Northern Nigerian Breaking News

Osinbajo confers with Sultan, others on NIPSS transformation

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says the task for National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) is to determine how it will affect human history beginning with Nigeria.

Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Thursday, said the vice president met with NIPSS board at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The vice president had on Dec. 16, 2022, inaugurated the Board of Trustees of the NIPSS Endowment Fund chaired by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar.

The NIPSS Academic Advisory Committee was also inaugurated same day.

Board members at the Thursday meeting were Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, Gbong Gwom Jos, Chief Jacob Buba Gyang and Chairman of the Board of the Nigeria Communication Commission, Prof. Adeolu Akande.

elsamad new

Others were Chairman of Overt Energy, Chief Marc Wabara, a legal luminary, Yusuf Alli, and Julius Adeluyi, who joined virtually.

Read Also: NLC urges CBN to extend, revisit policy on new Naira notes

Osinbajo harped on the need to reposition NIPSS, recalibrate its visibility and attract significant financial backing from the private sector and other non-public sector sources.

He said that the consensus was that the time had come for the institute to take its place as a foremost institute along the lines of notable globally ranked think-tanks.

“One of the reasons why a think-tank is effective is because it is a place where people think and develop ideas because ideas make the difference.

“This is why countries that have made progress continue to seek ways not just in developing their own think-tanks, but in looking for other think-tanks they can collaborate with because there is so much happening around the world and a lot of collaboration is necessary.

“Some of the roadmaps for the growth of technology, for artificial intelligence, the roadmaps for where we are going to find ourselves for machine learning, and where we are heading to with respect to the finances of the world – the cryptocurrency, and others, even thinking through the development of military strength, are the products of think-tanks.”

According to the vice president, one of the critical things for NIPSS board is to first of all realize that the most important part of its work in the coming years would be really thinking and developing ideas.

He said that the work of a think-tank was thinking and development of ideas.

Read Also :Armed robbers raid banks in Kogi

” But NIPSS can offer training to people and at the end of the program, they get titles and all that but that is not how think-tanks make their names.

“Think-tanks make a name by the ideas they develop; all the think-tanks in the world, produce some of the greatest ideas.”

Osinbajo identified other areas that should concern NIPSS including developing ideas on how to get extreme poverty out of the country, address climate change issues, among others.

He said that Nigeria was a nation of 200 million people, growing at 6 million a year and high poverty rate.

“In another few years we are going to become the third most populous country in the world; we have to devise a strategy to get out of that poverty.

“It is our foremost think-tank that ought to be in the forefront of thinking how we are going to deal with the situation, politicians will come and go.

“Our think-tanks must be able to provide a tactical roadmap to move from where we are to get to where we ought to be.

“And that is the same for every other thing; everyone is talking about Climate Change and what is going to happen to the world.

“People are thinking about these things time and time again, but we need to have our own think-tank come up with policies and ideas about what we need to do,” he said.

Earlier in his remarks, Abubakar restated the trustees’ commitment to serve and assured the vice president of their preparedness to deliver on the mandate.

“The trustees are set to make the institute the best it can be,” he said.

The traditional ruler said that the interaction with the vice president was to hear from him on what should be done.

He added that the trustees would also interact with the Alumni of NIPSS as there was need to take the assignment very seriously.

On his part, the Director General of NIPSS, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, reiterated the importance of finding alternative sources of funding research, infrastructure upgrade and other activities at the institution.

He assured the vice president and the board members of management’s commitment to leave a legacy of commitment to serve and accountability in the management of the funds raised.

In a vote of thanks, Akande said that the board’s understanding of the assignment had been better enriched and expressed optimism the trustees would deliver on the task. (NAN)

Comments are closed.