Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has urged Nigerians to be patient, noting that, there is no progress without sacrifice.
Speaking at the National Consultative Forum themed: Nigeria, On The Right Track by National Committee of Buhari Support Groups at Nicon Luxury, Abuja on 4 December 2018 said come February 2019, the APC will by the grace of God, win the general elections.
Osinbajo explained that Nigerians should return President Muhammadu Buhari as President for a second term for progress to continue.
“The election will be a historic one; it is a battle between those who want our country’s resources to be used for our country and her people and those who want to privatize the commonwealth.
“The man who stands between the forces of retrogression and the forces of progress, the future of our children, is the man called Muhammadu Buhari.
“No matter what anybody says, no matter how they choose to describe it and hide it and colour it, the issue in Nigeria has always been Muhammadu Buhari and the simple reason is not because he’s a perfect man, he’s not. It is because he is an honest and truthful man, that’s all.
“The problem of our country is not necessarily about great plans, it is not about money, and I’ll point that out in a few moments.
“It’s not about how good our plans are, it’s not about how much money we earn, it is about whether, firstly, the President is honest and truthful.
“If the Nigerian President is a truthful man, even if he doesn’t do anything in the office, you will save 50% of Nigeria’s resources just because he’s an honest man.
“Buhari is a man who wants to use the resources of this country for the common man. Between 2010 and 2014, that was the previous government, our nation earned the highest amount ever in the history of the country from oil alone, the sum of $383 billion.
“That is the highest amount of money that our nation has ever earned, even in a five-year, six-year period, which is the highest in the history of this country. Oil was selling between a $100 and $114 per barrel.
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“That is why you ask yourself, so where are the roads, where is the railway? Where are the projects that ought to have been done? Where is the infrastructure when you earn the highest amount of money?
“In this Abuja, if they were throwing all the money that was earned to complete the Abuja-Kaduna railway, then it would have been better.
“We had to come and complete it. It was our government that completed it. It was started years ago, 2005, we had to come and complete it.
“When we came into office, we were earning $30 a barrel, with less than 1million barrels a day, sometimes from 2million barrels a day at $100 to $114 a barrel, yet with all that money – 383USD billion, no infrastructure What happened? he quizzed.
“When we came into office, just as Asiwaju had said, look at the number of states that owed salaries despite the amount of money earned. The President insisted we must assist the States to pay those salaries.
“He said, and many of us will remember that; ‘look, I have never been a businessman, I’ve always earned a salary in my life and I know how painful it is when a person does not get his salary and I’ll not allow that to happen’.
“So, we supported the states, all the states to pay their salaries. We supported and we did so three times consecutively so that they would be able to pay their salaries.
“I think only Lagos state turned down the loan because they had enough money at the time.
“We have been earning about 60% less than the previous government. Yet in the past three years, we have spent N2.7trillion on infrastructure, the highest in the history of the country,” he said.
