Speech: VP Osinbajo’s Remarks at the 4th Session of The Gulf of Guinea Commission Summit
Let me begin, by bringing you the warm felicitations of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari and to say on his behalf that the government of Nigeria consider it an honour to have been accorded to host this 4th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of Gulf of Guinea Commission (GGC).
Our sincere gratitude also goes to all of the member States of the Commission for the trust and confidence in Nigeria by our preferment to the privilege of the Chair of the Commission.
Our objectives as a group, have never been as crucial as they are today. Security in the Gulf of Guinea is both a challenge to maritime safety and a significant threat to the economic prosperity of our States.
It is therefore in our national and regional interests to collaborate in this and other regional initiatives, to tackle the problems that we confront in the maritime domain of the Gulf of Guinea.
Permit me for emphasis, to reiterate the objectives of the Commission GGC as contained in its Treaty signed in Libreville, Gabon on the 3rd of July 2001, these include:
- Strengthening ties of cooperation and solidarity existing among Member States;
- Promoting close consultation in the exploitation of the natural resources of the gulf, with a view to ensuring the economic development of Member States and the well-being of our peoples;
- Protecting, preserving and improving the natural environment of the Gulf of Guinea and cooperating in the event of natural disaster and;
- Strengthening cooperation in the area of communications, especially maritime communications, with a view to facilitating ties and trade among Member States and their peoples.
But since Libreville, we have seen an escalation in the threats to security in the Gulf of Guinea, especially the wave of sea piracy, armed banditry, and the trafficking of arms, drugs and persons. Some of the economic consequences of the security challenges that we face include, a rise in maritime insurance premiums for vessels coming to the Gulf of Guinea, increased freight and reduced commercial traffic to the region.
These challenges are grave indeed, they compromise our economies and the smooth prosecution of international trade. We must also, vigorously challenge the unregulated and unreported fishing and ensure that this violation of domestic and international treaties, is reduced in the Gulf of Guinea. We should be able to collectively take measures to reduce pollution and environmental degradation in our maritime environment.
Meanwhile, I must say that the situation has evolved positively in some areas, due in large part, to our Member States’ individual efforts to improve the capacity and capability of their Navies, and other relevant Agencies to enable them perform their duties more effectively.
In this regard, I commend efforts by each Regional Economic Communities such as ECOWAS and ECCAS in establishing their Maritime Regional Centres for maritime security. This effort is capped by the establishment of the Inter-regional Coordination Centre based in Yaounde, as the collaboration link between the two Maritime Regional Centres led by ECOWAS and ECCAS.
Your Excellencies, in conformity with the theme of the 4th Ordinary Session: “A vibrant Gulf of Guinea Region for Sustainable Development”, let us renew our commitment to making the Gulf of Guinea Commission more effective, and a truly vibrant partner in all our efforts, be they national, regional or international, to ensure a zone of peace, security and sustainable development for our countries, our peoples and other stakeholders in the region.
The issue of payment of our financial dues and obligations is crucial to the effective operation and performance of the GCC. We must commend all of those who have worked so hard, especially the staff of the secretariat of the Gulf of Guinea Commission, despite the difficulties they have experienced in funding. We urge all member States to work hard to fulfil their obligations promptly.
Once again, I thank you all for your active and very useful participation at this very important meeting, as we wish the Gulf of Guinea Commission many more fruitful years ahead. And again we welcome the new member of the Gulf of Guinea Commission, Ghana, and congratulate them on their ascension to membership.
I wish you all safe journeys back home.
Thank you very much.
Released by:
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President
Office of the Vice President
November 23, 2017
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 Remarks at the Book Presentation of President Buhari Administration’s Achievements
This book is a book that contains a lot that has been achieved by the present administration, but I must say there is still a lot that has not been covered on account of the fact that this book was meant to have been presented in May but we thought we would wait until the President returned before presenting it.
Some things have not been included in the book and I might just supply some of that. One of such things, is the exemplary frugality, the honesty and humility, and sense of humour of Mr. President.
That frugality can sometimes be a problem, as you know, Mr. President decided that since government provides accommodation, food and transportation for the President and the Vice President, we didn’t need a full salary. Now how much is this salary by the way? It is public knowledge and I think it is N1, 750,000.00 or so, which is under N2million. He said he would take only half of his salary and so I had no choice but also to take over of my own salary. Unfortunately Mr. President turned down my request, to give the other half to a worthy cause – his Vice President. He didn’t consider me a more worthy cause to give half of his salary! (Laughter).
In a country where politicians sometimes want to be as wealthy as Dangote, it is refreshing to have a President who most people won’t even dare to discuss any private benefit on a project let alone a bribe or a kick-back.
Nigeria’s major problem is corruption, it is the main reason for the depletion of our resources, such that we had no savings when oil prices fell, and we were losing over 1billion barrels a day.
It was the prudence and honesty of the President that ensured that despite the economic downturn, we were able to support the States, spend N1.3trillion on capital expenditure, the largest in the history of the nation, and also to ensure we met all our other obligations, both foreign and local.
Mr President’s unassuming personality and humility, is in my view, probably his greatest strength. This is why he is never flattered, or carried away by praise or adulation. He has always said: “I don’t pretend to know all the answers. I am here to provide stability and leadership, to a generation, a group of people, determined to run this country honestly, to provide jobs and prosperity to the poor, and our huge youth population.”
