Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Wednesday, stated that about 110 million Nigerians were still living below poverty line despite the policies of past governments to improve their welfare. However, he explained that this was because the policy were wrongly formulated and as a result did not have direct impact on the people.
Speaking at a courtesy visit by members of the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), at the State House, Abuja, the Vice President said his concern was how to implement the policies to address the need of the people.
“When you look at the economic and social policies, and you look at the level of illiteracy in parts of the country, some are extremely bad and some with cases of about 80% or 90% of children out of school, and other cases of unimaginable decayed infrastructure,” he said.
“Governments have not been accountable to the people, otherwise policies should have roots in the real conditions of the people.”
Osinbajo observed that some past planning, policy formulation and budgets were not accountable to the people, stressing that in the past there have been “policies that don’t seem to have solutions that truly reflect the understanding of the question of poverty in Nigeria.”
He approved the idea of a having a “Policy Roundtable” to form a think-tank as suggested by the Alumni. He then challenged members to discuss how policy formulation ought to have root in the conditions of the people.
“I want the Institute to think about this,” he said.
Speaking earlier, President of the Alumni Association, Major-General Lawrence Onoja, Rtd, expressed appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari on his determination to fight corruption and reposition the economy.
He pledged the support of the Association for the actualization of what he called the Three-Point Agenda – Security, Corruption and Economy of the Buhari Administration.
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