₦airaland Forum

PRESS STATEMENT ON TRADERMONI

Our attention has been drawn to allegations on social media regarding the TraderMoni programme, which had its sixth sensitisation event in Osun State during the week.

We believe these statements are not driven by spite, but by a genuine misunderstanding of what TraderMoni is and where it comes from. We would, therefore, like to use this opportunity to set the records straight.

TraderMoni has been conceived since May 2016. It is part of the 2-year-old Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) scheme of the Federal Government. GEEP, a social intervention programme being executed by the Bank of Industry, has been providing interest-free loans to petty traders and artisans across Nigeria since May 17, 2016.

The GEEP programme, by design, comprises three products:

- GEEP MarketMoni, over 350,000 loans and growing, since May 2016: loans of N50,000 and N100,000, for structured traders and artisans in their market associations and cooperatives. In the past 2 years, the programme has granted loans to over 350,000 Nigerians nationwide. BVN and bank accounts are required.

- GEEP FarmerMoni, up to 5,465 loans and growing, since May 2017: much larger loans of N300,000 each, for structured farmers in their farming cooperatives. BVN and bank accounts are required.

- GEEP TraderMoni, commenced in May 2018: loans starting at N10,000, for petty traders for whom MarketMoni and FarmerMoni are too large, and for whom the bank account and BVN requirements are a barrier. Payback of the first loan guarantees automatic disbursement of N15,000, and successively N20,000, N50,000, and N100,000.
Candidates are enumerated in their trade clusters by the over 4,000 TraderMoni agents nationwide. They are verified by the Bank of Industry, and loans are disbursed directly to their mobile wallets.

While the TraderMoni commenced in May 2018, the programme was first publicly “activated” on August 7, 2018, in five markets in Lagos State, with tens of thousands of beneficiaries in Mushin, Ikotun, Agege, Ketu, and Abule Egba markets in the state.

Subsequently, there have been similar activations in six States as follows:
- Kano (August 18)
- Abia (August 20)
- Akwa Ibom (August 21)
- Katsina (September 1)
- Osun (September 3)
- Abuja (September 6)

State activation events run on a pre-defined schedule, to cover all 36 states and the FCT. These events provide important opportunities for the Federal Government to monitor the execution of the programme in each State. Activation events also enable further public sensitization about the programme, first-hand study of the impact on beneficiaries, and critical learnings for any operational improvements.

The transformative impact of TraderMoni on the lives of our beneficiaries is better experienced than imagined. These are financially vulnerable Nigerians who, up until now, have been relegated as “uninteresting,” “high risk,” and “difficult to understand” by traditional lenders. An opportunity to receive a N10,000 loan and graduate in quick succession to N100,000 is one that has escaped their realm of possibility. They first approach the programme with strong disbelief – until their disbursements happen. With TraderMoni, these Nigerians experience a literal turnaround in their businesses and their lives.

An insinuation that such a programme is a bribe for votes is not only unfair to the Nigerian public. It is moreso demeaning to the hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries who are accessing these loans, paying back, and in the process taking control of their financial futures and their dignity.

The only requirement to be a TraderMoni beneficiary is that you are a Nigerian and a petty trader. As a programme, we have never, and will never, inquire about the political affiliations of a trader. There is no such thing as a paper form or a “PVC check” in the registration process.

We enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to please join us at these activation events, or just visit any of the major trade clusters in your state to see the TraderMoni programme in action. We are also open to feedback on how to continually strengthen TraderMoni’s impact, our number 1 goal.

Please do not hesitate to email us on tradermoni@geep.ng

The lack of ideology of our political parties makes it easy for our politicians to jump from one party to the other without much hesitation.
Ideology can be defined as an orientation that characterized the thinking of a group or nation.
The Nigerian power elite, whether in the ruling APC or the opposition PDP only thinks of power from hegemonic perspective.
Hegemony is the dominance or leadership of one social group or nation over others.
There are about 91 registered political parties currently in Nigeria and what this implies is that there are parties with no ideologies. Ideally, a two-party system should be the best option for Nigeria instead of these mushroom parties with no ideology. It should be whether you are for the conservative or the progressive.
The recent defections by politicians in this country also show that political parties in Nigeria lack ideologies.
Our politicians are in power to sustain themselves. Unfortunately, the youths whose future was being destroyed by the actions and inactions of these crops of politicians were regrettably celebrating their actions.
The current defections and counter defections of our politicians from one political party to the other sadly confirm that our politicians are deeply corrupt and without ideology. How can we grow and develop as a nation when most of them are in politics to sustain themselves with stolen money?
In the advanced countries, parties are identified by the ideology they preach but that’s not the case with Nigeria, it is about selfish interest.
The defections in Nigeria politics are merely for selfish interests, not common good. The same set of people were in the ruling PDP before 2015 elections and merely decamped to APC seeing that APC will enable them win elections.
As long as such defection is for self, it has no usefulness to Nigeria on the long run.
It is this character of appearing differently (in time and colour) that tend to confuse people to think that such change is an evolution.
True evolution change or defection comes with different content, message and structure that MUST address the fundamental defects of the old order.
In good politics, defections MUST be as a result of change in ideological principle of the politician.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, PREMIUM TIMES, BY PROFESSOR YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA (Sept 4, 2018)

RE: OSINBAJO GOT IT WRONG ON RESTRUCTURING - ATIKU

Dear Editor,

Kindly permit me a response to a piece in your publication, titled “Osinbajo got it wrong on Restructuring,” written, we are told, by my illustrious predecessor in office, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

First, let me say that I really would have expected Alhaji Abubakar to at least get the full text of my comments before his public refutal of my views. But I understand; we are in that season where everything is seen as fair game! He quoted me as saying that “the problem with our country is not a matter of restructuring… and we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the argument that our problems stem from some geographic re-structuring”.

Yes, I said so.

As the quote shows, I rejected the notion that geographical restructuring was a solution to our national problems. Geographical restructuring is either taking us back to regional governments or increasing the number of States that make up the Nigerian federation.

As we all may recall, the 2014 National Conference actually recommended the creation of 18 more States. And I argued that, with several States struggling or unable to pay salaries, any further tinkering with our geographical structure would not benefit us.

We should rather ask ourselves why the States are underperforming, revenue and development wise. I gave the example of the Western Region (comprising even more than what is now known as the South West Zone), where, without oil money, and using capitation tax and revenues from agriculture and mining, the government funded free education for over 800,000 pupils in 1955, built several roads, farm settlements, industrial estates, the first TV station in Africa, and the tallest building in Nigeria, while still giving up fifty percent of its earnings from mining and minerals for allocation to the Federal Government and other regions.

I then argued that what we required now was not geographical restructuring but good governance, honest management of public resources, deeper fiscal Federalism, and a clear vision for development.

On the issue of deeper fiscal Federalism or restructuring, I explained how the then Lagos State Government, led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, decided to fight for greater autonomy of States.

As Attorney-General at the time, it was my duty and privilege to lead the legal team against the then Federal government, in our arguments at the Supreme Court. I am sure that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would remember these cases on greater autonomy for States that I cite below, as he was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the time.

At the Supreme Court, we won several landmark decisions on restructuring Nigeria through deeper fiscal federalism, some of which our late converts to the concept, now wish to score political points on.

It was our counter-claims alongside those of other littoral States, that first addressed so comprehensively the issue of resource control. We agreed with the oil producing States that they had a right to control their resources. We argued, though unsuccessfully, that the Ports of Lagos were also a resource, which should enable Lagos State, in the worst case, to be paid the derivation percentage for proceeds of its natural resources. Years later, we also filed an action at the Supreme Court arguing that the Value Added Tax, being a consumption tax, should exclusively belong to the States.

On the issue of who, between the Federal and State governments, should have authority to grant building permits and other development control permits, the Supreme Court, by a slim majority, ruled in our favour. It held that, even with respect to federal land, States had exclusive authority to grant building or other developments control permits.

In 2004, we created 37 new local governments in Lagos State. We believed that we had a Constitutional right to do so and that in any event, a State should have a right to create its own administrative units. Several other States joined us and created theirs.

The Federal government’s response was to seize the funds meant for our local governments, thus strangulating States like Lagos, which had created new local governments. We challenged this at the Supreme Court. The court held that the President had no right under the Constitution to withhold or seize funds meant for the States. The allocations were not a gift of the Federal Government to the States. They were the Constitutional right of the States and local governments.

The court also agreed that States had a Constitutional right to create local governments, pursuant to section 8 of the Constitution, but that the creation remained inchoate until the National Assembly, by resolution, amended the existing list of local governments to capture the newly created LGs.

