Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday inaugurated the Sustainable Development
Goals Private Sector Advisory Group (SDG- PSAG) with an advice on the elite to
cater for the needs of the poor and vulnerable people.
At the
event, which took place at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Osinbajo remarked
that in spite of the failures and false starts of those in authority, the
people still placed their hope on the ruling class.
“There are
so many left behind and anywhere I go across the country I see there is such a
great need to do something that will be impactful on skill.
“A lot of
people hang their hopes on us and no matter how we slice it people look up to
us and believe that we can do it.
“In spite of
all the failures and all the false starts our people especially the poor and
vulnerable still believe that this political elite, this private sector elite,
will deliver and can deliver.
“I urge all
of us to take this as a personal responsibility to do something so profound for
our people, something that will make a huge difference in the lives of our
people.’’
According to
Osinbajo, nobody is going to measure us by what we hold, how much money we have
or what position we hold.
“This is why
I am excited about the public and the private coming together to ensure that
the Sustainable Development Goals are realised in our time and that indeed
nobody is left behind.’’
The acting
president described the event as the beginning of partnership between the
private and public sector and urged the elite to be in the vanguard of doing
things that could transform the country.
He said the
elite were the ones to whom the transformation of the society belonged, adding
that many societies that had truly transformed did so because their elite
decided that it was worthwhile to do so.
He noted
that whether the citizens recognised it formally or not, the elite in the
private and public sectors were doing things together whether for good or for
ill.
“The
important thing is to recognise that we have an important role to play,’’ he
said.
He added
that those holding public positions should realise that they would be measured
by how many poor and vulnerable people they were able to lift out of poverty.
“The society
places a lot of responsibilities on the elite who are educated and have the
opportunity of holding political offices.
“The
responsibility is for the elite to do something to the lives of those they
govern and the millions of the extremely poor in our midst.
“We simply
cannot take that responsibility lightly and we must recognise that that is how
we can be measured.’’
The Senior
Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefilure, in
an address said the country was the first to inaugurate the PSAG among the UN
member nations.
She said
that by the event the nation was standing on a threshold of history to forge a
partnership between the private and public sector to build the consensus for
effective implementation of SDGs.
The
presidential aide observed that the role of the private sector to drive
economic growth could not be overemphasised, noting that “businesses create
jobs, generate taxes, and provide the engine that drive development’’.
She said
that in the prevailing economic crunch it became urgent to mobilise private
sector fund to implement the SDGs.
According to
her, such informed the UN-SDGs Fund to establish the global partnership of the
PSAG as a powerful platform for global business leaders to interact, leverage,
and exchange cooperation for successful SDGs programmes.
She
described the PSAG as a global best practice that works and promised that her
office would ensure its success.
(NAN)
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