Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has suggested that for Nigeria to really get rid of palpable poverty, it must look at other countries that have successfully done it.
“We must look at what others have done, the smart things that other people have done, and adopt.”
He used Bangladesh which actually exports more garments than Nigeria exports oil, as an example, saying: “countries that have managed to get out of poverty have created a lot of jobs through industries, and they have developed intentional strategies.”
Professor Osinbajo, who spoke today, July 9 at the inaugural meeting of the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy Steering Committee held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, added: “we really have to think smartly about how we are funding agriculture.”
Osinbajo said that government would adopt a different and more effective approach in actualizing the objective of eradicating poverty in the country for the sake of delivering results.
“I really want us to approach this as much as possible, commonsensical so that we are able to resolve all the issues and focus on the real progress.
“I want us to look beyond all of what we are going to be doing, there is going to be a considerable amount of paperwork, but a lot of common sense is what grows economies. It’s what other countries have done, not really reinventing the wheel. So, I want us to focus on those commonsensical things so that we can actually move forward.
“I think we really need to take a deep dive because governments have made several efforts at poverty alleviation but generally speaking, they have not yielded the sort of results they should yield, and I think it’s because there is a lot of focus on documentation and paperwork and very little commonsense approaches.”
The Vice President said that the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy is meant to be a national strategy, not just a federal effort and it is aimed at taking 100 million people, nationally, out of poverty within a target time-frame of 10 years.
“I just want to emphasize that it is a national strategy as opposed to a federal strategy which is why the steering committee is made up of federal as well as state officials.”
He emphasized the role of the private sector, saying: “essentially, this effort must also be directed at how to facilitate private sector creation of jobs. The fact is that there is no way that the Federal Government or the State Governments can create the number of jobs that we need.
“We need to take a few broad looks at the features of what constitutes our present predicaments in terms of job losses and unemployment.”
Professor Osinbajo said that efforts will be made to focus attention on creating opportunities for Nigerians to earn decent livelihoods in addition to equipping them with the necessary vocational skills.
Members of the committee in attendance at the meeting included Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, who is also Nigeria Governors Forum Chairman, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, and Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Ministers of Agriculture, Muhammad Nanono; Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, and Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige also attended, while the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba joined the meeting virtually.
