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Tag: Yemi Osinbajo

  • Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara meet in Aso Rock

    Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara meet in Aso Rock

    The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday met behind closed doors with the leadership of the National Assembly at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    At the meeting were the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

    The duo had held similar meeting with Osinbajo on Tuesday. 

    Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Saraki said that the Thursday meeting was centered on Nigeria’s troops deployed in The Gambia. 

    “The Acting President was briefing us on our trip to The Gambia and what the situation is. He told us that the Navy and the Air Force will be coming back and that it is likely some troops will be left behind,” he stated. 

    He had disclosed that the Tuesday’s meeting had discussed the state of the economy and the 2017 Appropriation Bill currently before the National Assembly. 

  • Kogi people suffering under Bello, Faleke tells Presidency

    Kogi people suffering under Bello, Faleke tells Presidency

    A member of the House of Representatives and former contender of Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello’s position, Hon. James Falake, on Tuesday led a delegation of Kogi State indigenes to the Presidency to pass a vote of no confidence on Governor Yahaya Bello.

    Faleke, who led the group comprising former ministers, former ambassadors, former National Assembly members and other critical stakeholders from the State to the office of the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, said that the State has stopped working since Bello assumed office.

    Speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the closed door meeting, Faleke said that the Governor’s unsavory actions were inimical to the future of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.

    According to him, the people are dying of hunger as a result of the leadership style being adopted by Governor Bello.

    He said: “We came to the presidency to let federal government know what is happening in Kogi state as regards the fortunes of the party. The way it is dwindling day by day as regards the civil servants, the welfare of the people and their relationship with the state government.

    “We have come to let the presidency know so that when elections come and the party losses, no one is to be blamed. We want intervention from the federal government to find a way forward in this situation.

    “The governor of the state should recognize those who work for the party and make the party to be successful. It is one thing to be victorious at the court level and another thing to carry the people along. I want to use this opportunity to urge the governor to carry the people along.

    “This is the fifth time he is setting up a committee to review staff strength with so many screenings every day. People are dying. You ask people to come from the entire 21 local government to Lokoja to present their documents; some of them are dying on road accident.

    “My concern is that if he is too sure, he should set up a better frame rather than this recurrent approach. For all the committees that sent report to him, he has condemned their report and he is the one that set up these committees. Now another committee has been set up again for the same purpose.

    “We get calls every day for welfare from civil servants, school children that their parents have not been paid for months. So, we want him to stop this because this is not the only way to stop ghost workers and it shouldn’t be the last. I’m not against eradication of ghost workers but it shouldn’t be done to the detriment of the people,” he stated

    He said that the delegation was satisfied with the response of the Acting President during the meeting.

    “Of course, we are satisfied. It is a work in progress. It is not a fait accompli”, he said.

    A former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Abdullahi Bello Okene said that the delegation had representatives from across the state.

    “Yes of course. You can see among the delegation here are former ministers, former ambassadors, former National Assembly members across the state that are critical stakeholders. The leadership is all here cutting across the entire state”, he said.

    Faleke was a running mate to late Audu Abubakar, the governorship candidate of APC that died before he was declared winner in the election that brought Bello into office as governor.

    Falake had urged the courts to declare him winner of the election on the grounds that the votes cast for late Abubakar were his automatic inheritance as running mate rather than ceding it to Governor Bello who the party threw up as substitute. But the court ruled in favour of Bello.

  • Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara meet over economy

    Osinbajo, Saraki, Dogara meet over economy

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday met behind closed-door with the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The meeting was over the economy and the 2017 Budget presently before the National Assembly.

    Speaking with the State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Saraki said that the meeting was purely a consultation.

    “We are meeting on the economy and the budget, myself, the Vice President and the Speaker, minister of budget and minister of finance.

    “We are aware that the economic team will soon be going on a road show and just to brief us and let us know the issues and just carry us along.

    “We have just started the budget defence so there are no issues, these are just consultations,” Saraki stated.

  • Senate Leader briefs Osinbajo on 2017 Budget

    Senate Leader briefs Osinbajo on 2017 Budget

    ..Says opposition Senators cooperating with Buhari

    The new Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan, on Monday met with the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the State House and briefed him on the progress made so far by the Upper Chamber in the consideration of the 2017 Appropriation bill at the National Assembly.

