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Tag: Yemi Osinbajo

  • Osinbajo presides over FEC

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday presided over brief Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, which lasted about one hour thirty minutes.

    The brief FEC started about 10.03am when the Vice president arrived at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The opening Christian prayer was said by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelemah. The Muslim prayer was offered by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Bello.

    Read also: ‘Apapa gridlock, nuisance to environment,’ say Residents

    At the end of the meeting, the ministers and other cabinet members immediately proceeded to the National Assembly to accompany President Muhammadu Buhari for the presentation of the 2019 Appropriation Bill.

    Before proceeding to the National Assembly, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, said there would be no post-FEC media briefing.

  • Group slam Peter Obi, over “cooked up” figures

    The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Peter Obi as a politician with a penchant for cooking up figures and twisting facts

    The organization described as half truth figure reeled out by former Anambra state governor  during the Vice Presidential candidates’ debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) in Abuja

    It said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke the organisation said that Obi did not disappoint Nigerians who have been following his political trajectory since he left the Government House in Awka.

    “From the outset, it was clear that Obi was out to impress his gullible political base but he did not reckon with the fact that majority of Nigerians cannot be easily be fooled at a time information can easily be cross checked

    “Perhaps his biggest lie on the night that was easily debunked by knowledgeable Nigerians was his claim of 2 million vehicles on Nigerian roads. Even without the benefit of data from the  National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), an average car part dealer in Gudu, Abuja or Idumota,Lagos knew he was lying.

    “An NBS fact sheet that has for sometime been in the public domain shows that the country has a total vehicle population of about 11.5 million as at the third quarter of 2017 so where did Obi gets his own data”, it said.

    The group said it was gratifying to note that one of Nigeria’s influential online publications, The Cable did a quick fact check of what Obi and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said at the debate

    Read Also: I didn’t nominate Peter Obi, says Wike

    “Some of the lies couched as facts by the PDP chieftain  according to the online newspaper include his claim that Nigeria has fallen on the global competitive index from 124 to 127. The true position from the 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) report is that the country rose on the index by 10 places

    “Peter Obi also argued that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for 2015 was $21 billion while it fell to $12 billion in 2017.Again, he lied just as he did with his claim that African trade is less than 9 percent

    “Data from Afriexim Bank indicate that intra-Africa trade is around 15 percent while Brooking Institution puts it at 18 percent

    “These are just some of the lies that the man PDP elements dressed up as an economic expert attempted to force down the throats of Nigerians as facts and figures”

    The group however hailed Professor Osinbajo for sticking with facts on issues including how the President Muhammadu Buhari administration crashed the price of a bag of fertilisers to between N5,500 and N6,500 from a figure ranging from N10,000 to N13,000in the past

  • Stop blame game, focus on development, Osinbajo tells governors 

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday urged state governors and other stakeholders in the country to stop the blame game and focus on human capital development in their respective areas.

    He made the call during the launching of Human Capital Development Programme: Healthy, Educated and Productive Nigerians for a Globally Competitive Nation by 2030 at the extended National Economic Council (NEC) meeting held at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Advising them to resist playing politics with issues, he said that it was time to get the job done.

    The Vision 2030 focuses on the Human Capital Development and is hinged on three main thematic areas; namely health and nutrition, education and labour force participation.

    Osinbajo said: “As a government, we are fully aware of the issues and we are committed to transforming them. There is no denying that debilitating levels of poverty existed in spite of huge earnings in the past. We are doing exactly what countries like India and Brazil did in a similar situation, for instance kick-starting the Social Investment Programme (SIP).

    Read also: ‘I owe much of my business success to Fela, Obey, Sunny Ade, others’

    “The Federal Government must together with states collaborate on the issue of human capital development; it should not be a platform for blame games. Concerted collaboration is required now so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Constant communication with the people is equally important because the resources belong to them,” he stated.