In response, we created by State Law, Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), to accommodate the newly created Local Government Councils until such a time as the National Assembly would complete the process. But the Lagos State Government took up the challenge to re-engineer its revenue service, making it autonomous. With innovative management, tax collection in Lagos became more efficient, and tax revenues continued to grow geometrically. Today, the State earns more IGR than 30 States of Nigeria put together!

Further, we contested the attempts of the then Federal Government to create supervisory authority over the Finances of Local Governments by the signing into law of the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation to Local Governments Act, 2005. The Supreme Court also ruled in our favour, striking down many provisions of the law that sought to give the Federal government control over local government funding.

I have been an advocate, both in court and outside, of fiscal Federalism and stronger State Governments. I have argued in favour of State Police, for the simple reason that policing is a local function. You simply cannot effectively police Nigeria from Abuja. Only recently, in my speech at the Anniversary of the Lagos State House of Assembly, I made the point that stronger, more autonomous States would more efficiently eradicate poverty. So I do not believe that geographical restructuring is an answer to Nigeria’s socio economic circumstances. That would only result in greater administrative costs. But there can be no doubt that we need deeper fiscal Federalism and good governance.

Alhaji Atiku’s concept of restructuring is understandably vague, because he seeks to cover every aspect of human existence in that definition. He says it means a “cultural revolution”. Of course, he does not bother to unravel this concept. He says we need a structure that gives everyone an opportunity to work, a private sector driven economy. Yes, I agree. These are critical pillars of our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), including our Ease of Doing Business Programme.

If, however, this is what he describes as restructuring, then it is clear that he has mixed up all the issues of good governance and diversification of the economy with the argument on restructuring.

Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our School Feeding Programme, providing a meal a day to over 9 million public school children in 25 States as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to 2 million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.

Surprisingly, Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room – corruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a rentier economic structure that benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich themselves. This was a main part of my presentations the Minnesota Town Hall meeting.

In arguing for good governance, I made the point that our greatest problem was corruption. I pointed out that grand corruption, namely the unbelievable looting of the treasury by simply making huge cash withdrawals in local and foreign currency, was the first travesty that President Buhari stopped.

I showed the OPEC figures from oil revenues since 1990. In four years from 2010 to 2014 the PDP government earned the highest oil revenues in Nigeria’s history, USD381.9billion. By contrast the Buhari Administration has earned USD121 billion from May 2015 to June 2018, less than 1/3 of what Jonathan Administration earned at the same period in that administration’s life. Despite earning so much less, we are still able to invest more in infrastructure than any government in Nigeria’s history. The difference is good governance, and fiscal prudence.

In the final analysis, restructuring in whatever shape or form, will not mean much if our political leaders see public resources as an extension of their bank accounts.

This, I believe, is the real issue.

More pix

NHGSFP is feeding 8,596,340 million pupils in 24 states across Nigeria.

#NHGSFP

Kiki Osinbajo, daughter of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and Afropop Alternative singer, Ric Hassani have been conferred with awards of Excellence by the Abuja Summer Festival for their contributions to Lifestyle and Entertainment.

The list was made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja by the festival’s Founder, Chioma Onashakpor.

According to the list, ‘Style Temple’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ogugua Okonkwo, ‘The Solohan Company’ CEO, Omojo Wada, ‘Good Hair’ CEO, Chioma Ikokwu, humanitarian Dora Enwere and actor, Uzee Usman also got awards. Kiki, a fashion and beauty entrepreneur, was recognised for her innovation in creating affordable and healthy beauty products with the launch of her skincare line, ‘Konyin’. Ric Hassani got an award for his musical prowess and doggedness as an alternative Afropop music artist, despite the marketing hurdles faced by singers of the genre in Nigeria. Okonkwo earned an Excellence award for her contribution to female fashion in Abuja as her firm ‘Style Temple’ is the most acclaimed in the FCT for style and practicability.

Enwere was recognised for her humanitarian work with females, especially her ongoing #ForYoungGirls project where she distributes soaps and sanitary pads to young girls in IDP camps. Also, Ikokwu was awarded ‘Business Excellence (Female)’ for the contribution of her brand ‘Good Hair’ in the revitalisation of the Hair business in Nigeria. Wada, who bagged the ‘Business Excellence (Male)’, earned the award for his marketing acumen and quality production of lawyers’ wigs and gowns in Nigeria. Actor and TV host Uzee Usman, who began his career in 2003, was awarded for his contribution to the Nigerian film industry, especially Kannywood. Newsmen report that the Abuja Summer Festival held its annual summer event on Aug. 11 with an outstanding performance from Ric Hassani. The family focused event also featured performances from upcoming Abuja artists, fashion shows, children playground and a football tournament.


https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/08/breaking-acting-presidents-daughter-kiki-osinbajo-bags-award/

Always Active Acting President.
PYO has energy I swear.

STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE



TWO MILLION NIGERIANS TO GET COLLATERAL FREE LOANS IN BUHARI ADMINISTRATION’S NEW MICRO CREDIT FOR PETTY TRADERS

*EACH STATE, FCT TO GET MINIMUM 30,000 BENEFICIARIES
*SCHEME OPENS IN LAGOS, KANO & ABIA TO FOLLOW
*GOES ROUND COUNTRY BY YEAR END


In a determined and significant bid to further enlarge its financial inclusion agenda for all Nigerians regardless of social class and economic status, the Buhari administration has launched a new initiative under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), called the Trader Moni, which will empower two million petty traders between now and the end of the year.

The scheme which was launched last week in Lagos would grant a minimum of 30,000 loans in each State of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

All together the 2 million mark is expected to be attained on or before the end of this year, with petty traders in Lagos, Kano and Abia States set to be the first round of beneficiaries to draw the collateral free loans.

In addition to the 30,000 loans per State, States with larger populations like Lagos and Kano are expected to get more than 30,000 loans. Across the country, especially in the pilot states about 500,000 potential beneficiaries have so far been enumerated.

In order to identify the beneficiaries, no less than 4000 enumeration agents have been engaged by the Bank of Industry which is deploying the new scheme.

Trader Moni is designed to help petty traders expand their trade through the provision of collateral free loans of N10,000. The loans are repayable within a period of six months.

Under the scheme, beneficiaries can get access to a higher facility ranging from N15,000 to N50,000 when they repay N10,000 within the stipulated time period.

The goal of the Buhari Administration is to use the Trader Moni to take financial inclusion down to the grassroots, the bottom of the ladder, considering the contribution of petty traders to economic development. The Federal Government is also aware of the fact that many of the petty traders don’t have what the commercial banks require to grant loans.

This administration is keen to ensure that such traders at that level are able to build their businesses and grow.

Trader Moni was launched last Tuesday in five markets in Lagos State with tens of thousands beneficiaries already.

The Lagos markets already reached are Mushin, Ikotun, Agege, Ketu, and Abule Egba markets.

The scheme will soon be taken to other states in the country, with Abia and Kano states next in line.

Beneficiaries are already heaping praise on the Buhari administration for this initiative that will improve their businesses.

A trader in one of the Lagos markets, Anna Enwerem thanked President Buhari for the initiatives. “I sell clothes. This N10,000 would do a lot for me and my children. I like this programme so much. I will pay the loan before six months’ time. Before I didn’t believe it, but now that I have received my money I believe.”

Similarly, Chief Mrs Mufiat Adewumi, a market women leader in Lagos said it will help ordinary Nigerians who cannot have access to commercial banks’ credit facilities because they don’t have collateral, “We are happy about the Trader Moni because this is what we have been expecting for long, that the Government should assist the masses, especially the traders. We thank the Federal Government so much.”



Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,
Office of the Acting President,
12th August, 2018

REMARKS BY HRH, ALHAJI FAROUK UMAR FAROUK, THE EMIR OF DAURA DURING A COURTESY VISIT TO THE PALACE BY ACTING PRESIDENT, YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, IN DAURA, KATSINA STATE, ON THURSDAY, AUG. 9, 2018


An occasion such as this offers an opportunity for us to discuss many things but for lack of time I would not bore you by presenting a long speech. Also, the masses have been waiting for you, so I would prefer you take your time to address them. I just want to thank you for this visit and pray for success in your progranmme in the state.


His Excellency, the Governor of Kastina, I convey our appreciations to all our guests especially the Vice President of Nigeria, who has been very supportive of the President, our father and our son. I welcome you this community. This is where our President was born and raised. I am happy because, as far as I know, this is your first visit to this community, as the Vice President, but we pardon you.


I can assure you that all us here, myself and my subjects; we are fully and solidly behind you and in support of you. We are happy with you and we are particularly proud of the way you have supported our son, President Muhammadu Buhari in leading our country Nigeria to prosperity.


That explains why when you talk about loyalty and trustworthiness among the political class, you stand as an example worthy of note. I wish that you carry on with this level of trustworthiness and continue to uphold the confidence that our son has in you.