    According to him, Senators on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition parties are unanimous in their support for President Muhammadu Buhari.

    He spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the closed door meeting.

    He said: “I’m here to meet the Acting President to brief him on what the Senate is doing on the Appropriation Bill 2017. You know we have suspended plenaries for three weeks. The idea is to have ample time to focus on the appropriation bill. The committees will start to work from this week meeting the MDAs on the budget defence that they need to do.

    “Secondly, you know that the Acting President is an APC Acting President of this our administration. As a new Senate Leader, it is also important that I come here to this office to tell the Acting President and our administration that the APC caucus in the Senate is now a united caucus.

    “We are ready as a caucus to support our administration; we are also ready as a Senate, that is both the APC and the minority parties, to work for the betterment of Nigerians. Our colleagues in the opposition have always been supportive and being there for the Senate to function.” he added

    The whole development, he said, is to ensure that the government delivers on its campaign promises to Nigerians with the executive and the legislature working hand in hand.

    “So that our campaign promises become real and available to all Nigerians for the betterment of the country,” he said

  • Economy worsening, Organized private sector warns FG

    The Organized Private Sector (OPS) on Monday warned the Federal Government that the Nigerian economy is getting worse by the day and having adverse effect on the sector.

    The President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Frank Udenba-Jacobs made a presentation on behalf of the OPS to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo during the 2nd Presidential Business Forum at the State House, Abuja.

    The OPS comprises of the MAN, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Nigeria
    Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME) and Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI).

    The MAN President listed the various challenges the sector has been facing under the present administration.

    He urged the Federal Government to urgently addressed the challenges towards reviving the economy; revitalizing the industrial sector; growing MSMEs  and creating employment for its citizenry.

    He said: “We believe that the under – listed challenges should be addressed urgently: (a) Access to Foreign Exchange by the Real Sector: Access to forex has been a major challenge to businesses in the last two years. We are aware, and commend the Government on the various steps taken to resolve this issue including the standing directive by the CBN to Banks to channel minimum 60% of available Forex to manufacturers.

    “The challenge this policy is currently facing is that there is inadequate monitoring mechanism to ensure that the policy achieves its desired result of allocating the stipulated percentage of Forex to bonafide manufacturers.

    “The CBN list of 41 items is made up of 440 tariff lines. 31 out of the CBN list of items not valid for forex contain 393 tariff lines which are finished products. Those finished products may be retained on the list of items excluded from the official foreign exchange market.

    “The remaining 10 items of 47 tariff lines are essential industrial raw materials that are either not readily available locally or there is a yawning gap between local production and national demand. Our position was made known to the Presidential Reconciliation Committee on this matter through the Honourable Minister of Finance in 2016,” he said.

    He said that the government through the CBN should ensure that the 60% concessionary forex allocation to the manufacturing sector for raw materials and machinery importation is strictly implemented.

    According to the group, the federal government should review the list of 41 items banned by the CBN from accessing foreign exchange in the interbank forex market so as to remove raw materials components that cannot be sourced locally.

    Noting that the group supports the Administration’s push for economic diversification and resource based industrialization policy, he however advocated for policy consistency and coherence in order to achieve sustainability of the policy thrust.

    The group also urged the Government to continue to dialogue with the various stakeholders with a view to articulating more appropriate fiscal and monetary policy incentives that will ensure the realization of the goal of economic diversification.

    He said: “We strongly recommend that all major economic policies of Government geared towards diversification of the economy should be backed by law to ensure commitment and prevent reversals.

    In the welcome address, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said the main plan of the government’s  economic plan is the sustenance of the robust private sector partnership.

    “Indeed, it is our strong believe that sustenanable economic growth is only possible if it is private sector led and  a great of attention has been paid as you will possibly find in sustaining private sector leadership especially in the plan of economic recovery and growth plan 2017 which is to be launched next month.”

    Ministers including Kemi Adeosun (Finance), Udoma Udo Udoma (Budget and National Planning), Okechukwu Enelamah (Trade and Investment), Babatunde Fashola (Power, Works and Housing)  and Lai Mohammed (Information) assured the group of government’s measures to turn around the economy.

