Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the greatest reason of optimism for the bright future for Africa is in the incredible energy, talent and creativity of our young people, male and female who are completely undeterred by the failures of the past and are daily taking advantage of innovation and technology bringing about the Africa of our dreams,
Speaking today, Saturday at the G7 Summit special outreach forum on Africa with selected African nations and leaders including Nigeria, Guinea, Tunisia, Niger, Ethiopia and Kenya, made it clear that Africa is not deterred by the failures of the past.
According to him, the continent is motivated by the incredible energy and talent of its bustling youthful population, saying: “Africa is confident of the future because we have learnt…we are investing more in education, insisting on good governance and holding ourselves to account.”
Professor Osinbajo, who assured the G7 countries of Africa’s increasing collaboration as never before in trade, counter terrorism and strengthening democracy, commended the seven most industrialized nations of world for their support in the fight against Boko Haram terrorism, especially the US, France and the United Kingdom as effective partners in the Lake Chad basin, citing the successes of “our joint intelligent unit which has provided useful and timely intelligence in the war against terrorism.”
The acting President said that in Nigeria today, there is massive increase in rice yield over the past two years, and that distribution of fertilizer subsidies is ongoing to farmers who had also benefited from an e-wallet system that guaranteed that the subsidies actually gets to the farmers.
He said that the N-Power programme which has started engaging some of the up to five hundred thousand young previously unemployed graduates instalmentally as teachers, agricultural extension workers and public health professionals “is a breakthrough in mass post-tertiary education.”
He said the participants were recruited online in all states in the nation mostly using mobile phones, adding that participants were soon to receive their electronic tablet devices and can access an N-Power portal that contain required training materials for acquisition of more skills to carry out their duties.
Other world leaders attending the Summit are Chairman of the African Union, United Nations, OECD, IMF, AfDB and World Bank as well as leaders of the G7 countries.
On the entourage of the Acting President are minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema, Special Adviser on Economic Matters, Dr. Yemi Dipeolu; the Nigeria Charge d’ Affairs in Italy, Mrs. Bisi Meshioye.
The Acting President has since returned to Nigeria. [myad]
