7 Things You Should Know On Then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s Approval For 5.8 Billion Emergency Food Intervention Fund For North East

- IDPS and their host communities in the North East faced very severe food shortages throughout the North East.

- The United Nations World food Programme - a major food supplier to the region - had warned that it would reduce its support to about 1.8 Million IDPs by as much as 85%.

- The Federal Government set up a Strategic Food Intervention Plan for the affected states.

- It was urgent to purchases to grains and thus the CBN made the proposal for the approval of 30.9 Million Tonnes of food for the IDPs.

- The then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo approved 5.036 Billion for the purchase of these grains and another sum of 829 Million for the logistics, security, personnel and other contingency costs as requested by NEMA.

- The approvals were consitutitional and flowed from the provisions of Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act which makes provisions for making purchases without getting following the Appropriation process - this is called an Emergency Procurement.

- Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act is employed where the country or a part of it is seriously threatened by disaster, it on this ground permits a government entity to make an emergency procurement and later report to the Bureau of Public Procurement for a certification immediately after the situation.

NEMA: Osinbajo saved thousands of Nigerians by approving N5.8bn - Adagbon



With international organistaions and local agencies running out of funds, and with food shortage at its crescendo, the acting President of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osinbajo approved N5.8 billion for supply of food to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the NorthEast, thereby saving hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who were going to die out of starvation. The noble action of the Vice President has been misinterpreted in some quarters even though he acted within the ambit of the law. In this interview, Gloria Adagbon, a lawyer and human rights activist makes a case for the Vice President and warns against politicizing everything.



Why didn't the acting President involve NASS in the process before releasing N5.8bn?

Given that the law allows the Vice President to release such funds in an emergency, he seized the opportunity to do so. The national assembly has proven to be anti-progressive, it took them over six months to pass the budget, we could not let Nigerians die away while they padded the North East Emergency budget. The acting President needed to act and that was why he constituted the Presidential Committee which included Minister of fast Finance, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Minister of Agriculture, CBN governor, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, SSA to the President, Office of the Chief of Staff, SSA to the President Planning and Coordination among others. It was an emergency and it would have been suicidal to go through the national assembly, given their greed and self-centeredness. The process was transparent, FG bought local grains from Nigerian farmers and the Nigerian Police, Nigerian Military including the Air Force, were actively involved providing essential and logistical support. There is nothing clandestine by the process, it was there for all to see.



Why was procurement process ignored before money was released?

The procurement process wasn’t ignored or bypassed. Like I explained earlier, this is an emergency and the acting President needed to act fast. Waiting for the agencies to ponder over procurement would have translated to massive loss of lives. The VP was never going to allow that happen under his watch as Acting President. Section 43 of the BPP Act empowered him to approve the funds in an emergency, which was what he did. He acted in good faith and he saved hundreds of thousands of lives by doing this. We must understand that international organisations including the World Food Programme, UNHCR, International Committee of the Red Cross and others were involved in this process, this was carried out transparently and in order. The international aid agencies like WFP were already dealing with shortage of funds to provide humanitarian aid, as funding was cut down by about 85%. This necessitated urgent collaboration between the Government and NGOs, in order to save lives of Nigerian citizens



Why didn't the VP oversee and ensure the distribution of the rice donated by the Chinese govt?

You will recall that the acting President kicked off the multi-billion naira relief intervention plan for grain distribution in the NorthEast. At the time, about 1.8m people would be reached regularly and 40,000 metric tonnes comprising rice, maize, sorghum and soya beans grown locally by Nigerian farmers would be distributed. But to ask the acting President to monitor NEMA activities alone and leave other pressing issues in the country is ignorance on the part of such persons. Agencies were set up to be managed on day-to-day basis by persons that have been appointed and were qualified to do so. It’s not the duty of the acting President to micro-manage and monitor the delivery or distribution. Duties were delegated, and this was done appropriately.



What is the scope and job duties of the VP as NEMA chairman?

He has an oversight function he does not oversee the day to day running of the agency. It’s like asking the Chancellor of a university why some lecturers involve in sex for marks. This falls on the lap of the Vice Chancellor because he is involved in the day-to-day administration. It’s important to understand that the role of the chairman is somewhat ceremonial and that is why you will not find his picture or profile on the website of the agency. People demanding that he did not act as chairman are uneducated and mischievous, and if adults cannot understand the organogram of agencies, you fear for the kind of orientation of what they are passing on to the younger generation.



Why is the House calling for the reinstatement of the six NEMA directorsand sack of the NEMA DG?

This is the clearest case of corruption fighting back. The directors in NEMA were accused of corruption and financial misappropriation. EFCC found monies in their accounts that could not be accounted for, but instead of insisting that these directors be probed, House of Reps led by a certain Ali Isa jumped to their defence insisting that they be reinstated. The House had claimed that Civil Service Rule was grossly abused, and natural justice turned upside down even after the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita and acting EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu had appeared before the Committee to explain that their suspension was in order. EFCC explained that they were suspended in order to allow detectives unfettered access to vital documents. The directors knew what investigators would find and they immediately got corrupt lawmakers to make noise out of nothing. This is a shame and that is why this administration has insisted that if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us.



Did the VP release N5.8bn or N33bn?

The VP only approved N5.8billion as against the N33billion peddled about in the media by some unscrupulous persons. These are agents of fake news who are trying all they can to tarnish the blistering career of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo but unfortunately for them, Nigerians are wiser now. We know our left from our right and we can see clearly. If you have read all the reports from NEMA to the House of Reps report, you will find that the VP approved N5.8 billion which was very much in order. We must not allow agents of fake news to derail us in our fight against corruption.

Why VP Osinbajo's approval of North East Emergency Fund is legal, Constitutional by Akinloye James



Prof Yemi Osinbajo is an integrity and dignity personified vice president that has constantly been talking about the grand and massive corruption that occurred in the previous administration before the emergence of the Buhari Government.



His clamour for exposing these corrupt entities in the previous administration is topnotch hence, the malicious attempt to tarnish his image and the series of attacks against his person and office; a plot I learnt was concocted by the Presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party and his cohorts.



Contrary to the false accusations made by Femi fani-kayode on his Facebook page alleging that the Vice President was indicted by the House of Representatives for the misappropriation of 5.8bn NEMA fund, The House of Representatives said it did not indict the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in its probe report on the National Emergency Management Agency as reported in some quarters of media.



Chairman House Committee on NEMA and Disaster Preparedness Representatives, Isah J.C made the clarification while raising a matter of privilege on Tuesday at plenary.



Recall that Femi fani-kayode as described by Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu is a nagging community irritant that has an extensive career in public nuisance.



That proposition emerged from a consensus acceptance that Femi fani-kayode displays the capricious behavioural pattern of a voracious substance abuser because his convulsive agitations rise and fall on the crests of depression and exhilaration.



Although,the HOR earlier stated in their report alleging that a sum of N5,865,671,939.26 was approved and released in June 2017 via a Memo raised from the Office of the Acting President, directing the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to so act.



The House Committee also concluded that the payment made was in contravention of approval of the National Assembly.



This conclusion is both false and misleading.



It is important to understand the context of the transaction. This was at a time when internally displaced persons and their host communities faced very severe food shortages throughout the North East, as a result of successive poor harvests and abandoned farmlands, minimal cross-border cash crop trade and lost economic opportunities.



There was an immediate need to distribute grains, including rice, maize, soya beans and sorghum, to Internally Displaced Persons through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The only way to obtain the quantity of grains required was to resort to the National Food Security Progamme (NFSP) earlier established by the Federal Government as a means of shoring up its strategic grain reserves.



It was in consequence of the Federal Government decision to urgently purchase the stored grains for distribution to Internally Displaced Persons that the CBN made the proposal for approval of 30,905.08 Metric Tonnes at N5,229,685,333.26. Of that amount, the then Acting President eventually approved N5,036,644,933.26, after excluding bagging costs.



This was pursuant to the recommendation that bagging, transportation and other logistics were best handled by NEMA.



NEMA also originated a request to the Acting President, dated May 25, 2017, requesting the sum of N829,026,456.00 for general logistics, branding & packaging, tracking, security, personnel, media & publicity and contingency costs of taking the grains from their respective locations in Kano, Kaduna, Funtua, Ibadan and Gombe to Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Jigawa States.



These presidential approvals were well within the clear constitutional authority of the Acting President, who needed to take emergency steps to forestall acute food shortages in the affected States and there was nothing illegal or unconstitutional about them.

The approvals were duly communicated by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of Central Bank, Director General of NEMA and the Minister of Finance for implementation.



On account of the emergency nature of the procurement, the House Committee’s assumption that the ordinary rules of procurement would apply was wrong.



Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act makes provision for emergency procurement, in which case the procuring entity is allowed to engage in direct contracting for goods and file a report thereafter with the Bureau of Public Procurement.



It is crystal clear that there is no violation in approval of N5.8B emergency food Intervention Fund for North-East and one could easily deduce that Femi Fani-kayode's allegations is devoid of authenticity bearing in mind that he's bounded by obsessive rabidity.





Akinloye James is from the Initiative to Save Democracy Group

Why VP Osinbajo's approval of North East Emergency Fund is legal, Constitutional by Akinloye James



Prof Yemi Osinbajo is an integrity and dignity personified vice president that has constantly been talking about the grand and massive corruption that occurred in the previous administration before the emergence of the Buhari Government.



His clamour for exposing these corrupt entities in the previous administration is topnotch hence, the malicious attempt to tarnish his image and the series of attacks against his person and office; a plot I learnt was concocted by the Presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party and his cohorts.



Contrary to the false accusations made by Femi fani-kayode on his Facebook page alleging that the Vice President was indicted by the House of Representatives for the misappropriation of 5.8bn NEMA fund, The House of Representatives said it did not indict the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in its probe report on the National Emergency Management Agency as reported in some quarters of media.



Chairman House Committee on NEMA and Disaster Preparedness Representatives, Isah J.C made the clarification while raising a matter of privilege on Tuesday at plenary.



Recall that Femi fani-kayode as described by Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu is a nagging community irritant that has an extensive career in public nuisance.



That proposition emerged from a consensus acceptance that Femi fani-kayode displays the capricious behavioural pattern of a voracious substance abuser because his convulsive agitations rise and fall on the crests of depression and exhilaration.



Although,the HOR earlier stated in their report alleging that a sum of N5,865,671,939.26 was approved and released in June 2017 via a Memo raised from the Office of the Acting President, directing the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation to so act.



The House Committee also concluded that the payment made was in contravention of approval of the National Assembly.



This conclusion is both false and misleading.



It is important to understand the context of the transaction. This was at a time when internally displaced persons and their host communities faced very severe food shortages throughout the North East, as a result of successive poor harvests and abandoned farmlands, minimal cross-border cash crop trade and lost economic opportunities.



There was an immediate need to distribute grains, including rice, maize, soya beans and sorghum, to Internally Displaced Persons through the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The only way to obtain the quantity of grains required was to resort to the National Food Security Progamme (NFSP) earlier established by the Federal Government as a means of shoring up its strategic grain reserves.



It was in consequence of the Federal Government decision to urgently purchase the stored grains for distribution to Internally Displaced Persons that the CBN made the proposal for approval of 30,905.08 Metric Tonnes at N5,229,685,333.26. Of that amount, the then Acting President eventually approved N5,036,644,933.26, after excluding bagging costs.



This was pursuant to the recommendation that bagging, transportation and other logistics were best handled by NEMA.



NEMA also originated a request to the Acting President, dated May 25, 2017, requesting the sum of N829,026,456.00 for general logistics, branding & packaging, tracking, security, personnel, media & publicity and contingency costs of taking the grains from their respective locations in Kano, Kaduna, Funtua, Ibadan and Gombe to Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Jigawa States.



These presidential approvals were well within the clear constitutional authority of the Acting President, who needed to take emergency steps to forestall acute food shortages in the affected States and there was nothing illegal or unconstitutional about them.

The approvals were duly communicated by the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor of Central Bank, Director General of NEMA and the Minister of Finance for implementation.



On account of the emergency nature of the procurement, the House Committee’s assumption that the ordinary rules of procurement would apply was wrong.



Section 43 of the Public Procurement Act makes provision for emergency procurement, in which case the procuring entity is allowed to engage in direct contracting for goods and file a report thereafter with the Bureau of Public Procurement.



It is crystal clear that there is no violation in approval of N5.8B emergency food Intervention Fund for North-East and one could easily deduce that Femi Fani-kayode's allegations is devoid of authenticity bearing in mind that he's bounded by obsessive rabidity.





Akinloye James is from the Initiative to Save Democracy Group

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE



N-POWER TO BECOME AFRICA’S LARGEST POST-TERTIARY JOB SCHEME, SAYS VP OSINBAJO AT ABUJA TOWN HALL MEETING

Adds: 1 Million beneficiaries targeted in next phase, FG committed to creating more opportunities for Nigerians to prosper

Following the successes recorded in the N-Power programme of the Buhari administration and the growing need for government’s direct intervention in job creation, the Federal Government will expand the N-Power scheme to accommodate 1 million beneficiaries in the next phase, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

The Vice President who stated this while responding to a variety of questions from Nigerians across different professions and persuasions, at a town hall meeting in Abuja yesterday, said the programme would become the largest post-tertiary job scheme in Africa.

According to him, “the idea of N-Power is supposed to be government’s own programme of direct employment and training. At the moment, we have taken up to 500,000 and in the next phase we are looking at another 200,000 and closely followed by another 300,000.

“In all, we will be employing up to a million, and that will be the largest post-tertiary job programme in the entire Africa. The reason why we have done this is because of the employment problems that we have, we may not be able to engage everybody but at least government must give some direct provision of jobs.”

Prof. Osinbajo explained further that though government could not pay more than the N30,000 currently paid to beneficiaries and also fix all the unemployment issues, it is working on creating the enabling environment to ensure that beneficiaries as well as other unemployed Nigerians become useful to themselves.

