Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has vowed that pressure currently being mounted by the Nigerian elites would not slow down the ongoing fight against corruption and graft.
Said he: “we get regular messages from some Nigerian elites saying cool down.”
The Vice President who held a meeting today in his office with a delegation from the Muslim Congress of Nigeria (MCN) made it clear that the pressures on the presidency to relent in the anti-corruption fight would not shake the resolve of the government to push on until it is eliminated.
“It is a very strange morality that some of those people have very complicated but cutting across all tribes and religious differences.”
He observed that the masses of the Nigerian people have a clearer understanding of right and wrong, adding: “the masses don’t have that problem.”
Osinbajo said that a few of the elites are however asking that government should merely ask the looters of the commonwealth of the nation to return the money and go.
Professor Osinbajo is happy that “a new tribe of Nigerians who would not compromise their values but would maintain a sense of right and wrong is now emerging.
“The man on the street is very clear, so whatever some of these elites say, we shall keep our focus on the masses who voted for us.”
The Vice President said that it is unacceptable that in the last 16 years, there is not a single federal government completed road project, not to even talk of rail.
The reason, he stressed, is corruption, adding that the cost of projects are often inflated as people entrusted with public trust struggle to enrich themselves at the expense of the masses.
He noted that it was the same inordinate desire for enrichment that explains why money meant to procure arms were being distributed among persons at a time when the territorial integrity of the nation was being attacked.
“The insurgency has gone on for six years because government could not adequately equip the military.”
The Vice President assured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari and himself would not relent, saying that the president and himself have no other agenda but “the progress of this country.”
He reassured that the President and him are extremely focussed on what needed to be done, saying: “we will focus on critical things, infrastructure and social investments.”
Speaking earlier, the leader of the delegation from the Muslim Congress of Nigeria, Imam Abdulahi Shuaib expressed the support of the organization to the government in its programmes, including anti-corruption.
He said that the choice of the President and Vice President were made by God Himself during last year’s presidential election.
The Vice President also received delegations from the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) and the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency Reform (FOSTER), a group composed of NGOs involved in different issues in the Niger Delta areas.
At his courtesy meeting with the NSE, Professor Osinbajo praised the engineers and highlighted the importance of the profession in national development.
“There is no question at all that engineers are central to the development of the society.”
The NSE delegation was led by its President, Engineer Otis Anyaeji.
Speaking earlier while receiving FOSTER, the Vice President restated the government’s commitment to the development of the Niger Delta. He also commended the group for coming together to develop a common framework to support the process of development in the area. The group which said it adopted a common framework in order to avoid duplication was led by Mr. Richard Oshowole. [myad]
