo added that over 9.2 million school children are fed daily through the free school feeding programme introduced by the Buhari’s administration.

    The Vice President spoke in Ifon, headquaters of Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State, during a House to House campaign organized by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    He said Buhari would continue with the free feeding programme and initiate other laudable programmes if re-elected as President.

    Osinbajo hinted that the present administration has recorded monumental achievements in the areas of education, infrastructure and war against corruption.

    Read also: How we killed three police officers, by robbery suspects

    He urged Nigerians to support the President by re-electing him for a second term, pledging that Buhari would continue with his fight against corruption and improve on all his achievements recorded in the last three and half years.

    Osinbajo explained that corruption was a major hindrance to the development of any nation, hence the war waged against it by the Buhari’s government.

    Osinbajo who scored Buhari’s administration high in terms of performance, said the present government has been able to rebuild the nation.

    He assured that President Buhari would not rest on his oars until corruption  is eradicated..

    He said: “The development of Nigeria is a major concern to us. We all know what happened when we first got here. No country can develop when corruption is rampant.

    Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu said the forthcoming election would be won by APC, urging the people to vote massively for the ruling party.

  • Osinbajo and legal approach to restructuring

    It is not dishonest for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be frank about the difficulties it is facing over the issue of restructuring Nigeria. Since it won the presidency in 2015, the party has become less eloquent about a matter it had fervently and almost lucidly espoused before that year’s general election. Indeed in the eyes of the electorate, there was nothing ambiguous about the party’s offering on restructuring. However, in the foreseeable future, judging from the presentations made by two of the party’s leading functionaries at a colloquium to mark Bisi Akande’s 80th birthday in Ibadan on Wednesday, the party will continue to wrestle with the subject and be humbled by its weakened ability to speak with clarity and resolution. Vice president Yemi Osinbajo asks those advocating restructuring to go to court to argue their case; and Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai, forever obsessed with questions of scope and magnitude, suggests that his party has the best recipe for restructuring, going by the report of a committee headed by him.

    Chief Akande, the celebrant, was a one-term governor of Osun State and first national chairman of the APC. He is today celebrated, as the Ibadan event exhibited to his honour, for his principles and commitment to democracy and good governance. It is ironical that the celebrant is neither as evasive about restructuring as Prof Osinbajo and Mallam el-Rufai, nor as disingenuous over how best to get the retuning done. Marking his birthday last year, Chief Akande had radically suggested that Nigeria should consider parliamentarianism as the better system of government, asserting that presidentialism was not working. He did not mince words, and he left no one in doubt what the country needed to do to remake itself in order to achieve stability and growth.

    But at the colloquium in Ibadan, perhaps wary of being accused of deliberately forsaking the struggle for restructuring simply because he had become a member of the government, Prof Osinbajo spoke of using the detached and safe instrument of litigation to restructure Nigeria. The idea seemed far-fetched, an idea no one had really thought or spoke of, not even he in all his previous discussions on the subject. It is not clear how the idea came to him, or why he thinks that litigation seems the plausible instrument to tackle a complex political issue as restructuring. But as he goes along, and as his contemplations morph from one arcanum to another, the country is likely to be regaled with more newfangled ideas about how to help the country regain its political and existential composure.

    Here is how the vice president rationalised the subject: “The government of Lagos State demonstrated that it is possible to have restructuring and devolution of power by process of litigation. As of 1999 when I first had encounter with the former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he made it clear to me that one of his objectives for us is to pursue fiscal federalism and devolution of power for our state. We spent a lot of time and resources to look into how we could do it. We knww that going through the National Assembly was just a waste of time. We then decided to use the process of litigation. As a matter of fact, we went to the Supreme Court on 12 different times on what we can describe as restructuring. The Federal Government at that time opposed every move we made…Fortunately for us, we were able to record successes. The achievements are gains of litigation. We can only get it through the court. As a region, if we are talking about restructuring, we should look at it from the point of view of the court.”

    But the devil is in the detail. The vice president forgot to tell his audience that the state went to court because the federal government attempted to arrest the process of local government creation, and even went ahead to withhold the state’s local government allocations. More, the vice president also forgot to indicate that while the state successfully litigated the aspect of withheld allocations, it has so far been unsuccessful in litigating and legitimising the creation of additional local governments. The truth is that, for instance, there can be no successful litigation of the creation of additional local governments. It is a conundrum that can only be resolved by restructuring, yes, not even the limited restructuring advocated by the el-Rufai committee.