He said: “It is infrastructure that will create the opportunities to provide more jobs, especially through manufacturing and Industry.

“So, we are doing roads and rail, providing power; that is the way we can develop industry. We are energizing our markets at the moment, putting solar power in the markets. We have designated 300 markets, we have done Ariaria in the South East, Sabon Gari in Kano, Surat in Lagos, Isikan in Ondo, Gbagi in Oyo and we are expanding so that more people can work.”

On the need to engage more women in productive activities, Prof. Osinbajo said: “one of the ways the Buhari administration is engaging more women is through our GEEP loans.”

He said: “56% of our GEEP loans go to the women. So there is a lot of preferential advantage that we give to women and this is because women are effective managers of resources; they pay back these loans when they are given.”

Speaking on the misconceptions about the borrowing arrangements of the Buhari administration, the Vice President said, the country, under President Buhari, was not in a terribly bad debt situation as insinuated in some quarters.

According to him, very frequently you find people creating fear about the issue of debt and saying that this government has borrowed more than previous governments.

“I want to give you the facts and figures on the debt issue. The dollar denominated debts of Nigeria – that is the debts of the Federal Government, the States and Local governments.

“In 2010, Nigeria’s debt was $35 billion; 2011, it was $41billion; in 2012, it was $48 billion, in 2013, it became $64 billion; 2014, it rose to $67 billion; 2015, it fell to $63 billion; 2016, $57 billion; 2017, $70 billion; 2018, it is $73 billion. So, the difference between 2015 and now is $10 billion.

“One of the things that I always want you to bear in mind is that when oil prices are at their highest, between 2010 and 2014 that was when we had the sharpest rise in debts.”

Continuing on the debt issue, Prof. Osinbajo said “the other thing that I want us to bear in mind is what is called debt to GDP. Our debt to GDP is one of the lowest among the countries that are frequently compared to us. Our debt to GDP is 20%. When you compare it to other countries, you will see that Ghana is about 68% whereas Ethiopia’s is 48%. In terms of the size of our economy and debt, we are doing okay”

He, however, agreed that “Nigeria may have an issue with debt to revenue”, noting that “we are not collecting enough revenue compared to what we want to spend.”

“Are we collecting enough taxes? If you look at the FIRS figures, it says 914 Nigerians pay the self-assessed tax of more than N10 million. Of the 914, 912 live in Lagos and the other 2 live in Ogun state, no other Nigerian outside of Lagos and Ogun pay the self-assessed tax of more than N10 million. So, we are simply not collecting enough revenue,” he added.

The Vice President said the Federal Government in collaboration with the States was working on harmonizing tax collections in order to address issues relating to multiple collection of taxes.

He said: “this is a problem that we are dealing with all across Nigeria. It is one of the issues we are dealing with under the ease of doing business. We are addressing the sub-national. How we can harmonize taxes. The second phase of our ease of doing business is focused on the collection of multiple taxes; there is no reason why that should continue.”

On the ASUU strike, the Vice President said that government is engaging the leadership of the union, noting that “the next meeting is on Thursday, November 15, 2018”.

He, however, explained that “we are dealing with a population of about 200 million people who depend on a budget of about N8.6 trillion and of that amount, 70% of it goes to salaries and overheads, and it goes to less than 2 million people. It is impossible to answer to all of the monetary needs of people by the size of the federal budget”.

On healthcare financing, Prof. Osinbajo said the Buhari administration has done much even as it has earned 60% less than the previous administrations.

According to him, “the first thing to bear in mind is that health care financing has suffered over the years even when we were earning the most money, we were underfunding healthcare.

“In 2015 when we came in, the healthcare budget was N22.7 billion and as of today we moved that to N86.5 billion and we are earning 60% less. Education was N23 billion in 2015, now it is N102 billion. The issue really is one of government commitment. For the first time, in the 2018 budget, we are setting aside 1% of our consolidated revenue to the health sector.”

Earlier, the Ministers of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola; Industry, Trade and investment, Dr. Okey Enelamah; Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi; and Agriculture, Dr. Audu Ogbe, responded separately to issues relating to their various ministries.

The town hall meeting was organized by Act Now, a non-political group that works in promoting transparency and good governance as well as youth participation in governance.



Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity

Office of the Vice President

13th November, 2018

PRESS BRIEFING BY BARR. ISMAEEL AHMED, SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT ON SOCIAL INVESTMENT PROGRAMMES



OCCASION: Press Conference on the Social Investment Programmes

VENUE: Transcorp Hilton, Abuja

DATE: November 12th, 2018

TIME: 9:30am



Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the press. It is with great pleasure that I receive, and address you this morning. It was only last week Thursday that the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment Programmes addressed the press. So I guess it is safe to say that the National Social Investment Office is now in a relationship with the Press.

This morning, I won’t be rehashing all the updates the S-Ad released on Thursday last week. Rather, I would be focusing more on how the Social Investment Programmes are not just alleviating poverty, but creating wealth from the bottom-up across a value chain that is entirely local.

The Buhari-led administration embarked on an ambitious investment in the lives of the Nigerian people which it tagged the Social Investment Programme. It consists primarily of 4 units: The N-Power Programme which is targeted at unemployed young graduates; the Home Grown School Feeding Programme which seeks to feed all Nigerian children in public primary schools; the Conditional Cash Transfer which gives out 5,000 Naira monthly in cash to the poorest of the poor Nigerians in our innermost rural communities; and the GEEP – comprising of Market Moni and Trader Moni, which is giving loans of N50,000 to N100,000 Naira to artisans, market men and women, small businesses and the likes; and N10,000 to N50,000 to petty traders whose business capital, often times, isn’t even up to N5,000.

So far, these programs have touched more than 10 Million Nigerian lives directly. And we would be doing more.

The fundamental purpose of any Social Investment is to literally invest in the lives of the people, so that they may become productive and responsible for the ultimate well-being of society.

Nigeria is a peculiar country, with over 60 Million youth, out of a population of 180 Million, there is the question of what the future holds for these vast majority who face threatening challenges to their well-being, to their success, to their livelihoods, to their becoming anything worth considering in society.

The average Nigerian youth lives a life of uncertainty, and fear of the unknown. This is what our Social Investment Programmes seek to bridge.

Our Social Investment Programmes are providing the needed tools that empower Nigerians - not just the youth population, even though that demography remains the biggest percent of beneficiaries - to pursue their dreams and fulfil their purpose in life.

The N-Power and GEEP programmes are very relatable for the young population. Like I mentioned earlier, N-Power is a programme targeted at unemployed young graduates. It is a two year programme where young Nigerians within the ages of 18 to 35 are engaged as teachers in the various primary schools across the country lacking teaching capacity, or as health workers in the various primary health care centres lacking staff, or as agriculture extension officers - providing guidance and assistance to farmers in rural communities. While these young men and women in these programs provide key services to their immediate communities, they find themselves learning two key things: to become useful to society, and a partner for positive social change; and they train themselves and learn skills that would help them in many years to come. The N-Power beneficiary is paid a stipend of N30,000 a month. It may sound minute to some of you seated here, but there are stories across the country of how N-Power Beneficiaries have used this little stipends to change their lives.

While on a Listening Tour across the country last year, I had first-hand interaction with some of our N-Power beneficiaries, and their testimonies were nothing short of amazing. In Lagos State, there were two young ladies in particular that struck me, and I still remember their names. Temitope Akindilete, with no other source of income but the N30,000 monthly N-Power stipend was able to set up a catering service where she now employs people. Oreoluwakitan Aremu was able to set up a Tourism & Sustainable Development outfit, all from N30,000 monthly N-Power stipends. I can’t remember where I kept their complimentary cards, but I still have pictures of the cards on my phone here with me.

There is also the story of the Mr and Mrs Somade, N-Power beneficiaries who live in Ekiti State. They got married and had no jobs, both applied to become beneficiaries, qualified without any connections and have today started a beautiful family with their stipends.

If this isn’t wealth creation and empowerment, then what is? I understand that for most of you seated here, when you hear the word “wealth”, the image that comes to mind is the Dangotes, Otedolas and Indimis. But it starts from somewhere.

The GEEP - Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme - also known as Market Moni and Trader Moni, is a programme under the Social Investment Programmes which provides zero interest loans without collateral to small scale businesses. Young people are key beneficiaries. Their testimonies, just as we have on the N-Power programme abound as well.

A lot of us here if asked what we would do with N50,000 or a N100,000 would say the money seems too small to start something, or to even bolster what already exists. I mean, the N10,000 starting loan of the Trader Moni has been described as insignificant by some of you. But for the over 350,000 beneficiaries of the Market Moni loans, and over 800,000 of the Trader Moni loans, this seemingly little amount has been able to transform their livelihoods, improve their businesses and bring them to competitive standards in their small businesses.

There is the remarkable story of a ‘Mai Shayi’ in Kano State who is a beneficiary of the GEEP Loan. With a hundred thousand Naira, he has been able to expand his shed, get better chairs, cater for more customers, and get new burners. He is making 10 times more than he was making previously.

Yes, we in this hall here do not want to end up as Mai Shayis. But we must not forget that we are only a minute fraction of the bigger picture. Tens of millions of young Nigerians remain jobless, and even hopeless. The little things matter: opportunities and interventions no matter how little go a long way to change the lives of a teeming youth population.

The Home-Grown School Feeding Programme is also one of our programmes that is helping to create wealth in the rural areas. Last week, the Special Adviser reiterated that the School Feeding Programme requires about 6.8 million eggs, 594 cattle and 83 metric tons of fish to be supplied to the cooks, every week, for the purpose of feeding 9,300,892 children in 49,837 government schools in 26 States.

Try to imagine the impact of this demand among the rural farmers in the communities hosting these schools. People who normally focused on subsistence agriculture for the sole purpose of feeding their families, have expanded into commercialized farming to meet the needs of the School Feeding Programme. These same farmers have their kids in these schools, so that serves as added motivation to meet our demands of foodstuff because they know it is no gimmick. For some of them, their wives are cooks in the programme, preparing the meals for the school kids. I can see that the concept of “Home-Grown” just became clearer to some of you.

Concerning the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, we have been paying out 5,000 Naira to about 297,973 households in Nigeria monthly. This programme is currently being implemented in 20 States.

Of course, we have also heard that N5,000 is nothing and cannot aid in alleviating poverty. But the beneficiaries of this money will beg to disagree, and for obvious reasons. First, for someone who practically had nothing, and no hope of where any help was going to come from, to start receiving N5,000 monthly for about 2 years now, something has changed in that person’s life, and that change will be noticeable in the person’s purchasing habit.

And as you must know, we don’t just give them N5,000 and walk away. Our cash transfer facilitators in every ward where the programme is ongoing train beneficiaries to build their capacities and support them to become productive and take ownership of their lives.

Through the Conditional Cash Transfer, we are reaching the unreached and unbanked members of our society. These monies are given to beneficiaries as cash initially. Over time, mobile money agents come in, then beneficiaries are made to see the need to have bank accounts. Can you now see how the supposedly inconsequential N5,000 monthly stipend is opening up the most rural areas to banking and other economic activities?

These Social Investment Programmes have been running for over 2 years now, with a total sum of N500 Billion budgeted for it, with less than 50% of that figure appropriated between 2016 till date. Yet, look how far we have come.

And during the time, we have encountered hitches and challenges that have helped us to keep improving and expanding on them.

But what has ensured that our Social Investment Programmes, the most audacious social programme by any administration in Nigeria, continues to record success and grow the number of our beneficiaries is the process of implementation.

In conclusion, the President Buhari-led administration took into cognizance the poverty level of the country and is stopping at nothing to impact directly on the lives of those worse hit by the scourge through the Social Investment Programmes.

Yes, there has been hurdles and challenges. However, the Social Investment Programmes is living up to the purpose for which it was formed, and we will continue to invest more in the lives of the people.



Ismaeel Ahmed

SSA to the President

Social Investment Programmes

BUHARI ADMINISTRATION’S PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES HAS BOOSTED DEVELOPMENT – VP OSINBAJO

*Says corruption must be tackled by all for country to make progress

*Urges religious leaders to continue to preach peace, work for the country's unity


The prudent management of resources by the Buhari administration has helped it achieve far more in terms of infrastructure and development than previous administrations, while it has invested heavily on social protection, the largest in the country’s history, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this at a public lecture organized by the Council of Chief of Imams, Ikeja Division in Lagos on Saturday.

The Vice President also stated the determination of the administration in its fight against corruption, noting that it was a major challenge which had slowed the country's development in the past.

He added that the Buhari administration has spent over N2.7 trillion on capital expenditure in the last three years, pointing out that it is the highest amount ever spent on capital in the history of Nigeria.

The Vice President listed some of the infrastructure projects to include, among others, the Lagos-Kano Standard Gauge Railway, the Lagos-Ibadan Dual Carriageway and the Second Niger Bridge.

According to Prof. Osinbajo, the Buhari administration has been able to achieve this through prudent management of resources, despite earning 60% revenue less than the previous administration when the price of crude oil was high.

"Despite earning 60% less revenue, we are spending more on infrastructure in this government, from roads, rails to power," he said.

The Vice President also said that components of the administration’s Social Investment Programme have impacted the lives of millions of Nigerians.

He explained that through the N-Power Programme, 500,000 young graduates have been engaged by the Federal Government in different areas of public service.

He said similar successes have been recorded in the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme, GEEP (which includes the TraderMoni Scheme), the Conditional Cash Transfer, CCT, and the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, which currently feeds over nine million public primary school pupils in 26 states.

Speaking on the impact of the TraderMoni scheme - the N10,000 interest- and collateral-free loans to petty traders nationwide, the Vice President said two million petty traders nationwide will benefit from the microcredit scheme by the end of the year.

