Tag: Osinbajo

•Humanitarian summit opens in Maiduguri 

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the role of the civil society organisations is crucial in the rebuilding, reconciliation and resettlement of terror victims in the Northeast region.

Osinbajo, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the Northeast Humanitarian Multi-stakeholder Engagement in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, observed that the situation in the region would have been worse without the intervention of the CSOs and donor partners whom he described as first responders of the crisis.

“The many civil society groups, funding partners, regional and international partners, who have given of their time, resources and even lives in some cases, deserve to be commended. But for you, first responders we would have been far worse off than we are today.

“The CSO community is the heart and conscience of underserved people and communities.  You have shown uncommon compassion  and offered a voice to the most vulnerable, especially when others were nowhere to be found.  You have supported governments at all levels, in this region in particular, when things were very tough.

“As we deal with what is evidently the greatest human challenge in Nigeria ‘s recent history, we will need you to be even stronger. This challenge will require dedication, innovation and creativity, especially from the NGO and CSO community,” the vice president said.

Osinbajo said the meeting was aimed at strengthening the capacities of the existing CSOs and new ones as well as bridging gaps, where they exist.

“This meeting is important not just for what it plans to achieve, namely the mapping out of collaborative efforts to the Northeast, but also for the fact that it is taking place at all and in Maiduguri, the city that has probably suffered the most loss of lives and property in the last six years of the Boko Haram scourge.

“One of the goals of this initiative is to strengthen the capacities of existing civil society organisations (CSOs), especially in this region, and to aid the development of others where noticeable and important gaps exist.  There is no question about the fact that if we are to succeed, we must invest in the CSO community.  Later, in the course of this engagement, the Presidential Initiative for the Northeast will unveil a plan to help develop the capacities of NGOs in this region and grow new ones where needed.

“The plan includes the implementation of grant programmes to existing or emerging CSOs to help develop them.  To be included in this programme is a technical assistance package, which will be implemented in conjunction with other development NGOs,” Osinbajo explained.

He expressed happiness that with the renewed fight against the insurgents, their days are numbered and that Boko Haram would soon become history.

Kashim thanked all humanitarian workers and partners, including NEMA, WHO, UNICEF and others for their support and commitment to the plight of the IDPs.

The convener of the programme and the Director General of NEMA, Mohammed Sani Sidi, said Borno State has the highest number of displaced people from the crisis totaling about 1.6 million people.

The UN representative at the event believed that Nigerian has the capacity to improve on the standard of lives of the IDPs.

 

THE Federal Government has indicated its resolve to streamline Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) for efficient and effective service delivery.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said this at a roundtable on reforming public institutions to ensure competitiveness and accountability at the Nigeria Economic Summit.

He said several MDAs had overlapping functions, adding that the situation had not been helpful for governance process.

The Oronsaye report on the reform of the public service indicated there were about 540 MDAs; many with overlapping functions.

The report added that some MDAs duplicate the functions of others.

Osinbajo said: “At the moment, the MDAs are accused of unhealthy competition and this claim has led to silly mentality that MDAs do not talk to each other enough.

“We found out that many MDAs are executing the same projects and programmes and sometimes achieving similar results without necessarily talking to each other at all.

“That we believe, is a waste of resources. We must streamline the works of the ministries and be sure there is sufficient information going on among them  and there is a clear part in line with policy direction of government.

“One of the basis of our zero budget is that it takes into account this particular issue because everyone is working towards a particular policy direction and we are also very conscious of how much the institutions are complying with the policy.

“Also in civil service, we are putting mechanism in place to enhance service delivery. We are engaging the agencies into an atmosphere, where everyone can make an input on what they think should be and not be done.  This is one of the ways we want to increase participation and we have asked permanent secretaries to do same for robust process of reforming the public institutions”.

In his contribution, former Prime Minister of Georgia Nika Gilaru said for the government to carry out effective reforms and move the country forward, it must be ready to take tough decisions and stand by such decisions.

He noted that Georgia was in a more difficult position than the present situation in Nigeria, but had to make tough choices which turned around the country’s fortunes in about 10 years.

Gilaru said through dramatic institutional reforms, his country successfully eradicated high level corruption and enthroned accountability in public institutions.

The former Georgian leader  said his country experienced  similar high cost of doing business as  Nigeria, adding that with institutional reforms, Georgia was now ahead of Nigeria in terms of ease of doing business.

Gilaru claimed that while it would take about 77 days to register a business in Nigeria, “it takes just a day to do same in Georgia”.

He noted that while it would take an investor about 260 days to obtain construction permit in Nigeria, it would take an investor just 12 days to obtain the permit in Georgia.

He said: “In Georgia, we experienced worse situation, we were at a point worse off in the corruption index of Transparency International ranking index, but through concerted reforms and effort, Georgia jumped from being one of the most corrupt nations to 10 least corrupt nations. How did we achieve it? Tough transformation.”

Nigeria Association of Chamber of Commerce Industries, Mines and Agriculture’s (NACCIMA) President Mr. Bassey Edem identified policy inconsistence by government and high interest rate as some of the factors responsible for the high cost of doing business in Nigeria.

Edem maintained that the alienation of the private sector’s contribution in the annual budgeting  process created a gulf between government and members of the private sector.

He urged government to institute reforms and enhance the ease of doing business in Nigeria.

Former Minister of Education Dr. Oby Ezekwesili said the pressure for change had assumed a universal phenomenon that required the leadership of government pushing everybody in the direction of reforms. She said the Federal Government must identify causes of corruption and deal with it.

The Vice President’s wife, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, yesterday made a case for women empowerment by governments to reduce their sufferings.

Mrs. Osinbajo, who spoke at the opening ceremony of Shea 2015 conference in Abuja with the theme: ‘Shea Sector Development in Nigeria – A Concerted Renaissance,’ added that two third of the world’s illiterate are female.

She said that the current world food crisis was having a severe impact on women.

Mrs. Osinbajo therefore called on government to immediately address the situation.

She said: “The vast majority of the world’s poor are women. Two thirds of the world’s illiterate are female. Of the millions of schooling children not in school, the majority are girls.

“The current world food crisis is having a severe impact on women. Around the world millions of people eat two or three times a day but a significant per cent eat only once and now many women are denying themselves even that one meal to ensure that their children are fed.

“These women are already suffering the effects of even more severe malnutrition which inevitably will be their children’s fate as well. The impact of this crisis will be with us for many years if nothing is done immediately.

“Studies have shown that when women are supported and empowered all of society benefit. The families are healthier, more children go to school, agricultural productivity improves and incomes increase. In short, communities become more resilient.”

In her address, the Chief Executive Officer, Shea Origin, Mrs. Mobola Sagoe, said the shea sector had been a non-factor in Nigeria. She noted that the value chain had the impact of growing the Nigerian economy considerably.

 According to her, the involvement of state governments in developing the Shea value chain had been so unimpressive, urging governors to work towards harnessing the sector as it had the potential to contribute over $3bn to the Nigerian economy.

 Sagoe noted that Nigeria is the largest producer on Shea on the African continent and explained that unless there was concerted efforts aimed at revamping the sector, stakeholders and businesses in the industry might be forced to leave the trade.

 “Shea value chain has been a non-factor in Nigeria but since we now know that Shea can impact our economy positively, it therefore means that we should do all we can to harness this sector and improve its performance,” she said.