Speech: VP Osinbajo’s Address at the Inauguration of The National Council on Nutrition in Abuja

This was established by the Federal Executive Council in May 2007, following the convening of the first Presidential Stakeholders’ Forum on the Child Nutrition Situation in Nigeria, on 22nd February 2007 – is the highest decision-making body on food and nutrition in Nigeria, and is expected to spearhead and oversee our interventions in addressing Nigeria’s nutritional challenges.

The Council has a robust roadmap to work with – the National Food and Nutrition Policy, adopted in April 2016 by a broad coalition of stakeholders, comprising the Federal and State Governments, civil society and international development partners.

The emergence of that Policy is further demonstration of the seriousness with which the Buhari administration takes the issue of improving the nutritional status of all Nigerians, especially the most vulnerable in our midst: infants and children, pregnant women, the elderly, the poor.

That policy, if fully implemented, will ensure significant improvements in several specific national indices, including the reduction of stunting in under-5 children, reduction of wasting in children, reduction of anaemia in pregnant women, reduction in adult obesity rates, and an increase in the rates of exclusive breastfeeding.

More than any other government in Nigeria’s history, this administration has demonstrated its seriousness about catering to the needs of the most vulnerable of our population.

One of the primary manifestations of this commitment to the vulnerable is our Social Investment Programme, comprising a School Feeding Programme for public primary schools, a Micro-credit scheme for small business people, a Conditional Cash Transfer scheme, and a Jobs programme for unemployed graduates.

The School Feeding Programme, which directly seeks to improve the nutrition of primary school children, is now active in 19 States of the country, providing one meal a day to 5million. Our target is 5.5million children before the end of the year. At the beginning of December, we intend to carry out a mass deworming exercise on the back of the School Feeding Programme.

Our Agriculture reform agenda is focusing on achieving self-sufficiency within the shortest possible time. In the Northeast, where Boko Haram’s violence disrupted the farming cycle for years, we are now seeing a remarkable improvement in security, allowing the people to return to their farms, and grow their food. In our healthcare agenda, we are revitalizing our primary health care system, with nutrition at the very heart of it, and promoting optimum breastfeeding and quality of complementary foods.

We are also collaborating with the private sector to ensure Nigerians have year round access to adequately fortified and nutritious foods, and working with both national and International partners to raise awareness and deepen understanding on this issue.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is clear that there is a strong connection between nutrition and economic growth. If we invest in improved nutrition for our people we will see the results not only in improved emotional and psychological satisfaction in our citizens, but also in reduced healthcare costs and increased economic productivity.

We must therefore ensure that we mobilize the resources needed to make these needed investments. The Federal Government has been progressively increasing budgetary allocations to nutrition activities.

But the Government cannot fund this by itself. The private sector, civil society, and international community must all play a key role in helping mobilize financial and logistical resources, and in helping ensure transparency and accountability in the deployment of these resources. Indeed, every resource must be made to count towards the attainment of our goals and ambitions. There is no room for waste.

The National Council on Nutrition has its work cut out, in implementation, collaboration, and communication. We bear the burden of very high expectations – Nigeria must make speedy and visible progress in its fight against hunger, malnutrition and other nutritional challenges. As part of this we must ensure that the new National Food and Nutrition Policy is quickly domesticated at State level in every State of the Federation and the FCT.

Let me reiterate that the work of this Council is an important one. Our success or failure will make a huge difference in how quickly Nigeria is able to achieve not only the Sustainable Development Goals, but also our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

I would also like to express our gratitude to all our partners and stakeholders, local and international, who have demonstrated again and again that they are fully with us on this journey.

In closing, let me express my congratulations to all Council members. This is a great opportunity to serve our nation and its people.

It is now my honour and privilege to formally inaugurate the National Council on Nutrition today. I wish you a successful tenure.

Thank you and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Laolu Akande
SSA, Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
November 22, 2017

Speech: VP Osinbajo’s Address at UCH’s 60th Anniversary in Ibadan

It is a special pleasure to be here to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the leading tertiary health facility in Nigeria. The management and workers at University College Hospital, Ibadan, have every cause to celebrate this milestone.

“Oritamefa”, as UCH is fondly called, has attained the status of legend, pioneering complex health procedures in Nigeria, and spearheading landmark medical research of global relevance.

From the beginning, the vision, according to the 1952 broadcast of Sir Sydney Phillipson, CMG, was to build a “consultant medical centre for the whole country”, from which “will go out highly qualified doctors for service throughout Nigeria.”

In August 1952, the Federal House of Representatives sitting in Lagos passed ‘the UCH Ordinance’ which established a University College Hospital for the University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan). Construction started in 1954, and, on this day 60 years ago, the University College Hospital, Ibadan, was commissioned for use.

In the last 60 years, UCH has also produced some of the most accomplished and most distinguished medical personnel the world has seen.

Let me specially recognize the first Nigerian medical doctor to be employed in the University College Hospital, and who went on to become the first Emeritus Professor of Medicine of the University of Ibadan, and the first Nigerian in history to obtain the Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of England, our own Emeritus Prof. Theophilus Ogunlesi, the UCH 60th anniversary lecturer. In the early 1960s, Emeritus Professor Ogunlesi founded the world-renowned Ibarapa Community Health Project, to incorporate local content into the London-oriented curriculum of the University of Ibadan.

Since those early days, UCH has gone on to open new frontiers in health care service delivery. It was the first medical institution in Nigeria to launch Nuclear Medicine services, the first to introduce Palliative and Hospice Care services for end-of-life and chronic debilitating diseases, and the first to open a Geriatric Centre in Africa – the Chief Tony Anenih Geriatric Centre, which began operations in 2012, and today, we’ve just commissioned the Adebutu Geriatric Rehabilitation Centre.

UCH is also responsible for pioneering interventions in heart and brain surgery in Nigeria, as well as the development of the award-winning Bladder Manikin, which has been patented for use as a medical teaching-aid in low-income countries.