He adds, "If the N60 billion that was part of the sum looted from the nation's treasury in the past, was given out to these traders, 6m petty traders would have been beneficiaries."

Prof. Osinbajo said at the inception of the administration, over 23 states in Nigeria owed salaries of between three to 12 months, which necessitated the Federal Government giving the states bailout funds to pay their workers.

He said the Buhari administration was also confronted with the drop in Nigeria's crude oil production of 2.2 million bpd, coming down to around 1 million bpd as a result of the restiveness in the Niger Delta Region.

Speaking further, the Vice President stated that the struggle in Nigeria is that between good and evil, and not between religions.

“I want to say to you that it’s a battle between good and evil. What we are fighting for in this country is a battle between good and evil, it is not a battle between religions. Corruption is our major challenge. The people that steal Nigeria's resources are both Christians and Muslims," he said.

During the event, a public lecture titled: “The Role of Muslim Leaders in the South West Towards achieving Peaceful and Successful 2019 Elections," the Vice President highlighted some of the programmes and projects of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration since its inception in May 2015.

The Vice President advised the religious leaders to continue to admonish their followers to embrace peace and work for the unity of the country.

The first paper at the lecture was presented by Prof. Ishaq Lakin Akintola, the Director-General, Muslim Rights Concern, while Dr. Saheed Timehin, a senior lecturer at the Lagos State University, presented the second paper.


Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President
Office of the Vice President
11th November, 2018

ATTACK ON TRADERMONI IS AN ATTACK ON HARD-WORKING NIGERIANS, SAYS VP SPOKESPERSON

*We don’t believe Nigerians’ loyalty is for sale

*Calls to suspend microcredit scheme for the common man is unbelievable

The call by some individuals under the auspices of a group named Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum to suspend the TraderMoni, one of the microcredit schemes of the Buhari administration’s Social Investment Programme, is both unbelievable and unfortunate, according to Mr. Laolu Akande, Spokesperson to the Vice President.

Akande, who was reacting to news report credited to the group, noted that such an attack on the Social Investment Programme (SIP) is a direct confrontation with the millions of Nigerians benefitting from all the SIPs, especially the projected 2m total who will be receiving the collateral-free loans by the end of the year.

"It is deceitful for anyone or group to accuse the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, of advance vote-buying through TraderMoni, a micro-credit scheme designed to assist the bottom of the pyramid petty traders nationwide. This was the false claim contained in a communiqué jointly signed by the leadership of a group called Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum recently."

According to Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, “We do not think the Nigerian people are up for sale, nor can they be bought. Such suggestions are an insult on our collective identity. And calling for the suspension of a scheme that improves the businesses of ordinary, hardworking Nigerians, like petty traders, is not only unfair, but an attack on the common man.

“The Social Investment programme of the Buhari administration started in 2016, and the TraderMoni scheme is a part. So, it is false to even insinuate that the scheme was meant for advance vote-buying when it was conceived two years ago.

“TraderMoni, which is part of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) under the SIPs, is designed to assist petty traders across the country expand their trade through the provision of collateral- and interest-free loans from N10,000. The loans are repayable over a period of six months.

“Also, it would seem naysayers cannot withstand the fact that this administration is fulfilling its promise. Would they rather share the funds among themselves instead of supporting petty traders? Afterall, in some few instances, a combined sum of N100 Billion was shared under the former administration. If that N100 Billion had been given to petty traders as loans, like the Buhari administration is doing now at N10,000; 10 million petty traders nationwide would have been beneficiaries.

“We will not choose to engage with the notion that Nigerians and their loyalty are for sale. This administration has proven over and over again that it is committed to the welfare of everyday Nigerians, the common man. That is why we started the largest Social Investment Programme in the history of our country. And we will not relent in staying connected with our people.

“This is a major reason why TraderMoni, which has since been formally launched in 33 states and the FCT, will continue nationwide as we intend to reach 2 million Nigerians by the end of the year. Over 809,000 Nigerians are currently beneficiaries of the microcredit scheme.

“Despite this being a season of upcoming elections and desperate politicians resorting to desperate measures, it is irresponsible for any group to play politics with the welfare of ordinary Nigerians - hardworking petty traders, who are simply making honest living and trying to support their families - and a microcredit scheme which is meant to help improve their businesses and means of livelihood.

“Besides the fact that petty traders are major contributors to the informal economy, most of them do not have access to loans from commercial banks which require collateral or interest, which would help them grow their business, and so the country’s economy.”

“Again, through TraderMoni, the Buhari administration is empowering ordinary Nigerians by improving financial inclusion in the grassroots.”

Akande clarified further that beneficiaries of TraderMoni are not required to show their Personal Voters Cards (PVCs) or any document to qualify for the interest-free loans. This is why the enumeration is done in the open markets and wherever the traders ply their trade.

“The Social Investment Programme includes the Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP); Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT); Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) (MarketMoni, FarmerMoni & TraderMoni) and the N-Power job scheme

“The Home-Grown School Feeding programme is now feeding over 9 million primary school pupils a free meal a day in 26 states nationwide; while almost 300,000 Nigerians are beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer.

“So far, over one million Nigerians are beneficiaries of GEEP schemes - MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni, while 500,000 young Nigerian graduates have been employed under the N-Power job scheme.

“Thus, we urge the group to halt its needless attack on the largest and most ambitious social investment programme in Nigeria’s history, and rather join hands to help our people.

“The Buhari administration remains committed to the welfare and upliftment of the common man and all Nigerians, regardless of party affiliations, and the Social Investment Programme is one of the major planks of this administration to improve their livelihood.”

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
9th November, 2018

GEPIn says Osinbajo was never indicted by Reps report



A policy group has dismissed reports that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was indicted by the House of Representatives over the crisis rocking the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA).

Global Economic Policy Initiative (GEPIn) president, Bernard Okri, noted that since the sack of six NEMA directors in April it had been monitoring the House of Representatives and its brazen support for the corrupt directors.

“We have watching keenly the probe of the suspended NEMA directors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the vested interests blackmailing and intimidating the current NEMA leadership, as reflected in the questionable intervention of the House of Representatives ad hoc committee.

“This is corruption fighting back but what is even more frightening is the fact that the Vice President has been dragged into this because he sits atop the NEMA board.

“It would be recalled that in April, this same House of Reps committee had invited the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita and acting EFCC chairman Ibrahim Magu over the legality of the suspension of these directors.

“Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, head of the CSF had said that the Vice President and NEMA board members acted in line with Public Service Rules on the suspension of the Directors and staff of the agency.

“Similarly, the EFCC had in a report to the Presidency recommended the disciplinary measure to enable it to conduct unhindered investigation and have access to vital records.

“Since the suspension of these directors, the House of Representatives Committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness chaired by Ali Isa (PDP Gombe) has been looking for ways to remove the NEMA DG, Mustapha Maihaja, so they dragged the VP’s name into it.

Okri said the group condemns and frowns at the plots by “corrupt politicians” to drag the Vice President who chairs the NEMA Board into the obvious and unnecessary politicization of the EFCC probe.

“But to claim that the VP illegally approved the release of N5.8 billion in June 2017 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account to NEMA is a complete mischief.

“Only the President has the powers to approve monies, not the Vice President as alleged by the House of Reps in its report.

“Secondly, it is important to know that the monies allocated for NEMA in always imputed in the budget. The Federal Government does not release money indiscriminately.

“For me, this is the clearest case of corruption fighting back. The House of Reps should not drag the Vice President into its mess.

Okri noted that it was all stage managed particularly because of the way Premium Times reported the matter. “It’s ludicrous to publish an unconfirmed report with BREAKING. This is a case that has been ongoing since April.

“Where the reporters at Premium Times sleeping when this matter began? They are part of the corruption fighting back but we will not allow it. We will stand on the side of the truth.

GEPIn stressed that Nigerians connect with VP Osinbajo because he has built his career on integrity.

“We know Prof. Osinbajo as a man of integrity and leader with strong positive character and integrity. No one would be allowed to baselessly tamper with the good reputation he has painstakingly erected over the years.

Okri said the sacked directors, Akinbola Hakeem Gbolahan, Director of Finance and Accounts; Mr. Umesi Emenike, Ag. Director, Special Duties; Mallam Alhassan Nuhu, Director, Risk Reduction; Mr. Mamman Ali Ibrahim, Pilot in-charge Air Ambulance and Aviation Unit; Mr. Ganiyu Yunusa Deji, the Chief Maintenance Officer and Mr. Kanar Mohammed, the Director of Welfare should face the probe by EFCC.

“The directors are innocent until proven guilty but increasingly they are proving that they are guilty by lobbying politicians and the media to report fake news, they should know that the Buhari administration will not tolerate any kind of corruption.

AFRICA INVESTMENT FORUM, A GAME-CHANGER, & NEW ERA IN CONTINENT’S DEVELOPMENT, SAYS VP OSINBAJO



*Adds: Forum not just a talk show, an implementation conference



The impressive turnout from the global business community and the number of investment deals being sealed at the inaugural edition of the Africa Investment Forum will mark a new era in Africa’s investment history, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.



Prof. Osinbajo stated this during an interaction with newsmen shortly after the opening session of the inaugural Africa Investment Forum holding in Johannesburg, South Africa.



According to the Vice President, “the good thing about this conference is that it is an implementation conference. We are actually signing deals here, which is a marked difference between this conference and any that has held anywhere else in the world, as a matter of fact.



“It is a platform for signing deals. Already we saw a $62billion deal here. There is a lot of excitement in the air, mainly because we are not just talking here.



“I don’t think you would have the turnout you have here especially in terms of the business community, the DFIs, the Development Banks, the Private Banks and of course, government, this is an implementation conference. This is not just talking.”



He said Nigeria was not left out in investment deals to be reached at the end of the forum, noting that the country “was on the right track, we have invested so much in infrastructure, we have doubled power generation, we are investing in rail and we are spending so much in the history of the country, in capital”.



Speaking on Nigeria’s leap on the global scale of ease of doing business in 2017, the VP said “one of the main things we did and are still doing in Nigeria is deepening reforms that started effectively in 2016 and focused on issues around ease of doing business.”



He said: "What we did basically was to look at reforms in the areas of entry and exit of people, construction permits, international trade platforms, getting credits, providing power and others.



"We picked on those specific areas because we knew they were the weak areas; we focused on reforming them and they also included reforming at the sub-national levels."



Speaking on government collaboration with the private sector, Prof. Osinbajo said the Buhari administration has remained consistent in its policy on partnering the private sector.



"The partnership with the private sector is extremely important for us. For instance, we established an Industrial Competitiveness and Advisory Council and the Presidential Quarterly Business Forum, where we meet with all the businesses whether large or small.



"The whole idea is to work on policy and together formulate what is our vision in the coming years. Recently we added what is called the Technology and Creativity Advisory Group. This takes into account a lot of the new businesses especially FINTECH companies, young men and women who are involved in entertainment and technology innovations.



"What we have seen is that by focusing on those areas, we are already seeing incremental changes," the Vice President added.



Continuing, the Vice President said government, through the advisory council and relevant agencies, was working on resolving regulatory issues that arise from the entrance of FINTECH companies into the financial market.



According to him, "What we are seeing is that payment systems, lending, and other aspects of the banking system are happening faster, now.



“We have to change regulation and we must ensure that we give space to the FINTECH companies because what is happening now is that there is a quick convergence between technology and financial products much faster than many of the banks are able to cope with."


He advised the banks themselves to key into the emerging markets noting that “banks have to reform; they have to invest in some of the FINTECH companies and see the revolution as inevitable.”

On efforts to ensure that the reforms are spread across the different sectors, the Vice President observed that best practices implemented in particular locations were shared among states through the National Economic Council.

“Through the National Economic Council, that has all the 36 state governors, we look at policies and what the best practices are and ensure everyone is on the same page, according to Prof. Osinbajo. He added that efforts are also underway to fast-track court proceedings, in Lagos as a model, while other states are developing their courts along the same lines.



He added that “Kano has strengths in registration of property, we produced and presented this as best practice for everyone to see, we are laying broadband infrastructure, some states have best practice for that and we are trying to spread that across the country.”





On his part, the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, said creating the enabling environment was key to improving investments in Africa, noting that Africa remains the choice of investors around the world.





He said his company has an ambitious plan to expand its investments portfolio in the continent to achieve a target revenue of over $30 billion by 2030.



In a similar vein, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu said the forum should go beyond signing deals and agreements to ensuring that the deals work for the benefit of all.



According to him, “Beyond signing deals, the deals need to work. In terms of the private sector participation, policies must be articulated and executed in collaboration with the government. Both public and private sector need to work hand in hand to deliver consistent policy reforms.”



The theme of the forum, which drew several African heads of States and business leaders from across the world, is “all set for Africa’s first investment market place’’.



Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

Office of the Vice President

8th November 2018

PRESS STATEMENT ON THE SOCIAL INVESTMENTS JOURNEY

MARYAM UWAIS MFR



The Social Investment Programme of the President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR Administration was set up to improve the living conditions of millions of Nigerians across the country. It has become important that every now and then, we update Nigerians on how far we have come in the last three years, including our success stories and our achievements. In the last three years we have heard thousands of testimonials of people’s lives being changed for the better, as a sign of success and deep penetration into our communities. We continue to see evident improvement in the lives of our beneficiaries.



It is not in doubt that the Social Investment Programme of this Administration is the largest, most ambitious, and I dare say the most successful attempt by any Government, to invest in our people, in Nigeria’s history.



Since inception, we have provided 500 Billion Naira for the programmes in the 2016, 2017 & 2018 Budgets, with close to N250 Billion, being 23.63% of the entire 3 years budget appropriated for N-SIPS having been released. For the 2018 budget so far, however, we have received 18% of the amount appropriated for all our progammes.