I can assure you that our son has enormous trust in you, I want you to continue to justify that confidence he has placed in you. I want to inform you that we have never had such a government where the President and his deputy operate under such high level of mutual respect and understanding.


From the onset, this government has demonstrated integrity, our son, Muhammadu Buhari and yourself; both men of integrity, we thank you very much for your honesty and trustworthiness.


I will not say much because the entire people of the state await your coming, go ahead and conduct whatever business that has brought you to this place, in peace. This is your home, though you may be regarded as guests, this is still your home.


His Excellency, the Governor of Kastina, we cannot thank you enough for the good works you are doing. I want to assure you that we are with you, 100 per cent.


Considering all that you have done for this state, I want you to know that we do not have any issues with you and your government and we are fully in support of you.


In conclusion, Your Excellency the Vice President, As Allah has bestowed on you the task of assisting our son to lead this nation, May he see you and our son the President through your tenure and may he continue to guide you even as you go back home.

I can

NIGERIANS REACT TO SACKING OF DSS BOSS, DAURA
NASS SIEGE: NIGERIANS PRAISE ACTING PRESIDENT OSINBAJO FOR UPHOLDING DEMOCRACY
Nigerians have continued to react to the sack of the Director-General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Lawal Daura, by Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo today.
This comes after the DSS and the Police had locked down the National Assembly on Tuesday, even as the Senate leadership had scheduled a meeting to hold in the chambers in the afternoon. Lawmakers who came with the hope of attending the meeting were denied entry into the Assembly by the security operatives.
In a social media storm that followed, Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief as the Acting President took swift action. In a statement by Mr. Laolu Akande, his spokesperson, Prof. Osinbajo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), described the NASS siege as “a gross violation of constitutional order, rule of law and all acceptable notions of law and order.”
According to him, the unlawful act which was done without the knowledge of the Presidency is condemnable and completely unacceptable.
Here are some reactions from Nigerians on Twitter.
@babadidi305: Put ego aside and give Osinbajo the accolades he deserves.
https://twitter.com/babadidi305/status/1026834787896582145
Ragnar Solskjaer
‏@Anietieee: VP Osinbajo deserves some accolades for directing the sack of the DSS boss, there are more to go though.
https://twitter.com/Anietieee/status/1026834375198076928
@marvyd
Now this is democracy and a president in making...All hail @ProfOsinbajo ..my future president
(https://twitter.com/marvyd/ status/1026839143538741249?s= 03)
@ibrominx
Finally someone is positively sticking his head out against democratic wrongs
(https://twitter.com/ibrominx/ status/1026838297300086784?s= 03)
@johnozovehe
In all of this, that short arrogant man called Oshiomole and his cohorts should watch their steps. Seems they are overstepping their boundaries. Also, whoever instructed that invasion should be identified and prosecuted. That is when we can truly say the VP has done great.

@YinkaTinuade
Bold move! Democracy must be preserved
(https://twitter.com/ YinkaTinuade/status/ 1026821186599235584?s=03)
@BabajideEwuoso
Today you @ProfOsinbajo have FINALLY made me proud of sharing a common Ikenne ancestry origin with you...(if this news happens to be true and the decision isn't reversed like #NHIS). Still not loving the APC for the records though.
(https://twitter.com/ BabajideEwuoso/status/ 1026829588083744768?s=03)
@MNlerum
That is the way to go.... nobody can undermine the position of the acting President.
Well done Prof. Y.O. SAN
(https://twitter.com/MNlerum/ status/1026830477523599361?s= 03)
@EmekaAmadiT2
Sack Idris of IGP, Malami of AGF and Magu of EFCC and see sanity restored in our polity. These dudes are miserably toxic to our democratic values.
(https://twitter.com/ EmekaAmadiT2/status/ 1026830436385865728?s=03)
@LeonardAEsere
I want to say that the acting president has done a great job, one the president wouldn't do. Next is the IGP director . Buhari should remain in UK. for the rest of his term.
(https://twitter.com/LeonardAEsere/status/1026826846736969729?s=03

@Zullyabu1
Baba is aware of all this,osinbsjo must have consulted baba before doing this, those of you who condemned buhari this morning, the shame is on you
(https://twitter.com/ Zullyabu1/status/ 1026821670236037120?s=03)
@GordonMuero
Thank you VP @ProfOsinbajo, for getting rid of one of the biggest threats to our democracy. Daura like many others, was a product of nepotism.
(https://twitter.com/ GordonMuero/status/ 1026821095368871936?s=03)
Grindinteur‏ @BoyturnedKing1
Just a reminder that he just did what y'all thought he wouldn't. Keep up. All hail Osinbajo. All hail my VP. All hail Nigeria.
https://twitter.com/BoyturnedKing1/status/1026834865214369797
On Facebook, Emeka Umejei said, “This Osinbajo man has guts.”

For those asking if Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has the powers to fire the DG DSS, Lawal Daura, the answer is YES, HE CAN!

Days before President Buhari embarked on his 10-day vacation, he wrote the National Assembly and categorically informed them as he is expected to do constitutionally, that Vice President Osinbajo will assume the role of Acting President.

An Acting President has ALL the powers of the President. Thus he can hire and fire as much as the President can. The provisions of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution make this clear when it says the Vice President as Acting President shall discharge all the functions of the President. The power of ‘hire and fire’ is undoubtedly one of such functions.

Those who know the duo of President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo, you would admit that they always work together on everything. Thus it would be fair to conclude that the Vice President consulted with his boss before taking this key decision that many Nigerians are applauding.

And even if he did not, he has all constitutional powers to do so!

Just few weeks after Vice President visited Silicon Valley in US, the results of his visit is already yielding positive results.
This is evident as Nigeria pioneers Google free wifi service in the whole of Africa.

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT



PRESS RELEASE



AFRICA’S FORTUNES WILL SHAPE THE WORLD SAYS OSINBAJO AT GOOGLE FOR NIGERIA EVENT

**Global Tech firm announces free internet access following Silicon Valley visit

**Democratization of technology is quantum leap for Africa’s development

“This Century is Africa’s Century. Why? Because Africa will, for good or ill, play the defining role in global development. Africa’s fortunes will matter across all the trends shaping the world. I say for good or for ill because either scenario is possible. If Africa fails on these important development issues, because of our sheer size, the global impact will be catastrophic and if it succeeds the global impact will be incredible.”

“Technology has put great power into our hands, as individuals, but more importantly as co-creators and collaborators, to positively and dramatically change the course of human existence. With it, we can solve many of the problems that confront us.” – Vice President



KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE GOOGLE FOR NIGERIA EVENT IN LAGOS, ON THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2018.



PROTOCOLS

I am delighted to be to be here with you today at this year’s Google for Nigeria event. Just couple weeks back, it was a special pleasure to be welcomed to the Googleplex by Google CEO, Sundar Pichai and his great management team. We all have very warm memories of that visit, and I am truly grateful for your kindness and warm hospitality.

About three months ago, I spoke at an event at the Warwick University on the subject “The African Century.” The substance of that speech was that this Century is Africa’s Century. Why? Because Africa will, for good or ill, play the defining role in global development. Africa’s fortunes will matter across all the trends shaping the world. I say for good or for ill because either scenario is possible. If Africa fails on these important development issues, because of our sheer size, the global impact will be catastrophic and if it succeeds the global impact will be incredible.

In at least four important respects, Africa will hold the balance of world development. First is in world population (demography). Second is environment and climate change. Third is productivity. Fourth is social exclusion (or inclusion as the case may be) and its implications for global security.



Let's take population, by 2035, Africa will have 1.2billion people. Nigeria is Africa most populous country; she will become the 4th most populous nation in the world. Over 50% of that number will be young persons under the age of 25. Today 60 percent of the unemployed in Africa are young people. If we do not change the trajectory of socio-economic development, we would have millions of jobless young people in the prime of their lives, and as we will see, largely illiterate and /or poorly trained. The workforce will be ill-equipped to man any industrial revolution or take advantage on scale of technology. The anger, disillusionment, and hopelessness of these young people will drive social unrest, compel more desperate migration northwards and present a fertile recruiting ground for extremist groups. If social conditions remain tenuous, even the well-educated will be tempted into migration and contribute further to the brain drain.



How about the environment and climate change? So, it is generally agreed that although Africa has contributed least to global warming, it is and will suffer most from its consequences. Indeed, we are already seeing extreme weather events such as flash floods, drought, and desertification.



So to cut a long story short, Africa is confronted with existential challenges, and there is simply no time to waste in resolving these problems. The answer that providence has given us is technology. The great purveyors of technology such as our hosts today Google, and their collaborators - 21st Century Technologies Limited and Backbone Connectivity Network (BCN), are not mere corporations in search of profit and some social good, they literarily hold the future of generations of humanity in their hands.



