TheCable

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says he will not stop talking about the corruption perpetrated under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

He said this on Thursday at the 10th Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos.

He said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is determined to change the negative perception about Nigeria.

“Let me say that when we began our journey in 2014, our party the APC was determined to change the dominant narrative about our country. We were determined to ensure that the notion of a country rich in natural resources and even richer in human capital but being destroyed daily by grand corruption and the impunity of the looting of public resources, we had to change that narrative,” he said.

“We saw a nation where a few in office had so privatise the commonwealth that when oil prices where at their highest and we were getting growth figures as high as 70 percent, majority of the people remain extremely poor.

“In one of our campaign trips in Zamfara state, Mr. President said, ‘look at the eyes of these people, what do you see?’ Of course, he saw the poverty and desperation in their eyes. He said, “’hey expect us to fix their poverty as soon as we get into office’.

“For the president on the campaign trail, he emphasised three things: security, the economy and by economy here, in particular the welfare of the people and corruption.

“To address the question of the welfare of the people, we realised that if we waited for the economy to pick up and then provide jobs for the people, especially young people, many would have given up hope, many people would have ended up in all manner of illegal activities.

“So we decided on two things, one to invest heavily in agriculture to create jobs in the hinterland, provide enough food locally and for all in the urban areas and I’m sure with our agriculture programme, many will agree is already a success.

“Let me pause here to reiterate, that from what I have seen in government in the past few years, the corruption of the previous five years destroyed the economy.

“Every time we talk about corruption, our opponent say, don’t talk about it, just do your own, don’t talk about it. The Yorubas have an adage, ‘When the conversation comes to a matter of tales, the frog will say let us skip that, don’t talk about it’. We will talk about it. The reason we will talk about it, is that we must let our people know we cannot afford to go this way again, never again should we allow this system where people take the resources of this country, and steal the resources of this country, used the resources against the people and at the same time they want to continue in rulership.

“The second is that we as a party and as your government, must show the difference between us and the previous government that impoverished the nation.”