Our programmes have four components: The Home Grown School Feeding Programme, the Conditional Cash Transfer Programme, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (which comprises the MarketMoni, the FarmerMoni and the TraderMoni), and the last, but not the least, the N-Power programme, (which also comprises the Technical Hubs springing up around the country, as well as the N-Power Stem Junior, about to commence).



Below is a brief background to each of the programmes and the successes we have achieved so far:



The Home Grown School Feeding Programme: Is a programme that is aimed at feeding young children in our public primary schools, with the aim of improving their nutrition, increasing school enrolment and reducing the incidence of malnutrition. So far, we are feeding over 9,300,892 children in 49,837 government schools in 26 States. Being a programme that also aims at empowering communities, we have also engaged 96,972 cooks with over a 100,000 small-scale farmers being part of the value chain, supplying locally sourced ingredients. It is noteworthy of mention that currently, public schools require 6.8m eggs, 594 cattle and 83 metric tons of fish to be supplied to the cooks, every week, for the purpose of feeding the children. These statistics do not take into account the boost that is evident in the production and supply of rice, wheat, soya bean, orange-flesh potatoes, fruit and vegetable farmers, to mention a few.
The Conditional Cash Transfer Programme: This programme is giving out 5,000 Naira monthly to 297,973 households in Nigeria. It is currently being implemented in 20 States. As a critical component of the cash transfer programme, we have trained almost 3,000 community cash transfer facilitators in every ward where the programme is ongoing, to build the capacities of our beneficiaries and support them to become productive and take ownership of their lives. The methodology of selecting our beneficiaries is deliberate, tried and tested to assure of credibility, as well as aimed at enabling the capturing of biometric data for financial and social inclusion. Beneficiary households are selected by the communities directly, with their household and community data being uploaded onto Social Registers by trained enumerators at State and LGA levels, as a means of ensuring that we continue to keep a keen eye on their progress, towards weaning them out of poverty.
The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) comprises the MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and the TraderMoni. We are making available to micro-businesses credit facilities to improve their businesses through this scheme. It is managed by the Bank of Industry, who have the wherewithal to recover loans. We have so far reached over 1.1 Million Beneficiaries across the 36 States of the Federation, with N27.4 Billion in interest free loans, ranging from N10,000 Naira to N350,000 Naira disbursed so far. In particular, the aim of the Trader Moni programme is to take financial inclusion to the grassroots, considering the daily contributions of millions of petty traders to our economic prosperity and development. Indeed, especially because this category of citizens has hitherto had no access to credit to support their businesses, this is a deliberate effort at assuring of financial credit and a sense of belonging as an entitlement of these citizens, who are also Nigerians deserving of support.
N-Power: this programme is currently employing 500,000 youth graduates. It is the largest post-tertiary employment programme in Africa, where beneficiaries are paid a monthly stipend of N30,000 and deployed as volunteers into various sectors of need in the public space, such as health, agriculture, education and public finance. They are given devices to facilitate their service delivery, and as a continuous learning avenue. We have also supported 20,000 N-Power non-graduate volunteers, who have been trained in skill centres in every State, and given tool boxes to enable them apply their newly-acquired expertise in the building and automative industries. Both schemes have assured of volunteers in all the Local Government Areas of the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT.


It is important to note that in the majority of these schemes there are no third parties engaged to pay monies to beneficiaries. All monies are paid directly through their bank accounts, having been verified by their BVN’s through a close collaboration with NIBSS. The processes and strategies in place are carefully designed to create a level-playing field in selection and payments. If there are challenges to payments as in the remote areas where there is no banking infrastructure, our beneficiaries are paid by agents in their locations, which agents have been selected in an open and transparent process. We have improved on transparent and efficient payments by assuring of a technology aided back-to-back payment delivery, so we can see who is being paid in a timely manner, as payments are being effected in the field.



I should also mention that the design of the Nigerian Social Safety Net intervention is anchored on the development of the Social Register. This strategy of anchoring interventions from the Social Register and not from multi beneficiary lists has generated interest in other countries within the social protection space. One of such countries is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that is currently visiting our country on a study tour. The DRC is in the process of designing its Social Safety Net programme and the tour will afford them the opportunity for learning towards assuring of an appropriate design for their own context. In particular, the DRC delegation is keen on understudying the process of community-based targeting in building a credible social registry for their own interventions. The delegation which is made up of 8 government staff and 1 staff from the World Bank staff (based in the DRC) are also slated to visit our State project offices and implementation sites in the Federal Capital Territory and Kogi State. The delegation is led by a Cabinet Minister in the Government of the Congo.



We wish to reassure all Nigerians that we are working with credible local and International development partners and non-governmental organizations with the passion and avowed commitment to remain apolitical, towards assuring that we apply concerted efforts to alleviate poverty and unemployment. For us to be able to improve on our human capital indices in the various spheres, we must address our sundry challenges in a manner that remains objective and sincere, irrespective of ethnicity, religion and political affiliation. We must also remain continuously poised to address any concerns, as they emerge. We continue to encourage Nigerians, wherever they may be, to draw our attention to any problem they may perceive arising in their respective vicinities. The task to address poverty and unemployment should be a collective responsibility for all of us, even as we continue to apply ourselves to assure of a better Nigeria for the benefit of all our citizens, irrespective of class, location and political affiliation. Thank you.





Maryam Uwais MFR

Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments

Office of the Vice President

Why PDP Senators are unhappy with Buhari's Social Investment Programmes

Truth is, Nigerians and more Nigerians have continued to hail the Buhari administration's well-thoughout resolve to meaningfully empower Nigerians through its Social Investment Programmes which have earned her accolades from within and outside Nigeria.

But the PDP is not happy that ordinary Nigerians are bidding farewell to extreme poverty courtesy of the SIP. The party is sad that the Federal government is addressing the needs of our fellow countrymen and women. The party is never used to empowerig the poor.

~PDP lawmakers are not happy because for the very first time the poor people are being factored into the distribution of our commonwealth through the SIP.

~ PDP lawmakers are not pleased because monies that would have ended up in their pockets were invested into the Buhari administration's Social Investment Programmes.

~PDP lawmakers are sad because the Federal government chose to be thorough and unbiased in the implementation of the Social Investment Programmes.

~ PDP lawmakers are angry because slots for would-be beneficiaries of various SIP schemes weren't alloted to anyone, not even heads of the implementing bodies.

~ PDP lawmakers are disgruntled because all SIP beneficiaries are selected via transparent means and not based on connections.

~ PDP lawmakers are sad because the Buhari SIP scheme didn't fail like the SURE-P programme of the previous government which was meant for the families and friends of top government functionaries.

~Senator Abiodun Olujimi's claims that SIP beneficiaries are selected based on party affiliation and connections are unfounded and baseless.

~The SIP is not only lifting Nigerians out of poverty but clearly addresses the core issues that confront the common man.

Peter Obi: An unrepentant ethnic irredentist

PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has throughout his campaigns so far accused the President Muhammadu Buhari administration of dividing the country along its fault lines and claimed that he is the one with the magic wand to bring everybody together and unite the nation.

The lie in the claims was however exposed recently with the choice of Peter Obi - who is arguably Nigeria’s most divisive, bigoted and sectional politician alive – as running mate. How can someone who has never hidden his disbelief in One Nigeria unite Nigeria?

~In 2011, Peter Obi as Governor of Anambra State deported 29 Akwa-Ibom State indigenes without any justification other than the fact that he didn’t consider it the duty of his administration to accommodate and care for people who are not of the Igbo ethnic stock.

~Traders and residents of northern extraction had a torrid time living in the state under Obi as state government officials constantly demolished their homes and mosques and barred them from moving round peacefully.

~Peter Obi once directed all non citizens of Anambra residing in the state to apply for official identity cards as requirement for living or doing business in any part of the state.

~Obi has also been named as a major sponsor of the secessionist movement – Independent of People of Biafra (IPOB) and has never hidden his solidarity with their agitations and support for their violent rhetoric/campaign.

~Obi’s Igbo irredentism was confirmed in August 2012 when his company, SabMiller introduced a new alcoholic drink called ‘Hero’ into the market. The logo of IPOB was (and is still) conspicuously placed on the bottle and can of the product, which has now become the most popular drink of the southeast people.

BMO KNOCKS ATIKU ON WASTEFUL DUBAI HOLIDAY

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described Abubakar Atiku’s strategic meeting with his crew in Dubai “as a disgusting, disgraceful display of opulence that insults the Nigerian people.

“This trip by Atiku and over a hundred people is not just a sign of his lavish lifestyle, but it depicts the elitist wasteful nature of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate.”

The group, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and its Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, described the pretentious strategy meeting as a guise by the PDP presidential candidate to show off his ill-gotten wealth through grandiose holidaying, a meeting that could have been held in Nigeria.

“It is unfortunate that a man seeking to be Nigeria’s President does not think that he can have a strategy session in Nigeria but has to travel over 3,000 kilometres to Dubai to have this session. Nigeria has beautiful locations that could host this so-called strategy session. There is Tinapa Business Resort in Calabar, Yankari Games Reserve in Bauchi, Whispering Palms in Lagos, Inagbe Resorts in Lagos, and so many others. But Atiku chose to have his so-called session in far-away Dubai.”

The group noted that if the “strategy meeting” was held in a location in Nigeria, it would have provided more revenue for Nigerian businesses and add to the country’s economy.

“Going with a conservative estimate of over 100 persons, including PDP Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, in the country to holiday with Atiku, Nigerians can imagine the millions of dollars that would have been expended on this luxury trip.

“A minimum of 50,000 Dollars would be expended on each participant, with over 100 of them on this trip, Atiku would have blown at least five million dollars on this needless session that cannot even guarantee him victory at the polls.”

“A man who is spending this much money but submits a meagre 20 Million Naira annual income to our tax authorities is certainly one that must not be allowed anywhere near Nigeria’s leadership. This trip by Atiku and his elite crew insults the Nigerian people, and the masses.”

The group stated that Nigerians must reject an Atiku presidency as it would be one that would see to Nigeria being mortgaged to a few cronies of his as he had done during his days when he headed Nigeria’s privatisation as Vice President.

The group went further to note that President Buhari has shown himself to be a President for the everyday Nigerian and the masses, highlighting that his policies have shown that his heart is with them and not with the elites who think that Nigeria is their birth right.



“The President Buhari administration has so far invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Nigeria’s most successful and ambitious social investment programmes, which have changed the lives of over 15 Million poor Nigerians.”

“Over 500,000 previously unemployed young Nigerians are now engaged under the N-Power programme, over 9 Million children are being fed in our public schools, over a million Nigerian small and medium scale traders have accessed collateral-free loans”, the group added.

HOW WE PLAN TO IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES, SCHOOL ENROLMENT IN THE COMING YEARS, BY VP OSINBAJO



*Adds: School-feeding Programme raises enrollment by 30% in many cases



*Every Child Counts is name of new education policy



“Every Child Counts” is the name of our policy which means we have democratized our vision of a qualitative and relevant education to reach every Nigerian child.”



“Every Child Counts” ensures that all children especially the numbers reported to be out of school now, and in those areas where children tend to drop out of school much faster, get a decent education and are reached by this programme. And this is one of the real aspirations of the programme.”



“We are embarking on a massive nationwide teacher training project which will ensure that our educators of the minds of our young people are trained in the most current ways and technology.”







SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF GRANGE SCHOOL, HELD IN LAGOS, ON 30TH OCTOBER 2018.



PROTOCOLS



I am extremely honoured to have been invited to flag off the ceremonies marking the 60th Anniversary of the Grange School - this pre-eminent citadel of education. I have known Grange School practically all my life since I am only a year older than the school. I have been asked to speak on “academic excellence as a tool for nation building” and I will speak for a very few minutes.



As you already know, Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, and like the rest of the continent, it is a nation of young people; half the population is below the age of 20. By the year 2050, we are told that we will be the third most populous country in the world, exceeded only by India and China, in that order. 60 per cent of that population will be made up of young people, an average age of about 17.5 years.



So, we are going to have a large youth population that can be a tremendous blessing for economic growth and prosperity; it can also be a problem especially if we don’t plan well and in advance. Poverty, extreme poverty further complicates the problem for a country like ours.



In the last poverty survey which was done in 2012, that is the last cycle of household poverty survey done, we are estimated to have about 112 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty. And so poverty is both a cause and consequence of our poor educational attainments.



Currently, we have 9 million children out of school mostly in the poorest parts of the country; of those in school, only 20% of those who completed public primary education could actually read; girls constitute the majority of those out of school children. So, there will be a lot of arguments, some of us may be familiar with the arguments about how crucial education is to reducing extreme poverty, and some will say it may not be entirely true to say that education will always reduce poverty.



But I think the statistics especially from those who have done credible studies, the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report and the Education Commission’s Learning Generation Report, show that education actually has a major impact on several aspects on what will constitute good living or raise the standard of living in a society. So, there is evidence showing that individual’s earnings will actually grow if people are well educated.



So, education, we are told, reduces poverty by almost 60%. 171 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty if all children left school just with basic reading skills – that is equivalent to a 12% drop in the world total. Absolute poverty would be reduced by 30% just by improving basic reading and from learning skills.



The other point they say is that education increases individual earnings. Education increases earnings by roughly 10% per year of schooling. For each $1 or N360 invested in an additional year of schooling, earnings increased by $5 in low-income countries and $2.5 in lower-middle income countries.



Another is that education reduces economic inequalities. So, if workers from poor and rich backgrounds received the same education; disparity between the two in working poverty actually decreases by 39%.



They also found that education promotes economic growth. And there are all sorts of other statistics.



One of the critical things is that we have a huge population and that population continues to grow. Part of it is because those who live in extreme poverty have far more children than those who are better off. So, the average person who lives in extreme poverty has five children while those who are much better off will have an average of about three children. With education, you actually have a reduction in the number of children and a reduction in population which of course makes it more manageable to run a society especially when it comes to providing the required services for the people.