However we must acknowledge that the last few decades have not exactly been a stellar period for healthcare in Nigeria; marked by the same tragic malaise of underfunding, neglect and corruption that have left no aspect of our national life untouched. Medical workers know more than the rest of us that, without acknowledging and diagnosing a condition, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to prescribe and implement the appropriate solutions.

The sad state of affairs in our healthcare system has led to dismal levels of professional satisfaction amongst our medical personnel, and is at the root of the alarming brain drain that has depopulated institutions like this. While this should never have happened in the first place, we now have an incredible opportunity to fight hard to win back our best brains, and to give emerging generations of our medical personnel a new reason to believe in their country and its possibilities.

But first we must create the right conditions at home, by investing in infrastructure, and vigorously fighting the corruption that underlies much of the decline and rot. We must also as a matter of urgency redefine our approach to healthcare delivery, management of healthcare institutions and enabling the private sector a prominent place in our healthcare delivery.

As for the Federal Government, we made our health policy clear: we want to offer affordable, accessible and qualitative healthcare to all Nigerians and others irrespective of social status and location. At the heart of this vision is our goal of providing basic healthcare to all Nigerians, as this will cater to over 70 percent of healthcare needs. Our Primary Healthcare Revitalization Programme was personally flagged off by Mr. President at Kuchigoro, a suburb of Abuja, last year.

UCH is an important part of the narrative; complementing this initiative through its Rural Comprehensive Health Centres located at Sepeteri in Oyo State and Okuku in Osun state.

In addition, UCH’s four federally-funded Schools – responsible for training Primary Health Care Tutors, Community Health Officers Tutors, Nurse/Midwifery Tutors and Environmental Health Officers Tutors have been meeting Nigeria’s manpower training needs for decades now; and graduates from these institutions constitute the backbone of Primary Health Care and Comprehensive Health Care delivery in Nigeria.

I am also pleased to note that UCH is one of the initial eight tertiary health facilities that the Buhari administration will be upgrading, through the investment of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).

Your Excellencies, Faculty and Staff of the UCH, it is on the present leadership of this great institution that the burden of attaining the vision so inspiringly set six decades ago now lies.

But that task will require a paradigm shift in our thinking about funding and management. It is clearer by the day that Government alone cannot adequately fund most of its infrastructure commitments.

For the first time in almost two decades we are spending as much as 30% of our budget on infrastructure. Our 2016 capital spend of about N1.3 trillion is the highest in the nation’s history. Yet we are still a long way from adequately dealing with the massive infrastructure deficit. We have to seek greater private sector funding.

A well-resourced endowment programme is one. It is gratifying to see that as part of these 60th anniversary celebrations, UCH is also launching an endowment fund. The challenge is in ensuring that management and administration of the fund is resourced with the capacity to aggressively and creatively grow the endowment. Aside from philanthropy, there are important linkages that must be established with commerce and industry that may encourage the private sector to actively support the clinical, research and teaching functions of the Hospital.

Collaboration is the tested strategy for the future. Fortunately UCH itself has a long history of being involved in game-changing collaborations; more than 50 years ago, the Ibarapa Community Programme was the joint effort of the University of Ibadan, the Government of the Western Region, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the Ibarapa community. We must now create similar partnerships, locally and internationally.

It is now clearer than ever before that the private sector is the key to settling the institution’s funding needs. The discipline of justifying funds given by the private sector will be important in the prudent and effective use of funds. I commend the management of the hospital for adopting Public Private Partnership initiatives in many areas of service delivery. Our ultimate funding plan is the comprehensive retooling of the NHIS. We fully appreciate that there is no way of effectively funding healthcare for a nation that will have the fourth largest population in the world by 2050 without a fully operational National Health Insurance Scheme.

As we commemorate the 60th anniversary of this distinguished institution, I would like us to take a moment to look into the future, to create in our minds a picture of what we would like the next 60 years of UCH to look like. I was excited to hear Prof. Emeritus Ogunlesi project to a UCH 40 years hence. But let us, today, begin with what the next decade must look like. UCH will undoubtedly be a global centre of excellence, staffed by highly motivated personnel, producing cutting-edge and commercially viable research that helps to underwrite a large chunk of its funding needs.

That picture of UCH 2027 must necessarily incorporate the emerging technologies that are already defining every aspect of human existence: artificial intelligence, robotics, data science, and the Internet of things. There is a strong possibility that the UCH of 2027 will require on its payroll as many software engineers as medical personnel. The sophistication that will be required to run hospitals then will compel us to exit the approach of burdening academics with hospital management which, as we know, is really a distinct professional discipline. In this exciting new future, real time partnerships with centres of excellence around the globe will be crucial, and so investment in broadband infrastructure will be a massive game changer. That future is already here.

Finally, may I once again congratulate the management and staff of University College Hospital on this milestone commemoration, and join you all in looking forward to an even greater sixty years ahead. I thank you for listening.

God bless the University College Hospital, Ibadan, and God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
20 November 2017

Press Release: Press Release: The National School Feeding Programme now feeds over 5 Million Pupils Daily; Collaborates with Ministry of Health for De-worming Exercise

In furtherance of its goal to tackle poverty and hunger, and to create jobs for Nigerians in line with its inclusive growth plan, the Buhari administration’s National Home-Grown School Feeding (NHGSF) Programme is now in 19 states across the federation. They include Anambra, Enugu, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ebonyi, Zamfara, Delta, Abia, Benue, Plateau, Bauchi, Taraba, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Jigawa and Niger states.

So far, over five million pupils (5,226,039) in 28,249 schools in these states are currently been fed under the programme, while Kano and Katsina states are expected to be added to the beneficiaries states in the coming weeks.

Also, over 50,000 cooks are currently engaged under the programme.

The school feeding programme, which is part of President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s N500 billion National Social Investment Programmes, NSIP, has a target to feed 5.5 million schoolchildren by the end of 2017.