In Nigeria, we cannot train our nearly 200million young people by 2045, in classrooms alone. It is impossible! We must use the internet and even mobile telephony. We must connect our young people to knowledge and innovation all over the world. Co-creation efforts of innovators and inventors require broadband to be consummated.



So without connectivity, the development trajectory of our nation and continent is truncated. Today, it is also becoming increasingly clear that the availability of food and healthcare for the huge numbers of our people will depend on how democratized the technology becomes. We simply cannot provide enough food, drugs or vaccines in Africa without the availability of innovation in agriculture, and technology in farming and the production of drugs and vaccines. So democratizing Artificial Intelligence as we heard Marvin Chow, Google’s VP Product Marketing, describe in agriculture and the medical sciences, will change the human development story.



Indeed every step that is taken to democratize technology is a quantum leap in the African development story and a major contribution to Global stability and growth. This is why the launch of Google Station here in Nigeria, is an enormously significant event.



First, it means that Google and 21st Century, will be providing free WiFi access in several public spaces in Nigeria, more exciting is that several of our markets will benefit from this free internet access.



This partnership is particularly important to us, because we have in the past one year, in our energizing markets project, been providing solar power to markets and economic clusters across the country. We have done extensive work in Ariaria market in Aba, Sabongari in Kano, Gbagi market in Ibadan, Sura here in Lagos, and we are starting out in Iponri, and Balogun markets.



But the most profound implication is that internet access is becoming available to some of the poorest in society. What access to information, tools of education, business or commerce means is that gaps of inequality and exclusion are bridged. Jobs are created and in many important respects, there is a real chance of better quality of life for large numbers of our people.



Millions of Nigerians have personal stories of how the Internet has transformed their lives, their hustle, as today’s theme alludes to, in positive ways. And Juliet Ehimuan, Google’s Country Director Nigeria, has showed us, with stories of real people like Adaobi, how Google has featured prominently in many of these stories.



In 2016, working with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, I launched the Google Digital Skills Training Programme with the target to train 400,000 Nigerians on basic Digital Skills, working with Google and local Nigerian Tech Training companies.

We have since surpassed those numbers and trained over a million Nigerians in basic digital skills in the last 24 months.



To scale up our support to private sector players in the technology space, I recently inaugurated the Technology and Creative Advisory Group, a subset of our National Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council.

This group brings together, young private sector players in the technology and creative sectors and relevant government agencies, working jointly to formulate policies, programmes and projects for the Technology and Creative sectors of our economy.

Some private sector members of the Advisory Group and relevant government agencies like NITDA, NEPC and the Bank of Industry, went with me on the trip to Silicon Valley. Also on that trip, I met with the creative sector in Los Angeles and showcased Nigeria’s readiness and preparedness for investment, and the work we are doing with our Ease of Doing Business Secretariat, to provide an enabling environment for business in Nigeria, and which helped Nigeria rise 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index in 2017.

Through the GEM Project of the World Bank, the Federal Government has given out over $2million to 79 startups across the country. Apart from this, our National Social Investments Programme is working with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to support the private sector to establish technology and innovation centers across the country.

We have established and launched these Innovation Hub projects across the nation. From the Ventures Platform in Abuja (Ventures Park), to the Marydel Hubs and the Edo State Government’s Edo Innovate project in Benin, Edo State, and the Humanitarian Innovation Center in collaboration with the North East Innovation Hub and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Yola, Adamawa State, we are committed to building an ecosystem to drive innovation.

The Federal Government is now investing in training 5,000 developers as part of our N-Power Tech program, just as we are catalyzing a whole new sector of animation production by training 3,000 young people with scriptwriting, storyboarding, voice acting, animation and post-production skills. Not only will we develop their skills, we are providing an initial support of the hardware and software tools that will help them function economically after they are trained. We also believe that starting earlier with our students helps to solve tomorrow’s challenges, today. The Federal Government is lending support to initiatives such as the Civic Lab’s Student Innovation Challenge, and the Campus Innovation Challenge by Union and CC Hub, Nigeria’s pioneer Tech Hub in Yaba, Lagos State, to discover and support student entrepreneurs in our tertiary institutions.

Next week, I will launch a Climate Innovation Center in partnership with the Enterprise Development Center at the Lagos Business School. This forms part of our ICT roadmap, in which the private sector is an important stakeholder.

The challenge remains connectivity, extending broadband reach, making data cheaper - National Broadband Policy. As a first[1] step, the Federal Government, through the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), has since licensed a number of Infrastructure Companies (Infracos), who will invest in rolling out broadband infrastructure across Nigeria.

I believe we can extend broadband reach significantly in a year or two. We will partner in whatever way we can with Google and Nigerian broadband providers like 21st Century Technologies Limited and Backbone Connectivity Network, to quickly achieve extensive broadband coverage.

Our goal is to create a data-driven digital economy; one that will lead the way not just in Africa, but globally as well. And I believe strongly that Nigeria is on the right path. We have the people, the talent, we have a government that sees the potential very clearly, and is showing the determination to unlock that potential.

Technology has put great power into our hands, as individuals, but more importantly as co-creators and collaborators, to positively and dramatically change the course of human existence. With it, we can solve many of the problems that confront us.

In addition, we can connect people, grow businesses, influence good governance, and create better lives, and a better country for ourselves and for the future.

Thank you.



Released by:

Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity

Office of the Vice President

26 July, 2018

Video Transcript
REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE CO-CREATION CONFERENCE, THEMED: CATALYST FOR INNOVATION, LAGOS, ON JULY 26, 2018.
PROTOCOLS
I am delighted to be among young Nigerians who have taken a risk to invest in providing co-working spaces to spur innovation, ideas and work that will disrupt our collective lives and experiences.
Kola Oyeneyin’s foresight and grit, as one of the pioneers of this growing, important economic and commercial phenomenon, has demonstrated the sort of drive that I’m sure many across the room have, but which is so important in the way our future as a nation and commercial community will be defined.
I have had the opportunity to collaborate with Kola on several other issues, and I am extremely pleased to say that he is someone who sees things through. I have also had the opportunity to collaborate with a few of the entrepreneurs here, especially those who have set up co-working spaces, I am very happy to say that they are individuals who would ensure that this is not just a flash in the pan, but it continues as the phenomenon that it is.
I want to emphasize that this is an economic and social phenomenon, and I say that carefully. The most profound idea of the industrial revolution was probably the concept of Division of Labour. I am sure practically all of us are familiar with that concept.
The expression was first used by Adam Smith in his classic – “The Wealth of Nations.”  Smith was convinced that the quality and quantity of work carried out by any workforce, organized along the principles of the division of labour, was infinitely superior to work done by non-divided labour .
He said famously: “The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour.” What Adam Smith was saying was that division of labour was the greatest phenomenon in the industrial revolution, and that it led to the most efficient work and quantum leap in terms of progress.
If the division of labour defined the productive genius of the industrial revolution and since then the concept of co-working must be the defining idea of work, where and how we work in the knowledge economy, and indeed the fourth industrial revolution. The point I am making is that, in the 19th and 20th century, the division of labour was what defined progress and that whole revolution. In this age of knowledge economy, it is co-working and co-creation that will define the way we work, progress and output.
But let us first understand that the deconstruction of the conventional work environment, important as it is, is the least profound of the implications of co-working. In order words, the mere fact that we are sharing working space is the least profound of the effects of co-working and co-creation.
The most significant dimension is in the redefinition of how creativity and innovation are birthed. It is no longer the lone wolf or the isolated inventor. Creativity before now was someone inventing something; even a couple of years down the road, the likes of Bill Gates were still lone wolves, working from their garages and same as even Mark Zuckerberg. But they were working in an environment which was changing very quickly, and which they have also changed very quickly.
We are no longer looking at the age of the lone wolf for the isolated inventor, but collaborative innovation where ideas are shared, developed and refined collaboratively.
So co-creation is also the process by which groups of people from across boundaries, come together with a shared purpose, to create value through improving or developing services and products. It is by far, the game-changing idea of the knowledge economy. It is bound to fundamentally affect how we work.
The workspaces will be liberating not restrictive, allowing for flexibility, not just in working hours, but in modes that we work. But more importantly, it will allow for collaboration, co-innovation, and co-value creation. It emphasizes the power in the interdependence and cross-pollination of ideas, not as an inadvertent occurrence, not as a mistake, but as a currency, as a way of creating, marketing and selling value.
We must prepare for the creative disruption of this phenomenon. It will redefine how we teach in our schools, how the student learns and to some extent, the content of learning in schools.
The truth of the matter is, the knowledge economy is bound to change everything, co-working is bound to change everything, how we learn and work. The way we taught in schools before now, was by individual competition, “I will be better than the next person”, in a classroom full of twenty students. But the classrooms of the future will be classrooms where collaboration is the key, where people and young students will be working together, to achieves objectives and ideas. This is already playing out in the way that curricula are defined in various parts of the world today.
As a teacher, I am completely fascinated by the new way of thinking because I taught for many years, as a law teacher. I recognize that the law teacher would walk into a classroom, would talk about the principles of law, and hope that the students would learn those principles and at some point, apply them.
But that is going to change. The law teacher today will have to deal with the concept of co-creation even in applied work such as law. Such that individuals will be working together to develop solutions to problems, teamwork would define the way the principles are applied. So rather than a person cramping and learning the principles, hoping that he would be able to apply it himself, he is going to be looking at how to deal with concepts such as blockchain technology, for example. How do you reason around that? It is no longer linear, no one can think linear anymore. You cannot think just as an individual, it has got to be teamwork to achieve those same objectives, and it is going to redefine everything. You are not going to find the lone wolf lawyer in his law office, because everything is changing with co-working.
Without dramatizing it, I think it is fair to say that we are in the midst of historic change. We are participants, as well as witnesses, to a shift probably of greater consequence than Adam Smith’s division of labour.
The great difference is also its greatest strength; the power of working together not as a process on a production line, but each person in his own space physically and mentally, but depending on the other or on others, in real time, across continents to create value. That is the new age we are working in.
So as we sit here today, we might as well imagine that all that we are, are people creating a new way of working, possibly just working together in spaces that are defining a different way. But the truth of the matter is that we are participating in historic change, not just in the way that we work, but in the way that we will work in the future, and that future as already arrived at our doorstep.
The good thing about participants in history is that we hardly ever know until the time is past, and then we will look back and say, “we were all part of that process.”
I want to encourage you by saying that what you are doing is an incredibly important thing, I think the more ideas we are able to bring about by thinking collaboratively and working together, the greater we are not just as individuals, but as a group.
Nobody is going to ever remember individual efforts anymore, it is going to be about collaborating and working together in unity.
Thank you very much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L1SlfE0hvo&feature=youtu.be