    He stressed the need to promote transparency, accountability and improving existing data.

    In his remarks, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, said governors had been working very hard to make Nigeria’s economy work in a more transparent manner and remain accountable to the people, adding “we have tried to make sure that every cent is spent.”

    Yari, who is the governor of Zamfara State, stated that the concern raised on human capital development can only be addressed with availability of funds.

    He said: “I can assure you that the governors are committed, but we have to work harder in the area of revenue generation to address all these competing demands.”

    He queried the fact that the VAT has remained stagnant at 5 per cent for the past 25 years, insisting that a political decision has to be taken to increase it in the new year.

    The World Bank Nigeria Country Director, Rachid Benmessaoud, said for the world to do well on human capital development, Nigeria has to do well because the world relies on Nigeria’s human capital.

    He stressed that the quality of education improves young person’s opportunity to earn a living and help the economy, urging the government to work on improving human capital development.

    The Country Director, DFID, Debbie Palmer, said Nigeria is ranked near the bottom of the World Bank’s Human Capital Index (152 out of 157 countries globally), describing it as a rude wake-up call for everyone in Nigeria and for everyone who cares about Nigeria.

    USAID Country Director said the US government will continue to honour the partnership in the areas of education and health as well as with the private sector.

    Ms. Zouera Youssoufou, Managing Director and CEO of the Dangote Foundation, commended the government for its commitment to see to the improvement in human capital development.

    The National President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Alhaji Shehu Ladan, in his presentation, listed quality education, special agencies for skills, entrepreneurial support, vocational training, improved infrastructure and improved health care sector  as factors that will improve the country’s human capital development.

  • Nigerians everywhere deserve healthy, productive lives — Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, says Nigerians everywhere deserve to live healthy, educated and productive lives regardless of where in Nigeria they reside, what God they worship or language they speak.

    Osinbajo said this on Friday in Abuja while addressing the extended National Economic Council (NEC) meeting with focus on Human Capital Development (HCD) held at the State House Banquet Hall.

    The theme of meeting was “Achieving Nigeria’s Visions for Human Capital Development.’’

    The vice president said that the Federal Government was fully committed to ensuring that it positively transformed the Nigerian experience as it related to the quality of life and well-being of its people.

    He said that Nigeria had struggled with high  levels of poverty for several decades in spite of its potential, as the last poverty study done by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2012 showed that 112 million Nigerians were living in extreme poverty.

    Osinbajo said that when the present government came into office in 2015, three things were very clear, one that it needed to move quickly and ambitiously in its response to the issues of poverty and malnutrition and disease and illiteracy.

    “Two, there would be no quick fixes or miracles cures as it would be a long and painful journey out of the status quo which required patience and consistence in the implementation of our interventions.

    “Three, just as we are reaping the consequences of the poor decisions we have taken in the past, we can change the consequences that await us in the future by changing the decisions we take in the present.

    “These realizations have guided us over the last three years, even as we have developed a vision for a Nigeria that is healthy, educated and positioned to fully unleash its development potential.

    “This is what informed the creation and implementation of our Social Investment Programme, which is now the largest in Africa.

    “A multi-faceted intervention simultaneously targeting poverty, hunger, unemployment, financial exclusion, and the absence of skills needed for our large youth population to thrive in the 21st century.

    “Nigerians everywhere deserve to live healthy, educated and productive lives, regardless of where in Nigeria they live or what God they worship or what language they speak.’’

    He said that the N-Power, Jobs Scheme for unemployed graduates had more than doubled since then to cater to 500,000 beneficiaries; while Trader-Moni Microcredit scheme for petty traders excluded from formal lending opportunities had benefited well over a million people.

    Read Also: Osinbajo to unveil Igbo Ancestry Museum in Anambra

    The vice president said there was also Market-Moni, designed to provide loans to market women and traders, artisans, enterprising youths and small scale farmers and agric workers nationwide.