    The vice president may be a professor of law, a qualification that makes litigation attractive to social conservatives and exponents of law like him, but he is not a politician in the classical sense, one who knows or feels instinctively the limits and possibilities of using law to resolve complex political issues that respond only to political panaceas. Nigeria is not alone in battling such dilemmas. In the United States, it is doubtful whether law, as in Roe V. Wade, rather than legislation through political debates was a better answer to the abortion conundrum that has assailed that country for decades. Prof Osinbajo is obviously too optimistic to think that litigation can help restructure the country. It cannot, even if its intractability can be overcome. The el-Rufai committee adumbrated a number of constitutional issues necessary for restructuring. But they are neither exhaustive nor attractive to the unyielding executive opposed to their implementation. It will take a willing and visionary president to embrace a report inspired by the party, not one inspired by the executive.

    Admittedly, there is no consensus on restructuring, with a backward-looking presidency fearing it might balkanise the country, and some sections of the country fearing it might put them at a disadvantage. Rather than see its possibilities, many opponents see its limitations. In the courts, should the matter unadvisedly get there, and assuming interested parties have the time and money to litigate, piecemeal restructuring would simply mummify in the cacophonous rage of various ethnic and other interest groups. No, litigating restructuring cannot work. It worked only partially for Lagos State. It can do no more. It is protracted and expensive, and the result doubtful and meagre. For a matter as complex as restructuring, the way to go is through political debates, consensus building, and then legislation, all the products of efforts driven by a visionary president.

    The APC never promised restructuring in its manifesto. It carefully worded its support only for power devolution. But even that has remained unattended to. After breaking that limited promise, the party has now engaged in various forms of political and ideological somersaults. If it is not punished at the next polls, it will be partly because despondent voters are unsure that the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), can be trusted to embrace restructuring at a level that is comprehensive and feasible, not simply an election gimmick. Luckily for Nigeria, crude oil, the resource that binds the country together, is fast becoming irrelevant to global economies. In less than a decade or two from now, the cost of drilling oil may well outweigh its benefits. When that time comes, Nigeria will then have to face squarely its existential question. But given the country’s internal contradictions that are maturing at a fast and alarming rate, it is even doubtful whether the country would not be compelled to face its existential question sooner than its retrograde economy makes it even more compelling.

  • Osinbajo unveils Nigeria-Brazil agriculture project

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday launched an agricultural initiative, tagged “The Green Imperative” at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    It was attended by the Braizilian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ricardo Guerra de Araujo, four state governors, ministers and other government officials.

    Osinbajo said the project is a crucial part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic diversification efforts.

    “As a policy issue, we were clear that without mechanization at the bottom of the agric pyramid in Nigeria we would not be able to make the quantum leap in agriculture production capacity and create high-quality agric and agro-allied jobs,” he said.

    Read also: Vietnam rejects 37, 000 tonnes of cashew export from Nigeria

    He said the programme was designed as “a combination of service centers where technical capacity and training will occur, to the local assembly of tractors and other agriculture machine   and processing centers where agro processing will be done.”

    Osinbajo said major dividend of the project would be the thousands of quality jobs that would be created for the youth.

    “One of the reasons why more young people especially those who do not have rural, farming backgrounds do not warm up to agriculture is really the fact that farm equipments are archaic, hoes and cutlasses and of course this requires much physical labour.

    “Consequently the average farmer is 60 years; this project changes all that,” he said.

    The vice president said the project is private-sector driven, pointing out that both countries’ investors were committed to investing and working on the project.

     

     

  • How Atiku blocked restructuring as VP, by Osinbajo

    VICE President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday argued that the struggle to restructure Nigeria started several years ago by people who saw the need early and who were sincere about it.

    Using restructuring as a major campaign pledge, he said, is out of place for politicians like the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Abubakar Atiku because he opposed it when he had the opportunity to join in implementing it.

    In fact, Osinbajo recalled how Atiku opposed the moves made by the Lagos State Government for the country’s restructuring when the PDP candidate was the vice president under Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

    Osinbajo, who chaired Akande’s 80th birthday colloquium in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recalled that the then Lagos State Government under the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu made presentation to the Federal Government for Nigeria’s restructuring, particularly the practice of true and fiscal federalism, but that Atiku, who was then vice president, rejected the move.

    Osinbajo was addressing the topic of the colloquium, “Nigeria: Achieving national unity through peaceful restructuring”.

    He served as Lagos State Commissioner for Justice at the time.

