Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called on Nigerians not to despair in the current economic downturn, saying that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government was addressing the challenges.
He said that no country in the world could be successful without going through pains.
He on Thursday admitted that although the current administration is making progress, it is slow.
The Vice-President attributed the slow nature of the government’s progress to what he called “damages of the past.”
He spoke when he paid an unscheduled visit to Mpape artisans’ village, located near the Maitama district of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja FCT, yesterday.
Accompanied by the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, the Minister interacted with the artisans and made clarifications on some government policies and programmes.
He said, “We are progressing but it is slow and the reason why it is slow is because there have been a lot of damages in the past.
“For instance, look at what is happening in the Niger Delta; that is where we get most of the money.
“But when the boys in the Niger Delta decided in blowing up the pipelines, production dropped from the two million barrels per day that we used to do to one million per day and we lost 60 per cent of what we used to earn from oil, that is partly responsible for the problem that you see today.”
Osinbajo encouraged the artisans not to despair as government was focused on addressing key sectors that would improve the economy and create jobs for them and other Nigerians.
“We are trying to deal with the problem in the Niger Delta, address farming, industry and the economy so that this problem you are talking about will be fixed permanently,” he said.