By Valentine Amanze
Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has carpeted Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, on his continuous complaints about alleged corruption in the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government.
Fayose said: “Nigerians are now more interested in what the government has done to make life more meaning for them and not what the previous governments did or failed to do. Today, the most difficult question any student can be asked to answer in an examination is to list just five landmark achievements of the government in which Prof Osinbajo is the Vice President.”
The governor, who said corruption has become more endemic in the present All Progressives Congress (APC) government, added, “If the Vice President can look around himself with honest eyes, he will see majority of those who called the shots during the previous PDP governments that he claimed mismanaged the country’s resources holding sensitive positions in the present government.
“Today, even prosecution witnesses are suddenly disappearing in corruption cases involving those, who have defected to the APC and properties once seized are being returned to them. Obviously, PDP has purged itself of corrupt elements in its fold and offloaded them to the APC.”
In a statement on Friday by the Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinke, the governor said that he was beginning to have a second thought on the Vice President’s claim to be a pastor.
His words: “Is he [Osinbajo] truly a pastor? A pastor does not go about playing to the gallery and defending falsehood. Isn’t it a disgrace for a pastor of the Redeemed Church in particular to be an agent of falsehood?”
Fayose said instead of going about exposing his hypocrisy, Osinbajo should be telling Nigerians what happened to the report of those probe panels that he headed.
“How many of those members of the APC indicted by his Probe Panel have been charged to court? What happened to those involved in the fraudulent reinstatement of wanted ex-Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina?
“To me, it is time for Prof Osinbajo to say something new and stop playing to the gallery because he is expected to know better. Even if the President does not know, he should know that Nigerians are tired of this directionless government that keeps blaming its predecessors for its inability to prepare even budget.
“Even though I have great respect for the Vice President, of recent; I am constrained to begin to have a rethink. As a Professor and Pastor, methinks he should be a light in this government of darkness, and the engine room of the government. But shamefully, he goes about saying things that are not true.
“Despite being a Professor of Law, the Vice President defended EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, that was indicted of corruption by the Department of State Service, an agency under the President, by saying that Magu does not need the National Assembly to clear him. He is always jumping to defend what is indefensible in this government,” the governor said.
While challenging the Vice President to list the government’s achievements, Fayose said, “It was under three years that PDP government solved communication problems in Nigeria by providing Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) that has made it possible for Nigerians to use internet, social media and even bank in the comfort of their homes.
“Also, it was under three years that the PDP government of Dr Goodluck Jonathan established nine federal universities, 127 Almajiri schools, 34 new Colleges of Education, among several others. Exchange rate was kept at N197 and petrol was sold at N87 per litre while a bag of rice remained at N7, 000.
“It is almost three years; Prof Osinbajo should tell Nigerians what their government did and stop blame-game please.
“Most importantly, if the Vice President has evidence of corruption against anyone that served in the previous governments and the present, he should be bold enough to present the evidence to the court at a proper trial, not at public functions because alleged corruption cases are not tried at social functions.”