Meanwhile, the School Feeding Programme is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Health to deliver an integrated deworming programme for pupils in all public primary schools classes 1 to 6 across 17 states currently under the NHGSFP in the country.

At least 243 Local Government Areas will benefit from the deworming exercise in the 17 states, including Abia, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Niger, Osun, Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Anambra, Benue, Imo, Kano, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Delta and Plateau states.

The integrated programme, which is scheduled for the first and second week of December in these states, will deliver three different drugs for the treatment of diseases endemic to specific states; particularly schistosomiasis; soil-transmitted helminths and river blindness/onchocerciasis. The drugs to be distributed are Albendazole, Ivermectin and Parazaquintel.

Supported by the Federal Government, three facilitators would be within the states for the period to achieve these objectives and ensure that the pupils in these states are dewormed.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
20 November 2017

Speech: VP Osinbajo’s Address at the GIABA 18th Ministerial Committee Meeting

It is my privilege and pleasure to welcome you all to Nigeria as you attend the 18th GIABA Ministerial Committee meeting today.

Let me start by commending the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) for the support to member States in implementing robust Anti-Money laundering and terrorist financing measures in line with acceptable international standards, particularly the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.

GIABA has worked hard in keeping with the ECOWAS mandate to eradicate Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing from our region by regularly assessing and evaluating member states on their implementation of the FATF standard recommendations.

Since the beginning of this week, all member states of the GIABA (the 15 ECOWAS countries, and Sao Tome & Principe) have gathered here in Abuja under the auspices of GIABA to evaluate their respective AML/CFT regimes and share experiences on the way forward in tackling these financial crimes.

Let me also commend the dedication of the GIABA Ministerial Committee, which stands at the helm of GIABA, serving as the conduit of political will and funding from the member-states, as well as providing it with policy directions required to conduct its activities.

Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing are crimes that have significant ramifications for the security and wellbeing of our various countries.

In Boko Haram we have seen the devastation that a well-resourced terrorist group can wreak, not just on individual lives and livelihoods, but also on the stability of national and regional political and economic systems.

In the last decade, more than 20,000 lives have been lost to terrorism propagated by Boko Haram, and more than 2 million persons displaced. One important question that arises is this: How did a once-obscure sect, domiciled primarily in a single city in Northern Nigeria, evolve to become, at one point, a menace, not only to the country but to the entire Lake Chad Basin?

I’m certain that a significant part of the answer to those questions will be found in the complicated multinational networks of financing that sustained the group and nurtured its hateful vision. There is absolutely no way that Boko Haram would have grown as dangerous as it did without access to funding and resources, mobilized from far and wide.

It is clear that without dealing a lethal blow to those powerful criminal networks that funnel money to terrorist groups, we cannot reasonably hope to completely obliterate the threat of terrorism and other organized criminal activity in our sub-region.

Boko Haram is just one example of how much evil can be done by a subversive group that has figured out how to raise money in the shadows. There are many others like it, with similar or different goals, all of them united by the need to raise financing to achieve their aims. We know that the lines between terrorist groups, corrupt politicians, traffickers (whether of drugs, guns or people); fraudsters; smugglers; kidnappers; illegal oil bunkerers, etc, have always been blurry; that these groups have always found complementary need for one another’s tactics and strategies. Indeed, if there’s one thing that the world’s deadliest terrorist groups, from Al Qaeda to ISIS to Al-Shabaab, have in common, it is the ease and expertise with which they diversify their criminal activity while retaining their overarching goal of inflicting maximum devastation.

Today, in the age of the Internet, that blurring has intensified. Cyberspace has made it easier than ever for criminal syndicates to not only draw inspiration and learning from one another, but to also devise increasingly complex means of fundraising and of bypassing conventional financial system checkpoints and safeguards. The advent of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies provides the unprecedented levels of discreetness preferred by criminal networks. The result is that financial crime is able to always stay a few steps ahead of governments and the law.

As for official corruption, all around us we see its devastating effects – in the rundown schools and hospitals; potholed roads; under-equipped armies; subverted financial systems, and fragile democracies. At risk from money laundering especially the laundering of proceeds of corruption, and terrorist financing are the stability of our financial and political systems, and ultimately the development of our countries and the prosperity of our people. What this means is that we are dealing here with an existential threat – it’s either we wipe it out or it wipes us out.

This should spur us to treat money laundering and other financial crimes with zero tolerance. We have for long enough affirmed our commitment as a sub-region to fighting Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. We must now back this intent with forceful action and visible results.

While we acknowledge the steps we have taken, individually and collectively, in recent years – implementing recommendations, strengthening institutions, building partnerships and collaborations – we cannot afford complacency at this time. This is actually the reason why we need to redouble our efforts, to shore up the political will required to apply and implement the laws and frameworks we have worked hard to develop.

Information sharing is very important to the success of our fight. This means that on the one hand we should rise above the temptations of secretiveness and mutual suspicion; and on the other hand we must do everything in our power to sustain trust and confidence by safeguarding every piece of information that is being shared across national databases.

We must also strive to work beyond the barriers imposed by the differences in our various legal systems, bearing in our minds that the criminals we are tackling have never allowed themselves to be held back by these obstacles. I trust that these issues and more will be exhaustively covered in your deliberations at this meeting.

Permit me to raise a matter of considerable importance to many of our nations. It is the difficulty we experience in repatriating proceeds of corruption from financial institutions of the more developed nations. Despite numerous mutual legal assistance treaties and Conventions, it is obvious that we are not making the sort of progress we expect to see. It is unconscionable, in our view, to have stolen funds in a bank within the jurisdiction of an FATF country and to have to go through a rigorous obstacle course to retrieve the funds and even when such funds are to be returned after several years, humiliating conditions are attached.

It is the view of Nigeria that FATF countries must, as a matter of respect for the spirit of our collaboration, and with the same efficiency and zero tolerance for quibbling, ensure the smooth repatriation of proceeds of corruption to the economies from where they were stolen. The other issue is the risk of the dangers posed by anonymous corporate ownership. If nothing else, the Panama Papers and now the Paradise papers clearly illustrate the global scale and spread of this problem. So this is a global challenge and nothing less than a truly global approach will be needed to tackle it.

