Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says some parts of the
manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was drafted at the residence
of Pat Utomi, a professor, in 2014.
According to Laolu Akande, senior special assistant to the
vice-president on media and publicity, Osinbajo said this at the 5th edition of
the Airtel Touching Lives in Lagos.
The vice-president said the APC included a social safety
initiative to specifically address poverty, among other things in its
manifesto.
“Listening to each story of a life touched this evening must
remind us of the many others who need our help, our comfort and our kindness.
The poor and vulnerable always need a voice,” Osinbajo was quoted to have said.
“In 2014, Mr Wale Edun, Prof. Pat Utomi and I met at Pat’s
home to write portions of the manifesto of the APC.
“We all agreed that a fundamental pillar of our party’s
plans must be to create a social safety net for the people. We were convinced
that government owed a duty to the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and those who
cannot work.
“Social safety nets are not merely acts of sovereign
kindness; they are a sovereign obligation – a responsibility.”
Osinbajo said the feeding programme has had impact on 9.5
million children, adding that 2.2 million petty traders have also benefitted
from loans.
“Today, the social safety net scheme is the fore of our
Social Investment Programmes where we are feeding about 9.5 million children in
public schools in 34 states across Nigeria; we are giving monthly cash to about
nearly a million households as part of our conditional cash transfer scheme; we
have given, as at the last count, 2.2 million loans to petty traders whose
inventories are no more than N5, 000,” he said.
“We have also engaged about 500, 000 young men and women,
who have been unemployed (over different periods of time) under our N-Power
programme. But we are still very far from touching majority of those who need
help.
“It is clear that to do so, we need far more resources
behind that programme. This is why the work of social conscious companies like
Airtel is so vital. Bridging the huge gap between what government can do and
what is left to be done.”
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