    Making presentation on the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan: (ERGP), Udoma said that the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) for the 2016 Budget was developed early in 2016, which laid down government’s key socio-economic development aspirations and strategies, as a pre-cursor to a fuller medium term plan.

    He said that the Medium Term Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017-2020) is being finalized to address current economic challenges, restore growth, and reposition the economy for sustained inclusive growth.

    He said: “The ERGP is different from the previous plans and visions that have been developed and not effectively implemented.

    “Implementation of the ERGP will be driven by: Strong political will; Close partnership and strong collaboration between public and private sectors, especially in the areas of Agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals, services and infrastructure; Rigorous Implementation Plan (for instance, the ERGP forms the basis of the 2017 Budget); and Delivery unit.

    “The ERGP builds on the existing 2016 SIP, and contains strategic objectives and enablers required to revive the economy. 59 strategies have been developed for implementation to achieve the strategic objectives of the ERGP.” He said

    He listed twelve strategies developed for the success of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan:

    The strategies, he said, included restore of production to 2.2mbpd and reach 2.5mbpd by 2020; Privatize selected assets; Accelerate non-oil revenue generation; Drastically cut costs; Align monetary, trade and fiscal policies; Expand Infrastructure especially power, roads and rail; Revamp the four existing refineries.

    Others include Improve ease of doing business; Expand social investment programmes; Deliver on agricultural transformation; Accelerate implementation of National Industrial Revolution Plan using special economic zones and Focus on priority sectors in order to generate jobs, promote exports, boost growth and upgrade skills.

    Speaking with State House correspondents, the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chef Nike Akande, urged the Federal Government to include members of the Organised Private Sector in the Ease of Doing Business Committee that was set up recently.

    According to her, private sector operators are more conversant with the problems facing the sector and will be ready to quickly bring such to the notice of the government when included in the committee.

    She said: “The ease of doing business committee that the government has set up is very important. Whenever I have opportunity to travel out of the country and make speeches, I always try to attract investment to the country.

    “We, the private sector operators, want to be part of this committee because we know where the shoe pinches.

    “By being part of the committee, the challenges being faced by the private sector can be brought to the notice of the Federal Government quickly.

    “The good news however is that the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment mentioned that they are already thinking about it.

    “If we did not have this dialogue, we won’t know what they are thinking. I thank the government for this dialogue.” She stated

  • Fed Govt shops for N500b to recapitalise BoA

    Fed Govt shops for N500b to recapitalise BoA

    Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo said the Federal Government plans to source for about N500 billion to restructure and recapitalise the Bank of Agriculture (BaA).

    Osinbajo who spoke during the inauguration of a 21-member National Council on Privatisation Steering Committee on BoA restructuring and recapitalisation at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, yesterday in Abuja, also inaugurated a nine-member Project Delivery Committee to support the steering team.

    The committee members are expected among others to develop innovative ideas that will help revive and strengthen operations of the BoA.

    Represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, the vice president said the exercise would support small and medium scale enterprise (SMEs), farmers, cooperatives, agro-allied industries and enable them to meet huge demand for agricultural produce for local production and exports.

    He said: “We are looking at another two or four weeks’ time frame, because we don’t have time; we need to move with speed. Like I said, but for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ programme, what we have achieved so far would have been near impossible because support for agric has been very difficult from the commercial banks. And we understand some of their problems, but the CBN has been excellent but that is not usually their prime mandate, they only came in to help.

    “So we hand over the restructuring responsibility to the CBN to make it much stronger, better run, better financed at an interest rate that would be easy to accommodate farmers either small or big.

    “If we have about a trillion naira, we wouldn’t mind; we are targeting a very high figure, we also have to recover some of the credit that are outstanding and some of the farmers owning have offer to pay because they are making more money now. We could start with N500 billion.”

    He said the exercise is expected to integrate with the evolving commodity exchange programme, which according to him is currently undergoing the process of revamp.

    “This approach was preferred by the Federal Government of Nigeria as a pre-privatisation strategy to pave way for the injection of financial and other requisite resources; pursuant to future privatisation, as approved by in 2013 by the NCP,” Osinbajo added.

