Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday said it was sheer madness for anybody occupying public offices to be looking for money.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari told him repeatedly that at his age, his only heart’s desire was to see a great Nigeria.
He said Buhari had no other objective in office than that.
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Vice-President spoke while receiving a delegation of Christian Ministers Welfare Initiative also known as the Pastors’ Forum, Taraba State, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
“This morning, I had a meeting with the President and he repeated to me twice, he said ‘at my age, there is only one thing I am looking for, I want to see a great Nigeria.’ He has no other objective and I feel very inspired by that,” Osinbajo reportedly told his guests.
He said anybody who had the opportunity of being the President of the country should only be thinking of how to improve the lot of the people.
Osinbajo said, “It is madness for anybody in our position to be looking for money.
“According to him, God put people in a position of authority for them to be able to do something for their people.
“I think if any Nigerian gets the chance to be President of the country, there is nothing he/she is looking for anymore, except that, while there, you improve the lot of the people.”
Osinbajo reiterated his position that no economy could tolerate the level of corruption seen in Nigeria without the consequence.
He regretted that while Nigerians were being killed by the Boko Haram fighters, people could not account for $15bn meant for the purchase of security equipment to fight the insurgents.
The Vice-President also explained how vandalism of oil installations had contributed to the recession being witnessed in the country.
He said Nigeria had lost several millions of barrels of crude oil due to the activities of militants in the Niger Delta.
On power, the Vice-President said the country was producing 5,000MW of power for the first time by early 2016, but by February 2016 the Forcados terminal was destroyed by militants.
As a result of the vandalism, he said 40 per cent of the gas used to fire the power plants was lost and the country was down to 2,500MW of power.
He observed that at the time the militants started blowing up oil and gas installations, the amnesty stipends were still being paid, insisting that they went violent because of ongoing investigation of corrupt persons.
“Nothing changed, the only reason is that we are investigating people who have stolen money,” Osinbajo said.
He added that the country was losing one million barrels of oil a day, nothing that, that was 60 per cent of the country’s revenues, and there was nowhere such an amount of revenue would be lost that people would not experience economic challenge and recession.
While expressing optimism that the country would come out of the recession, Osinbajo stated that “there is no question at all, God has a reason for bringing us in at this time and God helping us, we will see a change in this country.”
He urged the Church and all religious leaders to stand up against corruption, stressing that if this government had been doing the right thing by fighting corruption, the Church should support it.
He also assured his guests that the Federal Government was working hard to end the problem of the ravaging herdsmen.
Osinbajo said the President had instructed the police and the military to act and deal with the herdsmen’s menace.
He said those behind the herdsmen’s violence were criminals.
While calling on honest men in the country to work together, Osinbajo said God had structured Nigeria in such a way that no one could dominate another.
PUNCH
