FG’s social protection initiatives touching lives at grassroots

One of the striking characteristics of an average Nigerian is his resilient business drive and determination to survive against all odds. Madam Fadilat Adegbemi, a trader at the Olu-Ode market in Osogbo fits perfectly into this description given the way she works so hard to make money through her petty trading. But this woman was […]

One of the striking characteristics of an average Nigerian is his resilient business drive and determination to survive against all odds.

Madam Fadilat Adegbemi, a trader at the Olu-Ode market in Osogbo fits perfectly into this description given the way she works so hard to make money through her petty trading. But this woman was not excited when she heard that the Federal Government was putting some mechanisms in place to help her business grow and be more profitable.

The 58-year-old woman said: “When it comes to the issue of tail, the frog will say, let us skip it”. She rendered a popular Yoruba adage and bluntly dismissed the tendency of such federal government initiative getting to the ordinary market woman like her. She was shocked when the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo came to the Freedom Park in Osogbo to launch the initiative.

The nationwide Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Clinic and the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP) was initiated by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari aimed at eradicating poverty, hunger, unemployment and other related underdevelopment indicators in the country. At least, initiative targets 50,000 people in Osun. The MSME is a Federal Government’s Empowerment Initiative under the office of the Vice President designed to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.

Osinbajo stated that the scheme was initiated by President Muhammadu Buhari in a bid to support small businesses and enterprises by providing the people soft loans to run their businesses. He said “that the present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari having seen the SME as the powerful economic backbone of any nation decided to take the bull by the horn to empower the sector as part of efforts to stimulate and re-energize the Nigerian economy. I have confidence in the fact that our President will take Nigeria and Nigerians to greater heights.”

 

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (2nd right); Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, inspecting the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Clinics for Viable Enterprises (MSME CLINICS), in Osogbo

 

The Vice President appealed to Nigerians to support the Buhari’s administration to deal with problems militating against the development of the nation. He assured that the current government at the centre remains committed to ensuring that the dividends of democracy is delivered to the citizenry in all the nooks and crannies of the country.

According to him, “Let me say that when we began this journey in 2014, and when I say ‘this journey’ I refer to our government, our party, the APC, was determined to change the dominant narrative about our country. We were determined to ensure that the notion of a country rich in all-natural resources, but even richer in human capital, but being destroyed daily by grand corruption, and the impunity in the looting of public resources; we had to change that narrative.”

The Vice President said more Nigerians would benefit from such initiatives of the Buhari administration. He noted that if the public fund could be well utilized, the citizens would gain a lot. He lamented that the fund that would have been used for such thing had been stolen in the past and maintain that the current government would not tolerate corruption. “As for our fight against corruption, we realized, as Mr. President said, that if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us. Corruption is an existential problem for Nigeria. From all I have seen in government in the past three years, the corruption of the previous five years is what destroyed the Nigerian economy.

“And the reason why we will talk about it is, first, we must let our people know that we cannot afford to go this way again. And this is the point we are making, that there is no country in the world, and we must know this; there is no country in the world that would allow its resources to be plundered in the way our own resources were plundered and expect to be economically viable; it is not possible. Nigeria is unlike any other country because of the level of corruption that was perpetrated. We must stop that corruption and that is why we are so committed. We must let our people know that we cannot afford to go this way again; never again should we allow a system where people take the resources of this country and skew the resources of this country.”

Osinbajo said in addressing the issue of the welfare of the people, the Buhari’s administration could not wait for the economy to pick up and then provide jobs for the people, especially young people because many of them would have given up hope, and many of them would have ended up in all manner of illegal activities. He said the administration decided on two options. First was to invest heavily in Agriculture; to create jobs in the hinterlands, provide enough food locally and for all of the urban areas. “In our agriculture programme, I’m sure that many would already agree that this has been a tremendous success. Several millions of Nigerians have been employed in agriculture. Some who have abandoned their farms, in fact, Mr. President tells the story of his own village where people used to let out farms; they used to lease out their farms to farmers from Kano. But now, nobody is leasing out their farms anymore. Everybody is on his own farm.

He said the second option was to put in place an audacious Social Investment Programme to the tune of N500 billion, the largest pro-poor programme in the nation’s history, and the largest social safety net, at least in Sub-Saharan Africa. He said “This was despite the fact that by 2015, oil prices fell by over 50% and our production also fell from over 2 million barrels a day to less than 700,000 barrels a day, sometimes even 500,000 barrels in 2016. We have seen today the empirical evidence of the successes of this programme, and all of that is evident for us to see and listen to several testimonies and stories. 200,000 jobs for undergraduates employed under the N-Power programme, 300,000 more waiting to be employed; they have been pre-selected; over 7 million children being fed daily in 22 States so far; beneficiaries of microcredit loans going to about 300,000; and almost 300,000 households benefiting from conditional cash transfers.”

Osinbajo insisted that the fight against corruption will not relent and urged all Nigerian to support the war against corruption. “As for our fight against corruption, we as a party and your government must show the difference between us and the party and government that impoverished our nation. We must show that difference. When you listen to the stories of these young people, when you listen to the stories of the vulnerable, the disabled, and all of these people, these are the people for whom we are responsible; these are the people who voted for us. We must ensure that we defend their rights, it is in the defence of the rights of these people that we will put everything out to make sure that those who have been taking the resources of this country are made to pay for it.”

“Let me give you an example. In 2014, when oil was at between 100 dollars and 114 dollars a barrel, the actual releases for capital for three ministries – Power, Works and Housing – then they were three separate ministries, was in total N99 billion; while Transportation got 14 billion, and Agriculture got 15 billion. I’m talking about actual releases, not budgeted, what they actually got. Let’s compared that with capital releases to the same ministries in 2017, when oil price was between $50 and $60 a barrel, N415 Billion for Power, Works & Housing, N80 Billion for Transportation; N65 Billion for Agriculture; totalling N560 Billion, in a time when we were earning at least 50% less than we were earning in 2014.

“What is the reason why this is possible? It is possible because if you do not steal the resources of the people, you can spend on the projects that concern the people; it is as simple as that. If you are not stealing the money, you will spend it on the right things, and this is what we have seen. When the President insisted that the TSA must be done, we suddenly discovered that we actually could see for ourselves how much money was available in the system, and so much money was available. We doubled the money from everywhere, and we found out that this money was available.

“And when we say that this same government that spent N139 Billion only on all of Agric, Power, Works and Housing, Transport, etc; spent between January 2015 and the elections, the sum of a N100 Billion in cash and 289 million dollars, altogether about a 100 Billion in cash, was released and spent, shared. This sum of money was in excess of the amount of money that was spent on Power, Works and Housing. And this is the point we are making.”

The Vice President noted that there is no country in the world that would allow its resources to be plundered in the way Nigeria’s resources were plundered and expect to be economically viable. Osinbajo maintained that all Nigerians must join the war against corruption so that the poor people can also live a better live.