    The vice president noted that Tinubu told him straight away when he was invited to be part of his administration that his major aim was to pursue restructuring and devolution of power to the states through legal and political means for the country’s betterment.

    He said Atiku’s rejection forced Lagos State to look inward and undertake the struggle alone, a move, which he said, paid off eventually.

    According to the VP, Lagos State pursued it through the courts, adding that it succeeded in winning on four major issues.

    They are: the power of the states to create local governments, the declaration that the Federal Government does not have the right to withhold federal allocation of any state or local government being jointly owned by the federating units, the right of states to create taxes and the right to issue their own urban and regional plan to which the Federal Government must comply, if it has any property in the state.

    The vice president emphasised that there was a general agreement among Nigerians on the need for restructuring, but that the structure it must take was what citizens from different divides were yet to agree on.

    Read also: I feel very sad, says Osinbajo on Onnoghen

    In his presentation, Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai, who gave the keynote speech, said in spite of the fact that some Nigerian elite were trivialising the issue, “it is a serious matter for Nigeria because it is needed for the country to move faster on the growth lane”.

    He warned Nigerians to be mindful of those using restructuring to deceive. The governor said his position on the need for restructuring had been well-known before he became governor as he never hid his view.

    El-Rufai posited that restructuring must be about the reform of the country to make it fit for efficiency. He explained that the All Progressives Congress (APC) set up a committee to work on the issue last year as a way of giving structure to what was popularly desired and which the party believes in.

    He served as the chairman of the committee.

    He hailed the regional government run in the First Republic and noted that Federalism degenerated through military intervention from 1966. He said concentration of power at the centre weakens Federalism.

    El-Rufai emphasised that northern Nigeria was ready for inclusive restructuring “since it will benefit all”.

    The governor posited that the Federal Government should shed its weight in healthcare delivery, infrastructures and commerce, among others, stressing that it cannot do well in them like states and local governments.

    “As a state governor, I can testify that we simply do not have enough police. That is why the military is being dragged to reinforce security in crises areas.”

    El-Rufai revealed that the committee recommended that the Federal Government should shed its load on police, railway, fingerprint identity and handover onshore oil to states for efficiency.

    The governor posited that a uniform constitution for the structure and administrative management for the 774 local governments was anti-efficiency. He believes that while the constitution should provide the legal framework, the structure of each local government should be determined by the state, according to its uniqueness.

    He also added that the states should be allowed to fix allocation for each local government as they have a better understanding of their uniqueness.

    El-Rufai condemned the sharing formula used for federal allocation, saying the Federal Government should receive less than the 52 per cent it presently receives to enable states have increased allocation.

    On this, he paused to pay tributes to Tinubu for the feat he achieved in raising the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Lagos State.

    In summary, he said the committee recommended devolution of power to states, adding that only the states and Federal Government should be recognised as the federating units.

    One of the discussants, Prof. Adigun Agbaje, said restructuring is an ongoing discussion as the country makes efforts to overcome its challenges. He, however, believes that it is possible to have three federating units.

    Another discussant, Senator Olu Adetunmbi, believes that the issue has attracted emotion, religious and ethnic sentiment because the elite have failed to approach it from the economic perspective. He said if ordinary Nigerians and major stakeholders understand that restructuring would engender creation of more jobs, lighten bureaucracy and empower states and local governments the more, they would embrace it with more zeal.

    Former Senate President Ken Nnamani said it was still possible for Nigeria to restructure without violence or disintegration.

    He, however, stressed that the government must collaborate with the National Assembly for it to be smooth and successful.

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi said the choice of the theme underscored the fact that Chief Akande remains one of the most authentic apostles of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, alive today.

     

    VP, governors, others praise Akande at 80th birthday colloquium

    ENCOMIUMS poured in from dignitaries for an elder statesman and former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, at his 80th birthday colloquium in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, yesterday.

    Akande, who was the Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), played host to who-is-who in the party in the Southwest, with some of its leading lights in the North and a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani in attendance.

    Congratulating Akande on joining octogenarians, Osinbajo described the politician as a forthright and modest leader, who is trusted . He said his modest lifestyle should be emulated by all.

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi described Akande in superlative words, saying he is selfless and incorruptible. To him, Akande qualifies to be named the Nigerian’s politician of the Century.

    His words: “He undisputedly qualifies to be named Nigeria’s Politician of the Century, judging by his role and continued personal sacrifices in ensuring the preservation of progressive democratic tenets. He is and should rightly be referred to as the very last of the Old Brigades who have remained unbending and unbowed in democratic governance ideals.

