Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, said focus of the Buhari
administration in the next four years will be to address, among other
things, the deficiencies in the quality of human resources caused by
poor education and healthcare.
Prof Osinbajo spoke on Monday at the University of Lagos where he
delivered the Convocation Lecture ahead of the university’s 50th
anniversary
According to him, “I may begin by affirming the belief of the Buhari
administration that Nigeria’s prosperity means a decent existence for
all. Second, that prosperity so defined will be attained if we are able
to address the issues of extreme poverty, productivity, corruption, the
rule of law and the deficiencies in the quality of human resources
caused by poor education and healthcare.”
Speaking further on the relevance of human resource development to
the administration, Prof. Osinbajo said, the government would adopt a
strategy that prepares young Nigerians for emerging challenges as well
as opportunities.
He said: “We must have a robust enough healthcare system that ensures
that the average person is in good health, an educational system that
guarantees education capable of preparing children for the opportunities
and challenges of a knowledge economy.”
Continuing, the Vice President said, “In planning the path to
prosperity we also took into account the age-old weaknesses of the
Nigerian economy and the illusion of prosperity that frequently distorts
our understanding of the actual fragility of our economy”.
On the way forward, the Vice President said from the onset it was
clear to the Federal Government that it needed to devise an economic
plan that prioritized the basic issues with our economy.
“For us, we needed to prioritize; the building of infrastructure
especially rail, roads, power and ports; productivity as we diversified
the economy from oil and gas; the fight against public sector
corruption; developing a new educational curriculum that emphasizes
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths.
“Others include; adopting a new approach to resourcing healthcare;
putting in place a social investment programme that deals with issues of
extreme poverty and unemployment. Our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan
effectively addressed these issues”, the Vice President added.
On the progress made so far, Prof. Osinbajo said the Buhari
administration believed that “creating an environment for productivity
investment in hard and soft infrastructure is crucial”.
He assured Nigerians that with the integrity of President Buhari and
the commitment of his administration, Nigeria would not derail from its
current path to prosperity.
According to him, “If we stick to our agenda in the next two years we
will see the most significant improvements, in our power sector.
“Industrial Infrastructure is a major component of our economic
transformation plan. Project MINE (Made in Nigeria for Export) is the
major plank of our industrial policy. The idea is to build Special
Economic Zones which accommodate industries for local manufacture of
goods for which Nigeria has a comparative advantage. These include
cotton, garments, leatherware etc.”
