Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday expressed concerns over growing numbers of Nigerians living in extreme poverty.
Osinbajo admitted that millions of Nigerians are living below the poverty line.
The vice president lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic had further worsened the unemployment and poverty rate in the country.
He disclosed this after several sessions at the two-day retreat, which reviewed the challenges of the relationship and interdependence between the executive and legislative arms of government.
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Osinbajo, however, urged the executive and legislatures to work together in addressing the challenges confronting Nigerians.
The vice president, in a statement made available to the media by his spokesman, Laolu Akande, said; “Every generation of leadership must understand context. Law itself must be interpreted and implemented in context. What is the reality of the context that we operate in today?
“We all know, our nation has millions of extremely poor people, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened unemployment and poverty.
“We have huge deficits in infrastructure, many children are out of school. If that is our context, we will be callous and irresponsible if we don’t come together, work together to sort out these grave life-threatening problems our people have to confront every day. The dogmatic emphasis on procedural niceties is a luxury we cannot afford.”