    “In an earlier tribute to Akande, I extolled his unique attributes, which distinctly set him apart from his peers.   His legacies of incorruptibility, selfless service, self-sacrifice and unblemished loyalty to the ideals and principles of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Bola Ige, are undoubtedly, worthy.”

    Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai described Akande as his permanent mentor, stressing: “He is one of the very best.”

    He noted that the birthday ceremony showed that Nigerians appreciate his contributions to national growth, stressing that Akande had always been in progressive politics.

    Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola said: “Chief Akande has consistently lived his life and committed same to building a better Nigeria and the State of Osun. He was a deputy governor in the old Oyo State, the second Executive Governor of the State of Osun, first Interim Chairman of the governing APC, patriarch and leader of progressive politics in Nigeria, and an unrepentant democrat.”

    Dr. Usman Bugaje described Akande as a source of inspiration.

    In a colourfully decorated hall, Chief Akande, who decked a sparkling white agbada and a cap to match, was beaming  as he received guests and acknowledged cheers from well-wishers.

    At the event also were Governors Ibikunle Amosu (Ogun State); Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (Ondo State); Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti State) and Akinwumi Ambode (Lagos State), who was represented by his deputy, Mrs Idiat Adebule. They were joined by the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

    The programme kicked off with an opening prayer by the Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan Archdiocese, Leke Abegunrin. Popular poet and oriki exponent Ajobiewe thrilled the audience with drummers complementing his rendition.

    Other dignitaries at the event include former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his wife Serifat; former Ogun State Governor Segun Osoba; Osun State Deputy Governor Gboyega Alabi;  former Senate  President Ken Nnamani and members of the National Assembly.

    Others include Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole; Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed; Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, and a former deputy governor of Oyo State, Chief Iyiola Oladokun.

    Others are Lt-Gen. Alani Akinrinade (retd); Hon. Wale Oshun; one-time Lagos State Finance Commissioner Mr. Wale Edun; Prof. Olu Aina; Chief Adegboyega Awomoolo (SAN); Chief Dosu Oladipo; Chief Paul Akinyelure; Sen. Biyi Durojaye; the Group Managing Director, Odu’a Investments Ltd. Mr. Adewale Raji; Osun State APC Chairman Chief Gboyega Famoodun, Mr. Ayo Afolabi and the Orangun of Oke-Ila, Oba Adedokun Abolarin.

  • Buhari, Osinbajo, others lay wreaths for heroes

    PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday led other top government officials and Service chiefs to lay wreaths in honour of soldiers, who died during national service and international assignments.

    The ceremony was to mark the 2019 Armed Forces Remembrance Day.

    January 15th, every year, is dedicated to remembering and appreciating surviving military men, who have retired from active service.

    It was the fourth time President Buhari as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces was laying the wreath in a democratic setting.

    Buhari was clad in white ‘Babanriga’, just like Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

    The ceremony at the National Arcade in the Three Arms Zone in Abuja came after over a month that the 2019 Armed Forces Remembrance Day emblem and Appeal Fund was launched by the President.

    The brief ceremony started around 11a.m. when Buhari arrived at the National Arcade and inspected the guard of honour.

    Christian and Muslim prayers were offered for the departed souls and the nation.

    One-minute silence was observed in honour of the departed souls and there was gun salute during the wreath-laying ceremony.

    Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen and Minister of Defence Dan Ali Mansur were among top government officials who also laid wreaths.

    Others that laid wreaths include Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Mohammed Bello, Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai and other service chiefs, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris (performing his last official role).

    Buhari also signed the register and led the dignitaries to release white pigeons at the no-speech-making ceremony.

    Top government officials, including cabinet members, attended the event.

  • FG launches new international passport

    The Federal Government on Tuesday launched a new 60-page Nigeria international passport.

    The red diplomatic passport also has ten years life span.

    President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo were issued their new 10-year Diplomatic passport by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) as the emergency Federal Executive Council (FEC) was drawing to a close on Tuesday.

    The passports were presented to them by the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau and assisted by the Comptroller General of NIS, Mohammed Babandede after their biometrics were captured and processed.

    Read Also: Nigerian Army deserves better welfare, says Atiku

    Apart from the ten-year validity, the new passport, according to Babandede, has 25 special features and difference from the existing passports.

    He said that it is an enhanced and self-tracking of application and ” weather friendly”.

    The new passport l, he said, has polycarbonate technology that eliminates damages.

    He also pointed out that it will now save Nigerians in disapora the time needed to frequently visit Nigerian embassies in search of new passports.