We must commend the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark for leading the way in establishing public registers of the real, human owners of companies in their countries. We call on other G8 and G20 countries not only to follow suit but also to initiate actions to end corporate secrecy in some of their dependencies. We cannot have anonymous ownership of companies, trusts and other arrangements designed to cover ownership of assets, and at the same time expect optimal results from anti-money laundering measures.

Once again, I thank GIABA and the GIABA Ministerial Committee for choosing to host this meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. I wish you fruitful deliberations as you go into your closed session.

Thank you.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
18 November, 2017

Speech: VP Osinbajo’s Address at the Lagos Chambers of Commerce Event

I am honoured and pleased to be in your midst today to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

As the oldest advocacy group for the Oil and Gas industry, the OPTS has a rich heritage of promoting the best interests of the Upstream Oil and Gas sector of the Nigerian economy.

Aside from being the industry’s largest private sector investors and participants, we all owe you a debt of gratitude for these positive contributions through the years.

The theme: Nigeria: An Investor Friendly Destination, aptly describes Nigeria’s current journey of transiting to the next chapter, of maximizing our resources for the development of our nation, and the OPTS platform is an important sounding board for government and several regional non- state actors interested in the oil and gas industry.

Permit me to mention some highlights of the performance of the Industry in the past two years and in the past year. 2016 tested the resolve and resilience of oil producing countries especially OPEC members.

Unlike in 2008 where the oil price decline was driven by demand deterioration, the decline in the oil price from 2014 to 2016 was due to excess supply. So more than ever, we needed closer collaboration within OPEC and externally with the non-OPEC members. Oil market sentiments have improved since the OPEC and non-OPEC declaration, and as prices rose, volatility decreased and net futures and options long positions increased.

In 2016, the Nigeria upstream sector of the oil and gas industry was challenged by the menace of upstream assets vandalism. From a peak production of over 2.30 Million barrels per day recorded at the beginning of 2016, we witnessed a decline to an almost all-time-low of just under 1.0 Million barrels per day due to incessant vandalism. Many indigenous producers suffered perhaps more than other players in the industry.

But thankfully, largely due to sustained engagements with the Niger Delta and the new Niger Delta vision, our production has ramped up to about 2.1 million barrels per day, from our 2016 crude oil production average of about 1.8 million barrels and that figure includes condenses.

Petroleum products supply and distribution to the nation is fairly stabilized since the giant leap of May 2016 market liberalization.

However, with the prevailing change in the macroeconomic conditions, this is being achieved at higher cost, especially to NNPC as the supplier of the last resort.

We continue to channel more energy towards resolving our downstream issues, once and for all and we have also made tremendous progress in fulfilling the repayment terms of the new sustainable funding framework for Joint Venture cash call operations. This will not only sustain our JV operations but is also a key enabler for incremental production from our JV operations and a pathway towards incorporating our JVs.

In the area of Local Content, in the year 2016, the country witnessed a steady increase in participation of Nigerians in oil and gas contracts by about 180%, and we expect that the numbers will increase in 2017 and beyond.

When all these highlights of the industry are taken together, we can see both progress and challenges.

Our challenges include that of security & environment, institutional capacity, funding of investments, high industry technical costs, obsolete legislation & fiscal regimes, downstream sector issues and infrastructure constraints.

There are often various factors that contribute to create these challenges. These factors obviously underpin our own approach and considerations we have made in reforming and repositioning our oil and gas industry.

Reforming the Industry, you are well aware, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari launched in October 2016, the roadmap for the repositioning of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry. The roadmap has very specific time-focused targets and like the many other steps taken in the sector since the inception of the present administration, we remain focused on making necessary, even if dramatic policy shifts in this sector to grow, deepen and open up the business and opportunities in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

All studies conducted on the Nigerian petroleum sector since 1999, agree that the issue that the role of Government in the oil and gas sector needs to be better clarified whilst the policy, regulatory and commercial institutions need to be given a refocused mandate to ensure better sector governance, transparency of regulations and operations, accountability of the institutions, and removal of opaqueness around the industry.

For these reasons, we have begun to address these issues with an overhaul of sector policies. We have developed and obtained the approval of the Federal Executive Council for a new National Oil and Gas Policy, and a new fiscal policy has been developed and its approval by FEC is underway.

We have taken a root and branch effort to reform, which is the basis of these policies and in order to ensure the sustainability of the policies, Nigeria is in the process of legislating these critical policy positions within the next few months.

The strategic objective of the new oil policy is to:

Create a market driven oil and gas industry,
Maximize production and processing of hydrocarbons,
Move away from oil as a source of income, to oil as a fuel for economic growth,
Minimize the environmental footprint of oil exploration and production,
Manage the balance between depleting oil resources vs renewable energy,
In the gas space, our policy interventions aspire to move the economy from oil to gas,
Diversify the gas supply options within Nigeria, to ensure security of supply,
Extend gas penetration in the domestic market in order to facilitate the growth of the electric power, agricultural, and industrial sectors gain a presence for Nigerian gas in international markets,
Operate a gas industry with a clear division of roles between private and public sectors,
Public sector policy making; implementation and regulation,
Private sector investment and operations,
End and commercialize gas flaring and address environmental issues,
Provide an enabling environment for increased private sector participation in the gas sector.

To clarify the rules guiding investment in the gas sector, the new fiscal policy sets out to address Nigeria’s energy trilemma of addressing energy availability, enhancing energy accessibility and promoting energy availability

It will enhance fiscal neutrality, create a fiscal basis that will encourage investments and market developments, while emplacing competitiveness and cost efficiency for the benefit of both government and the industry operators.

Hitherto, the Nigerian downstream infrastructure had been solely financed by government because of the social and economic impact, high investment requirements and long gestation period.

