The Buhari administration will proceed with its plan for a Conditional Cash Transfer scheme and other social welfare interventions in order to ensure that no one is left behind, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
He said it is about "how to give real opportunity and hope to the 110 million extremely poor people in the country."
The Vice President spoke earlier today in Kano at a reception held at the Kano State Government House in honor of Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant- Media and Publicity to the President.
It was the same message of hope that Prof Osinbajo earlier took to the IDP Camp School in Mariri, Kano where he told the children displaced from Borno State not to lose hope, assuring them that the federal government is committed to their future. He was accompanied by the Kano State Governor Dr. Abdullai Umar Ganduje and other officials and dignitaries from the state.
Prof Osinbajo interacted with the children at the Internally Displaced Persons’ School , where some 100 children from Borno state are receiving education and psychological therapy courtesy of the Kano state government.
According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was committed to the Presidential Initiative for the North East (PINE) to take care of all those affected by insurgency in the country.
He recalled the interaction the President had on Friday with the Victims Support Fund, VSF committee, headed by Gen. Theophilus Danjuma in Abuja, adding that besides the education of the children, the government was also interested in rebuilding places destroyed by terrorists.
He said PINE and the VSF have huge plans that had immediate, medium and long term plans, which the Buhari administration will ensure are well implemented.
``Part of that is the education of children who were displaced. Part of that also is resettlement, the rebuilding of homes and bridges, de-mining of the farms," according to the Vice President.
He said that several farms in the North East had been planted with mines by the insurgents and that it was the plan of the Federal Government to remove all the impediments in the land.
He said the government was doing a comprehensive de-mining of the affected areas to enable the displaced persons to return to their communities to resume their businesses and economic activities, including farming.
While commending the Kano State Government, the VP said the IDP school established by the government was a creative and humanitarian project given the circumstances of the children.
By that action, he observed that the state had shown others how to show concern for the future of the children, whose future he insisted is bright despite their predicament and experience with the insurgency. He said that the children will put behind their present predicament and go on to become great after their education.
``Despite everything that has happened to them, it is obvious that their future is bright, " Osinbajo declared.
Later in Kano at a reception held in honor of Mallam Garba Shehu, the Vice President explained that there is a somewhat ideological question on how to handle the problem of the poor, but that the Buhari administration is very clear on what needs to be done.
According to him, there are those who truly want good governance, but their answer to poverty "is to let business work first, then more jobs will be created and the poor will be taken care of."
However, Prof Osinbajo argued that "this is not a solution, the poor will all be dead before industry can provide enough to go round."
Continuing, he said the answer is that while providing an environment for free enterprise, "government must proactively intervene by way of social protection and enhancement of opportunity for the poor."
He then restated that the APC social welfare policies of the 5000 Naira Conditional Cash Transfer, help for the aged and the disabled among others "are well on target."
Speaking earlier at the reception, elder-statesman Alhaji Maitama Sule said God put President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo together and then added the biblical phrase "what God has joined together let no man put asunder."
The former Nigerian Permanent Representative to the United Nations said the president and the vice president can bring the desired change to the country, adding that the international community has also observed the discipline and integrity of both leaders.
On return to Abuja from Kano, the Vice President later at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport received the President who just returned from a visit to Benin Republic.
