The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said that only President Muhammadu Buhari would disclose his health status to Nigerians at the appropriate t
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said that only President Muhammadu Buhari would disclose his health status to Nigerians at the appropriate time. He also said he was not in any way under pressure to resign. While saying the President is hale and hearty, Osinbajo said he spoke with him earlier in the day to keep him abreast of developments regarding the 2017 Budget and the protests embarked upon by some Nigerians.
While declaring open the Government/Private Sector Engagement Forum on the Nigeria Economic Recovery & Growth Plan 2017 — 2020 in Abuja earlier today, VP Yemi Osinbajo, acknowledged Nigerians who came out today to protest the current situation of the country. He told Nigerians protesting against the hardship in the land that the Federal Government hears them loud and clear.
“I have also gone round the country and I have heard the people even in the past few weeks and even today, some are out on the streets protesting. Many of our people are saying the same thing that things are hard, things are difficult. But I would like to say to every Nigerian that we hear you loud and clear,” he said
The acting president assured that the Federal Government was determined to give the ordinary man a fair deal. According to him, while Nigerians have the right to live well and decently, the Federal Government is committed to making that happen. He however, stressed that years of deterioration and corruption cannot be remedied over night.
He added, “But again I must emphasise that it is our business and duty to ensure that we put the Nigerian economy on the right path to sustainable growth and that is exactly what we are determined to do.”
He noted that the Federal Government had, in the past 13 months, intervened three times to give the states enough resources to pay workers’ salaries.
“The last intervention was in December when we paid the Paris Club refund to the states. This is money that the Federal Government had owed the states since 2005 and even when oil was selling at $115 per barrel, this debt was not paid.
“The president insisted when he was going to pay that money to the states that at least 50 percent of it must be to pay salaries of workers. We tend to ensure that, of course, that is what is done. Many of the states were able to pay salaries and backlog of pensions in December because of that particular fund that was made available to the states.”
The acting president also stated that the country was currently in what he described as a serious economic situation adding that President Muhammadu Buhari was particularly concerned about the lot of the common man. He said the present administration had demonstrated its concern for the ordinary Nigerian through its N500 billion social investment programmes and described the involvement of the private sector as fundamental to the government’s approach to economic planning.