Due to competing needs for government resources from other public sector services, most oil and gas infrastructure development projects should be financed and managed through private sector participation.

It is in the light of this, that comprehensive reforms are ongoing to fast track the development of private sector led downstream infrastructure, for effective competition and efficient service delivery.

We will continue to address Niger Delta issues and build a peaceful and prosperous Niger Delta, with emphasis on job creation for our teaming unemployed youths, investment in infrastructure, energy and promotion of sustainable livelihood.

Other key areas in our focus include; hydrocarbon tracking, cost reduction and restructuring our parastatals. All in all, if our government’s orientation and doctrinal positions are anything to go by, the future portends even greater private sector leadership and participation in the oil and gas sector.

The oil industry stands to benefit greatly from our on-going Ease of Doing Business reforms. On Tuesday, the World Bank released its latest report, in which Nigeria achieved the unprecedented step of climbing 24 places in the rankings, and earning a place on the list of ten most improved economies in the world.

This is fantastic news, but by no means an excuse for us to slow down. Instead we’re taking it as the very reason why we need to ramp up our reforms, for the benefit of Nigeria. There is still work to be done in reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks in the award of contracts and generally in obtaining approvals – in your case from National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS). It is for this reason – the creation of a business environment that catalyzes business activity and investment –that this year alone we have issued an Executive Order focusing on improving the business environment, and launched two National Action Plans designed to be short-term interventions aimed at implementing specific business environment reforms. The second National Action Plan is on-going, and we expect that it will yield results across every sector of the economy, including the OPTS.

In closing, let me reflect briefly on the issue of the slow but steady emergence of a post-oil world order. All around us there is evidence along these lines, of a world that is coming to terms with the fact that fossil fuels are going out of fashion. I’m certain that this is an issue you’ve had to agonise over and grapple with as oil producing companies.

Around the world, countries are increasingly setting deadlines to wean their cars and machines off petrol and diesel, in favour or clean, renewable energy. It is no longer a question of if but when. And it is for this reason that so-called ‘oil-rich’ countries have an obligation to prepare for a destiny beyond oil. It is in this context, that the mantra of ‘we need oil to set ourselves free from oil’ makes maximum sense.

As you yourselves adjust to the reality of the dwindling significance of fossil fuels, we solicit your cooperation and support for our own clean energy economy efforts as well. We would like to see you invest more in research and development initiatives focused on renewable energy; in generally envisioning and laying the foundation for a post-oil world.

The thinking about the swiftly emerging future, more than any concerns about a disappearing present, is what should most readily occupy our minds and thoughts on, as oil producers. It is certainly what should occupy the hearts and minds of all countries around the world, especially the so-called ‘oil rich’ ones like ours.

On this note, let me again express my appreciation to the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), for extending this invitation to me to celebrate your 55th anniversary with you. No doubt, the five-and-half decades ahead are guaranteed to witness more business model disruption and technological innovation than the five-and-half behind you.

I wish you a successful navigation of the exciting times and seasons ahead.

Happy 55th anniversary and thank you.

Released by:

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
2nd November, 2017

Press Release: VP Osinbajo Meets With Queen Maxima Of Netherlands

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has said that financial inclusion was an important factor for the growth of the nation’s economy. He also noted that the Buhari administration was committed to ensuring that all Nigerians have access to financial services and credit facilities, no matter where they are.

The Vice President said this on Wednesday when a delegation, led by Her Majesty, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, in her capacity as the United Nations’ Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Prof. Osinbajo further said that Nigeria will continue to do more in the area of financial inclusion and ensure more Nigerians get access to credit facilities, loans.

He said, “Financial inclusion is not an option for us, it is absolutely important for us and our economy. The convergence we are having in the Social Investment Programmes of this administration, as well as in agriculture, with smallholder farmers, is an indication of our commitment. In the past two years, we have been working hard to ensure that more Nigerians are financially inclusive. We are looking at engaging 500,000 unemployed graduates; we are also looking at getting the private sector more involved. We want to achieve more.

We need to be able to ensure that all of our people no matter where they live, no matter how far away they are, can be reached with financial products, have bank accounts; payment can be made to them, they also can make payments. In other words, they can participate in the entire financial architecture that the country and international community offer. That is really important for development, and for their development as individuals and communities.”

In her remarks, Queen Maxima stated that she was extremely pleased to be visiting Nigeria for the second time in five years. She also said she was glad that since 2008, Nigeria has made great progress, going from 23 per cent to 48 per cent of financial inclusion, but urged Nigeria to renew its commitment and leadership in financial inclusion.

She also praised the Buhari administration’s Economic Growth and Recovery Plan (EGRP), noting that financial inclusion was a key element to support the economic plan.

“Nigeria is a country of enormous potential where financial inclusion should be playing a great role for your development. Having access to savings, insurance, payments, credits can really move people out of poverty. We have three years to get to a target of 80 per cent of financial inclusion in Nigeria, and it will need a realistic strategy with a concrete action plan with real priorities being set up,” she said

Queen Maxima’s delegation included the Ambassador of Netherlands to Nigeria, Mr. Robert Petri; the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Edward Kallon; as well as partners from the World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Others at the meeting were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh; Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed; Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Jumai Alhassan; Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung; and the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Maryam Uwais.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President
1st November, 2017

Press Release: World Bank Lauds Nigeria as One of Top 10 Global Reformers

Nigeria has moved up 24 places to 145th in the World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ report published today, and for the first time the country is recognized as one of the top 10 most improved economies in the world.

The World Bank Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies worldwide.

Reacting to the development, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, said, “I welcome Nigeria’s improved performance. We are one of the top ten reforming economies in the world in 2017. After a decade-long decline in Nigeria’s rankings, last year the Government recorded a modest increase. This year, Mr President set us an ambitious target of moving up twenty places in the rankings – I am delighted that we have exceeded his goal.

“Improving the business environment is at the heart of the Buhari Administration’s reform agenda. We are reinforcing our economic turnaround by a vigorous and active implementation of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) so businesses operating in Nigeria can thrive and be competitive globally.

