The Worst is Over for Nigerians - Ag. President Yemi Osinbajo

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo addressed the na­tion yesterday – speaking hope to his long-suffering country men and women who have been battered by a myriad of socio-economic and political challenges.
The Acting President, who has been holding the forte bravely in the absence of his boss, President Mu­hammadu Buhari, declared that the worst period was over for Nigerians.

He observed that Nigerians have come out of the most difficult stage of the social and economic challenges facing the country.
In a national broadcast to Nige­rians on Monday to mark the 2017 Democracy Day, Osinbajo took stock of the administration’s two years in office and offered explana­tions on why the campaign against corruption – a key prong of the gov­ernment’s agenda – had been slow.
  The broadcast, which Osinba­jo presented without the flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces at the background, is the first of such in Nigeria’s history by a dep­uty leader, as President Muham­madu Buhari remains in London on a medical vacation.
The Acting President said: “We have put the most difficult phase be­hind us; and we are witnesses to the ever-increasing intensity of the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“We ask for your continued co­operation and support to enable us realise all our best intentions and ambitions for Nigeria. On our part, we will continue to carry you along on this journey, speak to you, ex­plain the challenges, and share our vision”.
“And while we all daily pre-oc­cupy ourselves with pursuing the Nigerian Dream – which is the de­sire to better our lives and circum­stances vigorously and honestly – it is inevitable that grievances and frustrations will arise from time to time.”
“This is normal. What is not normal, or acceptable, is employing these frustrations as justification for indulging in discrimination or hate speech or hateful conduct of any kind, or for seeking to undermine by violent or other illegal means the very existence of the sovereign en­tity that has brought us all together as brothers and sisters and citizens”.
While enumerating the admin­istration’s achievements in several sectors, Osinbajo admitted that the fight against corruption had been slow because the menace was fight­ing back, in addition to the challeng­es of a slow judiciary.
He assured Nigerians that the challenges notwithstanding, the administration remained commit­ted to recovering the nation’s sto­len wealth and bringing culprits to book, as special courts will be desig­nated to fast-track corruption cases.
“In the fight against corruption, we have focused on bringing per­sons accused of corruption to jus­tice. We believe that the looting of public resources that took place in the past few years has to be account­ed for.”
“Funds appropriated to build roads, railway lines, and power plants, and to equip the military, that had been stolen or diverted into pri­vate pockets, must be retrieved and the culprits brought to justice.”
“Many have said that the pro­cess is slow, and that is true. Cor­ruption has fought back with tre­mendous resources and our system of administration of justice has been quite slow. But the good news for justice is that our law does not rec­ognise a time bar for the prosecu­tion of corruption and other crimes, and we will not relent in our efforts to apprehend and bring corruption suspects to justice.”
“We are also re-equipping our prosecution teams, and part of the expected judicial reforms is to dedi­cate some specific courts to the trial of corruption cases,” he said.
The Acting President also de­clared that the administration’s vi­sion is for a country where “the wealth of the many will no longer be stolen by or reserved for a few; and where the impunity of corruption – whether in the public or private sec­tors – will no longer be standard op­erating practice; a land rid of bandits and terrorists.”
He listed other anti-corrup­tion measures as the expansion of the coverage of the Treasury Sin­gle Account (TSA), more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the Federal Government agencies, the Whistleblower policy and the stoppage of expensive and much-abused fertiliser and petrol subsidy regimes.
Osinbajo reiterated the success­es recorded in curtailing the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, noting that in the process, Nigerian armed forces have been re-equipped and strengthened with morale and bet­ter leadership while better relations have been restored with Northern Eastern neighbours like Chad, Cam­eroon and Niger.
With 106 of the 276 abduct­ed Chibok schoolgirls released, in­frastructure restored and citizens returning to territories liberated from insurgents in the North East, the government has also focused on tackling the Niger Delta secu­rity and development challenges as well as insecurity posed by Fulani herdsmen attacks, Osinbajo stated.
His words: “We are working with state governments and task­ing our security agencies with de­signing effective strategies and inter­ventions that will bring this menace to an end. We are determined to en­sure that anyone who uses violence, or carries arms without legal author­ity is apprehended and sanctioned”.
“Nigeria belongs to all of us. No one person or group of persons is more important or more entitled than the other in this space that we all call home. And we have a respon­sibility to live in peace and harmony with one another, to seek peaceful and constitutional means of express­ing our wishes and desires, and to resist all who might seek to sow con­fusion and hatred for their own self­ish interests”.
Osinbajo admitted that piloting the nation’s economy had proven to be the biggest challenge of all to the administration, which had watched with concern as through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure ris­ing food prices.
“In some states, civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expens­es continued to show up like clock­work.”
He said that despite these, the government has added $500 million to the Sovereign Wealth Fund and $87 million to the Excess Crude Ac­count, adding that this was “the very opposite of the situation before now, when rising oil prices failed to trans­late to rising levels of savings and in­vestment.”
There had also been short-term interventions such as bailout to states to offset salary arrears as well social security programmes to cush­ion the effect of economic hardship.
“Take the example of our So­cial Investment Programme, which kicked off at the end of 2016. Its Home Grown School Feeding com­ponent is now feeding more than one million primary school chil­dren across seven states and would be feeding three million by the end of the year.”
“N-Power, another component, has engaged 200,000 unemployed graduates – none of whom needed any ‘connection’ to be selected. Ben­eficiaries are already telling the sto­ries of how these initiatives have giv­en them a fresh start in their lives.”
“Micro-credit to a million arti­sans, traders and market men and women has begun.”
He implored Nigerians to con­tinue to pray for President Buhari’s full recovery and safe return to the country.