    Prof Osinbajo acknowledged various challenges of the bank including inadequate workforce, bad debts, poor funding among others. He stressed that the restructuring and recapitalisation remained critical to the bank’s survival.

  • Militancy: Osinbajo to visit Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers oil- producing communities

    Militancy: Osinbajo to visit Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers oil- producing communities

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is scheduled to visit a number of oil communities in some Niger Delta States starting on Monday, January 16, 2017 with a visit Delta State.

    Osinbajo, at a later date to be announced soon, would also visit Bayelsa and Rivers States.

    The trips are in demonstration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s readiness and determination to comprehensively address the Niger Delta situation,

    During the visits, a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the Vice President will lead high-level delegations of the Federal Government that will interact with leaders and representatives of the oil-producing communities.

    The statement reads: “The Buhari presidency is fully committed to having an effective dialogue and positive engagement that will end the crisis in the oil-producing areas, and believes that these visits would further boost the confidence necessary for the attainment of peace and prosperity in the areas and the Nigerian nation in general.”

  • Religious bodies urged to shun rumour

    Religious bodies urged to shun rumour

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday enjoined faith-based organisations in the country to shun rumours about the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and dwell only on facts.

    He gave the advice after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Student Christian Movement of Nigeria (SCM) in his office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the vice president spoke against the backdrop of the lingering rumour of alleged plans by the President to Islamise the country.

    Describing the rumour as unfounded, Osinbajo emphasised that it was impossible to Islamise the country given the 1999 Constitution that forbids state religion.

    He urged religious bodies to channel their energies towards proffering solutions to the numerous challenges facing the country.

    The vice president also challenged Nigerian youths to wake up from slumber and take advantage of abundant opportunities in  ICT, agriculture and other sectors.

    While noting that the opportunities were far much more now than they were in the past, Osinbajo harped on the need for young people to take responsibility for their future and be creative.

    He also emphasised the importance of using the internet to acquire knowledge as well as learning a second language to boost their global competitiveness.

    Expressing appreciation to SCM for the honour, the vice president solicited the organisation’s assistance in disseminating factual information about the Federal Government’s policies and programmes.

    Earlier, the National President of SCM, Rev, Eric Ighalo, commended the government for its social interventions such as the N-Power initiative and the conditional transfer scheme.

    Ighalo expressed the willingness of the body to partner with government in several areas including serving as government ambassadors in their constituencies.

    The SCM national president said that the award was conferred on the vice president in recognition of his integrity and outstanding leadership he had demonstrated over the years.

    The award presentation, according to him, culminated the 75th anniversary of the organisation.

  • FG’s will support farmers, small scale businesses – Osinbajo

    FG’s will support farmers, small scale businesses – Osinbajo

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday renewed Federal Government’s resolve to support farmers and operators of small scale businesses for the development of Nigeria’s economy.

    Osinbajo gave the assurance during an interactive session with traders, food vendors and small business owners at the Grassroots Town Hall Meeting held in Kano.

    He also assured that the federal government would continue to encourage farmers by ensuring that all processing plants were operational in the country.

    “We must protect farmers by ensuring that we stop the importation of food and other products into the country,’’ he said.

    The vice president, who blamed part of the current economic recession to importation, said the federal government had taken proactive measures to support farmers and owners of small-scale businesses in the country.

    “There are two or three reasons why we are in a recession; the vandalism of oil pipelines, fall in the price of oil as well as importation of everything, that is why we are in trouble,’’ he said.

    He, however, said that the present administration under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari was doing its best to get the country out of the present economic predicament.

    “We are lucky we have an honest President because the country needs honest leadership,’’ Osinbajo said.

    He called on Nigerians to continue to cooperate and support the government in its effort to end the recession and ensure better living conditions for the citizenry.

    Earlier in his remarks, Gov Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State said the state government had concluded arrangements to build a modern market in Kano to decongest the existing markets in the state capital.

    Ganduje said the market, which would cost about N500 billion, would be constructed under a Public Private Partnership arrangement between the state government and a private firm in Dubai.

    According to him, the state government has already paid compensation to the owners of the land acquired for the project.

    “As soon as the agreement is signed next week, work will commence in January 2017,’’ the governor said.