    The new passport, he said, will work concurrently with the existing passports.

  • Video: Buhari, Osinbajo, others lay wreaths for heroes

    President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday led other top government officials and Service chiefs to lay wreaths in honour of soldiers who died in service in Nigeria and at international assignments.

    The ceremony was to mark the 2019 Armed Forces Remembrance Day.

    January 15th every year is also dedicated to remembering and appreciating surviving Nigerian military men who have retired from active service.

    It was the fourth time President Buhari as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces was laying the wreath in a democratic setting.

    Buhari was clad in white ‘Babanriga’, just like Osinbajo, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara,

    The wreaths-laying ceremony at the National Arcade in the Three Arms Zone in Abuja came after over a month that the 2019 Armed Forces Remembrance Day emblem and Appeal Fund was launched by the President.

    Read Also: Soldiers’ valour, sacrifice makes a nation – Buratai

    The brief ceremony started around 11.00 a.m. when President Buhari arrived the National Arcade and inspected the guard of honour.

    Christian and Muslim prayers were offered for the departed souls and the nation.

    One minute silence was observed in honour of the departed souls and there was gun salute during the wreath-laying ceremony.

    Vice President Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, Minister of Defence, Dan Ali Mansur, were among top government officials who also laid wreaths.

    Others that laid wreaths include Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mohammed Bello, Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai and other service chiefs, Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris (performing his last official role).

    President Buhari also signed the register and led the dignitaries to release white pigeons at the no speech making ceremony.
    Top government officials, including cabinet members, attended the ceremony

     

  • Osinbajo promises Lagos more federal projects

    VICE President Yemi Osinbajo has assured Lagos State more federal projects if President Muhammadu Buhari is re-elected in the February 16, 2019 presidential election. He also promised that the Buhari-led administration would provide more infrastructures in the nation’s economic hum.

    Prof Osinbajo spoke yesterday at the palace of Oloworo of Oworoland, Oba Oloruntoyin Salau, in Kosofe Local Government Area, in continuation of his house-to-house campaign for the reelection of President Buhari.

    He Lagos State is very important to the Federal Government.

    Explaining why Lagosians should vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the vice president said: “We were in opposition for 16 years; we have just started enjoying federal presence; we should vote for the APC to retain power at the centre to attract more development projects from the federal government.

    “Governor Akinwunmi Ambode cooperated with us at the federal level and that is why we are moving forward and doing some projects for Lagos. I believe Sanwo-Olu will do the same.

    “I want to assure you that Lagos and Kosofe will enjoy more federal presence. We will attract more federal projects to Lagos State.”

    Responding to the demand of Oba Oloruntoyin and the people of Kosofe that the Federal Government should release Oworonsoki Global Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) before general elections, Osinbajo said: “Lagos is very important to the Federal Government and wewill work on reclaiming the land.”

    The monarch also called on THE government to assist in sand filling the waterlogged and swampy areas in the local government area to boost access to land that can be used for trailer park.

    According to him, such would reduce the traffic challenges of the state and stop indiscriminate parking on the highway and bridges.

    He assured the vice president that the people of Kosofe will vote for President Buhari, Lagos APC governorship candidate, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and all other APC candidates contesting the state and National Assembly elections.

    Osinbajo was ushered into the palace by a huge crowd of APC members, chanting “Sai Baba, Sai Buhari”; “4+4”; “PYO-Omoluabi”.

    Addressing the party members, Osinbajo promised that that government would continue to empower traders, market women and farmers with none interest loan. The government, he said, would continue to provide jobs for the youths and physically challenged.

    The vice president was accompanied by Sanwo-Olu, his running mate, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, Special Adviser to President on Political Adviser, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, representing Lagos East Senatorial District; APC senatorial candidate for Lagos East Senatorial District Bayo Osinowo and Rotimi Agunsoye, representing Kosofe Federal Constituency, among others.

    Ashafa assured that the President and the APC would win the forthcoming elections overwhelmingly in Lagos.

    “In the past four years, we have experienced a high level of transparency in government, an effective fight against corruption, diversification of the economy with primary focus on agriculture and ICT, sustained fight against insecurity and the creation of equal opportunity for all Nigerians,” the Lagos East senator said.

  • Osinbajo warns against reckless utterances, actions

    VICE President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday called on Nigerians not to allow reckless utterances and actions of some people, who are playing on the country’s religious and ethnic fault lines to threaten its unity.

