practice of town-hall meetings on Saturday,
April 23, as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo
was answering multiple questions from
about 100 pressure groups. The meeting
took place at the Ikeja Airport Hotel, Lagos.
The participants received answers on a wide
range of topics: from fuel scarcity to the
Yuan deal, from power supply to entertainment industry
Top 13 takeaways from
Saturday’s talks:
1. On leadership:
“President Muhammadu Buhari and I (the vice
president) are completely committed to
providing competent leadership. We have no
other agenda. We acknowledge there are pains
but they are just birth pains. This is not the
end.”
2. On N5,000 monthly stipend:
“We are currently compiling the social register
for the poor and as soon as the budget is
passed, we will begin to pay 5000 naira to the
poor.”
3. On stealing and corruption:
“It cuts across all ethnic groups in
Nigeria. We must decide to become a new
tribe of Nigerians. We must disallow
division. We must also disallow the use of
religion and ethnicity.”
4. On fuel crisis:
“The NNPC is currently the only one importing
refined fuel. We are in the process of
providing a final solution to the fuel scarcity.”
The vice president of Nigeria at townhall
meeting in Lagos on Saturday, April 23.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo
5. On public vs private refineries
“Private refineries run better. We are seeking
private investments in co-managing the
refineries. Some parties have indicated interest
in the private refineries including the oil
majors.”
6. About Nigerian entertainment:
“With the entertainment sector, we are working
on solutions to piracy including technology
options, active advocacy and better
collaboration between the Entertainment
industry and the government.”
7. On Lagos-Calabar railway project:
“It is in the budget. The most effective way of
moving goods is by rail. Consequently, the
Lagos-Calabar and Lagos-Kano rails are
included in the budget.”
8. On power generation:
“Nigeria recorded a peak of 5,000MW in
February. We paid outstanding debts and
curtailed vandalism. But the Forcados pipeline
caused a drop of about 500MW. We are
currently working on improving the supply of
gas to power plant and fixing transmission line
problems.
“We have removed fixed tariff charges. You
only pay for what you use. We are also
engaged with labour unions on cost reflective
tariffs.”
9. On the Yuan deal:
“The deal is we have some credit with the
Chinese, so doing business with the Chinese
can be done without the dollar. The Yuan deal
will help facilitate trade with China and also
help the ease of doing business.”
10. On assets declaration:
“We want a country where anyone who holds
public office must be able to explain their
wealth.”
11. On human rights:
“Nobody can enforce any type of right by
violence. The use of violence to dispossess
others is unacceptable!”
12. On helping small and medium
businesses:
“We also intend to bring loans to SME’S at
single digit interest rates.”
13. On the following meetings with
Nigerians:
“We will continue with the town-hall meetings
across the country. You will be notified on the
next one. Together, Nigeria will prevail.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment