Acting President Osinbajo’s 30 Key Points on Democracy Day
The Economic Confidential presents below the 30 Key Points from the Speech of Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to Commemorate the Second Anniversary of Buhari Administration on May 29, 2017.
1. Our administration outlined three specific areas for our immediate intervention on assumption of office: these were Security, Corruption and the Economy.
2. We have restored broken-down relations with our neighbours, Chad, Cameroon and Niger – allies without whom the war against terror would have been extremely difficult to win.
3. We have re-organized and equipped our Armed Forces, and inspired them to heroic feats; we have also revitalized the regional Multinational Joint Task Force, by providing the required funding and leadership.
4. One million displaced persons have returned home. 106 of our daughters from Chibok have regained their freedom
5. Schools, hospitals and businesses are springing back to life across the Northeast, especially in Borno State, the epicentre of the crisis.
6. Farmers are returning to the farms from which they fled in the wake of Boko Haram. Finally, our people are getting a chance to begin the urgent task of rebuilding their lives.
7. President Buhari’s New Vision for the Niger Delta is a comprehensive peace, security and development plan that will ensure that the people benefit fully from the wealth of the region
8. More recent threats to security such as the herdsmen clashes with farmers in many parts of the country… we are working with State governments, and tasking our security agencies with designing effective strategies and interventions that will bring this menace to an end.
9. In the fight against corruption, we have focused on bringing persons accused of corruption to justice. We believe that the looting of public resources that took place in the past few years has to be accounted for.
10. We have expanded the coverage of the Treasury Single Account (TSA). We have introduced more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the Federal Government. We have also launched an extremely successful Whistleblower Policy.
11. We have in the last two years added US$500m to our Sovereign Wealth Fund and US$87m to the Excess Crude Account.
12. The economy has proven to be the biggest challenge of all… Through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure rising food prices.
13. In some States civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expenses continued to show up like clockwork.
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14. This administration’s work on the economic front has been targeted at a combination of short-term interventions to cushion the pain, as well as medium to long term efforts aimed at rebuilding an economy that is no longer helplessly dependent on the price of crude oil.
15. Those short-term interventions include putting together a series of bailout packages for our State Governments, to enable them bridge their salary shortfalls
16. Our Social Investment Programme kicked off at the end of 2016. Its Home Grown School Feeding component is now feeding more than 1 million primary school children across seven states and would be feeding three million by the end of the year.
17. N-Power, another component has engaged 200,000 unemployed graduates – none of whom needed any ‘connections’ to be selected.
18. Micro credit to a million artisans, traders and market men and women has begun. While conditional cash transfers to eventually reach a million of the poorest and most vulnerable households has also begun.
19. Road and power projects are ongoing in every part of the country. In rail, we are making progress with our plans to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in investment to upgrade the existing 3,500km narrow-gauge network.
20. We have also in 2017 flagged-off construction work on the Lagos-Ibadan leg of our standard-gauge network, and are close to completing the first phase of Abuja’s Mass Transit Rail System.
21. The President announced the take-off of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative. Today, that Initiative has resulted in the revitalisation of 11 blending plants across the country
22. The Initiative is building on the solid gains of the Anchor Borrowers Programme, to support our rice and wheat farmers. Since 2015 our imports of rice have dropped by 90 percent, while domestic production has almost tripled.
23. We issued three Executive Orders to make it easier for citizens to get the permits and licenses they require for their businesses, to mandate Government agencies to spend more of their budgets on locally produced goods
24. The impact of our Ease of Doing Business work is gradually being felt by businesses small and large; its successful take-off has allowed us to follow up with the MSME Clinics
25. Several of our Initiatives are targeted at our young people, who make up most of our population. From N-Power, to the Technology Hubs being developed nationwide, to innovation competitions such as the Aso Villa Demo Day
26. One of the highlights of our Power Sector Recovery Programme, which we launched in March, is a N701 billion Naira Payment Assurance Scheme that will resolve the financing bottlenecks
27. Our Solid Minerals Development Fund has also now taken off, in line with our commitment to developing the sector.
28. We opened the year with an overwhelmingly successful Eurobond Offer – evidence of continuing investor interest in Nigeria.
29. Our vision is for a country that grows what it eats and produces what it consumes. It is for a country that no longer has to import petroleum products, and develops a lucrative petrochemical industry.
30. Let me ask for your continued prayers for the restoration to full health and strength and the safe return of our President.
