Having a public office holder with intellectual depth like Osinbajo is refreshing, says Rewane
- Many Nigerians are still celebrating the country's vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, as he turns 64 today
- A pan-Nigerian coalition honoured the Nigerian vice president on his birthday with a special public lecture
- A well-respected economist in the country, Dr Bismarck Rewane, delivered the lecture and had pleasant things to say about Osinbajo
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Renowned Nigerian economist, Bismarck Rewane, has declared that having a public office holder with intellectual depth like Nigeria's vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, is refreshing.
Rewane, the managing director of Financial Derivatives Co. Ltd, made the comment on Monday, March 8 at a special public lecture in commemoration of Professor Osinbajo's 64th birthday in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
The event attended by a Legit.ng reporter, is an initiative of a pan-Nigerian coalition, the Building the Future Forum (BTFF).
The economist who shared his various interactions with VP Osinbajo noted that the Nigerian number 2 citizen has, and continues to distinguish himself as a reformer in public office.
Source: Getty Images
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His words:
“I interacted with the celebrant in 2016 and 2017 when he called for presentations to the Economic Management Team (EMT). We consulted with his team in finalizing the minimum wage study in 2019, in what was an impossible deadline, which we met miraculously.
“I have also watched closely the various interventions in removing bottlenecks in the way of businesses in Nigeria with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) initiatives.
“I worked closely with Dr Jumoke Oduwole and her team and I must say that it was very refreshing to work with a government agency that had the mentality of achieving results at minimal costs.
“In our interactions with the vice president, we came away with the impression that his training as a professor of law based on evidence, makes him ask questions, which after you answer either make you think deeper or look foolish or accept that more work needs to be done.
“His recent remarks on the prohibition of cryptocurrencies in which he said that we must not regulate out of fear but with knowledge, was another defining moment in my respect for a mind that comes across without ruffling feathers but clearly and distinctly about the honest and efficient truth.”
Rewane, 69, noted that Nigeria has made remarkable achievements in the ease of doing business matrix due to the PEBEC, an inter-governmental and inter-ministerial council chaired by VP Osinbajo.
He added:
“We need the intellectual depth of academics like Prof. Yemi. We need God-fearing clerics like Prof. Oluleke. We need people in public life who have candor like Prof. Osinbajo and more than anything else, we need people like him who can make the private sector feel at ease in the policy-making community.”
Dignitaries at the event include the governor of Nasarawa state; Engineer Abdullahi Sule, his Ekiti state counterpart; Dr Kayode Fayemi, minister of interior; Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, United Arab Emirates ambassador to Nigeria; Dr Fahad Obaid Al Taffaq among others.
Legit.ng had on Sunday, March 7 reported that the event will be held at the NAF Conference Centre in Abuja, via zoom and other online platforms with the title: “Building the Future of Nigeria through Enterprise and Innovation.”
The BTFF had explained that Nigerians in the diaspora, along with professionals and private sector operators based within the country are collaborating to organize the non-partisan event on the vice president’s 64th birthday.
Meanwhile, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, on Wednesday, March 3, conferred on VP Osinbajo, a special award of the ‘Defender of Faith’.
The award was conferred on VP Osinbajo at the 16th Biennial Delegate Conference of the PFN held at the Michael Okpara Square in Enugu state.
Jerrywright Ukwu is a senior political/defence correspondent at Legit.ng based in Abuja. He is a graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos and the International Institute of Journalism in Abuja. He is also an active member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. He spends his leisure-time reading history books.
Source: Legit.ng
