Vice President Kashim Shettima has declared that the Tinubu administration was committed to building a social protection framework capable of delivering verifiable results for Nigeria’s most vulnerable populations, telling a high-level policy dialogue in Kano that the measure of leadership in the current era was not the quality of speeches delivered but the number of lives concretely changed by the decisions taken.
Shettima, represented by Deputy Senate President Senator Barau Jibrin, spoke at a forum organized by the North-West Governors’ Forum with support from the European Union and UNICEF, which brought together state governments, development partners, and policy experts to chart a pathway toward scaling social protection systems across a region carrying a disproportionate share of Nigeria’s poverty burden.
He described poverty in contemporary terms that went beyond income alone, saying it was the child who could not read at ten, the mother approaching childbirth with fear, the household uncertain of tomorrow’s meal, and the young person outside the classroom while the world accelerated toward artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and an advanced manufacturing economy that would not wait for those left behind. He said hope had to be organized, financed, delivered, and measured to mean anything, and that the administration was prepared to work with states, traditional institutions, religious leaders, communities, and development partners to achieve that standard.
UNICEF Nigeria Representative Wafaa Elfadil Saeed Abdelatef said the evidence was clear that progress required both government commitment and private sector engagement that went well beyond corporate social responsibility to genuine investment in jobs and skills for young Nigerians who represented the economy’s future workforce and consumer base. She said domestic financing was the critical variable, noting that while international partners could support the effort, government-led resourcing was the only foundation capable of sustaining it.
EU Ambassador to Nigeria Gautier Mignot said security and sustainability could never be achieved without a functioning democracy and that Europe remained ready to assist Nigeria in confronting and eradicating poverty at the scale the challenge demanded.
