Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has cautioned governors of the 36 states of the federation and other people in leadership positions to watch their public utterances in order not to heat up the polity and cause unnecessary crisis.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the vice president made this known, on Thursday, at the valedictory session of NEC held at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja.
The vice president said the governors in particular were privileged to know some of the challenges being faced by the country and should rather take deliberate steps that would unite other than divide the nation.
According to the vice president, the governors as chief executive of their respective states understand the importance of unity.
Said he, “Many of us have led our states for these many years. No one needs to advise us on the importance of unity, on importance of tempering utterances with wisdom, with moderation and conserve, expressing concern for those who are the usual victims of the conflicts that are caused by hate speech, the conflicts that are caused by careless and reckless statements,” he said.
Osinbajo explained that ordinary Nigerians have no problems with their brothers and sisters of different tribes and religions since they share the same issues and want a decent existence.
He said, “They want food on the table. They want good shelter and security of lives and livelihoods.
“Unfortunately and frequently, our political elite, sometimes out of advancing political agenda or simply seeking relevance, recklessly stoke the fires of ethnicity and religious conflicts.
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“We must not only rise above the temptation to take advantage of our country’s fault lines, we must definitely condemn and restrain those who do so.
“We must insist that this country truly belongs to all of us, especially those who cannot defend themselves.”
Osinbajo, who thanked the governors for the encomiums showered on him by various speakers at the meeting, noted that of Nigeria’s huge population of about 200 million, only 74 persons, including the president, vice-president, 36 governors and their deputies, were given the responsibilities of formulating policies and executing projects meant to serve the huge populace.
Speaking at the meeting, the outgoing chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, commended the vice-president for his sterling leadership in the last four years.
Governor Yari said, “I will say, yes, government has done tremendously well in terms of expanding the economy through agriculture by spending over N200 billion through the anchor borrower programme, but we need to do more because we all agree that agriculture is the mainstay of this economy.
Chairman, we are sitting on a time bomb. And that’s the truth.
“Chairman, we have a very gigantic job and we have to start now. If other associations are doing nothing, we have to lay a foundation.
“Otherwise, in the next 10 to 15 years, if we did not plan properly, we will be faced with a serious problem.”