I remember when he was on medical vacation, and I was speaking to him on the phone fairly regularly and giving him a rundown of what was going on, especially when he was on the first medical vacation. He said to me, “don’t worry about telling me all that is happening, I rely on your judgment keep doing your best, what if I drop dead?! You would have to run it anyway.” I had to say to him, that his dropping dead was not part of the plan.
I think that his sense of humour, self-deprecating humour is one that very people know about. As it has been said, he is a man of very few words. I remember that very early in the administration, he directed my attention to a cartoon of him in one newspaper which showed him, sitting on a wheel chair in bandages, at the top of the cartoon, were the words: “you promised to hit the ground running” and then under it, it just stated: “you just hit the ground.”
I had a good laugh, but I think it is also an understanding that leadership, is not about self-adulation and self-aggrandizement. It is first of all, an understanding and humility, knowing that you have been picked from millions of people to lead the people because you are trusted to do so, not because you are thought of as a man with all the answers but because you are trusted to be able to lead others to achieve the results.
The other day, he was saying that if you paid attention to what is going on with farmers, and how well they are doing, he said one way of knowing is by recognising that they would do two things, especially farmers in the North. They would go to Hajj and marry more wives. Already, we can see the increase in the number of wives farmers are marrying.
Mr. President, your Excellencies, the ultimate benefit of public service, is the ability to touch millions of lives for good or for ill, by governmental policies and actions.
The reality of honest and serious minded nation building is that in the short- run, tough and unpopular decisions have to be made.
The greatest challenge is how to take the tough decisions, do the difficult things, and keep the people’s support. I suppose you cannot be a Buhari and shy away from tough decisions, and the President has not been afraid to take the bold decisions even when they are criticized.
What has happened so far under this government is the tough business of laying strong foundations. The first, is honesty and good governance, and prudence in government spending. The second, is in ensuring that we have an infrastructure that can sustain our economy, not now, but in the next decades. For the first time, in at least a decade, we are spending 30% on capital expenditure.
As I have said earlier, we are investing heavily on rail, roads, power, and other infrastructure. When you look at rail, we are investing perhaps, the largest portion of our capital on two rail projects; the Lagos – Kano rail project and we are concessioning the Narrow Gauge, where we are building the new Standard Gauge. There is also the Lagos – Calabar route and we have also recently approved the Port Harcourt – Maiduguri route.
We expect, that our country will need railways, to move the massive goods and services that we have been talking about producing all this while. Already, our roads are suffering seriously. If you look at some of what is going on around the Apapa port today, the port is already over-subscribed, almost taking twice the custom that it should ordinarily have, and that is increasing day by day. Each of these rail projects starts from the ports, all the way up to the various destinations that I have mentioned.
Third, is that we are focused on agriculture and the agro-allied value chain, with our focus on cheaper and improved inputs, local fertilizer production, cheaper credit for farmers in the anchor borrowers programme.
Productivity in the agricultural sector is at an all-time high. Rice imports have dropped by 70%, and we are fast becoming one of the largest producers of paddy rice in the world. Agriculture is providing more jobs than ever before, as it contributes more to GDP.
More investments are coming into Agriculture. WACOT, a few months ago opened its 120,000 metric tons rice mill in Kebbi State. Indorama has also its opened 3million metric tons fertilizer plant in Rivers State, which was commissioned a few weeks ago, Dangote is investing in a total capacity of 1million metric tons of rice mills. Olam’s poultry and feed mill which recently opened in Kaduna, is the largest in the country.
It is evident, that the private sector is listening, and smart money is following what government is doing. It is very clear that we are opening up the space for industry and manufacturing. You can see that from the response of the private sector and even in technology. A lot of the young people are coming in to do various forms of businesses now that they can see that the space is opening up.
Our philosophy as enunciated in the Economic and Recovery Growth Plan, is to enable the private sector to lead the economy in industry and manufacturing, and especially small businesses.
Of course, you have seen from the results of the World Bank’s rating of Ease of Doing Business, we are making very deliberate progress and we are moving very quickly indeed. I think the point that we should note is that, the World Bank declares us as one of the top ten reformed economies and I believe that investors are paying attention to this. You can only reform with serious discipline and I want to say that the leadership of the President has provided that discipline and we are seeing the results of this.
Executive Orders have been signed on making a priority made-in-Nigeria goods in procurement. This is one of the very important policy decisions that the President made, that we must prefer made-in-Nigeria goods.
In addition, we are giving priority to ensuring that pre-investment approvals are efficiently and quickly done. We also have an Executive Order for that, we are also working hard to ensure that Public Service is responsive and diligent, and it does not become an obstacle to investment and to the economy, rather a facilitator. Some of these are contained in the book.
I want this audience in particular, to recognise that every single day, there is attention being paid to the needs and requirement of this country. We are a government dedicated to ensuring that we give the very best that is possible to the people of Nigeria.
I would like to congratulate the Presidential Communication Team, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Mr. Femi Adeshina, Mr. Laolu Akande and all of the team that worked very hard and have continued to work hard spending many hours on how to communicate the views of this government and its activities as well and as comprehensively as possible.
I thank you all for your attention, God bless you.
Released by:
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
November 16, 2017