    “In terms of healthcare, we have recorded a landmark accomplishment, the setting up of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, with seed funding of one per cent of our Consolidated Revenue Fund as outlined in the National Health Act.

    “I am pleased to say that Nigeria is for the first time complying with these stipulations since the Act was signed into law in 2014,’’ he said.

    In a presentation, Mr Yosola Akinbi, HCD Core Working Group (CWG) Coordinator, said that the HCD initiative was a response to Nigeria’s ranking as a country with low HCD.

    She said that the CWG selected six outcomes and several proxy measures to access and track progress across HCD thematic areas.

    Akinbi listed the areas as under-five mortality rate, malnutrition, adult mortality, expected years of school completion, quality of learning and labour force participation.

    She said that Nigeria’s vision to accelerate HCD by 2030 was in three strategic themes, health and nutrition, education and labour force.

    “Provide equitable access to affordable and quality healthcare for every Nigerian, promote a quality, inclusive and functional educational system and empower youth to have the capacity and skills to create or seek employment,’’ she said.

    In his remarks, Chairman, Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Gov. Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara, said that the governors had been working hard to ensure economic growth and promote transparency in governance.

    He said that finance was critical in addressing all the issues bordering on HCD.

    According to him, more efforts should be channeled toward revenue generation in order to achieve the vision of HCD.

    In goodwill message, Mr Rachid Benmessaoud, Country Director, World Bank Nigeria, said that for the world to do well, Nigeria had to do well.

    He said that the Federal Government’s Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (ERGP) was yielding results.

    Mrs Debbie Palmer, DFID Country Representative, in a goodwill message, said that given that Nigeria would be the third largest nation in the world by 2050, it needed well-nourished, healthy, educated and skilled people.

    Also speaking, Sen. Lanre Tejuosho, the chairman, Senate Committee on Health, urged the executive to ensure timely release of money appropriated by the National Assembly for HCD.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there were also goodwill messages from representatives of UNICEF,  Dangote Group, Belinda and Gates Foundation,and U.S. Mission among others.

    The extended NEC had in attendance state governors, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, private sector representatives and development partners.

    The highlight of the event was unveiling of the Vision to Accelerate Human Capital Development by 2030 by the vice president.

    NAN

  • Osinbajo to unveil Igbo Ancestry Museum in Anambra

    Nigeria Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo would later in the month, officially unveil the rebuilt Odinani Museum, in Nri kingdom, Anambra state.

    The curator of the museum, Chief Tony Akunne, who dropped the hint in a press briefing, said the monument was officially inaugurated on March 18, 1972 by the Sole Administrator of the defunct East Central state, Chief Ukpabi Asika.

    He said the 70-year old edifice, which suffered eight years of dilapidation, received a face lift following its reconstruction by Chief Charles Tabansi, an illustrious son of the kingdom.

    He said, “The museum suffered dilapidation since 2010 after the brains behind it, late Prof. Kenneth Dike a foremost historian and Prof. Michael Onwuejiogwu, an Anthropologist stopped giving attention to it.

    “The building started collapsing, the staff were not being paid and even some of the artifacts molded with red earth like ‘Egbo and Abadaba’ which are usually erected during new yam festivals got spoilt because of rain.

    “Tabansi singlehandedly renovated the ultra-modern building at an estimated cost of N50million.”

    According to him, the museum contained more than 10,000 artifacts which included 17th century wooden door, sacred python, pre-colonial legal tenders, a wooden gong called ‘Ekwe Ikolo’ which was used by Eze-Nri Enwenetem in 1616AD.

    He said the ancient city had existed 900AD and endowed with its preservative nature of legacies bequeathed by the ancestors and has attracted foreign archeologists and anthropologists for academic exercise.

    Read Also: 120 suspected cultists, hoodlums arrested in Epe

    The Curator praised Tabansi for bringing back the pride of the community as well as bringing professionals from National Museum and Monument, Enugu, to arrange the artifacts in the museum.