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

PRESS RELEASE


HOW OSINBAJO, SILICON VALLEY, HOLLYWOOD INVESTORS, US INDUSTRY CHIEFTAINS INTERACTED & EXCHANGED IDEAS ON INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN NIGERIA
 
*FG promises protection of intellectual property, investment


For two days, American investors and chieftains from the technology and entertainment sectors of the US and indeed global economies took turns to listen and actively interact with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, and the Nigerian delegation drawn from the public and private sectors.

They came in impressive numbers for two full days to listen and assess investment opportunities in Nigeria and also asked questions.

From the Silicon Valley for instance, well over twenty core American investors in technology spent hours on Monday afternoon interacting with the Nigerian delegation led by the Vice President alongside others including Industry, Trade & Investment Minister Dr Okey Enelamah, on how to invest in Nigeria.

Top among the US investors were Tim Kendall, a US investor who worked with Facebook monetization and has led PINTEREST, headquartered in San Francisco, valued at about $12B. Pinterest is a “web and mobile application company that operates a software system designed to discover information on the World Wide Web, mainly using images and on a shorter scale, GIFs and videos. Pinterest has reached 200 million monthly active users as of September 2017.”


Others who attended the investment summit in Silicon Valley included representatives of StreetEdge Capital, a Bay Area, California multi-billion dollar family partnership with global footprints including holdings in the US, India and Africa. There were also others including Chika Nwobi and Tom Terbell, partners from Rise Capital, “a private equity firm specializing in early venture and later stage investments. It seeks to invest in the internet enabled sector in emerging markets.” The multi-million dollar investment firm is also based in San Francisco, California.


In the same vein, Prof. Osinbajo also visited the headquarters of LinkedIn where he held a meeting with the Co-founder of LinkedIn, Allen Blue, and other senior executives of the company at its headquarters in California. The Vice President later featured as the Special Guest at the firm's Fireside Chat with a room packed full of Nigerians in Diaspora, which was also streamed live to a global audience.

The next day, the Vice President and his delegation, drawn mainly from the Advisory Group on Technology Innovation and Creativity, an arm of the National Industrial Competitiveness Council, moved over to Los Angeles, right in Hollywood and met with an impressive array of entertainment chieftains and investors in the US.

They included top Hollywood executives like Mark Viane of Paramount Pictures; Steven O'Dell of Sony Pictures; Kieran Breen, Karen Mbanefo and Bryan Song of 20th Century Fox, Betty Lee of Lions Gate; Craig Dehmel and Shehu Garba from IMAX Entertainment; Monique Esclavissat of Warner Bros; Mary Ann Hughes from Walt Disney, John Fithian from the National Association of Theater Owners, and Ryan Gibson of BET International, among others. There were also representatives from Fox Network, Universal Studios, etc.

Also at the forum from the Nigerian delegation were renowned names in the film, music & 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; and Sesan Ogunro among others.
 
It would be recalled that the Vice President on Monday was received by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other top Google executives at the global technology company’s corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley, California. Discussions centred around how both the Federal Government and Google could work together to beef up digital access in Nigeria. After that meeting, the Vice President also interacted with scores of Nigerians working with Google.

Speaking in Hollywood before he left the US early yesterday, Prof. Osinbajo noted that the Federal Government is determined to ensure needed regulations are in place to stimulate the growth of the country’s entertainment and creative industries, including the protection of Intellectual Property and investment guarantees.


The VP stated this during the interactive investment forum on Nigeria’s creativity sector with US-based entertainment outlets, media & investors held in Waldorf Astoria, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, all day Tuesday.

According to the Vice President, “we understand how dynamic the environment is, both technology and creative arts. But we think that the way to go will be to work with those who are actually in the industry, those like yourselves who are putting in their money, their resources, time, and energy into this, and trying to do our regulations in such a way that we are competitive practically with anyone else in the world.
 

“So what we have done so far is that we’ve been looking at what the specific issues are, and there are quite a few. There are those who want to know about what we are doing in terms of Intellectual Property protection, investment guarantee, and all of that. But I think that the most important thing really, is that we have a government, and a lot of those who work in our agencies, who are determined to work through this, day by day, piece by piece to make sure that we get our environment right, and we get the right type of investment environment.”


Prof. Osinbajo further said the Buhari administration will continue to make effort to improve the country’s infrastructure and technology to grow the country’s entertainment/creative sector and the digital economy.

He said “we are also, of course, very interested in many ways, in deepening infrastructure, especially broadband connectivity and all of that, because we think that mobile telephony is going to be one of the big ways, especially for the distribution of film and all of that. And we are convinced that with the size of our population, we must find ways of getting film and content unto mobile phones, and also working out payment systems around that because we think that that is the way this is going to go.
 
“We know that in the next couple of years, that really is where a lot of development is going to go to, and we are very anxious to get our regulations right, to get all of our laws in place and to ensure that we are able to attract all of you who want to do business with us, especially those of you who are coming from other countries. As for Nigerians, we are, of course, actively engaged with the local industry, and that is one of the reasons why we have the advisory council which takes into account many of our local investors, local artistes and the local entertainment crowd generally.”



The interactive forum in Los Angeles was the last leg of the Vice President’s trip to the United States where he led a Public-Private sector collaborative investment road show, including meetings with global industry leaders in the technology, film, music & entertainment industry in San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively.

 
The investment road show led by the Vice President showcased the efforts of the Buhari administration in developing Nigeria’s technology, entertainment and creative sectors; and sought to deepen collaboration between Nigeria and the US in these areas.


Also on the Vice President’s delegation were representatives of tech firms, Nollywood and several relevant government agencies. A number of representatives of those agencies also held a meeting with Facebook at its headquarters in the Silicon Valley on Tuesday.

The VP’s earlier meetings with a series of key US technology investors and executives from US-based companies-“Invest in Nigeria Summit”, held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Palo Alto, San Francisco, California, while the meeting with Hollywood and US entertainment industry operatives held all day at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Los Angeles.

At the meetings which were well attended by US and Nigerian investors/ industry chieftains, Prof. Osinbajo reiterated Government’s commitment to the growth of the country’s digital economy by creating the right environment for the technology, creative industries to thrive and unlocking the country’s potential.
 
The Vice President said “one of the critical things for us also, is the fact that we are very open to ensuring that regulation is competitive, especially in the Tech space. All over the world, this is a very dynamic environment, and we recognise that, and we want to be able to work with players and investors, to get the regulations and environment right.”

Prof. Osinbajo also showcased opportunities for innovation and investment in Nigeria, while also highlighting the growth of Nigerian technology start-ups and young Nigerians taking the lead in innovation and creativity.

