Right to life meaningless with poverty, says Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday said the right to life as provided in the nation’s constitution will be meaningless if a large number of Nigerians are poor.

According to him, that is the reason why the present administration is committed to investing significantly in getting people out of poverty and address issues relating to children and other vulnerable groups.

A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, said the Vice-President spoke at the inauguration of the strategic implementation plan of the National Home-grown School Feeding Programme, one of the five social investment schemes of the Presidency.This, he said, informed the decision of the Federal Government to earmark N500bn in the 2016 Budget for the Social Investment Programmes.

“It is a victory for a point of view namely that the inalienable right to life confirmed in the Nigerian Constitution is meaningless in a society where large numbers are poor, if government does not invest significantly in getting people out of poverty and address the health and education issues of children and other vulnerable groups,” the Vice-President said.

He said the strategic plan sets out the partnership arrangement on how federal, state, and local governments were to synergise towards achieving the primary objectives of the School Feeding Programme.

He noted that the plan would only work with the cooperation of Federal, State and Local tiers of governments.

Osinbajo also emphasised the need for the buy-in of the people, saying, “it is called ‘Home Grown School Feeding’ for the reason that it must be owned by the people for whom it has been designed.”

Osinbajo said the programme was not just a social welfare scheme which gives handouts to the poor, but “a direct economic benefit to the target groups and the economy as a whole.”

He said the scheme would bring real change to the lives of over 20 million children nationwide.

The Vice-President the four major benefits of the programme to include to improve school enrollment and completion and cut current dropout rate estimated at 30 per cent while reducing child labour; improve child nutrition and health; increase local agricultural production; and to create jobs which would invariably lift families over the poverty line into a bright future.