    Osinbajo spoke during the Interdenominational Church Service for the 2019 Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration in Abuja.

    According to him, the supreme sacrifice paid by the nation’s military should not be allowed to go in vain.

    Reflecting on the resurgence of attacks by Boko Haram sect, which recently claimed the lives of several dozens of soldiers, Osinbajo said the era of the terrorists holding local government areas and hoisting their flags has gone.

    The vice president also appealed that the families of the gallant military officers that sacrificed their lives in the bid to secure the territorial integrity should not be allowed to suffer.

    He said: “Today, again we participate in an annual tradition of remembering and honouring our departed military heroes. This particular remembrance day is perhaps more poignant than any other.

    “In the past few weeks, we have buried 13 soldiers and one officer, and just last week, two Air force pilots and three airmen; all these men died in battle fending off Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa terrorists in the Northeast of Nigeria.

    “In the past few years, we have seen patriotism at its highest. Our valiant men and women of the armed forces have destroyed the backbone of Boko Haram, who once attacked Abuja, Kano and Kaduna with impunity and hoisted their tattered flags over 17 local governments in the Northeast.

    “Today, both Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa operate as small even if deadly guerilla  bands  in parts of Borno State. But in these battles we have been sharply reminded that indeed “freedom is not free”. . That peace is often  paid for with blood and gore.

    “And that no nation can secure its territory without the selflessness and the supreme sacrifices of many. And truly as someone said: ‘Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it’.”

    He added: “So, as we celebrate this Remembrance Day, we solemnly thank the Almighty God for giving us men and women ready to obey the call to fight and if need be, die for the fatherland.”

    Hailing the dead soldiers for dying on line of duty, he said: “We are grateful that they were faithful to the cause, that they did not betray the trust of millions, that they gave up all the comforts of life and the love and affection of family that we may enjoy the same.

    “Our posthumous thanks to them and their families, who not only bore the fearful apprehension of their going to war, but also the heartbreak of their deaths.

    “But our gratitude must also mean a  commitment to ensuring that their families are cared for, that their children do not ask why the sacrifices they made were made at all.

    “Also important is to ensure that they did not die in vain. This unity and territorial integrity of the nation for which they died must not be jeopardised by the reckless utterances and actions, which play on the religious and ethnic faultlines of our nation.

    “The ordinary  people of Nigeria have demonstrated time and time again that they share common problems and a believe in  common destiny. The desire for food, shelter, clothing and decent jobs does is unblinkered by tribe, tongue or faith. Our unity and peaceful coexistence is the best tribute to our fallen heroes.

    “I honour the bold and brave  departed and pay heartfelt tribute to their  families,  indeed they daily pay the supreme sacrifice by their loss, and I thank the Almighty God for our nation, and for the men and women of honour and courage that gave all for it.”

    The first Scripture Reading was taken by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin, from Isaiah 43:1-13.

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, took the second Scripture Reading from the book of John 10:1-18.

    During the service, there were intercessory prayers for the country.

    A special rendition was made by the Armed Forces Christian Women Fellowship. The Military Mass Choir also made a presentation.

    Those who attended the church service included Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and his wife, and the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen.

  • MSME super structure of economy, says Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as the super structure of the country’s economy.

    He said the administration recognised the MSME as the most important business component for economic growth, which informed why the government has put in several initiatives to address the challenges affecting the sector.

    Osinbajo said this over the weekend while launching the MSME Clinic in Minna, Niger State.

    “The MSME Clinic is a response to the fact that we recognise that MSMEs are the most important business component of our economy.

    “In any economy, what small businesses contribute is really the super structure of the economy. And that is why the President decided that we must have this clinic in every state of the federation,” the vice president said.

    He said the MSME’s clinic in each state is aimed at facilitating the work of enterprises and making them get what they need easily.

    “Most small businesses find it difficult to travel all the way to Abuja and Lagos just to get regulatory permission. That is why we think it is best to bring those authorities to them under the one-stop-shop.”

    Executive Director, Micro Enterprises in the Bank of Industry (BOI) Toyin Adeniji said the bank has awarded over N400 million in loans to SMEs across the country.

    She added that the Bank of Industry has recorded 7,500 beneficiaries for the Marketmoni began by the administration.

    “The objective of the loans is to provide financial inclusion to make sure that every citizen is empowered. Access to finance is a major problem to all businesses at every level. Access to finance is critical to the success of any business.”

    Niger State Governor Abubakar Bello said MSMEs have created millions of jobs, adding that his administration had been able to accessed over N2 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria to assist MSMEs.