• UNVEILS PACKAGE TO STIMULATE TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NIGERIA
Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has restated the resolve of the Buhari administration towards instituting a new culture of probity and accountability in governance saying “it’s a new day in Aso Rock”.
"Nearly a year on- there are many problems and many have asked where is the change? Is this the change we voted for? Even some fifth columnists in our midst have suggested bring back corruption," according to the Vice President while speaking today at The Platform, a public engagement forum organized by the Covenant Church led by Pastor Poju Oyemade.
Continuing Prof. Osinbajo then declared matter-of-factly that "the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is completely and irrevocably committed to change. "
He said "we believe that though it may not be easy, though the early signs may be confusing and sometimes discouraging, there has never been a better opportunity than now to turn the country in the direction of success."
According to him, "today we have the best opportunity in decades for profound change. It is an opportunity in a generation. A revolution whose time has come!
The Vice President added that "everything around us tells us that the moment is now! Can this change happen? Yes it can! Yes it must! What do you have in your hands to make it happen? We have a country that is tired of corruption, tired of leadership without values, tired of an economy that is neither designed to accommodate enterprise, nor to create opportunity and wealth for the majority. "
The "new day in Aso Rock" he said is that of a Presidency that is committed to ensuring a departure from the past culture of corruption and profligacy in government, even as he averred that “the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is completely and irrevocably committed to the Change promised Nigerians”.
Speaking on the theme ‘What do we have in our hands, tapping into dead capital” Prof. Osinbajo opined that “We have a leadership, a leader that is ready to challenge the rotten system, one that has said he is ready to kill corruption rather let corruption kill us.”
"We believe that though it may not be easy, though the early signs may be confusing and sometimes discouraging, there has never been a better opportunity than now to turn the country in the direction of success, " says the VP.
Addressing a large gathering of mostly young Nigerians, Prof Osinbajo told the youths that the Federal Government was not unaware of the nation’s challenges, but stated that the youths must believe the problems facing the nation in the area of power, availability of petroleum products, infrastructure and agriculture are surmountable and resolvable.
Vice President Osinbajo also told them of the determination of the Federal Government to leverage technology under a number of initiatives he unveiled intended to create the enabling environment that would stimulate youth entrepreneurship and innovation.
He stated that “the key to change and our future prosperity lies in innovation and is critical to our development”.
Informing the forum of the Buhari presidency's for technology and innovation, he stated that government would be establishing an Innovation Fund this year which would deploy significant resources for the aim of creating opportunities to the youth to access fund for innovation and entrepreneurship.
He highlighted other plans as follows:
- Establishment of technology innovation hubs across the country; 2 super hubs ( in Lagos and Abuja) and 6 regional hubs in the six geo-political zones in partnership some major technology companies;
- 65,000 young Nigerians to be trained in hardware and software services and in animation;
- to create a reservoir in technology capacity that can be exported annually abroad like the case of India;
- on June 23, 2016, Federal Government would launch a Presidential Technology Innovation Initiative targeted at 50 Nigerians engaged in innovative start-ups to be mentored by major technology innovation companies
- bursary award to 100,000 STEM undergraduates developing their interest in programming, robotic and animation technology, in addition to deploying technology in the training of the 500,000 teachers that are expected to be employed under the social investment of government this year,
- VP's Office to institute a literary prize in poetry and short stories during independence anniversary to encourage field of humanity/arts
Prof. Osinbajo also used the occasion to implore millions of youths in the country to join the vanguard for change under "a New Tribe of Nigerians" saying “we must not blink, no shaking until we turn this country around.”
Earlier, the Vice President commended the conveners of the platform, Pastor Poju Oyemade and his team for their tenacity and unwavering belief in the nation’s development. He noted that “the Platform has through the years become a foremost opportunities for ideas and intellectual innovations in Nigeria."
*The Vice President is now very active....Really nice!
Oga Ade,its like u wanna prove to Nig that ur office Is active with all this ur talk? You think it's election period with all this ur campaign talk?
ReplyDeleteTomorrow Buhari wld deny it and we are back to square 1.
Stop trying to form busy when u knw ur office has no function except collect salary and do photo-ops.
