Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday said that the
federal government did not build “a single new road” in
the last 10 years.
The late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and former
President Goodluck Jonathan presided over the country
within that period.
Speaking at the pastors and leaders retreat of the Fountain
of Life Church in Ilupeju, Lagos, Osinbajo said corruption
in the country was not caused because by a few
individuals, but that the entire system was built around
lack of integrity.
He expressed confidence that the country would be great
again but noted that the foundation for the greatness had
to be laid with a lot of pains.
“Unless we tackle graft, we may not be able to achieve
something,” he said.
“The federal government in the past 10 years could not
build a single new road, not repairing existing ones
alone.
“Now we have a president who will not steal money and
who will not allow anybody to steal money.”
Commenting on the N6 billion that the last administration
spent on a new residence for the vice-president, he said
Aguda House, the current official residence, is up to
standard with enough space.
He said the present administration would complete it but
consider putting it to other use.
“There is no need for a new vice-president’s house; it is
a kind of waste; we are now in a situation where we
cannot abandon it; it has to be completed and used for a
different thing,” he said.
Osinbajo also spoke on the controversy surrounding the
State House Medical Centre, which he said was not only
for workers at the state house.
He said it is a general hospital with a lot of facilities that
serves all Nigerians, adding that he would prefer that it be
further equipped to provide higher medical services to
those in need.
Osinbajo debunked insinuation of lack of data in the
country, saying that the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics had
enormous which had been rated highly by the World Bank
and other international agencies.
He said the intention of government was to aggregate the
scattered data in INEC, CBN, National Population Census
Commission into one by the National Identity Card
Management Commission.
Osinbajo also said the education sector lacked not only
standards but adequacy of institutions, which has forced
Nigerians into sponsoring their children abroad for tertiary
education.
He explained that while 1.8 million Nigerians sat for
university entrance examination yearly, only about
300,000 were offered admission due to a dearth of
universities.
The vice-president revealed plans of the government to
convert many of the existing universities into centres of
excellence and support the private sector in the running of
universities to enable more Nigerians to have access to
tertiary education.
Before responding to questions, Osinbajo said that what
the country needs is truth and integrity, which the church
should spearhead.
“The church is where the truth is; the church has the
answer to the nation’s problems; one of the problems of
our society is integrity,” he said.
“Nigeria lacks the capacity to get things done, which is
difficult to understand, but with God on our side, our
country will set the pace for Africa”.
“Our people are ready to do it and they can do it but
they are waiting for the right kind of leadership. I know
why you are praying for us, and it is because you know
that this is a good opportunity to get it right and we
don’t want to miss this chance.”
Taiwo Odukoya, senior pastor of the church, asked
Christians to continue to pray for the administration as
Nigeria has a great future.
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