TheCable

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says close friends of President Muhammadu Buhari will not be spared in the fight against corruption.

According to Laolu Akande, Osinbajo’s spokesman, the vice-president said this on Tuesday when he hosted journalists at the presidential villa, Abuja.

While stating that corruption was the major drain of the country’s resources, he reiterated that the fight against corruption is a top priority for the Buhari administration.

“Corruption is the major drain of the country’s resources,” Osinbajo said.

“No one will be spared in the fight against corruption because even the close friends of the President know that they will not be spared; he will not cover for them. Fighting corruption is a priority.”

He explained that before the end of October, 200,000 unemployed graduates would be employed through the N-Power jobs programme.

“We expect that before the end of this month, we should have engaged 200,000 of them and we are hoping that before the end of the year we should have engaged more,” he said.

“Definitely before the end of this month, we expect that several states would have come on stream with their Home-grown School Feeding Programmes

“The programme will energise agriculture in the different states because it is what you plant that you feed the children with. We will be hiring caterers, cooks, etc in each state because it will be federal government funded from Primaries 1-3 and the state governments hopefully would be able to cater for the other classes.”

Osinbajo also said that before the end of the month, the micro-credit scheme would be implemented. Under the scheme, low-cost loans would be given to more than one million artisans, traders and market women ranging from N60,000 to N100,000.

“For women across the country, we are giving loans, micro credit loans to about 1.5 million women. We are focusing on market women and artisans, loans between N60,000 and 100,000 each,” he said.

“We are working through the Bank of Industry, BOI. They are going to be giving out these loans, we have already identified the banks and everybody who is involved in this. We should be flagging-off hopefully before the end of this month.

“We fully understand and appreciate the situation of things in the country and we are committed to ensuring that that pain is assuaged.

“The president stated that clearly in his October 1st broadcast to the nation. All his life, he has been a salary earner; he has never been a businessman, so he understands why someone who earns a salary and even those who do not are severely challenged at this time of economic recession such as we are experiencing.

“I want to assure Nigerians that the government of President Buhari is a very focused and determined government. We are committed to ensuring that we are able to develop the Nigerian economy in such a way that Nigerians are able to find opportunities in their own country.”