Osinbajo says propaganda against Buhari absurd, untrue

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described as absurd, the lies, propaganda and accusations against President Muhammadu Buhari.

Osinbajo said on Wednesday night while responding to questions at an Interactive Session and Engagement held at Muson Centre, Lagos on Wednesday night.

The interactive session tagged: “Unveiling The Truth”, organised by young Christian group, had some Christian leaders in attendance.

Participants used the occasion to ask plenty of questions bothering on insecurity, economy, blaming of past administrations, social welfare for the unemployed, corruption, and timing of TraderMoni.

Other questions bothered on Next Level slogan, farmer/herders crisis, lopsided federal appointments, Islamisation, Buhari’s commitment to addressing critical issues in the country among others.

Responding, Osinbajo said that President Buhari was committed to addressing the problems facing the country such as security, economy and fixing critical infrastructure and fair treatment of all sections.

He said Buhari is addressing farmer/herders crises and has no intention at all to Islamise the country.

“President Muhammadu is possibly one of the most committed people I have ever met. He is committed to seeing that resources of this country are used for this country.

“In general terms, we find that there is fairness in the distribution of appointments. Many of the accusations against Buhari are not true.

“Sometimes, people listen to propaganda and if we look at the facts, things are totally different. On Islamisation, first of all, it is untrue, it is propaganda.

“Anybody who complains that President Buhari is propagating Islamic agenda, how is that possible?

“A lot of these are just propaganda. Never listen to these. Many of these are absurd, they are deliberate propaganda. They come from the same source. Don’t believe them. Let’s be fair,” Osinbajo said.

The vice president, who urged Nigerians not to fear or doubt the good intention of the President, advised Nigerians to stop spreading rumours about things that never happened.

Osinbajo noted that the major cause of farmer/herder crisis remains pasture and water which the government has made concerted efforts to address.

On accusations of lopsided federal appointments, Osinbajo said that the Southeast with five states has five ministers more than some regions with higher number of states.

On TraderMoni, he said that the National Assembly does not need to approve money for it as it is a programme of the Bank of Industry meant to lift many Nigerians out of poverty.

On the timing of implementation of the National Social Investment Programme, Osinbajo said it kicked off after the budgetary allocation was passed by the National Assembly in 2016.

According to him, the party never promised N5,000 monthly stipends for the unemployed but for the vulnerable which is ongoing.

He said the NSIP has engaged so many youths in its N-Power programme and government has the plan to increase the number to 1.5 million young Nigerians in the Next Level out of 1.7 million people churned out of tertiary institutions every year.

On criminality, the vice president said that the way forward is local policing and intelligence as well as immediate arrest and prosecution of criminals in the country.

On security, he said that the country has made significant progress and moved forward from what the situation was before the 2015 general elections.

The vice president said that the APC Next Level slogan centres on job creation, power, making credit more available to entrepreneurs, agriculture, infrastructure and others.

The vice president urged Christian leaders to jettison thinking about any Islamic agenda and Islamisation, saying many Christians are in the cabinet of President Buhari.

He said that the media should desist from spreading rumours, decrying fake news about Buhari being another person from Sudan.

Addressing the accusation that the present administration often blames previous administrations, Osinbajo said that the country can not move forward without considering the past.

According to him, corruption remains the bane of national growth and development. He said most of the woes confronting Nigerians were caused by wastefulness of past governments.

The highlight of the interaction were high praise led by choir and power-packed prayer for the country and general elections led by Bishop Wale Oke.

The participants prayed for God’s mercies on the country and God’s protection on the vice president especially from the recent helicopter crash.