Asaba – Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has advocated the building of strong institutions to drive Nigeria’s economy.
Osinbajo saidd this on Friday in Asaba while declaring open a 2-Day Delta State Economic and Investment Summit.
The summit has as the theme “Delta State: Open for Business and Investment” and was organised to mark 25th anniversary of Delta.
“Without strong institutions, economic delivery will not be achieved, so we need to strengthen our institutions.
“We need leadership that can be trusted for when there is a trust deficit, it is difficult to galvanise the people.
“We can only build the people’s trust when we are trustworthy and trust plays a critical role but is earned over time.
“Governments in Nigeria have never been short of good ideas but the challenge is the ability to stick to the plans,’’ Osinbajo said
The Vice-President said that the challenge of the country was not good ideas but in the inability to implement and stick to plans.
He said that the character of the leadership the country needed, now, was such that could be trusted and of best quality in order to add value rather than adopting a quota system.
Osinbajo added that what the country also needed was infrastructure that would guide its development.
He congratulated the government of Delta for marking the silver Jubilee with economic summit to reposition the state for a greater heights, particularly now that the country was being challenged economically.
According to Osinbajo, the summit is a clear demonstration of a departure of the state government having understanding of the times the country is in.
The vice-president also stressed the need to restructure the educational system in line with the present reality of digital technology, to enable the country exploit opportunities in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
He tasked the summit to explore the public private partnership (PPP) models, adding that the private sector remained the engine of growth in any economy.
He assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s-led government was committed to turning around the nation’s fortune for the better.
Osinbajo, however, called on Nigerians to give a lending hand to government’s determination to find lasting solution the nation’s problems.
According to him, the solution to the country’s present challenge needs the collective responsibility of all the citizens.
In his address, Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa said that celebrating the silver jubilee was an occasion for sober reflections.
He added that it was a time to pause and think, time for careful planning and innovation to enable the state create the enabling environment to restore its lost glory.
The governor said that the state was tackling its challenges by making policies to create the platform for the Private Public Partnership to thrive in the state.
He said that the effort was one of ways of diversifying the state economy from oil and gas to agriculture and others.
Mr Jim Ovia, the Chairman of the occasion, tasked the state government to explore its potential in sports, tourism and Information Communication Technoloy (ICT).
He commended the state government for inaugurating an ICT innovation hub which he described as key to the ICT world.
Ovia added that ICT had capacity to grow the state economy away from oil and gas and create jobs for its teaming youth.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Festus Agas, in an address of welcome, said the outcome of the summit would form an integral part of the state’s policy on developing its economy.
Delta was created by the then Military President, retired Gen. Ibrahim Babanginda on Aug. 27, 1991. (NAN)