“For the first time, coordinated efforts across various levels of governments have been undertaken to make it easier to do business in Nigeria. I commend all stakeholders who worked with us to achieve this significant result, particularly the National Assembly, Lagos and Kano State Governments, and the private sector.”

The World Bank highlighted five reforms making it easier to do business in Kano and Lagos, the two cities covered by the report in Nigeria over the course of last year:

1. Starting a Business,
2. Dealing with Construction Permits
3. Registering Property
4. Getting Credit, and
5. Paying Taxes.

In the area of company registration, the Corporate Affairs Commission has moved to offer online registration and introduced new features such as electronic stamping of registration documents. Thus, entrepreneurs have been able to register their businesses much faster, within 24-48 hours, thereby saving cost and time

Getting construction permits and registering property in both Lagos and Kano States have become more transparent and easier for businesses with the online publication of all relevant regulations, fee schedules and pre-application requirements online.

Getting access to credit is now easier and Nigeria is placed 6th in the world on this indicator. The Government recorded a significant success by collaborating with the National Assembly to pass two new Acts, the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017 and the Credit Reporting Act 2017, thereby strengthening the legal framework for access to credit for SMEs across the country – an important requirement for the success of SMEs.

Finally, it has become easier to pay taxes in Nigeria because taxpayers can file tax returns at the nearest Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) office, and electronic payment and filing are gradually gaining acceptance.

Vice President Osinbajo continued, “Our focus remains firmly on ensuring that SMEs operating in Nigeria find it easier to do business. Our ultimate success will be the testimonials received from businesses all across the country. However, this report endorses the direction that we have been taking to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria over the last 12-18 months. Although we are beginning to get some positive feedback, we still have a lot of work to do before the full impact of our reforms are felt by all Nigerians.

“Some of our critical ongoing reforms include a new sub-national ‘ease of doing business’ project being implemented in conjunction with all the States and the FCT to replicate similar reforms across the country. We are again collaborating with the National Assembly to deliver an Omnibus Bill to jointly furnish a more business friendly legal framework for Nigerian businesses in the future. Furthermore, the Federal Executive Council has approved the concessioning of our major international airports, which will be fast tracked to enable easier movement of persons.

“We are also nearing the implementation stage of our National Trading Platform to ensure our cross-border trading is more efficient, while collaborating with other countries to safeguard our security. This policy will also be supported by ongoing reform efforts to simplify trading within Nigeria, whether that be the ease of trade in goods, regulatory approvals or the protection of intellectual property.”

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

On September 27, the second 60-day National Action Plan (NAP 2.0) was approved by an expanded meeting of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC). NAP 2.0 has over 60 priority initiatives targeted to be attained by December 1 this year.

The plan covers 11 areas this time, including new areas such as Enforcing Contracts, Simplifying the Procurement Process, and Trading Within Nigeria. It is hoped that a successful implementation of the NAP 2.0 would deliver significant benefits especially for SMEs including the fact that it would make 1.3 million MSMEs eligible to do business with government, bring about 75% reduction in average clearance time for foreign travelers, 60% reduction in time to get electricity, 75% reduction in time to register business premises and 50% reduction in time for filing corporate income taxes.

The PEBEC, was established by His Excellency, the President in July 2016, with a mandate to sustainably and progressively make Nigeria an easier place to do business. The PEBEC, is chaired by His Excellency, the Vice President, with the Hon Minister of Industry, Trade & Investment as Vice Chair. Other PEBEC members include 10 Honourable Ministers, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the CBN Governor.

In 2017 the membership was expanded to include the Deputy Senate Majority Leader as representative of the National Assembly, representatives of Lagos and Kano State Governments as well as the Private sector. The Enabling Business Environment Secretariat (EBES) supports PEBEC in implementing its reform mandate.

Since October 2016, the PEBEC has embarked upon a number of reform efforts including: the concluded 60-day National Action Plan (NAP 60) which was a short term intervention targeted at accelerating specific reforms, the operationalization of the Executive Order on the Promotion of Transparency in the Business Environment (EO1); and the improvements of business processes, regulations for Trading within Nigeria as well as a new subnational reforms project in collaboration with State Governments.

While the initial NAP 60 had a 70% performance rate, the final results of NAP 2.0 will be announced by the PEBEC in December, and the current World Bank reform cycle will end in May 2018.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity to the President
Office of the Vice President
31 Oct. 2017

Press Release: VP Osinbajo’s Address At The National Greater Pastors’ Conference In Lagos

We stand on the threshold of perhaps the most significant moment in the history of our nation. It is a time of economic challenges, ethnic and religious tensions. In May 2015, oil prices crashed from about $100 to $37; by 2016, we were losing 1 million barrels a day.

I say that we stand on the threshold of the most significant moment in our history, a time to build!

It is a time, when by the sheer grace of God, we have the greatest opportunities, to be, not just Africa’s largest economy by GDP, but also its most efficient and most productive.

We will, by 2050, be the 4th largest nation by population in the world, and we can, like China, also become one of the ten most successful economies in the world by that date. This is our best moment yet because we have shown that, despite the lowest earnings from oil in the past 15 years and, in 2016, recording the lowest production of oil in the past 20 years, and a recession as a consequence, we could still invest N1.3 trillion, the largest amount of money in capital projects in 15 years. We have shown that as difficult and painful as a recession might be, we have the capacity to come out of it and begin the building of an economy that emphasizes productivity and will provide enough jobs. We began the massive diversification of our economy by investing in agriculture. We set targets for self-sufficiency in rice, tomato paste, sorghum, millet. We are now one of the world’s largest producers of paddy rice. Milling is the weak link, but in the past year, several new mills have been open. The latest is the Wacot mill in Kebbi. Coscharis and Dangote have already invested in about 1 million Mt of capacity.

We are working daily on the whole farm- to- table value chain and we expect that the next industrial explosion will come from agri-business.

