Vice President Yemi Osinbajo celebrated his 66th birthday on Wednesday at the North East Children’s Trust (NECT) and its Learning Centre in Borno State. The celebration was announced by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, in a statement titled “Osinbajo marks 66th birthday in Borno with restored northeast ‘Insurgency Orphans’, who call him daddy.”
The NECT is a private‑sector‑led charity and social‑engineering initiative incorporated in 2017. Its mission is to create innovative, transformational, and sustainable learning ecosystems that nurture, renew, and empower vulnerable children aged 5 to 18 who have become orphans as a result of the insurgency in North‑East Nigeria. To date, the Trust has provided comprehensive support—accommodation, feeding, quality education, and rehabilitative psychosocial services—to 686 orphaned and vulnerable children. The Vice President led the efforts that resulted in the establishment of the North East Children’s Trust and its Learning Centre in 2016.
Osinbajo began his day with a quiet morning devotion at his Aguda House residence in the Presidential Villa before traveling to Borno with his wife, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo. Upon arrival at the Nigeria Air Force Base in Maiduguri, they were received by Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum, his wife Falmata Zulum, and other senior officials. The couple then proceeded to the NECT Learning Centre, where the children organized a series of activities to mark the occasion.
During his visit, the Vice President assured the staff and children of his continued commitment to providing world‑class facilities that will enable them to excel, regardless of prevailing socioeconomic conditions. “All of you children who are here, one thing that is very certain is that God giving me good health and preserving my life, I will ensure that you get the very best. However it is, we will do everything possible to make sure that you get the very best, because that is the promise and pledge that we made when we started. My wife and I consider the children of this school our own children; we want to give them the kind of education that our own children have had, which is why everything that is being done here is done to the best standards available anywhere in the world,” he said.
Governor Zulum, represented at the school by Secretary to the State Government Usman Jidda, thanked the Vice President for his firm commitment to the education and welfare of vulnerable children. Jidda praised the establishment of the school as a testament to Osinbajo’s kindness and concern for the downtrodden. Similarly, Commissioner of Education Abba Wakilbe noted that the people of Borno State will always remember Osinbajo as the first person to respond to the plight of the more than 56,000 children orphaned by the Boko Haram insurgency by addressing their educational needs.
Among those present at the event were Vice Chairperson of the NECT board Prof. Hauwa Biu and other dignitaries.
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