He noted that government was exploring more ways to leverage on technology to improve infrastructure and other areas of the economy, while also highlighting the impact of the Buhari administration Social Investment Programme such as the N-power scheme and how it leverages on technology to train and empower young Nigerian graduates. So far the N-Power scheme has 200,000 beneficiaries, with 300,000 more expected to be added soon.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
12th July 2018

In recent updates following the visit of the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to Plateau and Lagos States respectively, Nigerians have taken to social media to applaud the efforts of Prof. Osinbajo in resolving the conflicts.

Some have described him as a leader who feels the pain of the masses.

Several Nigerians have affirmed their unwavering support and love for Osinbajo, while others called for the perpetrators to be brought to book in earnest.

See reactions below:

dboi‏ @ab_osayande

Replying to @ab_osayande @ProfOsinbajo

The man cannot call shots without authorization from President @MBuhari. The most I believe he is permitted to do is to call a press brief and try to contain the situation as quick as possible. But for him to call the shots is above his position.

 

IMPRESSOR‏ @BaJOkay

Replying to @ProfOsinbajo

I appreciate the Vice President concern about this, obviously he has expressed sadness over the killings. Sir your immediate visit to Plateau is an applaudable development. I believe restructuring can also end these incessant killings

IMPRESSOR‏ @BaJOkay

Replying to @BaJOkay @ProfOsinbajo

And what i mean by Restructuring is not dividing Nigeria but states should be able to control their own resources, control their own SECURITY, be able to generate more income and exercise greater freedom, according to the Vice President.

HANIIF UMAR ��‏ @_iamHanif

Replying to @ProfOsinbajo

May God bless My Vice President. I pray Peace shall flourish all Over the Nation. And Pls Sir, ignore all these Biafrans for they do not know what they are doing

Dr. Sulaiman Kumo, II‏ @dr_kumo

Replying to @ProfOsinbajo

By God's grace sir and we appreciate your efforts.

Jerry koko‏ @kokomatic

I will campaign properly for Buhari/Osinbajo in 2019. If you are not comfortable, block me in advance. Thanks

MUKHTAR RIGACHIKUN‏ @RIGACHIKUN123 Jun 27

Replying to @kokomatic

We are here to support you

Prince Adeshina‏ @RealAdeshina Jun 28

Replying to @kokomatic

I will also campaign for them.

Reno Omokri‏Verified account @renoomokri

I commend VP @ProfOsinbajo for declaring support for state police as a panacea to the spate of killings in Nigeria. The old Osinbajo is back. It is the only solution that makes sense. You cant call Governors Chief Security Officers if they have no police officers at their control

Ibrahim Mela Bilal‏ @MelaBilal

Replying to @ProfOsinbajo

My prayer is that this Goodwill, reach the right people.... @ProfOsinbajo

Yemi Osinbajo, professor of law, SAN, is an accomplished professional. Unlike many of our politicians, he has a second address. In other words, outside of government, he can survive, and survive with panache. Before his current position, he was the Attorney-General of Lagos State for 8 years. He performed excellently.

Prof. Osibanjo, is also a senior pastor with the RCCG. He was the pastor in-charge at the Banana Island road branch, Ikoyi, Lagos. As the senior pastor of the church, he was known for his humility, frugality, and godly virtues. Osibanjo, unlike most of his colleagues who will seat in their high offices and delegate evangelism to others, was always on the roads, accompanied by his wife, Dolapo, preaching the gospel of Jesus. He is a self-effacing man!

VP Osinbajo, was not looking for a job when he was nominated by president Buhari as as running mate. President Buhari, on a mission to rescue Nigeria at the time was looking for a partner who is a man of proven integrity and honesty. He found in Osinbajo, the qualities he was looking for. He wasted no time in naming him after meeting with him in Abuja. His choice, was a master stroke. Many Nigerians, received the news of his nomination with joy, and pledged their support. Buhari and Osinbajo were elected as president and vice-president of Nigeria under the APC, a party the opposition PDP, and CAN had described as a Muslim party. Some openly expressed their disdain with Osinbajo for accepting to serve under Buhari, a perceived muslim extremist. They asked: why would Osinbajo a Christian and pastor, agree to serve under a muslim?

Osinbajo threw himself into the job with dedication. As a senior lawyer, he knows the limits of the powers of his office. He knows he is not the president. He knows that he must remain loyal to the president, and do the jobs given to his office by the president. With a president on his seat, the only thing he can do is to advice the president. He cannot insist that his advice be followed. In the absence of the president, he becomes the Acting president. We are all witnesses to how he brilliantly and efficiently held the office in the absence of the president. He travelled to different parts of the country to reconcile the government with certain parts of the country. He implemented policies that strengthened the Naira against the Dollars following the positive outcome of his negotiations with the leaders and militant groups in the SS part of the country. He created a pervasive sense of unity, and remained loyal to the president by attributing everything he did to the president.

Osibanjo, is highly trusted by president Buhari. The president is so comfortable with him that he ceded the management of the nation's economy to him. For a every critical assignment or mission, he is the go-to-man of the president. He has visited many conflict areas on behalf of the president. Many will remember that he is the first to visit and commiserate with communities that has been attacked by the Fulani Herdsmen. After the attacks on some Benue communities leading to egregious deaths and destruction, VP Osinbajo visited the state more than once in a month. He attended the funerals of some of the victims of the attacks, and gave a heartfelt address on that occasion.

Recently, VP Osinbajo, has come under attacks by some pastors and their supporters. Many are questioning why and how he can still claim to be a Christian and pastor, and remain in a government out to eliminate Christians and Christianity. They are calling on him to quit. This is to say the least, uncharitable!

Many of the pastors, making these calls, will not even consider resigning from their positions in their churches no matter how bad things are. They will also, not brook any opposition from any pastor under them. Any pastor under them that holds a contrary view on issues will be removed on the direction of some spirit. This is the truth! The same people are the ones asking Osinbajo to stand up and confront the president. I'm not against Osinbajo confronting the president, or resigning from his position if he thinks there reasons to do so, that is his call to make. I'm against those attacking him for not leaving in pursuit of their narrow and selfish objective. VP Osinbajo, is not in government as a pastor. He is there as an administrator whose actions and inactions, are governed by the laws of the country. He took an oath that imposed a duty on him to be fair and just to all, irrespective of their tribes and religion. He is the vice-president of Nigeria, not of the Christians in Nigeria!

If the pastors, believe that Nigeria should be governed by Christians only, they can form a Christian party in Nigeria, and contest elections. This is the situation in some European countries. In 2019, VP Osinbajo, maybe on the ticket with Buhari hopefully, and we have the opportunity to decide his fate. How many of the pastors castigating prof. Osinbajo today supported, or voted for him?

What many may not have adverted their minds to, is what the situation could have been without the moderating voice and influence of Osibanjo. If Mordecai had not been at the palace to counsel Esther, the jews would have been destroyed from the counsel of Hamman.

Let me conclude this piece by advising the pastors and their supporters to, spare Osinbajo from the needless attacks. The muslim community is standing solidly behind Buhari, who is the leader, and on whose desk the buck stops. We are tearing at our own. The pastors, should devote their energies in raising up righteous men who will takeover the affairs of the country, and set us on the path to sustainable development. VP Osinbajo is not perfect, only God is!

God bless Nigeria.

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT


PRESS RELEASE 


PLIGHT OF COMMON MAN IS RATIONALE BEHIND OUR ASCENSION TO LEADERSHIP - OSINBAJO


*Says FG focused on improving lives of ordinary Nigerians. 



**The common man, those that are at the bottom of the pyramid, the millions who had been left behind, have remained the reason and rationale for our aspiration to the leadership of our nation.

"We have worked hard in the past three years, despite the challenging circumstances that we inherited, and the absolute blight of the last five years, to resolve the issues in these areas. Now on every front, the light is appearing at the end of the tunnel."


REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE APC NATIONAL CONVENTION, EAGLES SQUARE, ABUJA, ON SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2018.


PROTOCOLS


First, let me express my sincere congratulations to our new Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole. He is a very special friend of mine, he belongs to an important society which I have the privilege of chairing within the APC. This is a special society comprising the following very distinguished members; Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, Dr. Chris Ngige, Honourable Minister of Labour, and Professor Isaac Adewole, Honourable Minister of Health, who are vertically humble, gentlemen who have refused to show off by ensuring that they maintain modesty in their heights. By succeeding the much taller Chief John Odigie Oyegun, I think the APC has finally achieved the long and short of the matter.

I think we must congratulate Chief John Odigie Oyegun, the outgoing Chairman, who as has been said repeatedly, achieved a historical occurrence, of being the one who led the party to take over from a 16 year incumbency of the PDP.