So, there is a three-fold plan to improve educational outcomes and that plan is one that was worked out between the Federal Government and the state government. I am sure many of us are aware of the fact that education, especially at the primary and secondary levels is run by the state government. For secondary schools, you have a few unity schools owned by the Federal Government. But the main bulk of all the work that is done in education is done by the state governments. The Federal Government sets the tone and the standards and it can also assist and work with the state governments as effectively as possible which is what we have tried to do.



I chair the National Economic Council, and one of the critical issues we have been looking at is how to develop a new curriculum for education and we have gone very far with the Ministry of Education.



So, like I said we have a three-fold plan. The first aspect of that is to ensure that we attain all of the outcomes specified in the Sustainable Development Goals and those targets include school enrollment, quality of education, adult literacy, and quality of teaching and all of those we intend to meet them.



Also, we intend to work on the 9 million out-of-school children, a lot of that has already been done, anyway. And this, of course, is a complex process because it involves the full cooperation of state governments and religious authorities in some cases and of course public-spirited individuals and groups. The whole idea is to properly equip and train, properly equip and train educators across the country.



We also need to increase school enrolment, already, school enrolment has increased in many cases by over 30% in the last 2 ½ years, largely on account of our school feeding programme. Under the programme, we give, in public schools, in 26 states at the moment, lunch every day, and about 9.2 million children who enjoy that facility now. And that has increased enrolment because many children from poor homes hardly ever eat a complete meal a day, so the meal is a major attraction. It also increases the learning abilities because one of the chief problems, when you are hungry, is, of course, loss of concentration.



Aside from that, malnutrition is a major problem, that actually stunts growth, and some of the stories that you hear about malnutrition and how they stunt mental growth are usually heartbreaking. You find that especially at the ages of zero and five if children are not properly fed, mentally, they are much weaker than those who were well fed within that same period of their lives. So, the school feeding programme, is for us, very important not just for improving enrolment, but for improving the ability to learn.



The third plank of that programme is that we recognized that we are not just dealing with a rapid population growth. We are also dealing with rapid changes in technology and rapid changes in the way things are being done with innovation and all of that. So, the educational challenge before us is a radical one, we simply cannot educate in the ways that we used to educate 10 years ago.



Besides, to eradicate poverty our education must equip the young to be productive. This is why we are currently working on far-reaching skills-based curriculum on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. This is the curriculum for primary and secondary schools.



The core skills the programme will provide include: (1) Coding and Computer Programming; (2) Design Thinking and Computer Generated Imaging, Animation and Graphics Design; (3) Robotics, Networking and basic engineering applications. We have a programme called the N-Power programme and about 3000 of them are currently being trained in animation skills and techniques and we found that people take so easily to learn some of these things. In fact, the younger people are, the easier it is for them to learn all of these technology skills. So, we think that to develop the kinds of young people who will be able to take on the kind of challenges of the 21st century and get the kind of work that the 21st century is producing already, we simply have to change the way we teach and what we teach.



And we are working in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oracle Academy, Microsoft Cisco Academy and IBM. They are working with us in developing this curriculum. Of course, the Federal Ministry of Education and the respective states are also working with us. And the immediate plan is to reach, with this sort of education, at least 2 million pupils in the first year. The plan also envisions a new classroom structure that permits the cultivation, expression and early adoption of skills that will function in the environment that is already being created - the technology environment that is already being created.



The next question we asked is, for whom do we plan? The answer is quite straightforward - it is the Nigerian child. Not just the ones in the urban areas or the few that are privileged to afford decent schooling above the weakened standards of public schooling generally. The real slogan for us is “Every Child Counts” and that is the name of the policy which means we have democratized our vision of a qualitative and relevant education to reach every Nigerian child.



“Every Child Counts” ensures that all children especially the number reported to be out of school now, and in those areas where children tend to drop out of school much faster, all of them deserve to get a decent education, all of them must be reached by this programme. And this is one of the real aspirations of that programme. So, we are looking at how to ensure that these children not only get a decent education but it also means that classroom by classroom, school by school, our public schools become really the place where young people can learn and set an objective standard for how we educate the average Nigerian child regardless of class, gender and ethnicity. We have an ambitious plan to reach and equip at least ten thousand classrooms every year under this programme.



The question, “who do we plan for”, also takes into account our teachers. To impart the relevant, qualitative and excellent education of our vision, teacher training must be overhauled by wide-scale and disruptive methods. So, we are embarking on a massive nationwide teacher-training project which will ensure that our educators of the minds of our young people are trained in the most current ways and technology.



As part of our plan, our education system will also promote and develop skills that are key to nation building such as hard work, discipline, cooperation, unity, respect, honesty, service, leadership, accountability, integrity and the civic skills that are key in developing a nation. The work of changing the story of educational failure in Nigeria is not just for governments alone.



I must say that I am extremely proud of the way that Grange has enthusiastically collaborated with my office in some of the important work we are doing at the learning centre in Maiduguri where we have a world-class education and boarding, free of charge to children who are victims of the conflict in the northeast.



So, we have a facility that will take about 1,200 children and we have all manner of facilities which will be useful in their education. They have also committed to working with us on teacher training especially in the conflict areas and that is also a very important part of the work that we are doing. In many parts of Nigeria, many teachers simply don’t have the required skill to pass on the sort of knowledge and human experiences that will benefit the children. So we really need to do extensive training. For us, the whole work of changing the educational story in Nigeria is an important and ongoing one and it involves all of us coming together to do this work. Giving back is so crucial and I am glad to see that the example has been set by the Grange School just to show that is entirely possible by taking some of what we have to better the lives of so many especially those who cannot give us back.



So, I want to urge all of you especially the young people who are here that there is so much that can be done in terms of supporting the work that is being done to educate others and to better the lives of others. I met a young man (who has not been to the university yet) who does a lot of work with teaching English in some parts of the north and doing this largely by creating graphics and designs that are useful in teaching. It is not a big thing but it is so tremendously impactful.



So again I just want to congratulate the board, students and staff of Grange on your 60th birthday, and to wish you very more happy and fruitful years. God bless you.



Released by:

Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

Office of the Vice President

31st October 2018

From Obj's Book, Right from the Horse's Mouth!

How I Tackled Atiku and Others -

“By the Constitution, I had to inaugurate or prorogue the National Assembly on June 4, 1999. The most important officer in the National Assembly is the senate president and that office had been zoned to the South-east. And here was where Atiku Abubakar, my vice-president, first showed his hand and his character.
“Without seeking my view or approval, he started planning the installation of Chuba Okadigbo as the senate president. I did a background check on Chuba including his past as a student and made enquiries about him in the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) under (President Shehu) Shagari and no one would recommend him for the post of senate president.
“I left Atiku to go on his chase while I carried out a meticulous and detailed investigation and background check on each senator from the South-east. The one that appeared most appoint-able was Evan Enwerem. I canvassed the senate across the board for his election and he was elected. Atiku did not expect it and he felt sore.
“He began to strategise for Enwerem to be removed and Chuba Okadigbo to be installed. His strategy worked because I was at Abuja airport to receive a visiting head of state when the news reached me that the Senate had impeached Enwerem and elected Okadigbo. I was not perturbed. I came to understand from some senators including Florence Ita-Giwa, who later became my Special Adviser/ Liaison Officer to the National Assembly, that Atiku distributed US$5,000 each to some senators to carry out the ‘coup’.
“That was the beginning of bribing the legislature to carry out a particular line of action to suit or satisfy the purpose or desire of an individual or a group. The National Assembly had tasted blood and they would continue to want more. From the day I nominated Atiku to be my vice, he set his mind not for any good, benefit or service of the country, but on furiously planning to upstage, supplant or remove me at all cost and to take my place.
“That was what I brought him for, but he was impatient and over-ambitious. He was not ready to learn and to wait. His marabout, who predicted that despite being elected as governor, he would not be sworn in as a governor, which happened, also assured him that he would take over from me in a matter of months rather than years.
“All his plans, appointments of people and his actions were towards the actualisation of his marabout’s prediction. Once I realised his intention and programme, I watched him like a hawk without giving any indication of what I knew and letting down my guard. I could not succumb to the distraction, diversion and malevolence of an ambitious but unwise deputy.
“The work in hand was more important than a confrontational relationship with my deputy, a man over whom I knew I had far more experience and outreach in all matters. To alert him of what I knew he was up to, would only lead to lying, denial, more mischievous plans and more duplicity on his part.
“He was better managed that way. What was important was not allowing myself to be surprised or outmanoeuvred by him. I must always seize the initiative and know what was going on if not in his mind, but at least in his camp. That I did very effectively.
“Sometime in the fourth quarter of 2004, an associate of Atiku came to my residence at the Aso Villa from Atiku’s official residence. He felt uncomfortable and I tried to make him feel at ease. Then, he settled to tell me the story of what had just transpired in Atiku’s residence. I listened with rapt attention.
“He went on to say that Atiku told him that for him to become the President of Nigeria, the 2007 elections were only a formality.
“The seven ingredients he needed for his enthronement were already in his hands. He controlled the National Assembly because both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were in his pocket. He controlled twenty-eight out of thirty-six governors. He had control of the media. His influence over the judiciary was overwhelming.
“What he needed was foreign endorsement and for that he had employed two lobby groups in the US and one in the UK. And finally, the money for the elections was in his purse.
“When the man finished, I thanked him without passing any comment. The man was surprised at my reaction and asked, ‘You have nothing to say to these?’ I said that I had nothing to say and I immediately called my ADC, Chris Jemitola, to play a game of squash with me.
“On our way to the squash court with my ADC, I said, ‘People at times make plans and leave God out of their plans.’ My casual remark struck Chris and he said, ‘Sir, that was a profound statement.’ I said that I made the statement because of what I had just heard of Atiku’s plan. I was not convinced he had put God in his plans.
“Atiku was confident and God was laughing. Most of Atiku’s ingredients soon started to fall out of place one by one. The first was the party, PDP.
“He thought I was powerless and had no clue about the execution of his plan with his group; part of his attack on me was for national chairman of the party to give the first salvo, then other things would follow as his grip on the party would be firm and consolidated.
“That salvo came in the form of a letter to me from the chairman of the party, Audu Ogbeh, who had fully defected with (Iyorchia) Ayu to Atiku.
“The letter, which was not the product of any issue or matter discussed with or at any party meeting, came suddenly. When I received it, I could read the sinister intention behind it.
“I spent that night writing my reply and I sent it in the morning. My reply was clear.
I wondered why Atiku and his group did not realise that with my reply, the battle line was clear or maybe they thought that the seven ingredients would remain intact to the end.
“My assistants had moles within the Atiku group. Anything that they planned would be reported. That was the case after Ogbeh’s letter. They decided that Ogbeh should appear remorseful and come with the National Working Committee to apologise to me. It was not from their hearts, but to lure me to a ‘killing ground’.
“All pieces of information that were reported were verified because it would not come from only one informant.
“Timely information is a very important principle of war and also of politics. In politics, just as in war, what matters is not just your plan, but knowledge of your opponent’s plan. Knowing their plan, I had the choice of playing along with them or being firm, I chose the latter.
“I told Ogbeh that my relationship with him as national chairman and me as national leader of the party was based on mutual confidence and trust. But with his letter, my reply and what I knew of him then, I could no longer work with him in confidence and trust.
“There were only two choices left for both of us in our best interest and that of the party – he, leaves as chairman or I leave as leader of the party.
“The following Sunday, I called at his house, which I had done on several occasions in the past when there was an important party matter to discuss. This time, I asked him to give me an undated letter of resignation as the national chairman.
“I waited, he gave me but it was wrongly addressed to me rather than to the national secretary of the party as stipulated in the party’s constitution.
“Ogbeh reported to his group and it was decided by them to play on and to wait for my disgrace whenever I presented a letter of resignation not addressed to the national secretary.
“The informants did their job and I, once again, paid another visit to Ogbeh at his residence. He entertained me to a meal and drink, and changed the addressee on his letter of resignation.
“It would appear he never reported the change to his group. When I considered it opportune and appropriate, the letter was dated and presented to National Executive Committee of the party, which regrettably accepted the resignation.
“With that, whatever control Atiku claimed to have over the party began to crumble. But he did not think so and went on to boast that if I made my daughter the national chairman, it would be a matter of weeks not months before he would put her in his pocket.
“I therefore had to look for a successor chairman, who would be too big, uncompromising and inflexible to be lured and controlled by Atiku. I found such a man in
Senator (Dr.) Amadu Ali, whom I had known many years earlier as a medical doctor in the army…”

Femi Fani-Kayode a hallucinating author of Fake News, APC Chieftain

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Abubakar Sidiq Usman, has described former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode as the author of fake news, after the failed politician slandered Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Usman noted that on 26 October 2018 at the Jubilee Hall, National Christian Centre in Abuja, Fani-Kayode attempted to soil the VP with unfounded claims.

“It is important to note that Fani-Kayode, a serial liar who thrives in peddling falsehood and fake news against very respectable people like the Vice President has made several attempts to malign the name of the Vice President at every opportunity presented to him,” Usman said in an preempt statement with journalists in Abuja.

He added that, Nigerians will recall that on 27 February 2015, Fani-Kayode began his campaign of calumny against the person of the Vice President by cooking up stories out of his hallucination. He even once claimed that Vice President had sworn an oath with former Lagos governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

“Senator Tinubu, according to our information, has compelled Professor Osinbajo to swear to an oath that after six months in office, he would resign as the vice president, in the unlikely event that their party wins.

“The wicked plot, as laid out by them, is to force Professor Osinbajo to resign for Senator Tinubu to be nominated by General Buhari as his replacement,” Mr. Fani Kayode concocted at a press conference in Abuja.

Mr Usmab then recounted another false news by Mr Fani-Kayode. On 13 July 2017, he claimed that the British government had sent former Prime Minister Tony Blair to perfect plans of how Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari when he dies and how Governor Nasir El-Rufai will be picked as Vice President.