We are providing the environment for small businesses. The major problem is access to finance, and interest rates. We are working with the CBN and development finance institutions to crack that problem.

In the same period we have set aside the largest amount of money under a social investment scheme in our history that today employs 200,000 unemployed graduates, and will employ another 300,000 by next year. A school feeding programme that, today, feeds well over 3 million Nigerian children in public schools and we are set to triple that figure by the end of next year.

Our private sector is bullish. From the young men and women in technology and entertainment, to the small manufacturing and fabricating businesses in Aba, Awka, Kano, Katsina; to the larger manufacturers in the Ogun industrial zones and in Lagos; to the likes of Dangote building the largest single line Refinery in the world and a 550 kilometre subsea pipeline to the refinery; and Indorama, the largest single line fertilizer in the world, opened in September; we are seeing a renewed optimism; but more importantly, backward integration and greater use of local raw materials. By 2019, we will no longer be importing any petroleum products.

The major constraint remains power, but we are getting there. Our country will, in the next few years, turn the corner. We are in the pains of childbirth and we will soon experience the same sweetness and joy of childbirth.

What can hold us back? Two things.

First is corruption. We must deal with it decisively. It is difficult because it is systemic and affecting all institutions; perpetrated by a leadership elite that includes, not just politicians, but private sector individuals, and even religious leadership.

The second is tribalism, religion and other parochial tendencies. Unfortunately, because of state failure in some respects, many, even pastors, have gone into their tribal groups and speak and act mainly from that perspective. But, perhaps, the most important problem is the failure of Christian leadership to take our rightful place. We have focused our minds on an Islamic agenda, seeking and finding it in every action, or inaction. But where is the Christian agenda? We are too divided to craft one.

The truth of the matter is that the key to the unity and progress of Nigeria is in the church, the Church which is the pillar and ground of truth. It is the church that is imbued with the revelation that: there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

There is no way of dealing with deep ethnic and religious divisions, deepened by the injustices, blood-letting and prejudices over decades, except we reach into the gospel; the wisdom of God where Jesus repudiated the law of Moses on the question of retaliation and revenge and commanded that we not repay evil with evil, and to turn the other cheek when we are slapped on one.

In Matthew 5:38-43, the Bible says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two… You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.”

Verse 44 and 45 also say: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

And to those who have urged revenge, the answer of our faith is, vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

How can a man pray for those who, in his presence, killed his children and ripped the unborn baby out of the womb of his pregnant wife? How do you love someone who comes into your community annually to kill as many as he can find? How do I turn the other cheek when the bones of the right side of my face have been cracked by the first slap? Is not wiser to defend ourselves and indeed kill our assailants?

The answer of the gospel is contrarian. Love even those who persecute you. That is the wisdom of God and, surely, it is as true as scripture that men will find it foolishness of the highest order. We must note that, despite the severe persecution of the early Christians, they never once fought back.

All through the book of the Acts of the Apostles, all we ever heard was how they were beaten, disrobed and stoned to death. Yet they turned the world upside down. And centuries after, the gospel is as powerful and transformative as when it was first preached.

But what we hear today, instead of the gospel, are cries of war; those telling us from pulpits that our enemy is a physical one who must be destroyed before he destroys us. It is populist and popular rhetoric; every time it is repeated in a Christian gathering it excites applause. Yet there it is, completely contrary to everything in the new covenant of Jesus Christ.

Permit me, then, to make a concluding submission. It is my view that the Nigerian elite – political, business and religious – regardless of ethnicity, think alike, and are driven by largely similar motivations. The elite are usually self-centred, selfish and unprepared to make the sacrifices either in service or self-restraint that leaders of successful communities must make. Playing the religious or ethnic card when necessary so as to get the masses in line is the grossly cynical default tactic of our elite. However, the most poignant point to note is that, when you look at any list of alleged perpetrators of a heinous case of corruption, all tribes, ethnicities and religions are well represented. In other words, high level corruption knows no religion or ethnicity.

Neither, by the way, is extreme poverty parochial in its incidence. The conspirators include Christians and Muslims from all the geopolitical zones. They are in governments, the legislature, the judiciary and the press. They are united, they protect each other, they fight for each other and they are prepared to go down together. They are one tribe, indivisible regardless of diversity. It is this tribe that confuse the arguments for change in society.

It is my respectful submission that, to build the new Nigeria, we need a new tribe; a tribe of men and women of all faiths, tribes and ethnicities; that are committed to a country run on high values of integrity, hard work, justice and love of country. A tribe of men and women who are prepared to make the sacrifices and self-constraints that are crucial to building a strong society. Who are prepared to stick together, fight corruption side by side, and insist on justice even where our friends are at the receiving end. A tribe consisting professionals, businessmen, politicians, religious leaders and all others who believe that this new Nigeria is possible.

Nigeria’s greatest battle is the one to bring integrity and accountability to public service and the private sector. Righteousness, the Bible says, exalts a nation. This requires a new way of thinking, a new leadership corps, a new tribe. The challenge today for us all, friends and colleagues, is to populate that new tribe. Thanks very much for your attention.

Released by:

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
28th October, 2017

Press Release: VP Osinbajo’s Address To US-Africa Delegation in Abuja

In accordance with the targets of its Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the Federal Government is open to stronger partnerships and collaborations with the private sector to build infrastructure and make the necessary progress in the economy, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Prof. Osinbajo spoke today when he received on a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, a delegation from the US-Africa Business Centre comprising of President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Zenith Bank Chairman, Mr Jim Ovia; US Ambassador, Mr Stuart Symington; representative of the US Chamber of Commerce, Scott Eisner, among others.

According to him, “we have always been committed to private sector leading the way in the economy and that is so important to us because if you look at what government can actually provide even in terms of resources that government has, we really don’t have a choice than to depend on the private sector.’’

The Vice President said, “the whole attitude is that we are trying to get everyone in government to understand that business has a choice, capital has a choice, and we should make ourselves as welcome as possible.’’