Chief Odigie Oyegun, we want to thank you very much for your great service to our party, and we wish you well for the future, because you are going to be very much a part of the future of our party, and the great victories that lies ahead of us.


The destinies of nations is often shaped by the actions or inactions of its men and women. God has given us the freewill to act or refrain from acting, to better the lot and fortunes of our people. 

Our great party, the APC, was given the unequivocal mandate of the Nigerian people, to govern along the lines of the social democratic principles espoused in our manifesto.  We have been resolutely faithful to that mandate. The difference between us and the other parties, is our firm commitment to integrity and fighting grand corruption, the looting of the treasury with impunity, and also, the adoption of a bottom-up approach to the development of our country.  


The common man, those that are at the bottom of the pyramid, the millions who had been left behind, have remained the reason and rationale for our aspiration to the leadership of our nation. This is why for the first time in the history of our country, we have embarked on a graduate and non-graduate employment programme called N-Power. Today, we saw many of the beneficiaries, and we have 200,000 of such volunteers across the country, in every single local government in Nigeria. We will by God’s grace, engage an additional 300,000 by next month, making the employment scheme the largest of its type in Africa. Our School Feeding Programme feeds over 8.2 million children every day in our public primary schools. The largest feeding programme in Africa.


Again, for the first time in history, we are paying N5000 monthly to about 300,000 of the poorest in our communities, and we are giving micro-credit to another 350,000. In the next few months, by the grace of God, we will be embarking on the most ambitious micro-credit scheme anywhere in the world, as we extend our GEEP microcredit scheme, to cover the traders at the very bottom of the ladder, who now do not have bank accounts or access to any form of credit.   


Mr. President during the campaigns in 2015, and since then, outlined the issues central to realizing our desire to upturn the pyramid, such that the majority are able to earn enough to live decently, have access to free education and health care for themselves and their children, and be provided the opportunities for prosperity, as entrepreneurs and business owners. 


The issues we outlined then are relevant and still relevant all the time in the history of any nation and the life time of any nation, they are - security, the economy, and in our case, the fight against corruption. 


We have worked hard in the past three years, despite the challenging circumstances that we inherited, and the absolute blight of the last five years, to resolve the issues in these areas. Now on every front, the light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. We spent for the first time in the history of our country, N1.3 trillion on capital expenditure in 2017, the largest yet in the history of the country. 


So now we are doing the major infrastructure projects, long abandoned by previous governments; Lagos Kano Rail, 2nd Niger Bridge, East-west Road, the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, and the Mambilla Hydro Project. We are doing this with almost 50% less revenue than all of the previous governments. We are doing far more, with much less.


All that is left is for us as a party, to remain united, to heal the wounds, redress grievances with an understanding that the Nigerian people who voted us into office, expect us to fight for them, not among ourselves. All of our people know our honesty of purpose, they have no intention of going backwards, and they know that it is forward ever and backward never. 


Let us therefore, boldly lead our nation forward, under the leader of integrity that God has given us, President Muhammadu Buhari, in the full assurance that by the grace of God, we will be victorious in 2019.


God bless the APC.


God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.


Thank you very much.


Released by:

Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,

Office of the Vice President,

June 24, 2018

10 CRITICAL PROJECTS THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CUT FUNDING FROM IN THE 2018 BUDGET

(1) Provisions for some nationally/regionally strategic infrastructure projects such as Counterpart funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project were cut by an aggregate of 11.5 billion Naira.

(2) Provisions for some ongoing critical infrastructure projects in the FCT, Abuja especially major arterial roads and the mass transit rail project, were cut by a total of 7.5 billion Naira.

(3) Provision for Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport was cut from 2 billion Naira to 500 million Naira which will further delay the completion of this critical project.

(4) Provisions for various Strategic Interventions in the health sector such as the upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines through the cold chain supply system, provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons on treatment, establishment of chemotherapy centres and procurement of dialysis consumables were cut by an aggregate amount of 7.45 billion Naira.

(5) Take-off Grant for the Maritime University in Delta State, a key strategic initiative of the Federal Government, was cut from 5 billion Naira to 3.4 billion Naira.

(6) Provision for the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme was cut by 8.7 billion Naira.

(7) A total of 5 billion Naira was cut from the provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment, at a time when we are working with Labour to address compensation-related issues, a

( Provisions for Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks, which are key industrialization initiatives of this Administration, were cut by a total of 14.5 billion Naira.

(9) Provision for security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools across the country were cut by 3 billion Naira at a time when securing our students against acts of terrorism ought to be a major concern of government.

(10) About seventy (70) new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. Regrettably, in order to make provision for some of the new roads, the amounts allocated to some strategic major roads have been cut by the National Assembly.

This same National Assembly unilaterally increased their own budget by 14.5 billion Naira, from 125 billion Naira to 139.5 billion Naira, without discussing it with the Executive.

#Budget2018 Highlights/Background

The President submitted the 2018 Budget proposals to the National Assembly on 7th November 2017.

The National Assembly finally passed the 2018 Appropriation Bill one hundred and ninety (190) days later, on May 16, 2018.

The N9.12 trillion version passed by the National Assembly contained an increase of N508 billion over and above the N8.612 trillion originally presented by President Buhari. The oil benchmark price was also increased from the US$45 submitted to US$51.

The plan was that the early submission would allow for quick passage to enable Nigeria commence a predictable January-December financial year starting in 2018.

During the process of the passage of the Bill, the National Assembly altered it significantly, making cuts amounting to 347 billion Naira in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration, and introducing 6,403 projects of their own, amounting to 578 billion Naira.

These cuts affected several critical projects, including but not limited to the following:

- Mambilla Power Plant
- Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads
- The East-West Road
- Bonny-Bodo Road
- Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
- Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project
- Abuja Mass Transit rail project
- Various strategic interventions in the health sector (upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines, provision of anti-retroviral drugs, establishment of chemotherapy centres, procurement of dialysis consumables)
- Provision of security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools nationwide
- The Federal Government’s National Housing Programme
- Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment.
- Export Expansion Grant (EEG)
- Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks
- Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport
- Take-off Grant for the Maritime University in Delta State

In addition, about seventy (70) new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.

The National Assembly increased provisions for Statutory Transfers by 73.96 billion Naira -- most of it recurrent expenditure -- at a time the Buhari Administration is doing its best to keep recurrent expenditure down and prioritise capital spending.

The National Assembly increased its own budget by 14.5 billion Naira, from 125 billion Naira to 139.5 billion Naira, without any discussion or consultation with the Executive.

The Budget signed into Law today by President Buhari provides for aggregate expenditures of 9.12 trillion Naira, which is 22.6% higher than the 2017 Appropriation.

Further details of the Signed budget will be provided by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, at a Public Presentation event to be held at 10am on Thursday June 21, 2018, at the Rotunda Conference Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja.

The President remains determined to continue to work with the National Assembly towards improving the budgeting process and restoring Nigeria to the January-December fiscal cycle.

Whenever this historical epoch of Nigeria’s political evolution is to be evaluated the role being played by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo will not go unnoticed or be swept under the carpet. In the last three years of this administration he has worked tirelessly with President Muhammadu Buhari to help realise the vision and mission of the administration as encapsulated in the ‘’change agenda’’ and several other policy documents. In doing this he has brought his extensive knowledge of law, public and private sector experiences to bear in the many successes of the Buhari /Osinbajo administration.

Like President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has equally through a dint of hard work and commitment to the Nigerian project emerged as a man of the people, hence the incredible show of love he garners wherever he goes. His wide acceptance across the country has added value to the administration and will surely attract needed support in the 2019 general elections.

His focussed leadership of the administration’s economic team has helped to rejuvenate the weak economy they inherited from previous PDP administrations. Today Nigeria has become the preferred investment destination in Africa, while several policies the administration has enunciated have alleviated the plight of the poor. For example the N-Power, school feeding programme and anchor borrowers programme have translated into life-changing experiences for a good number of people.

For the myriad of problems facing the country, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has never shied away from proffering workable solutions and a typical example is the farmers/herders clashes which he has been in the forefront in addressing the fundamental causes. This has contributed along with the security approach in restoring relative peace in the restive communities. Professor Osinbajo has proven that his position can be used to give support to his principal President Muhammadu Buhari rather than fight for supremacy or undermine the principal as we witnessed in past dispensations.

As a loyal party member he has at critical periods brokered peace towards ensuring the cohesion necessary for the growth of the party and democracy in the country. He has also earned the confidence of President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the ruling All Progressive Congress as a peace maker, solution provider and out-of-the box thinker in resolving several knotty issues that crop up from time to time.

