Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has said
President Muhammadu Buhari is currently under intense pressure to stop
his administration’s ongoing anti-corruption war.
Although he said the pressure was being mounted by the Nigerian elite, he did not name those behind the campaign.
According to a statement by his Senior
Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, on Thursday,
the Vice-President spoke while granting audience to a delegation from
the Muslim Congress of Nigeria at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Osinbajo added that those mounting
pressure on Buhari to “slow down” the anti-corruption fight cut across
tribal and religious lines.
He stated, “We get regular messages from some Nigerian elite saying ‘cool down.’
“It is a very strange morality that some
of those people have, (which is) very complicated, and cutting across
all tribes and religious differences.”
Osinbajo said the position of those putting pressure on the government was that “it (corruption) is not a big deal.”
He disclosed that those in that category
had been advising the government that it should merely ask the looters
of public treasury to return the money and go free.
He, however, assured his guests and
Nigerians that despite the pressure, the present administration would
not relent in the anti-corruption fight.
The vice-president expressed delight
that contrary to the argument of the elite, a new set of Nigerians, who
would not compromise their values but would maintain a sense of right
and wrong, was emerging.
“The man on the street is very clear; so
whatever some of these elite say, we shall keep our focus on the masses
who voted for us,” the vice-president declared.
Osinbajo said it was unacceptable that
in the last 16 years, there was not a single Federal Government
completed road or rail project.
He attributed the situation to
corruption, saying costs of projects were often inflated as people,
entrusted with public trust, struggled to enrich themselves at the
expense of the people.
The vice-president believed that it was
the same inordinate desire for personal enrichment that explained why
money meant to procure arms was 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,” he stated.
Osinbajo assured Nigerians that the present administration had no other agenda but the progress of the country.
“Mr. President and I are extremely
focussed on what we need to do. We will focus on critical things,
infrastructure and social investments,” he said.
The leader of the delegation, Imam
Abdulahi Shuaib, expressed the group’s support for the government in its
programmes; including anti-corruption, expressing the readiness of the
group to offer assistance.
The vice-president also received
delegations from the Nigeria Society of Engineers and the Facility for
Oil Sector Transparency Reform.
During the visit of a delegation of
FOSTER, a group consisting of NGOs involved in different issues in the
Niger Delta area, Osinbajo restated government’s commitment to the
development of the oil producing region.
He also commended the group for coming together to develop a common framework to support the process of development in the area.
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