“When Buhari is declared dead the plan is for Osinbajo to appoint Nasir El Rufai as his VP. Tony Blair has come to Kaduna to convey British approval of that plan. El Rufai is slotted to take over from Osinbajo in 2019 but God will shock them. When will the Brits leave us alone?” Fani-Kayode concocted again.

The APC chieftain then highlighted yet another fake news by Mr Fani-Kayode. On 4 July 2017, Fani-Kayode claimed that some persons were out to stop the Vice President from restructuring Nigeria like they stopped Pa Obafemi Awolowo and Chief M.K.O. Abiola.

“They stopped Awo and MKO Abiola. Now they plan to stop Osinbajo and say no to restructuring. Enough! TB Joshua please pray for Oduduwa Republic,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

Mr Usman explained that, “The sickening and outlandish claims of Fani-Kayode has been well documented over years. Him and others like him have thrown everything imaginable at Vice President Osinbajo, but he has continued to wax stronger and stronger.

He added that, “The VP is a man of international repute and a man of integrity. He is a Christian and a pastor but will remain the Vice President of all Nigerians irrespective of religion, ethnicity or race.

“To ask the Vice President to speak for Christians alone, is to divide Nigeria along ethnic lines and the Vice President do not stand for that. He widely spoke of his belief and has stands by it,” Mr Usman said.

PDP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ATIKU ABUBAKAR ENGAGED IN SUSPECTED TAX UNDERPAYMENT, EVASION

Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, may be involved in tax fraud.

This is coming after he declared a questionable yearly income of N20 million in the credentials filed with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Atiku had indicated in his tax returns attached to his presidential nomination form that he earned N60.2 million as income in three years, and paid N10.8 million tax between 2015 and 2017.

This is however coming as a surprise to many as available records online showed that Atiku’s wealth is estimated about $1.4 billion.

In 2014, Atiku was quoted to have said: “As an individual, I believe my record in employing young Nigerians is unrivalled by any single private investor in Nigeria.”

Atiku’s chains of business include ABTI Schools; a major part of this is the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, Adamawa State; Prodeco, a property development company and Prodeco International, operating in Oil and Gas Free Zones. The company engages in building, marine, and infrastructural construction in the oil and gas industry.

Atiku also has a farm operating on 2,500 hectares of land near Yola, in Adamawa State, and a humongous Share in Intels Nigeria Limited which provides integrated logistics services for the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Available checks revealed that jet owners spend about N30 billion on maintenance annually, and prominent Nigerians who are private jet owners include Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Recently, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), had accused Atiku’s Intel of not paying taxes. The Presidential candidate had in 2015 described Intel as his most successful business.

Similarly, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), suspended its pilotage monitoring and supervision agreement with Intel over failure to comply with the federal government’s directive on the Treasury Single Account (TSA), and unfair trade practices and high tariffs in charges which is far above what have been approved by the Transport Ministry for the NPA.

The suspension was however lifted after all recommendations had reportedly been met by both parties.

In 2015, Atiku Abubakar commissioned an expansion work at the multi-billion Adama Beverages in Yola, Adamawa State. The company produces all brands of bottle water and fruit juice of assorted brands.Chairman, Board of Director of the Company Akin Kekere-Ekun explained that the expansion work gulped N3billion, the machinery cost N1.9 billion while N750million was spent on civil works.

Available records showed that in the year 2016, Adama Beverages achieved a turnover of N4.5 billion against N3.8 billion recorded in the previous year 2015. This represents 16% growth in turnover.

In December 2017, Atiku commissioned Chicken Cottage Nigeria in Abuja, an outlet, owned by him.

He promised to open more of the outlets in strategically important locations in Nigeria.

“Our target is to have at least One Chicken Cottage Restaurant in every state in Nigeria.

His promise came to being in May 2018, when he commissioned another outlet in Yola, Adamawa State.

In June 2018, Atiku donated N10 million to victims of windstorm in Bauchi State. Also in October 2018, Atiku donated another N10 million to families of victims of Abia pipeline explosion.

On Thursday, Atiku donated another N10 million to Nigeria’s amputee team Special Eagles.

These commendable charitable efforts by Atiku are however in disagreement with his claims on earnings, experts say. His declared share of the profit can hardly make him afford the $1 million he paid as dowry to the family of Miss Whitney Woods, who got engaged to his step son, Mr. Anthony Douglas, during their wedding ceremony in Dubai.

A financial expert in Abuja, described Atiku’s latest tax returns as a systemic undervaluation of his chain of wealth.

According to him, while it was not immediately clear if Atiku’s income has exceeded N20 million for the year 2018, it is important the government investigate his earnings and watch keenly what would be declared as income in the following year.

Observers and civil society organizations (CSOs) have also raised their voice and urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the Adamawa State Inland Revenue Service, to invoke the Freedom of Information Act to unravel the true earnings of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

With this medium unable to unearth Atiku's personal profit from his business, his seemingly clear tax underpayment puts to question his integrity test, especially as he is clamoring to be elected as the country’s President in the 2019 general elections

CREATIVES HAVE MORAL BURDEN TO INFLUENCE SOCIETY POSITIVELY – VP OSINBAJO

“Does the artist have a responsibility to society beyond that of the ordinary citizen? Is there a civic tax payable on talent? Does the fact of your genius place upon you, a moral burden to attempt to use the powerful voice of your art to fight for the soul of the land, especially to fight for the soul of the land from whence you came?”

To take moral positions, are you by virtue of your intellect and creativity a moral agent? Or are you not? Can you or not be neutral? Can you be politically neutral? Can you, in the face of so much that needs to be done, poverty, deprivation, and injustice, stay politically neutral? Can Africa afford to have its best talents wearing halos of political innocence and saying: "let us leave politics to the scoundrels?” – VP Osinbajo

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE AKE ARTS & BOOK FESTIVAL IN LAGOS ON THE 26TH OF OCTOBER, 2018

Protocols.

I am honored to be in your midst today. Creatives are probably the only occupational group that still has a reputation in our world today, and the simple reason is that they don't really allow anyone to put them in a box they can always escape; they can be anything they like at any time.

Lawyers, for example, my profession, are the most maligned, descriptions ranging from scorpions to sharks and of course, politicians are the scum of the earth! So what sort of an image could a lawyer-politician like myself have?

I really, frankly blame no one for my lot, except probably my mum. And I really might have been a modestly successful poet, but for a most traumatic incident that happened when I was about 10 years old. There was a girl in my class who I was quite certain at the time that I could give my life for. So I wrote her a lovely poem over a weekend; I wrote the poem on Friday and finished it on Saturday. And It was, if I may say so myself, a work of sheer genius. It ended with the dramatic words; "your warm embrace may be the last desire of my heart before I die!” Of course, there are those here whom I think may not think there is much rhythm in that but anyway!

I tucked it in my school bag and looked forward with a heart filled with love for Monday, to present it to the object of my affections.

My mum, while cleaning out the bag, found the letter, and all hell broke loose. Needless to say, she beat the poetic genius out of me that terrible, terrible afternoon.

But that’s not the end of the story. True love as you know, will survive even the worst brutality. So, I bore my injuries as a worthy suffering for my beloved. On Monday morning, I found the best opportunity to give her a freshly written version of the poem. I turned away as she took the letter, I didn’t want to behold the sheer pleasure as she read it, but as I turned around, I noticed that she had actually handed the poem over to the teacher and she was pointing at me!

While my physical bruises have healed from that experience, from as you can imagine, what happened with the teacher, my capacity for writing romantic poetry had been greatly diminished.

Fantastical Futures is the audaciously inspirational theme of this iteration of the Ake Arts & Book Festival. Why do we in today's world, dare to hope for a future so fantastic that it is described as fantastical? The reason it is, if I may offer one, is that there is for those who have cast this great vision; Lola, her friends and collaborators, they’ve have not allowed their vision to be beclouded by the cataracts of discouragement that so easily beset us. Two of those cataracts to our vision are worthy of mention.

The first is a disdain for introspection, which has just come over time, that capacity for deep thought, and making that the basis of planning and action. It is a disdain for introspection that causes our elite to spend or embezzle all the cash and opportunities of the present and make it the burden of a leaner future to pay for our corruption and carelessness.

A failure to interrogate the past, coupled with a reluctance to explain the benefit of deferring gratification. Is the creative sometimes, unable to stick to a cause because it may no longer be popular?

Niyi Osundare, the poet I’m sure we’re all familiar with, captures this elite inability to defer gratification in the provocative poem titled “Eating Tomorrow's Yam”.

And I quote a portion of it, he said: "There is only one left in the village barn, the prodigal calls for a knife 'what shall we eat tomorrow', the people ask, 'if we finish all the yam today just how shall we feel when the dunghill has relieved stomachs of their improvident burden? And says the prodigal: 'tomorrow will take care of itself, how can we know the next day if we die of hunger today?”

The recursive one step forward two steps backwards of our histories, especially in Africa, has caused Prof. Tanure Ojaide, and I’m sure you’re all familiar with him as well, in his angry style, to ask "What poets do our leaders read?”

Again, Tanure Ojaide in his poem, “No longer our country”, remonstrates, and I quote him; "We have lost it, a country we were born into, we can now sing dirges of the commonwealth only of yesterday. We have a country that is no longer our own."

But even he, that is Ojaide, will agree that men and women, not spirits build societies. Which leads me to the second cataract that blurs our vision. Imagine the failure to recognize the responsibility of the individual, especially the gifted individual.

Does the artist have a responsibility to society beyond that of the ordinary citizen? Is there a civic tax payable on talent? Does the fact of your genius place upon you, a moral burden to attempt to use the powerful voice of your art to fight for the soul of the land, especially to fight for the soul of the land from whence you came?

To take moral positions, are you by virtue of your intellect and creativity a moral agent? Or are you not? Can you or not be neutral? Can you be politically neutral? Can you in the face of so much that needs to be done, poverty, deprivation, and injustice, stay politically neutral? Can Africa afford to have its best talents wearing halos of political innocence and saying "let us leave politics to the scoundrels?”

There is a growing impatience of the deprived millions of our people with the elite, which includes all of us in this room; the bombs tied to the 11-year-old body of Safiaru a malnourished girl, who has never been to school, cannot distinguish between a lawyer like Yemi Osinbajo or a writer like Molara Wood. The bomb does not discriminate!

But two things before I take my seat; one is in response to Lola, who asked for some kind of policy for Creatives.
Earlier this year, the government established the Technology and Creativity Sector Working Group: a policy committee of Federal Government Ministers and Heads of Agencies with Creatives, Tech and Entertainment business owners.

The group meets to work on policy, including rules and regulations regularly. So, we do have now, a policy group, who takes into account the sorts of views that Creatives may want especially in formulating policy and that is so for persons of technology as well. So, I think there is plenty of room for expression, especially the way we want to see policies shaped that could affect our Creatives and could affect those involved in technology.

The last thing before I sit, did you enjoy the story I told earlier? It was fiction. I wish us all a fantastical future!

Thank you all.

Released by:
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
26 October 2018

NATIONAL SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME TO BECOME AFRICA'S LARGEST BY END OF 2018, SAYS VP OSINBAJO



* Over 9m primary pupils benefiting in 26 states already

* Over $183million has been invested so far

* 95,422 cooks and over 100,000 smallholder farmers benefitting





By the end of 2018, with the number of new States in the country joining the National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, it is set to become the largest school-feeding programme in Africa, says Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.



He stated this today in Tunisia, where he delivered a keynote address at the closing ceremony of the 20th Annual Global Child Nutrition Forum held at Four Seasons hotel in Tunis, stating that the programme "has been by all accounts, a remarkable success.”



Speaking on the philosophy underlying the Programme, Prof Osinbajo told the 353 delegates from 9 countries, which include experts in the nutrition industry, United Nations officials from World Food Programme, Global Child Nutrition Fund, the World Bank and stakeholders that "Nigeria took the decision to embark on a school feeding programme as an important part of our human capital development agenda, by tackling the broader issues of eradication of poverty, food and nutrition security, and increasing school enrollment."



He added, "it is becoming clearer that the 21st Century will be defined by knowledge and skills. The nations that are best able to present the most knowledgeable and most skilful citizens will prevail in commerce, in science and technology and of course, will enjoy the greatest prosperity and the longevity to enjoy the prosperity. Nations that do not invest enough to produce the required level of talent and skills will be left behind. A farther distance than ever before in the history of mankind."



Emphasizing on the importance of the school-feeding programme, he posited that "For developing countries such as ours and of course many African countries, by far the greatest challenge for us in the next three decades is that of effective investment in the health and education of our population. Nutrition is key to both, to enable children usefully participate, learn and develop mentally and physically to be able to compete in an increasingly competitive global environment."



"By 2035, Africa will have 1.2billion people. Over 50% of that number will be young persons under the age of 25. Today, 60 per cent of the unemployed in Africa are young people", he observed.



Expatiating on the scope and cost of the Programme, Prof. Osinbajo said "at a cost of $0.19 per child per day, we are able to provide a balanced meal for every one of the children. 9,300,892 million pupils in 49,837 public primary schools in 26 states across Nigeria benefit daily."



According to him, "at current numbers, the programme costs $1,767,169.48 per day and over $183million has been invested so far in the programme. The programme employs 95,422 cooks, and over 100,000 smallholder farmers linked to the programme, supplying locally sourced ingredients. This translates to 594 cattle, 138,000 chickens, 6.8 million eggs, 83 metric tons of fish that are procured, prepared, and distributed each week. As you can imagine, the quantity of starch and vegetables required for this program on a weekly basis is equally impressive".



The Vice President highlighted the physical and health benefits to children currently being impacted, he stated that "energy and nutrients with established links to cognition- carbohydrates, protein, fat, iron and iodine as well as minerals with public health importance, are targeted by the NHGSF", adding that "the program aims to provide 50% of the recommended nutrient intake targets for protein and prioritized micronutrients (iron, iodine, zinc, vitamin A, folate and vitamin C and 30% of energy because of the high burden of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in Nigeria.”