“So, what we have been trying to do is to create an environment that makes it easy for the private sector to do business. We have an Industrial Competitiveness Advisory Council that meets regularly with senior members of government especially those concerned with the economy,’’ Prof. Osinbajo added.

The Vice President added, “we think that there is a lot that can be done, there is a lot of room for investment and a lot of room for collaboration and we look forward to a lot more areas that we can work together to develop.’’

On his part, the representative of the US Chamber of Commerce, Mr Scott Eisner, said the delegation’s visit was in recognition of the Buhari administration’s friendly economic policies and the preparedness of US business owners to invest in the Nigerian economy.

He said the centre comprised of over three million members is committed to working with governments across Africa in achieving key economic targets and also contribute in the development of critical infrastructure.

Mr Eisner commended the Federal Government for its policies on the economy especially its ease of doing business initiative among others.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)
Office of the Vice President
27th October, 2017

Press Release: VP Osinbajo’s Address at The 2-Day Organised Workshop For Justices and Judges in Abuja.

There is no question at all that corruption is our nation’s single greatest challenge. Indeed the notion that security was a more serious challenge was exploded, when in the last administration, it became clear that the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast was on account of the fact that billions of dollars allotted to the purchase of arms for our military, was cynically embezzled by senior military and civilian government officials.

The reason why Nigeria built no major new roads or no new infrastructure in the last 6 years, despite earnings from oil in excess of $100 dollars a barrel, is largely because of corruption. In the last administration, two weeks before the elections, cash in excess of N100billion and over $250 million, was released in a few days ostensibly for security purposes. The aggregate sum released was more than some States earned in a whole year. That is the enormity of the embezzlement that we are talking about.

Corruption threatens our security, health, education and even our corporate existence. GAVI, the global fund for provision of vaccines for the poorest in developing countries, stopped providing funds to Nigeria for alleged mismanagement of funds by the Ministry of Health officials between 2011 and 2013. Nigeria had to refund $2.2million. These were vaccines and drugs meant to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, amongst the poorest of the poor of our country.

The enormous resources in the hands of perpetrators today is used to subvert justice, to bribe pliable senior government officials, to bribe in some cases judicial officers, to subvert the legislative process and, of course, even to subvert the press. The problem with corruption is that it is a cancer. It may be terminal if not checked. The failure of African States, civil wars and destruction of lives and livelihoods, is the result of failure of institutions largely caused by endemic systemic corruption.

It is because of the existential nature of the threat of corruption, that collaboration between the Judiciary, the Executive and of course the Legislature is imperative.

In working together, all of us in these institutions, the Judiciary, Executive and Legislature, are mindful that by the nature of systemic corruption all institutions are affected one way or the other. But we must come together and we are coming together, as a patriotic gesture to rescue our nation from looming disaster.

At the swearing in of the last batch of Senior Advocates, His Lordship, the Chief Justice of the Federation, announced one of the most far reaching plans by the judiciary to effectively and promptly try corruption cases. First, his Lordship directed all courts in Nigeria to designate courts to exclusively hear and determine corruption and financial crime cases expeditiously.

And secondly, the constitution of the Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Monitoring Committee headed by the Honourable Justice Salami, and deservedly his Lordship was commended both locally and internationally.

That plan is a crucial component of the anti-corruption agenda, proposed by the executive because impunity seems magnified when the trial of alleged perpetrators of corruption never seems to end. That such individuals can afford the best legal assistance only deepens the sense of hopelessness that the corrupt will never be punished.

With the Chief Justice’s new initiatives, alongside the earlier practice directions issued by the Supreme Court and those issued by the Court of Appeal, and the Administration of Justice Act, and again, the recent Supreme Court decision which stopped the dilatory tactic of staying proceedings in criminal cases on account of interlocutory applications, there is certainly great hope that corruption cases will be concluded and concluded promptly.

All nations that have successfully confronted corruption did one thing in common: the administration of the justice system changed its attitude to the investigation and trial of corruption cases. And this is important because it is not just about the Judiciary, clearly not. Investigations must be conducted properly and thoroughly before cases go to court. When cases go to court, what is presented is the best case the prosecution can present.

But most of the countries that have successfully dealt with corruption have had to dispense with needless technicality and focused on the offence. In the case of public officers, they recognized that there can be no real explanation for a public officer, whose pay is public knowledge, to have cash and assets several times more than his earning, let alone his savings. And the reason why people can never understand the way that cases are decided sometimes, is because it goes contrary to common sense. If somebody earns in excess of what he should possibly even safe in several life times, freeing him by technicality can never make sense. It will always seem as if something has gone wrong with the system.

I think what most nations recognise, what most judiciaries, and what most administration of justices systems recognise is that even the whole process of the decision-making process, must make sense. If it doesn’t make sense, then we undermine the very fundament of the judiciary and justice, and if this undermined, then everything is undermined.

Why should terrorism or homicide cases be more strictly viewed than corruption cases? Clearly the misery and loss of lives on account of corruption far exceeds that of any other single crime. There is no question at all that if you look at the extent of damage caused by corruption, it surely is a crime against humanity without a doubt. If you look at the sheer loss of lives on account of what we’ve seen even in our own country, there is no question at all that it is possibly the worst sort of crime that can be committed. So it must be taken seriously.

This seminar is one which, clearly, is a step in the right direction, and just as my Lordship, the Chief Justice has said, the timing is exactly right, we are re-jigging the entire system. The Chief Justice has laid down the rules and has encouraged everyone to follow suit. There is no question at all, that this is the time for us to open a new page in the entire anti-corruption fight.

I am extremely pleased to see that their Lordships are all on board, everyone is on board, and the Executive is determined to support in every way, whatever it is that is required we will provide to ensure that all of the cases that need to be heard and investigations that need to be done are done. This is the collaboration of all of us; the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature must see this as a fight for the soul of our nation.

Thank you very much, may I therefore, with his words, declare this conference open.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity)
Office of the Vice President
25 October, 2017