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Leon Usigbe – Abuja
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday inaugurated the All Progressives Congress (APC) Legal Compliance Committee for federal and state elective positions in the coming exercise.
Speaking at the event in the Conference Centre of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he affirmed that the ruling party has remained the only party anchored on social democracy, social protection and social mobility, especially for the poor.
The Vice President said: “Ours is the only party anchored on social democracy, social protection, that is, social mobility for the poor, and justice for the wronged.”
Osinbajo noted that the Committee was crucial to the achievement of the party’s electoral ambitions in the 2023 Elections both at Federal and State levels across the country.
While inaugurating the Committee, the VP urged its members to be proactive and remain committed to this critical assignment.
“I am therefore glad that we have here an assembly of very committed members of the party, who, by their calling as lawyers, will be able to offer tremendous value for the party through the protection of its interests at every step of this electoral process,” he observed.
The Vice President said, “those of you that have worked with us in the build-up to the 2015 and the 2019 general elections know that the proactive approach we adopted, especially through the ear-on-the-ground work of the Presidential Legal Team, has provided us with crucial head-start in tackling some of the challenges that we were confronted with.
He added that the party’s manifesto in 2014, 2015 and 2023 contained the most detailed Social Investment Policy.
Osinbajo further stated: “In 2015 we became the first government to make budgetary provision of N500 billion for a comprehensive Social Investment Programme; feeding 9.5 million children in our Home-grown School Feeding Programme, providing jobs for 500,000 unemployed graduates through our N-Power programme, many deployed to primary schools in the hinterland as teachers, others trained under the N-TECH, N-BUILD. Our GEEP programme provided 2 million informal traders with small loans via its TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni schemes.
“We also built up the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme. Along with the World Bank and local communities, we complied a register of the poorest Nigerians and began a programme of giving them a total of about N20,000 monthly per household and introduced livelihood support. Our opponents criticized us, for providing money for the poor to do their business, we say to them that is who we are a party committed to lifting the poor out of poverty, but we are also accountable.
“Every person given a loan is properly documented on our electronic performance. They were given money by alerts on their phones so all loans are trackable and the entire process is auditable,” the VP stated.
The Vice President further recalled that the GEEP microcredit programmes, managed by the Bank of Industry (BOI), won several awards including the African Bankers Award twice, as well as getting, other global recognitions.
Noting that the party remained committed to a progressive left-of-the-centre ideology, the VP stated that despite global economic challenges, the APC administration under President Buhari has achieved much in the pursuit of this vision.
According to him, “these are achievements known to even our detractors, though they admit so only behind closed doors. Knowing where we were in 2014, the challenges we were able to overcome, and knowing the very likely danger of reversal of all that has been achieved by the Buhari administration, our Governors in States, and our legislators at national and State levels, we cannot afford to be nonchalant. Rather, we have to be proactive.”
A statement issued by the Vice president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, informed that the responsibilities of the APC Legal Compliance Committee, the VP disclosed, include ensuring that all internal structures of the party and external engagements of the party are conducted in accord with established operating procedures and the law; insulating the campaign of the party at all levels against breaches of rules, regulations, guidelines, and laws by ensuring strict compliance thereof; and to develop compliance checklists and protocols, conduct training for campaign personnel, and prepare compliance reports for the party, among others.
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