  • We need oil to get out of oil -Osinbajo

    We need oil to get out of oil -Osinbajo

    Remarks by His Excellency, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON at the presentation of three books by Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu in Abuja, on November  14, 2016

    I am especially pleased to be here this morning to celebrate the major intellectual and policy achievements of Dr Ibe Emmanuel Kachikwu, in his three texts on oil & gas law and policy in Nigeria.

    One, is the Compendium of Oil and Gas Cases in Nigeria, two, Legal issues in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry and the Petroleum Industry Bill: Getting to the Yes.

    These books are important, first, because oil and gas law and policy in Nigeria is notoriously underserved with quality materials. There just aren’t enough scholarly materials on the subject.

    But perhaps of greater importance is the pedigree of the author, a first class scholar, an industry expert of 30 years standing and now possibly the foremost policy person in the sector today, in his capacity as Chair of NNPC, former GMD of NNPC and the Honourable Minister of Petroleum and perhaps one should add his current position at OPEC.

    With this type of antecedents, it should be expected that the quality of thoughts and insights and the solutions that should be on offer should be unique indeed.

    I am pleased to say that from my assessment of one of the books: Legal Issues in the Petroleum Industry– which I had the pleasure to peruse, he did not disappoint.He took on the difficult issues of the defining items in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

    The law is the law, policy is what it is, but how do they work on a regular day? What are the unspoken or subtle rules? In order words, what are the practical implications of policy and legislation? How did the subsidy regime for example redefine our downstream sector and perhaps the whole industry?

    You will not find the insights that Dr Kachikwu offers in the chapters on marketing and transportation of petroleum products, divestments, negative trends in the Nigerian petroleum industry and ministerial discretion in any text book or policy manual on the subject.

    Dr Kachikwu clearly took full advantage of the rare convergence of scholarship, contemporary experience and policy wisdom to deliver what are probably today the most significant contributions to our understanding of the major issues and nuances of the Nigerian Petroleum industry. It is this uniquely versatile background that makes this publication on the subject a must read for serious participants in one form or other in the industry.

    But I will not be surprised if one of the books – The Petroleum Industry Bill: Getting to the Yes – attracts considerable attention.

    The industry has awaited this all important bill for so long and many would hope at least that they can get a sense of how the minister’s mind is working.

    (I am afraid I cannot help much on that score as I was unable to read the book before now.)

    However, I think it might be important to say that the federal government has had to deal frontally with the critical issues bedeviling the sector: the deregulation of the downstream sector and its continuing challenges, vandalism of pipelines and export facilities and the critical drop in production, gas to power issues, the urgent imperatives of local refining, cash call problems and the plans to exit that regime and empowering indigenous operators.

    As we move to diversify our economy we are acutely aware that we need oil to get out of oil. Yet our window of opportunity to benefit maximally from the petroleum industry is narrowing.

    The development in shale oil which the author spends considerable time on, the increasing breakthroughs in renewable energy use, the incredible speed of the expansion of the use of electric vehicles, -Japan now has more electric charging stations than gas stations- all point inexorably to the fact that the party might be over sooner than we expected.

    But let me just go to another issue. Very few people here know that the author, Dr Ibe Kachikwu is also a great writer of fiction. I wonder how many people know that Dr Kachikwu was the publisher of the famous Hints magazine. Hints magazine, by the way, was a romantic magazine and several of the romantic stories there, were personally authored by Dr Kachikwu himself. I am sure for those who read fiction, you might have read the Cocaine Connection which he wrote, Beneath the Boardroom and the wonderful book, Peace at Last, which really is a book about himself and his childhood.  And I think it is the book that we all ought to read because, again it deals with some of the types of problems of young people that are growing up, especially when we have issues with our parents.

    Dr Kachikwu has always proved to be a multi-tasking individual and when you look at some of the works of fiction that he has written and just the way that he has written them, -and they are such good books to read, -I am sure that many of us would agree that if he had not made a success of his first love, which is oil and gas, he probably would have been quite successful as a writer of fiction.

    Let me say that having read his latest works, especially the one that I have read, I think that we must really commend him for the very excellent work that he has done.

    Once more, let me congratulate the author. I am sure he knew that when he finally decided to write on the industry, we would not tolerate one book from him. Three books at once is certainly in keeping with his immense talents. Congratulations indeed.