By Chijioke Okoronkwo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, says the Federal Government is proud of its accomplishments in the Social Investment Programme (SIP).

Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu AKande, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said the vice president was speaking when he received a delegation from the FCT People Living With Disabilities Community (FCT PWD) on a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa.

He expressed optimism that successive governments would build on the template already established by the present administration.

“We believe that as a matter of law, as a matter of policy, and our government must provide for those who have disability and who for some reason or the other, may not be able to work in ways that those who have no disability may be able to.

“It is not a favour, it is government policy and people must enjoy it as government policy, that is how things are done.

“We have tried our best to put in policies for the right things to be done government after government, so that it becomes normal for a government to do those things.

“I hope and pray that the next government will do the same thing.”

Osinbajo also referred to the Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2019, saying by policy and law, the entitlements of the PWDs are already in place.

 According to him, the SIP is one of the biggest in Africa.

“We provided for young people who had no employment (N-Power); we provided Conditional Cash Transfer for the poorest Nigerians, although it was only 1 million, we were able to provide for. We provided TraderMoni, MarketMoni, for 2.4 million traders.

“Under the Homegrown School Feeding Programme, we were able to provide feeding for 9.5 million children every day. We are proud of the fact that we were able to provide these services to the people.”

The vice president also observed some of the challenges in implementation.

He said that some of the things were very difficult to do not because of money but it was difficult to find people of integrity who would deliver the projects in the same honesty.

The vice president commended members of the  FCT PWD community for their perseverance and commitment to demanding for better welfare of members.

“We must see improvement in our part of the world, things are tied to individuals, it shouldn’t be, especially when it comes to matters that affect the dignity of our own people.

“We must continue to pursue this as entitlement for people with disability because of the law and policy of government. Let’s be hopeful that the coming months and years will be better and fruitful,” he said.

Earlier in his remarks, the spokesman of the group, Alhaji Muhammad Dantani, thanked the vice president for all that he had done directly and indirectly for the PWD Community in Nigeria and particularly in the FCT.

He described the vice president as the father of the fatherless, hope for the hopeless and voice to the voiceless.

The highlight of the meeting was the presentation of Certificate of Occupancy to the PWD Community in the FCT by the vice president.

The PWD Community in the FCT with about 5,000 persons currently reside at Karmajiji, Abuja.

They were resettled there over 25 years ago but the parcel of land is no longer adequate to accommodate the community.

A request for assistance from the vice president was sought in 2018 following which the Office worked with FCT authorities and got a larger parcel of land allocated to the community.

In another meeting held earlier with promoters of the ‘Reading Against Intolerance Initiative’, Osinbajo emphasised the need to keep supporting programmes that would imbibe the culture of tolerance among young Nigerians in schools.

According to him, the whole idea of national unity and national bonding is a deliberate action that should be undertaken by those in power at a particular point in time