Courtesy Visit To Shehu Of Borno, His Royal Highness, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi

• Share:

REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE PALACE OF THE SHEHU OF BORNO, HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, ABUBAKAR IBN UMAR GARBAI EL-KANEMI IN MAIDUGURI, BORNO STATE ON THE 24^TH OF FEBRUARY, 2022

PROTOCOLS

It is a very special pleasure to be here in Borno State and I also bring the very warm greetings of President Muhammadu Buhari, who as you know, has a special place in his heart for Borno State.

He has asked to express his felicitations to all—the government and people of Borno State.

He is always excited to come to Borno State and I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Borno State has proved so many things; it has proved what Nigeria can be, how resilient we are, how courageous we are and how committed we are to the Nigerian project.

From the days of former Governor, Kashim Shettima, now Senator, I have seen a steady hand of progress here in Borno State; a commitment to development, and a commitment to growth.

And then over to Governor Babagana Zulum, who has proved that it is possible to do incredible things with very little. And I think that just looking at his so many achievements, every time I make a speech somewhere, I always refer to what Zulum is doing because he has demonstrated that with little resources, we can do a lot and that the problem that we have in this country is not so much poverty or lack of resources, it is a commitment to the people; that commitment to the people to do the best we can for our people.

That is what Zulum has shown and today, we have been to about three places already, commissioning projects and we are not done yet.

I want to just commend the Governor for the excellent work that he is doing and for the great encouragement that he is giving to all Nigerians everywhere and also to the political class; that it is possible to develop our country, it is possible to do well and it is possible for us to do the best that we can for our people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable of our people.

Your Royal Highness, today we are here for what is called the MSMEs Clinics; it is a clinic for small businesses – what we do from State to State is to bring together all the small businesses and the Federal Government brings the regulatory authorities to meet them.

Today we have brought the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON); we have brought NAFDAC; we have brought the Bank of Industry (BOI); the FIRS; the different regulatory agencies to meet with the small businesses so that the small businesses can lay their complains before these regulatory authorities because very few businesses can travel all the way to Abuja and the other centre where the regulatory authorities are.

We go from State to State, taking the regulatory authorities to the small businesses.

We are also partnering with States to create what we call a one-stop-centre of these regulatory agencies. Under one roof, we like to have NAFDAC; SON, BOI, and other agencies so that small businesses can go there and do whatever they need to do without necessarily having to travel all over the country.

I am also here to commission some of the projects that the Governor has done and I hope that we will be back again very soon because it is always such a pleasure to be here in Borno State.

I want to thank you again for your hospitality and for your friendship.