    On his part, Prince Tabansi, a former President General of Nri, said he moved to rebuild the museum having watched the antiquity reduce to rubbles and in fulfillment of the wish of his late father who was regent of the kingdom.

    He said, “I’m happy that the old glory is coming back. Those artifacts displayed in the museum have shown that Ndigbo can produce what they need despite its crude nature.

    “Particularly, Nri people have been technologically informed right from the 13th century when we started creating instruments from iron.

    “The new museum would be officially opened by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo in December and we shall honour Onwuejiogwu for his contributions to the kingdom on his literal works about Nri hegemony.”

    Nri is the historical ancestral kingdom and cradle of Igbo civilisation while the Odinani Museum is the collection house for valued cultural antiquities that depict the origin and history of the Igbo nation.

  • Osinbajo in Germany, says grand corruption Nigeria’s greatest problem

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the problem with Nigeria is not about resources or planning, but the poor management of resources in the past.

    This was contained in a statement by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, on Monday in Abuja.

    Fielding questions from a cross section of Nigerians in Germany on Sunday night, Osinbajo said that those who made away with the nation’s resources should be made to account for it.

    He said that to move forward, such massive corruption should not be allowed again.

    “The greatest problem Nigeria has is one of grand corruption; that is the biggest problem we have; not the problem of planning or plans; and grand corruption is the reason why we are not moving as fast as we should in our country.

    “There is no country in the world that can survive if its resources are stolen the way Nigeria’s resources are stolen.’’

    The Vice President said that most of the issues raised by the Nigerians in Diaspora at the meeting over lack of energy, infrastructure, quality and extensive health care services, education and security were traceable to the management of resources.

    He called on Nigerians to hold leaders accountable for the nation’s wealth.

    The vice president responded to over 30 questions at the town hall meeting in Berlin, described by many of the attendees as the first of its kind since 1999, when civil rule was restored in Nigeria.

    Read Also: Osinbajo flags off door-to-door campaign in Lagos

    Osinbajo stated that one of the key issues the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was dealing with in partnership with European leaders was the repatriation of the country’s stolen assets stashed abroad.

    He said that the Federal Government was equally having conversations with European countries on the subject of migration of Nigerians to Europe.

    The vice president told the gathering that government was concerned about migration issue and had started negotiating with European countries.

    He added that European countries could partner with Nigeria by investing in the country thereby discouraging the prevalent migration of young people.

    Osinbajo expressed optimism that the challenge could be effectively addressed through Nigeria’s collaboration with its European partners.

    Explaining Federal Government’s efforts at addressing unemployment challenges, the vice president observed that a young population of about 60 per cent created a yearly addition of about 1.4 million graduates to the unemployment market.

    He, however, revealed that the Buhari-led administration was addressing the matter as the Federal Government had employed 500,000 graduates under the N-Power scheme, as well as through other social investment programmes like MarketMoni and TraderMoni.

    On health care delivery services to majority of Nigerians, Osinbajo agreed on the need to extend good health care to all Nigerians, but pointed out that it could only be achieved through compulsory health insurance policy.

    Underscoring the urgent need to develop a functional educational system, the vice president announced that the Buhari-led administration was developing a robust education policy, saying “education is the basis of all we’re doing.”

    On the ongoing strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the vice President said negotiation between the Federal Government and ASUU was continuing and expressed hope that an agreement could be reached soon.

    The Ambassadors of Nigeria to Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium were all part of the audience.

    The vice president will headline the Nigerian-German Business Dialogue in Berlin on Monday.

    NAN

  • Nigeria population to increase by 68m with current fertility rate – Osinbajo

    Nigeria population will increase by additional 68 million by 2030 with the current prevailing growth rate, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has said.

    The Vice President who was speaking at the just concluded 5th National Family Planing conference in Abuja posited that with over 180 million population, the country’s fertility rate poses a problem.