Other benefits achieved under the programme include a ready market and a sustainable income for our farmers, as well as improved livelihoods for cooks with access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs. "Financial inclusion is a key enabler to reducing poverty and boosting prosperity".



"Moreover, with the capturing of their biometrics and the opening of bank accounts as a prerequisite to their participation in the programme, we are ramping up on our country’s needs for identification, planning and social inclusion efficiencies in Nigeria."



He told the audience that the success of the programme in a short time is due to factors such as unequivocal political will, transparency and accountability, good value for all participants in the value chain, multi-sectoral coordination and strategic partnership with international donors such as Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation and Partnership For Child Development, Imperial College.



Prof Osinbajo earlier commended the Global Child Nutrition Forum and World Food Programme, for providing such an excellent opportunity for the global school feeding community to come together to share ideas, learn from and inspire each other.



Present at the occasion were Hatem Ben Salem, Minister of Education, Republic of Tunisia; Arlene Mitchell, Executive Director, Global Child Nutrition Fund; Don Burdy, Specialist at World Food Programme/World Bank; Daniel Balaban, Director of Centre of Excellence Against Hunger in Brazil and other regional representatives of WEF and GCNF, international donors as well as other participants.



'Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

Office of the Vice President

25 October 2018

VP Osinbajo to share Nigeria's School Feeding success in Tunis



Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has been asked to deliver a keynote message at the ongoing Global Child Nutrition Forum in Tunis, capital of Tunisia on Thursday.



Prof Osinbajo will speak on the successes of National Homegrown School Feeding Programme, NHGSFP, which was introduced by the Buhari administration.



Nigeria was specifically invited to share its experience because it has the biggest public education school feeding programme in Africa.



The School Feeding Programme presently feeds 9.2 million primary pupils across 26 States in Nigeria, the largest school feeding programme in Africa.



The NHGSFP is one of the schemes under the National Social Investment Programmes designed to reduce poverty and out-of-school children in Nigeria.



The NHGSF programme is part of a 500 billion naira funded Social Investment Programme announced by the Buhari administration to tackle poverty and improve the health and education of children and other vulnerable groups.



The Federal Government of Nigeria sees NHGSFP as a priority in its Economic Recovery Growth Plan and its commitment to invest in human capital.

DON’T TRIVIALISE ANTI-GRAFT WAR- BMO

The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has cautioned the United States Ambassador to Nigeria William Symington not to attempt to trivialise the war against corruption being waged by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The diplomat had been quoted to have said at the convocation lecture of the University of Ilorin, Kwara state that disregard for rule of law is a more grievous corruption than stealing public fund.

BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke that if indeed the American Ambassador said so then the comment smirks of hypocrisy.

It said, "It would be the height of neo-colonial hypocrisy for Mr Symington to seek to redefine corruption when it is common knowledge, and is universally accepted that corruption is synonymous with abuse of entrusted power for private gain.

“Let us remind the Ambassador that the simplest definition of corruption is that it is a criminal activity by an individual entrusted with a position of authority often to acquire illicit benefit, and may include bribery and embezzlement."

BMO added that even the US also recognised that it has a responsibility of ensuring national security by suspending the rule of law in some cases as it did with the Guantanamo Bay military prison where terror suspects are detained indefinitely.

"It is on record that the US that is widely regarded as the bastion of democracy and justice set up the detention centre in 2002 in the George Bush years, but even after former President Barack Obama took steps to close Guantanamo Bay, the incumbent President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order retaining the detention camp."

The group insisted that corruption in the Nigerian context is a big issue considering its cost to the country, including how it had in the past limited the military's capacity to effectively wage a successful war against corruption.

"We recall how billions of dollars meant for the war against insurgency were shared by politicians under the previous government", BMO said.

It noted that the cost of corruption could easily be seen in the country's infrastructure deficit inspite of years of high oil revenue, until in recent time when the Buhari administration began completing projects that had been long abandoned even after they had been fully paid for.

VP OSINBAJO LAUNCHES TRADER MONI, HOLDS MSMEs CLINIC IN BAUCHI

*Says Buhari ensuring Nigerian resources benefit Nigerians

The focus of the Buhari administration, from the outset, was to empower young people, and ensure that the resources of the country are used for the benefit of all Nigerians instead of a few individuals, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

The Vice President stated this today at the launch of the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Clinics in Bauchi.

According to him, "Our focus from the beginning of the administration is that there must be jobs, enough resources for young men and women to be able to do their work and to contribute their quota to Nigeria's growth.

"That is why the President started the N-Power programme, the Market Moni programme and TraderMoni; that is the reason why the President said that we must have Home-Grown School Feeding programme, to provide opportunities for people.

"President Muhammadu Buhari's commitment to Nigeria is that he will not steal Nigeria's resources, he will use Nigeria's money for the benefit of Nigerians, that is the pledge he made the day he became President and he has maintained that pledge till now. The determination of our government is to see to it that Nigeria's resources are used for the benefit of Nigerians."

Prof. Osinbajo who spoke about several efforts made by the present administration to improve the lot of the people despite earning less said, " this country can afford to provide for our people that is why we are determined and committed by making sure that we provide for our people everywhere they are, especially the young men and women."

He said: "For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we are spending 30% of our income on infrastructure. That is why we are able to build the Lagos-Kano railway, the Mambila Hydro project and all of the several roads that we have started building.

"We are spending Nigeria's money in the right places and we make sure that nobody steals Nigeria's money."

He enjoined the people of the state to be committed to the objectives of the Federal Government, which according to him, "is to make sure that we give our people the best possible."

Aside from the launch of MSMEs clinics, the Vice President also launched the Trader Moni Scheme (the collateral and Interest-free loan scheme for petty traders in Bauchi) and also commissioned the One-Stop Shop for MSMEs in Bauchi and environs.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
23 October 2018

FG TO CONTINUE PAYMENT OF STIPENDS TO 2016 N-POWER BENEFICIARIES



As the 2-year tenure of the first batch of 2016 N-power beneficiaries is slated to end in December 2018, the Federal Government has now decided to continue paying the stipends of the N-Power 2016 Batch 1 beneficiaries.



The funds for the continued payments have already been provided in the 2018 budget.



Beyond the payments of stipends, however, the Federal Government is also exploring further options to seamlessly transition the beneficiaries from the Government job programme to positions where they are able to earn a sustainable income through a plan, designed to enable them become valuable, all-rounded employees, employers or entrepreneurs.



The plan is basically an extension of the exit date of December 2018 for the first batch of 200,000 to enable them continue to offer their valuable services in their various communities while still earning their stipends and also partaking in the Enhancement Programme that would seamlessly transition them into numerous economic opportunities in both the public and private sectors of the economy.



The N-Power is a job employment and empowerment scheme for hitherto unemployed Nigerian graduates under the Buhari Administration’s National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIP).



The scheme is the largest post-tertiary employment programme in Africa, comprising N-Power beneficiaries that are paid a monthly stipend of N30,000 and are deployed as volunteers into various sectors of need in the public space, such as health, agriculture, education and public finance.



For the first time in Nigeria, the N-Power beneficiaries applied and were selected for the program in an objective, efficient and transparent manner, without the need for 'connections' to anyone of influence.



Based on conservative projections, the N-Power scheme would provide jobs for at least 10 million Nigerians by 2023.



Since it commenced in 2016, the N-Power scheme, which has beneficiaries in all the LGAs of the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT, has so far, provided jobs for half a million young Nigerian graduates nationwide.



In addition, all the N-Power beneficiaries were given the opportunity to select and own electronic devices/tablets for continuous learning as they grow, depending on the selected vocations of entrepreneurship, and to boost the Knowledge Economy.



Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

Office of the Vice President

22 October 2018

Atiku’s university a byproduct of corruption - Group

A political group in Nigeria has noted that the American University of Nigeria owned by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is a product of corruption.

The Initiative to Save Democracy (ISD) told journalists on Monday that it was in possession of United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that reveals how Mr Abubakar bribed to establish the university.

The committee that was chaired by Senator Carl Levin revealed in 2010 how Mr Abubakar through one of his wives, Jennifer Douglas, illegally transferred over $4o million to offshore accounts.

"In addition, two of the offshore corporations wire transferred about $14 million over five years to American University in Washington, DC, to pay for consulting services related to the development of a Nigerian university founded by Mr. Abubakar.

"American University accepted the wire transfers without asking about the identity of the offshore corporations or the source of their funds, because under current law, the University had no legal obligation to inquire," Levin said at the time.

Specifically, the report said Mrs Jennifer Douglas (Jennifer Atiku Abubakar), an American citizen, helped her husband bring over $40 million in suspect funds into the United States through wire transfers sent by offshore corporations to US bank accounts.

In 2004, the then President Bush barred Mr Atiku and other corrupt politically exposed persons from being issued visa to the United States.

According to James Akinloye, President of the ISD, Mr Atiku Abubakar should be in jail now.

"How do you own a school affiliated to the American University in Washington DC but cannot step your foot on US soil?" he quizzed.

"Mr Atiku is the face of corruption and anything he has built or established with Nigerian funds is a byproduct of corruption," he noted.

"Mr Atiku should be in jail. He should not be contesting an election and that is why the United States and international community will never take us seriously.

The group urged Nigerians to ignore Mr Abubakar's ambition to become President in 2019, stressing that, it will only taint the image of the country.

"Nigerians must not allow themselves to be fooled by Mr Atiku's money, he is only plotting how to plunder the treasury and we must not allow it.

2019: Osinbajo is my friend but I remain neutral – Femi Kuti



Afrobeat icon Femi Kuti has professed his friendship for Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the 2018 edition of Felabration which held Sunday night at the New Afrika Shrine in Ikeja, Lagos.



Femi, son of Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti said he will however remain politically neutral going into the 2019 general election despite his long-standing friendship with Osinbajo.



He explained that his decision to be neutral is a political ideology inherited from his father, who was known to be politically neutral.



Prof Osinbajo graced the grand finale of Felabration showing support for Nigeria’s growing entertainment sector.

Felabration which is held every year on the week of Fela's birthday began from October 15 and ended on 21.

In his short speech at the celebration, Vice President Osinbajo reiterated that Nigeria is on its way to achieving it goals and that the people will enjoy from the inclusive government of President Muhammadu Buhari.



Osinbajo, a senior pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God prayed for the rousing audience and for Nigeria at the event.



He said, “Our country will be greater no matter what happens, this country will be great and greater and all of us who are here will be great and greater in this nation,” he prayed, to which the crowd replied with a thunderous ‘Amen’.



Just before he left the microphone, he muttered, “Let everybody, say Yeah, Yeah,” to the delight of the crowd which responded accordingly.



Speaking in Pidgin English, after the Vice President’s speech, Femi Kuti said, “Prof Osinbajo is my friend, he said he understands and he respects my view, but I have told him that I cannot support any political party because of my father (Fela Anikulapo-Kuti).



“He is my friend, you understand what I’m saying, he said he wanted to come to shrine and I am happy he did.”

Mr Kuti then went on to hug Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as he made his way to the backstage of the podium.

Osinbajo is renowned for promoting Nigerian talents and selling Nigeria’s entertainment sector both locally and internationally.



Last summer in the United States, he canvassed Hollywood heavyweights including leading movie and entertainment companies like Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate, IMAX Entertainment, Warner Bros, Walt Disney, BET International and even the National Association of Theater Owners to invest in Nigeria’s entertainment sector especially Nollywood.



Osinbajo also met with renowned film, music and entertainment industry, including Innocent Idibia, popularly known as Tuface; New York-based Nigerian visual artist, musician, singer/songwriter, Laolu Senbanjo; CEO, Ebony Life TV, Mo Abudu, Chocolate City CEO, Audu Maikori; founder/CEO Terra Kulture, Bolanle Austen-Peters; New York artist, Sesan Ogunro among others to project the future of Nigeria’s entertainment industry.



The Buhari administration also set up a working group on Creativity and Technology as part of the Industrial Competitiveness Council chaired by the Vice President. That council and the working group meets regularly including in the last week to being players in the private sector to help government develop policies for the sectors.

OSINBAJO TO SPEAK ON LEADERSHIP, EMPOWERING WOMEN IN AFRICA, AT INTERNATIONAL SHEROES FORUM IN MONROVIA TOMORROW

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, will attend the 2018 edition of the International Sheroes Forum and the launch of the Jewel Starfish Foundation scheduled for Monrovia, Liberia on Wednesday 17th October 2018.

The International Sheroes Forum is a knowledge-sharing and networking event that brings together leaders of diverse achievements from all over the world, with the aim of bringing new perspectives to key issues facing women around the world and particularly in Africa.

The Vice President will be sharing his thoughts on a variety of issues, ranging from leadership to women empowerment, especially the possibilities for the economic advancement of women in Africa, at the forum.

Also at the forum, Prof. Osinbajo will participate in the formal launch of the Jewel Starfish Foundation – an organization founded by the Vice President of Liberia, Jewel Howard Taylor, to provide educational opportunities to women, and empower young women with capacity building tools that will enable them to achieve sustainable means of livelihood, and to inspire and provide mentoring for them, amongst other numerous objectives.

Other distinguished personalities expected at the event include former Liberian President, Her Excellency, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who will be the keynote speaker; former President of Malawi, Her Excellency, Dr. Joyce Banda; the former Vice President of Zimbabwe, Her Excellency, Dr. Joyce Mujuru, among other personalities.

Only recently at the inauguration of the Oxford Board of African Studies in the United Kingdom, Prof. Osinbajo emphasized the importance of human capital development, noting that “it must be a priority of public policy of governments across Africa, to effectively tackle multidimensional poverty and improve long-term development on the continent”.