Osinbajo stated that the admin­istration’s National Social Invest­ment Programmes (NSIP) initia­tive was not designed as a favour for the vulnerable ones but because they deserve it as citizens of the country.
He spoke at the Presidential Villa where the achievements of the programme were showcased as part of activities marking the Democra­cy Day and two years of the Buhari administration.
  The broadcast, which Osinba­jo presented without the flag of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces at the background, is the first of such in Nigeria’s history by a dep­uty leader, as President Muham­madu Buhari remains in London on a medical vacation.
The Acting President said: “We have put the most difficult phase be­hind us; and we are witnesses to the ever-increasing intensity of the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“We ask for your continued co­operation and support to enable us realise all our best intentions and ambitions for Nigeria. On our part, we will continue to carry you along on this journey, speak to you, ex­plain the challenges, and share our vision”.
“And while we all daily pre-oc­cupy ourselves with pursuing the Nigerian Dream – which is the de­sire to better our lives and circum­stances vigorously and honestly – it is inevitable that grievances and frustrations will arise from time to time.”
“This is normal. What is not normal, or acceptable, is employing these frustrations as justification for indulging in discrimination or hate speech or hateful conduct of any kind, or for seeking to undermine by violent or other illegal means the very existence of the sovereign en­tity that has brought us all together as brothers and sisters and citizens”.
While enumerating the admin­istration’s achievements in several sectors, Osinbajo admitted that the fight against corruption had been slow because the menace was fight­ing back, in addition to the challeng­es of a slow judiciary.
He assured Nigerians that the challenges notwithstanding, the administration remained commit­ted to recovering the nation’s sto­len wealth and bringing culprits to book, as special courts will be desig­nated to fast-track corruption cases.
“In the fight against corruption, we have focused on bringing per­sons accused of corruption to jus­tice. We believe that the looting of public resources that took place in the past few years has to be account­ed for.”
“Funds appropriated to build roads, railway lines, and power plants, and to equip the military, that had been stolen or diverted into pri­vate pockets, must be retrieved and the culprits brought to justice.”
“Many have said that the pro­cess is slow, and that is true. Cor­ruption has fought back with tre­mendous resources and our system of administration of justice has been quite slow. But the good news for justice is that our law does not rec­ognise a time bar for the prosecu­tion of corruption and other crimes, and we will not relent in our efforts to apprehend and bring corruption suspects to justice.”
“We are also re-equipping our prosecution teams, and part of the expected judicial reforms is to dedi­cate some specific courts to the trial of corruption cases,” he said.
The Acting President also de­clared that the administration’s vi­sion is for a country where “the wealth of the many will no longer be stolen by or reserved for a few; and where the impunity of corruption – whether in the public or private sec­tors – will no longer be standard op­erating practice; a land rid of bandits and terrorists.”
He listed other anti-corrup­tion measures as the expansion of the coverage of the Treasury Sin­gle Account (TSA), more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the Federal Government agencies, the Whistleblower policy and the stoppage of expensive and much-abused fertiliser and petrol subsidy regimes.
Osinbajo reiterated the success­es recorded in curtailing the menace of Boko Haram insurgency, noting that in the process, Nigerian armed forces have been re-equipped and strengthened with morale and bet­ter leadership while better relations have been restored with Northern Eastern neighbours like Chad, Cam­eroon and Niger.
With 106 of the 276 abduct­ed Chibok schoolgirls released, in­frastructure restored and citizens returning to territories liberated from insurgents in the North East, the government has also focused on tackling the Niger Delta secu­rity and development challenges as well as insecurity posed by Fulani herdsmen attacks, Osinbajo stated.
His words: “We are working with state governments and task­ing our security agencies with de­signing effective strategies and inter­ventions that will bring this menace to an end. We are determined to en­sure that anyone who uses violence, or carries arms without legal author­ity is apprehended and sanctioned”.
“Nigeria belongs to all of us. No one person or group of persons is more important or more entitled than the other in this space that we all call home. And we have a respon­sibility to live in peace and harmony with one another, to seek peaceful and constitutional means of express­ing our wishes and desires, and to resist all who might seek to sow con­fusion and hatred for their own self­ish interests”.
Osinbajo admitted that piloting the nation’s economy had proven to be the biggest challenge of all to the administration, which had watched with concern as through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure ris­ing food prices.
“In some states, civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expens­es continued to show up like clock­work.”
He said that despite these, the government has added $500 million to the Sovereign Wealth Fund and $87 million to the Excess Crude Ac­count, adding that this was “the very opposite of the situation before now, when rising oil prices failed to trans­late to rising levels of savings and in­vestment.”
There had also been short-term interventions such as bailout to states to offset salary arrears as well social security programmes to cush­ion the effect of economic hardship.
“Take the example of our So­cial Investment Programme, which kicked off at the end of 2016. Its Home Grown School Feeding com­ponent is now feeding more than one million primary school chil­dren across seven states and would be feeding three million by the end of the year.”
“N-Power, another component, has engaged 200,000 unemployed graduates – none of whom needed any ‘connection’ to be selected. Ben­eficiaries are already telling the sto­ries of how these initiatives have giv­en them a fresh start in their lives.”
“Micro-credit to a million arti­sans, traders and market men and women has begun.”
He implored Nigerians to con­tinue to pray for President Buhari’s full recovery and safe return to the country.
Osinbajo stated that the admin­istration’s National Social Invest­ment Programmes (NSIP) initia­tive was not designed as a favour for the vulnerable ones but because they deserve it as citizens of the country.
He spoke at the Presidential Villa where the achievements of the programme were showcased as part of activities marking the Democra­cy Day and two years of the Buhari administration.