Put a sock in it Prof! It's a year already and all Nigerians have experienced and are still experiencing in your one year of rule is hardship, suffering and more suffering!! From one hardship to another. No consideration for the citizens. Change my foot!!!
ReplyDeleteThis man thinks he can take the place of Ooni of ife on this blog
ReplyDeleteFor those Nigerians that have either refused or neglected to see the correlation between the years of embedded corruption in all sphere of our National life and our present plight as a Nation, I believe this information will give them food for thought. Available statistics show that as at today, 90 individuals are standing trials for looting/embezzling the sum of N1.34tr from our public treasury between 2004 and 2013 ( Please note that this figure does not include what was looted between 1986 and 2013 as well as the period between 2014 and 2015) NOW WAIT FOR THIS: According to World Bank rates and cost, this amount if not looted, could have been used for the benefit of all Nigerians in one of the following ways; 1. Construct (not rehabilitate ) 1,905 kilometers of asphaltic concrete roads across Nigeria.,or 2.Build 108 ultramodern hospitals across Nigeria, or 3.Build 549 model schools across Nigeria, or 4.Train 11,922 children from Primary school to Tertiary Institution level at N25.3m per child, or 5.Build 60,186 units of 2 bedroom houses across Nigeria. If after reading this, you still don't see the need to support the fight against corruption, then I am afraid there is nothing else I can do to help you.
ReplyDeleteAll these benefits u mentioned would have been given to us by previous govt, they didn't that's y D change mantra was easily sold to Nigerians. Bro, the govt needs to be more sensitive and profer solutions that are implementable and are followed through. The outcome is what is important to Nigerians and not D blame game we have been hearing for the past year
DeleteYh,fight against corruption not fight against the economy. If u cant also see this,im afraid there's I can also do to help you
DeleteMay 29th is close at hand. I will so love to see the achievements of this administration. Instead untold suffering is now the order of the day. Osibanjo and co una well done. I am holding the Petroleum minister to gis May 5th end of fuel crisis, otherwise you all are failures.
ReplyDeleteAbegi u guys should spare us all this mumu yarn.... Enough already
ReplyDeleteI no longer take this short little man serious in anything.
ReplyDeleteeverything about this administration is piecemeal. one day, one new headline and you don't get the sense that people are working together across sectors to fix the country's problems.
ReplyDeletethey just don't connect the dots and unfortunately our president lacks the capacity to communicate with us. terrible! next thing now femi adesina and shehu garba will release one poorly constructed statement on his behalf. Mr. President and his team seem so out of their depth with Nigeria's problems....they just cant deal!!!
can we have one coherent economic policy blueprint please! not bits and pieces of campaign rhetoric and not jazzed up headlines of how Dizeani spent money on elections!!!!!!
Sometimes the most complex of problems can be solved with the simplest model you can come up with. After mentioning the basic things every Nigerian is crying for, just look at what you guys are planning to work on;technology hubs,robotics and animation,etc.please sir,does this country look like Disney studios/wonderland to you?how are these hubs going to be powered since you have conveniently forgotten to mention how the major issues plaguing the country (no power petroleum products, infrastructure and agric) are going to be resolved.
ReplyDeleteNNPC said they spend $1.8B(1.8 billion dollars!) every quarter to provide petroleum products to Nigerians.This means that they are spending 7.2billion dollars per annum to provide petroleum products that are still not enough,meaning they have to spend more abi?if you are spending this much and queues are still every where,why not stop pumping money into a failed venture(because it is already a failed venture as it is).Since some unscrupulous elements are diverting these products to neighbouring countries and others are hoarding them,just allow them bring in these products themselves already.Let's see how they are going to hoard the same products they imported to sell.NNPC should adopt a hands-off approach. Let everybody import and sell at the price they are comfortable at.
NNPC and the petroleum ministry shouldn't interfere by trying to control how they sell or provide subsidy to anybody.they should just have a monitoring group that goes around to check their meters as well as the product quality being sold.
The 7.8 billion dollars saved through this process can be used in building 2 power plants and 2 refineries in 2 years.Then invest 2 billion dollars in the agro sector.train every corper in different aspects of the agric business for six months and give them them loans to set up their farms.sambisa forest area and other areas can be used in setting up mechanized farms.do you think if Nigerians are able to get their chicken and turkey meat from within,that we'd be bothered about imported ones?