His interventions in other issues of national importance are also worthy of mention. Recently he opted to intervene in redressing the action of the Lagos state government in forcing Luxury Bus Owners to relocate to a location that is obviously unsuitable for them to continue rendering seamless transport services to travellers from Lagos to other parts of the country.

By offering to help find solution to the transporters’ plight he has demonstrated responsible leadership, especially considering the pivotal role transportation plays in the economic development of the country. Added to the fact that he leads the administration’s economic team, he is the most suitable to help find solution to such unnecessary disruption in the movement of goods and services across the country. Even in the United States, transport companies own bus terminals as we have in the Greyhound Bus Company and many others.

It can therefore be said that Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a blessing to the Buhari administration and Nigeria in general. History is replete with examples of such highly rated statesmen like President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who had rare opportunities of leadership to transform their societies and presently Nigeria is witnessing a focussed leadership that is positioning the country well.

By Chukwudi Enekwechi JP

Kwechis19@yahoo.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rl32HWlo_4

*Over 80,000 cooks engaged in 45,394 schools
 
 
Following the achievement of its target of 5.5 million pupils being fed free daily under the programme in 2017, the Buhari administration’s National Home-grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) now feeds 8,260,984 pupils in 45,394 public primary schools across 24 states.
 
The 24 states currently benefitting from the school feeding programme are Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa, Niger, Kano, Katsina, Gombe, Ondo and Borno.
 
Similarly, over 80,000 direct jobs have since been created from the School Feeding Programme; with 87,261 cooks currently engaged in the 24 participating states. All 36 states of the Federation and the FCT will eventually benefit from the programme.
 
The programme’s educational, economic and health benefits have been praised by many.
 
Not only has the Buhari administration’s School Feeding Programme created jobs for thousands of Nigerians in these communities where the programme is being implemented, it has also helped to boost local economies by linking the local farmers to the school feeding market.
 
Similarly, the school feeding programme continues to record significant milestones in the classrooms as the scheme has led to an increase in enrolment.
 
Another important aspect of the School Feeding Programme is that by providing a meal a day for millions of pupils, it addresses the issues of malnutrition and stunting among children, increasing the chances of the pupils making a significant headway in their learning and in life.
 
The NHGSFP plans to implement feeding in 28 States in the coming months, and all over the country soon after.

EVER SEEN A LYING PASTOR?

“Pastor” Reno Omokri is forcing me to do what I don’t do. I don’t react to published criticisms. I have spent my entire career in the media and as one who criticizes others; you must be ready to take criticism.

This is about exposing a liar masquerading as a pastor. By the way, I have known and worked with exemplary pastors who are decent and from whom you learned more of the etiquette of truth telling.

Take for example Pastor Emeka Izeze and his brother, Pastor Ifeanyi, or his friend, Pastor Segun Babatope. And lately, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President and Pastor Femi Adesina.

For those Reno tried to mislead, yes it is a fact that I worked in the media office of a PDP administration. Not for five years as the new-day pastor published but only for six months at which point it was announced on NTA news, to my surprise, that my letter of resignation had been accepted when I hadn’t written any. I learned of course that I was fired because the head of the country at that time, who believed that every published criticism was sponsored by an insider, read the weekly magazine, The News, and didn’t like what was written about him.

Another point the “Pastor” keeps making is that he was my colleague at that time. No, he wasn’t. His boss was. The Reno I knew was a Personal Assistant (PA) to a Principal Officer like me. He didn’t attend meetings and didn’t receive official briefings as we did but ran errands for his boss.

Not being a principal officer by status, he could not have had an office opposite my own. He may, however, have perched on a stool in one of those offices but I didn’t take particular notice of which one. He was, however, very personable at that time.

“Pastor’’ Reno lied by calling me an AGIP - meaning an unprincipled person ready to serve any government in power. The period he was referring to was one in which my boss ran into bad political weather and some of us around him were scapegoated. I was locked in DSS detention many times, my houses in Kano and Abuja broken into and valuables, including cash some of which were never returned were seized. I was going to court for two years and for the most part of which I didn’t have a passport. In the course of that trial, the judge presiding called back my lawyers, Niyi Akintola, SAN and Rickey Tarfa, SAN, after an adjournment to say that “I didn’t mean that he should be kept in DSS detention. I said he should be taken to Kuje Prison,” and that’s where I was kept. Under detention in the DSS I was stripped down to the pants and photographed head to toe. All that didn’t make one to capitulate.

When they lost to Muhammadu Buhari in the party primaries, the candidates in that race, Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso, Waziri Atiku Abubakar, Rochas Okorocha and Sam Nda-Isaiah surrendered their media assets to the winner who had the grace to ask me to lead the media team. When we won, he (then President-elect Buhari) invited me to serve as one of his two spokespersons and I pledged 100 per cent loyalty to him and that’s where I am. This cannot be AGIP by any standards.

Reno should stop lying, if only to help the pastoral calling to retain its good name. Otherwise he should quit the ministry.



Garba Shehu is Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)

May 27, 2018


https://mobile.twitter.com/GarShehu/status/1000797320487763969

Summary of President Buhari's Social Intervention Programme (SIP), N-Power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovbSS7W266c

The National Home Grown School Feeding Programme
#SocialInvestmentProgramme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rl32HWlo_4

A Social Intervention Programme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qcUPAqpAA

Click to watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYaHaLtLu20

The security challenges in some parts of the country continues to be a source of concern to all Nigerians, as it should well be. The Buhari/Osinbajo administration is however not resting on its oars as it employs various strategies of containment. In doing so, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has assumed the role of a trouble-shooter towards ensuring that normalcy returns to the affected areas, especially in Benue state where thousands of families have been rendered homeless following unprovoked attacks by armed herdsmen.

On a recent two-day visit to internally-displaced persons’ camps in Benue and later Nasarawa states, after an on the-spot assessment of the situation in the various camps, he announced the federal government’s decision to embark on a rehabilitation programme of communities that have been affected by violent killings. With a ten billion naira price tag. He also used the opportunity of the visit to reveal other measures being put in place by the Federal Government to rehabilitate the surviving victims of the attacks and reintegrate them into society. He has also emphasised that as a responsible government justice will be done to the victims.

The Vice President has, through the visits, demonstrated that the federal government is living up to its responsibilities, especially as it relates to the protection of lives and property. One lesson to be drawn from the visit of the Vice President to Benue and Nasarawa states is that this is an administration that does not abdicate its responsibilities.

Apart from on-going efforts by the federal government to restore peace to Benue and other affected states, there is also a clear evidence of deployment of troops to the affected communities and this was acknowledged by the Benue State Governor, Mr Samuel Ortom.

There is no doubt that the disruption of normal life in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Nasarawa and Kaduna states by the activities of armed herdsmen was unforeseen and can in no way be blamed on the Buhari/Osinbajo administration, yet they have taken the responsibility to curtail and bring it to an end.

Therefore, an attempt to introduce a religious coloration to the farmers/herdsmen clashes, or blame the Vice President of abandoning Christians is uncalled for. It is an established fact that Muslims are suffering similar unfortunate fate in Zamfara state and Birnin Gwari of Kaduna state, and therefore should be seen as national challenge which the Buhari/Osinbajo administration is trying to stop. Both President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice president Yemi Osinbajo are conscientious leaders and are determined to solve the problems once and for all.

In this regard, several measures have been put in place to bring an end to the security challenges. For instance, the government has reviewed the entire security architecture and deployed the army, police, civil defence and air force to restore peace and normalcy in Benue and other restive areas.

It is also on record that on 15th January, 2018 the president had met with a delegation of Benue leaders including the governor where issues were frankly discussed and decisions reached. Before and after the meeting with the Benue state delegation, several top government officials had visited the affected areas to see things first-hand with a view to proffering long-lasting solution.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has never missed an opportunity to show empathy and demonstrate the resolve of the administration to bring an end to the killings; and in doing this his interest has been to reassure the victims and restore hope. With the various measures already put in place and the decision to rebuild the communities, there is no doubt we are soon going to see the end of these unfortunate incidents.

Therefore, to blame the Vice President or accuse him of abandoning Christians in their hour of need is unfair, tragic. As a true Christian, committed patriot and nationalist he has never shirked in his responsibilities to any set of Nigerians, regardless of faith or tribe. He keeps receiving the plaudits of the throng wherever he goes just like President Muhammadu Buhari. As a people we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to reap from the dedicated leadership of the duo of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as their sincerity of purpose is glaring and their integrity untainted.

Let us spare a moment to appreciate all the monumental projects they have embarked on towards rebuilding the country. Though the journey may appear tough, the determination to reach the destination is clear and not in doubt.

By Chukwudi Enekwechi (JP)

An Abuja Based Journalist and Politician

Kwechis19@yahoo.com

CROWNWEALTH019:
Osinbajo they mad for head

You are always thinking with your anus.