The Vice President who spoke on the topic: “The Challenges of Human Development in 21st century Africa”, concluded that “with abundant innovative ideas and political will, African decades were imminent.”

The Vice President who is departing Nigeria later today for Monrovia, Liberia, is expected back in Abuja on Wednesday 17th October 2018.


Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
16th October 2018

WE WILL STAND BY YOU, VP OSINBAJO TELLS FLOOD VICTIMS IN BAYELSA, RIVERS STATES



“I want to say on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, on whose instructions I am here, that we will stand by you and make sure we provide what you need.”



REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT ST. JOHN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH IDP CAMP, IGBOGENE, YENAGOA, AFTER HIS INSPECTION OF FLOODED AREAS IN BAYELSA STATE ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2018.



Protocols



Our dear people, let me say first of all that I am very touched that despite the flood and all you have been through, you are still able to welcome us so warmly. I thank you.



One of my many prayers is that the Lord God Almighty would help and uphold you and even after all of this, you’d be truly blessed in the mighty name of Jesus.



Let me thank very much, the very Reverend Joseph Okplema, the Vicar General of this parish. This is a wonderful thing you have done; I think you have shown what it is that we as Christian leaders must do, which is to take care of those who need care at any point in time. You have done so without caring where they are from. I think this is commendable indeed, and we thank the Lord for this initiative that you have taken, and I’m sure that the Lord God, who has seen your heart, will bless you and all of the sisters and others supporting you here.



Let me say that when we were coming here from Port Harcourt, we flew over many of the areas that have been flooded, and we saw first hand, how bad the damage is, very terrible indeed. Many homes are under water, farmland and businesses, and I was able to see, clearly what had happened, it is a very major disaster indeed.



First, we must thank God that you are alive, because, with life, there is hope. Secondly, I want to tell you just has the governor has said, it is the duty of the Federal Government and State Government, to ensure that we provide help and succour for you, not just now while you are here, but more importantly when you have to go back home, because that resettlement is the most important part of it.



You are alive and well here already, at least you have something to eat and drink, but the most important thing is, what happens when you leave here and go back home where you have already lost so much. There, we hope we would be able to give you as much support as is possible.



This is one of the reasons why I’m here; I’m not here alone, I’m with the Minister of Environment, Mr Ibrahim Usman Jibril and also the DG of NEMA – National Emergency Management Agency, Engr. Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja to assess for ourselves, what exactly is going on. We want to know how bad it is, how many victims there are, the nature and extent of the disaster, so we can advise properly and give you the kind of comfort and succour you need. So that is why we are here and I am very happy that I have been able to see for myself.



I want to commend you for your spirit, for not giving up at all, but remaining resolute and confident. That is the true Bayelsan spirit, the true spirit of the Nigerian, we cannot give up and we will not give up.



I want to say on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, on whose instructions I am here, that we will stand by you and make sure we provide what you need. I have already been told that some people still need mattresses, nets and all that. Happily, the Director General of NEMA is here and we will make sure that is provided. As for the cows and the meat, we will also look for a way of providing that because we cannot have rice, garri and beans without meat, there must also be meat.



So I want to thank you all for the very warm welcome and to wish you well, don’t worry about your current situation, definitely, we will make sure that you are taken care of and that when you go back home, you are re-settled well. Thank you and God bless you.



Released by:

Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

Office of the Vice President

19 October 2018

FIGHT FOR GENDER EQUALITY IS ONE FOR ALL FAIR-MINDED PEOPLE SAYS VP OSINBAJO AT SHEROES FORUM



“They are learning that insisting on equal rights for women is not a favour being done to women, it is an imperative of justice and fairness, an entitlement, a debt owed to women and girls, not a gift.”



“African men are coming to the realization that gender equality is in our collective interest. It just makes sense for everyone regardless of gender, to contribute his or her bit to the social and economic good of our continent and our world.”



“Women are now saying that the fight for gender equality is not one for women and girls alone, it is also a fight for all fair-minded and just men who believe that men and women have equal rights” – VP Osinbajo





REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE FORMAL LAUNCH OF THE INTERNATIONAL SHEROES FOUNDATION IN MONROVIA, LIBERIA ON WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17, 2018



PROTOCOLS



As I walked into this hall this morning and saw that women occupied every seat, immediately I understood how women in leadership or aspiring for leadership, feel completely outnumbered.



I think that today, we men feel completely outnumbered too. I think l must give notice to men in leadership in Africa that African women are very serious about this business of equal participation in leadership.



A few weeks ago, a group of women came to visit our President in Abuja and one of their many demands was for the position of Vice President to be allocated to a woman. I had to politely inform them that there was no vacancy in that position at the moment.



Let me say how deeply honored l am to have been given this very special award. l accept it with a mixture of pride and humility; pride because of the recognition, but great humility because of the very weight and responsibility that is thrust upon me and upon my co-awardees to be faithful to the cause that is given, which is that of ensuring women are given not just their rightful place, but an equal place at the table.



Let me say again, how deeply honoured l am to have been invited to be a part of the first Sheroes Forum to hold here in Liberia. And it is appropriate that it should be celebrated here in Liberia; this is the nation that has the distinction of producing Africa's first elected female President, Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. And I might add for good measure that she is also the first African woman to be elected twice as President of her country, even as we await the second coming of Her Excellency, Joyce Banda.



She is also and l mean Madam Ellen Johnson, the first female Chairperson of ECOWAS and of course Liberia must also take pride in the fact that our host, my dear sister, Her Excellency, Jewel Howard Taylor, is only one of four female Vice Presidents in Africa.



Let me also bring you the warm personal greetings of Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, to this historic gathering. Incidentally, he also enjoys the distinction of having the honour of Champion of the #HeforShe Campaign in Nigeria conferred on him. Indeed, as a father of seven confident daughters, he really does believe that he, more than anyone, should be a passionate advocate of gender equality.



And so should l, I also have two daughters, Damilola and Konyinsola; they are both out of university. They have been entrepreneurs even from their days in school. But more importantly, from the days they were born, they could assume that they would have equal legal, social and political status and rights as their only brother and as any other male.



This is so because they were born to educated and perhaps, modestly economically successful parents. I am sure that is the case, for many of us here in this room that have daughters. Our daughters are educated or being educated and can and will compete favourably with their male counterparts anywhere. They will aspire and can attain political leadership. This is by virtue of the privileges of the circumstances of their birth; they are positioned to break the glass ceilings in commerce, the professions and politics.



But the story of the daughters of those of us in this room is not the story of the large number of girls in our countries all over Africa. Over 40 per cent of girls in Africa on the average, are illiterate; illiteracy means that they will not find decent, well-paying jobs. They will in many cases, would be married off early, and have children while they themselves are still children. Many would be discriminated against in inheritance rights, or punitive widowhood practices; they would work the hardest on the farms, and long hours in the markets but would earn far less than men.



These historical deficits ensure that women will be underrepresented in leadership at all levels.But even the educated will probably, several times in their working lives, be subjected to one form of gender-based discrimination or another, many may even add to the growing statistic of victims of domestic violence.



For many generations, women have fought these manifestations of gender inequality. Over time, the struggle has been refined to the level of a right to gender equality; the notion that women and men should have the same legal, social and political rights. This body of rights is the public law basis for what we now describe as Feminism. Feminism initially attracted suspicion and hostility especially from men; a feminist was seen as an aggressive, man-hating, over liberal woman.



But something has changed in the past few years. Women are now saying that the fight for gender equality is not one for women and girls alone, it is also a fight for all fair-minded and just men who believe that men and women must have equal rights.



But the campaign is much more important in shaping the future. Men are now being challenged to stand shoulder to shoulder with women in the struggle for gender equality. They are learning that insisting on equal rights for women is not a favour being done to women, it is an imperative of justice and fairness, an entitlement, a debt owed to women and girls, not a gift.



This is perhaps in my views, one of the greatest leaps of development in contemporary history. When boys and girls today don’t take gender equality for granted, when women and girls are free to reach their full potentials, to get education and earn equal pay for equal work, to aspire and attain the highest political positions not once in a while, but all the time, then the full potential of the other half of the population of the world will be unleashed.



The implications of such a development, for a vastly improved quality of life for all of us, can only be imagined. It is this ideal that has informed the great work that the Sheroes Foundation has been doing and for which they deserve our commendations. I really commend the co-founders of Sheroes Foundation for the excellent work they have done so far.



Let me say that we all, especially African men, are coming to the realization that gender equality is in our collective interest. It just makes sense for everyone regardless of gender, to contribute his or her bit to the social and economic good of our continent and our world.



And secondly, we cannot truthfully speak of our respect for the dignity of the human person without a commitment to the rights of women and girls. The concrete expression of that commitment is the full and equal participation of women in the commanding heights of commerce, the professions and government.



I want to thank you again and thank the organisers for the privilege and honour of inviting me to this place.



God bless and prosper the great work of the Sheroes Forum.



Thank you.



Released by:

Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

Office of the Vice President

18 October 2018

Other Vice Presidents should emulate Osinbajo’s good model – President Weah

President George Weah of Liberia has showered praises on Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo describing him as good role model for other Vice Presidents to follow.

Prof Osinbajo who is in Liberia to speak on leadership and women empowerment at the International SHEROES Forum paid a courtesy call on President Weah in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia on Wednesday.

Mr Weah who spoke glowingly of Osinbajo said Africa needs more leaders like him, given his brilliance and loyalty, particularly during his stints as acting President of Nigeria.

"You kept your country together in peace while President Muhammadu Buhari was away. That is a good model for other vice presidents to follow," President Weah said.

But President Weah was not alone in praising the good works and integrity of Prof Osinbajo.

Also commenting on Osinbajo’s giant strides at the SHEROES forum, keynote speaker Joyce Banda, who is the former President of Malawi said she was perplexed while listening to VP Osinbajo’s speech.

"When I heard you speak (as VP in Nigeria) I asked who is he? They said he is a pastor. I was grateful because what we really need in State houses in Africa are God-fearing men."

Banda also echoed the sentiments of President Weah urging more African leaders to follow the footsteps of Nigeria’s Vice President.

While in Liberia, Prof Osinbajo participated in the formal launch of the Jewel Starfish Foundation.

The foundation is an organisation founded by the Vice President of Liberia, Jewel Howard Taylor, to provide educational opportunities to women and empower young women with capacity building tools that would enable them to achieve sustainable means of livelihood.

It also aims to inspire and provide mentoring for women, among other numerous objectives.

Other distinguished personalities at the event include former Liberian President, Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who is the keynote speaker; former Vice President of Zimbabwe, Dr Joyce Mujuru, among other personalities.

Did you know that David Oyedepo never ever paid a dime as landing charge or airport tax on his Private Jets throughout Jonathan presidency? He got presidential waiver.

But something changed in 2015 because PMB made him to do the needful. Did you know that he put two of his jets on sale immediately he started paying necessary charge?

Can you now see why he has started dancing round AtIku ?
God is watching !

On August 2011, the Government of GEJ gave a comprehensive concession to Living Faith Church AKA Winners chapel to pack 4 private jets belonging to the church free of charge in any of the airports in the country. An import waiver was also issued by the former government to Living Faith Church. This guaranteed that the ministry paid next to nothing on whatever they import into the country.

This concession was revoked by the FG on Feb. 2016 and import waiver canceled. The church unable to meet up with the huge charges being accumulated on packing fees for 4 private jets, sold off two of the jets by July 2016.

We may now understand why Bishop David Oyedepo never sees anything good in this present government just because this government insisted on things being done properly.

For me, why should multi-billion naira mega cooperate churches be given concessions and import waivers when small legitimate business are made to pay through their nose whenever they import? In the same way, why should companies like Dangote, Bua group, Milan ground, Golden Penny enjoy concessions and import waivers when these companies make billions in profit after tax?

I always have the opinion that 90% of the accidental billionaires we have in this country are living on government concessions and waivers. Take that away from them and they will be like every one of us.

Concession and waiver agreements were abused by the former government as was revealed by 2016 Senate Ad hoc committee on import duty waivers which revealed that the FG from lost between 2011 to 2015 N447.42bn through fraudulent concessions and waivers. Consequently to this report, the present government canceled all forms of import waivers in 2016 and some organizations made to pay the FG what they owe the government.

We may now understand how Nigeria’s custom was able to remit N1trn in 2017. All these policies and checkings created enemies for BUHARI’s government. People who have been ripping off the country for years being asked to pay the right fees for their imports, automatically made them enemies of Buhari and his government.

Truly, this government is fightingj for the masses and that’s why we have less and less accidental billionaires under this government. The free monies have dried up.

"May this gang up against Nigeria,not even PMB never work. The Hyenas,Foxes and hawks are gathering to feast on our Commonwealth. It will never be well with the enemies of Nigeria. Enough is enough"

Just trying to make sense of our situation �


Obasanjo Farm, Otta is now a ghost farm, over taking by weeds and rodents. Only the security guards at the gate retain the old glory of the once thriving enterprise. Two massive transformer, possibly hijacked from Papalanto power plant are rusting away near the security post.

Only the Obasanjo Farms extensions at Obada, Abeokuta, Eruwa etc are functioning and they are mostly under Chinese management. Those farms depend on imported inputs like fertilizer, maize, soy beans etc to survive. Their outputs are not designed for Nigerian markets either. Another 4 years of Buhari in power will bring down those fraudulent enterprises because of high import bills.

Nigerian elites are predatory opportunists. They lay siege on the nation and grab it at its weakest part and moment. All the new gladiators, Atiku, Obasanjo, Oyedepo, Gumi, Kuka are struggling for the control of the nations resources. They are bonded together in wickedness. It is not an accident that the owners of the 3 most expensive universities in Nigeria (Atiku, Obasanjo and Oyedepo) are in union of anger against Buhari.

They are not united for the progress of this nation. They are united in anger because Buhari deprived them access to the Commonwealth.
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