    The Vice President who was represented by Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said “if Nigeria’s prevailing annual population growth rate 3.2 percent persists, we will have an additional 68 million people by 2030, and will be the third most populous country in the world by 2050.”

    He explained that apart from Federal Government’s economic policies aimed at making lives comfortable to the nation’s population, the administration is committed to making family planning commodities available to those who need them.

    The nation, he noted failed to plan for its future when it raked in fortunes from oil and other revenue sources in recent past.

    “In the absence of basic social safety nets, and pro-poor policymaking, tens of millions of our people were left stranded, observing the statistics of economic growth from a distance, completely untouched by it…The sad reality is that for most of our history as a country, periods of economic growth have somehow managed to leave out the majority of our population.

    “Between 2011 and 2015 when Nigeria enjoyed some of the highest revenues in history, and overtook South Africa to become the largest economy in Africa, there was no commensurate impact in poverty alleviation and improvement of wellbeing,” the Vice president said.

    Speaking on the theme of the conference: Investment, Innovation and Inclusiveness, he said: “This is how I see the three “I’s”: Investment, innovation and inclusiveness are three very critical keys for unlocking the very beneficial contributions of family planning to Nigeria’s ambition of reaping all of its potential demographic dividend.

    “This demographic dividend is of course the catch-all term for the benefits and potential realizable from attaining the optimal age structure in a population. In the case of Nigeria, this optimal age structure would mean a combination of declining fertility and a simultaneous rise in the working age population. Our main challenge, evidently, is with our current fertility rates.”

    Read Also: Osinbajo’s humility excites Lagos family

    He said investing in family planning has been proven to be smart, cost-effective, and life-saving; and is especially critical in a country like Nigeria with a very young and rapidly growing population.

    He added that estimated 63 percent of Nigeria’s population is below 25 years; with a significant segment of the population being sexually active and needing education and guidance to wisely navigate the issues of equality, choice and contraception.

    He argued further that achieving the SDGs and Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 depends significantly on how well sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people are prioritized.

    He said the nation must clearly insist on including young people at the very heart of its policies and its deployment of resources to achieve these policies.

    While urging participants at the conference to develop evidence-based approaches to population management, Osinbajo noted that time was no longer waiting for the nation. “We must act and move fast, because our challenges themselves are not simply sitting and waiting around to be solved. They are evolving and adapting in increasingly complicated forms, and our responses and solutions must keep up.

    “Family planning and population management generally are not just life-saving interventions but actually critical tools for economic and social development.”

    The three day conference has representatives of local and international organizations working on family planning, experts from medical field, government delegations among others.

  • Buhari will not allow people steal money – Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said the President Muhammadu Buhari will not steal the country’s money and will not allow others to steal it.

    He said the difference between him and other presidential candidates is that others are seeking office in 2019 to steal money.

    Osinbajo spoke at the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Door-To-Door-Campaign flag off of the Professor Yemi Osinbajo (PYO) Support Group.

    Addressing the crowd of party supporters, Osinbajo said there are leaders who want to steal and those who want to use the country’s money for the common good.

    He explained that Buhari belongs to those who want to use the country’s money for the common good.

    He said: “We should not allow those who have stolen our money in the past to come back. They stole all the money and they want to come. People are saying, enough is enough. 

    “In four years, PDP spent 383 US dollars. And they want to come back. Sixteen years is enough.

    “After 16 years of ensuring that the country did not make progress, they want to come back. They will never come back.”

    Osinbajo noted that Nigeria’s greatest problem is corruption and the inability of planning because without money you cannot executive any plan; hence the need to stop those who have stolen in the past from returning.

    The APC Vice Presidential candidate said the door-to-door is more effective in reaching out to the people, saying it goes a long way in speaking directly to the people about the plans of the government for the people.

    He explained that the door-to-door campaign is much impacting because the electorate would be met at their homes and the message delivered to them.

