By Chijioke Okoronkwo
Mr Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Office of the Vice President, has congratulated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on his 66th birthday.
The vice president turned 66 years old on Wednesday.
Akande extended his felicitations in a birthday message to the vice president who was born on March 8, 1957.
According to him, Osinbajo exists to inspire to build a better future for individuals, groups and the country.
“The place of inspiration and imagination in the pursuit of personal or national fulfilment is not only pivotal but also irreplaceable and this is why people who can inspire must remain in front.
“What I have come to know about the vice president is that he is an inspirer, and watching him do things is in itself an inspiration.
“People like that exists to inspire individuals, groups and nations to attain goals and objectives that advance their causes and lead irrevocably to greatness.
“He provokes something in people such that conduces towards excellence, endurance and empathy, attributes that he himself exemplify.
“He exudes excellence; so that people can discover hidden capacities.’’
Akande said the vice president showed endurance which enabled people to sustain the pursuit of vision by imbuing patience and humility that created perseverance.
He also listed empathy as one of the vice president’s qualities that reinforced a common bond of humanity by which individuals become an example of selflessness, rendering service and value on private and public levels.
The spokesman said it was the vice president’s empathy that took him to Maiduguri in the early months of the administration where he led a charitable effort that produced the learning centre.
He said the learning centre offered orphans affected by insurgency some of the best types of education available anywhere in the world in the past six years.
“It is the endurance that kept him in place when all kinds of malevolent forces were bent on diminishing the effective delivery of public goods directly to the people of this nation.
”(This is) in an unprecedented scale such as the Social Investment Programme(SIP) of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“Some entrusted with leadership responsibilities wanted to privatise the SIP by sharing slots among the elites in a scheme meant to secure some social safety nets in a country fiercely battling poverty.
“Finally, it is the excellence for instance that makes him interrogate his aides and people pushing laudable ideas in and out of government by demanding for scaling up the numbers.
“After all, he would wonder “what’s the use of a government programme that reaches only a few thousands in a population of over 200million.
“For him, excellence says think, not just out of the box, but think big; do the hard part, apply yourself, be relentless, work tirelessly at goals.’’
According to Akande, in the past eight years, the average closing time in the Vice President’s Office is 8pm or 9pm.
He said that on many occasions, people in the office had been at work past 12 midnights as excellence spared no effort.
“So, today as the vice president turns 66, I wish him a happy birthday and many happy returns.
“My dear boss, and Nigeria’s number two citizen, we pray that as your days so shall your strength, wisdom and favour be with God and man,’’ he said.(NAN)
