The President Muhammadu Buhari administration will continue to fight corruption tooth and nail even as many powerful Nigerians beg the government to “cool down”, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, vowed on Thursday.
“We get regular messages from some Nigerian elite saying ‘cool down’,” the Vice President said during a meeting with a delegation from the Moslem Congress of Nigeria in Abuja.
“It is a very strange morality that some of those people have, very complicated but cutting across all tribes and religious differences,” he added.
But what gives the administration strength and courage are the Nigerian people, the Vice President said.
Although some people in the elite are saying “it is not a big deal,” and advise the government to merely ask the looters to return the money and go, Osinbajo expressed gladness 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 declared.
He said corruption was responsible for dilapidated infrastructure in the country.
He said 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 6 years because government could not adequately equip the military,” he stated
But the Vice President assured Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari and himself would not relent. He said the president and himself have no other agenda but “the progress of this country.”
“Mr. President and I are extremely focussed on what we need to do. We will focus on critical things, infrastructure and social investments.”
The leader of the delegation from the Moslem Congress of Nigeria, Imam Abdulahi Shuaib conveyed the support of the organisation to the government in its programmes including anti-corruption, and expressed readiness to offer assistance.
According to him, “we are thankful that our candidates of choice in the election emerged.” He said 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, Prof Osinbajo praised the engineers and highlighted the importance of the profession in national development, his spokesman Laolu Akande said in a well crafted statement.
“There is no question at all that engineers are central to the development of the society,” he noted. The NSE delegation was led by its President, Engineer Otis Anyaeji.
While receiving FOSTER, the Vice President restated the government’s commitment to the development of the Niger Delta and 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.