    Also speaking, the Director-General of the PYO support group Pastor Yomi Kasali said the organisation has raised  900,000 canvassers for Lagos State.

    He explained that each canvasser is expected to meet with 50 people.

    The Vice President later visited some parts of Ogba and Ikeja, where he was received by cheering residents of the communities.

  • Osinbajo flags off door-to-door campaign in Lagos

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the difference between President Muhammadu Buhari and other presidential candidates for the 2019 elections is that the president will not steal or allow stealing.

    Osinbajo made the declaration in Lagos on Saturday at the flag off of his door-to-door campaign in Lagos State.

    Addressing the crowd, the vice president said there were leaders who would steal and those who would use the country’s money for the common good, noting that Buhari belonged to those who would use the country’s money for common good.

    “We should not allow those who have stolen our money in the past to come back. They stole all the money and they want to come back. People are saying, enough is enough.

    “In four years, PDP spent 383 billion US dollars. And they want to come back. 16 years is enough.

    “After 16 years of ensuring that the country did not make progress, they want to come back. They will never come back,” he said.

    Osinbajo said that Nigeria’s greatest problem was corruption and not planning because without money you could not executive any plan; hence the need to stop those who had stolen in the past from returning.

    The vice president said the door-to-door campaign was more effective in reaching out to the people, saying it goes a long way in speaking directly to the people about the plans of the government for the people.

    Also speaking, the Director-General of the Prof Yemi Osinbajo Support Group, Pastor Yomi Kasali, said the organisation had raised 900,000 canvassers for Lagos State.

    He explained that each canvasser was expected to meet with 50 people.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the vice president later visited some parts of Sogunro community, Ogba in Ikeja Local Government to seek support directly

  • Osinbajo hails Air Peace over campaign against gender-based violence

    The presidency has lauded the efforts of Nigerian carrier, Air Peace and Foundation for Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria (FEHN) for their campaign against gender-based violence in the country.

    The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, made the commendation at the National Conference on Sexual and Gender Based Violence Response in Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday, according to a statement.

    Osinbajo expressed happiness that the Air Peace was on board the campaign to protect women, children and other vulnerable members of the society from violence.

    He, however, presented a joint award to FEHN and Air Peace for their partnership with the “government and people of Nigeria on gender based violence.”

    The award was received by the Chief Operating Officer of Air Peace, Mrs Oluwatoyin Olajide.

    She pledged that the airline and its’ not-for-profit organisation, FEHN would continue to seek ways to support the federal government in its projects aimed at protecting vulnerable members of the society.

    Mrs Motunrayo Boladale, the Assistant Procurement Manager of FEHN, lauded the government for its commitment to protecting the rights of women and children.

    Boladele called for strategic action against gender-based violence, stressing that FEHN and AIr Peace were battling the scourge through training and empowerment of women.

    Read Also: Buhari, Osinbajo, Tinubu in Presidential Campaign Council

    She said, “the reality of gender-based violence in this age is one that continues to wear frail not only the societal fabric of the African continent, but also the entire world.

    “Unfortunately, in recent years the trajectory of cases of domestic violence, sexual exploitation, early marriage and rape of minors in Nigeria has become rather alarming.

    “Sadly, majority of the victims operate in such vulnerable state that there is the possibility of a recurrence.’’

    According to her, as conflict reconciliation experts, FEHN understands that one of the most effective ways to curb this growing menace is basically the activation of practical proactive measures.

    “One of the main reasons our sister company, Air Peace Ltd. was floated is to create employment. It is heartwarming to know that we have several women gainfully employed by Air Peace.

    “In fact, most of our managers are women, a mark of the dedication of our chairman, Dr Allen Onyema, to the empowerment of women.
    “We strongly believe that as we all join hands individually and collectively to combat gender-based violence, the lasting success we seek will be ours,” Boladale said.

    NAN