From the mechanised farms,government can set up things like tomato paste and juice producing companies,rice,groundnut, millet wheat, cocoa production plants.I read yesterday that Nigerians spend almost 200 billion naira annually to import fruit juices.Every state should embark on mechanised farming,producing the best products that can come out from their soil types.
Sirs,within 2 years of implementing these simple steps,i believe enough power would have been generated to alleviate this dearth of these things we are experiencing now.when refineries start functioning,then NNPC can come back in by distributing to ONLY NNPC stations,others can still be importing,if you can sell cheaper than NNPC,then no problem. If you can't compete, then sell your filling station(s) to NNPC and invest your money in a different sector.
These things are easy to implement when drawn up properly.jettison these bogus ideas of lagos to kano/calabar rail projects,they won't be of any benefit to the average nigerian now.the average nigerian is akin to a very hungry man now,make indomie with sardine and eggs to quench the present hunger rather than trying to prepare edikang ikong.the hungry man fit don kpai by the time the soup go ready,keep the body and spirit alive with indomie and that man will happily join you in preparing the soup for later or tomorrow.we need quick fixes that will last.
We believed in your change mantra,most of us still do,please leave all these tech hubs talk and face the real issues that you have already identified.
Sometimes the most complex of problems can be solved with the simplest model you can come up with. After mentioning the basic things every Nigerian is crying for, just look at what you guys are planning to work on;technology hubs,robotics and animation,etc.please sir,does this country look like Disney studios/wonderland to you?how are these hubs going to be powered since you have conveniently forgotten to mention how the major issues plaguing the country (no power petroleum products, infrastructure and agric) are going to be resolved.
ReplyDeleteNNPC said they spend $1.8B(1.8 billion dollars!) every quarter to provide petroleum products to Nigerians.This means that they are spending 7.2billion dollars per annum to provide petroleum products that are still not enough,meaning they have to spend more abi?if you are spending this much and queues are still every where,why not stop pumping money into a failed venture(because it is already a failed venture as it is).Since some unscrupulous elements are diverting these products to neighbouring countries and others are hoarding them,just allow them bring in these products themselves already.Let's see how they are going to hoard the same products they imported to sell.NNPC should adopt a hands-off approach. Let everybody import and sell at the price they are comfortable at.
NNPC and the petroleum ministry shouldn't interfere by trying to control how they sell or provide subsidy to anybody.they should just have a monitoring group that goes around to check their meters as well as the product quality being sold.
The 7.8 billion dollars saved through this process can be used in building 2 power plants and 2 refineries in 2 years.Then invest 2 billion dollars in the agro sector.train every corper in different aspects of the agric business for six months and give them them loans to set up their farms.sambisa forest area and other areas can be used in setting up mechanized farms.do you think if Nigerians are able to get their chicken and turkey meat from within,that we'd be bothered about imported ones?
From the mechanised farms,government can set up things like tomato paste and juice producing companies,rice,groundnut, millet wheat, cocoa production plants.I read yesterday that Nigerians spend almost 200 billion naira annually to import fruit juices.Every state should embark on mechanised farming,producing the best products that can come out from their soil types.
Sirs,within 2 years of implementing these simple steps,i believe enough power would have been generated to alleviate this dearth of these things we are experiencing now.when refineries start functioning,then NNPC can come back in by distributing to ONLY NNPC stations,others can still be importing,if you can sell cheaper than NNPC,then no problem. If you can't compete, then sell your filling station(s) to NNPC and invest your money in a different sector.
These things are easy to implement when drawn up properly.jettison these bogus ideas of lagos to kano/calabar rail projects,they won't be of any benefit to the average nigerian now.the average nigerian is akin to a very hungry man now,make indomie with sardine and eggs to quench the present hunger rather than trying to prepare edikang ikong.the hungry man fit don kpai by the time the soup go ready,keep the body and spirit alive with indomie and that man will happily join you in preparing the soup for later or tomorrow.we need quick fixes that will last.
We believed in your change mantra,most of us still do,please leave all these tech hubs talk and face the real issues that you have already identified.