The
Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Sen. Babafemi Ojudu, on
Monday criticized the trend in the social media of comparing President
Muhammadu Buhari and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
Speaking with State House Press Corps,
Ojudu said that without the President there could not be the Vice or Acting
President.
“I think it is thoughtless. I also see
it as a ploy by the opposition to cause unnecessary division. It is a joint
ticket. The President and the Vice President were elected based on the
manifesto of the party.
“Since they were sworn in they have
been committed to implementing that manifesto.
“The same people who are saying that
now are the ones who are saying that we never had an economic team; we have no
policy, that we have nothing.
“It is now that the policies that we
are implementing are maturing that they are seeing the result.
“It is not a question of one person
doing better than the other person.
“There is nothing that has been done in
this administration or since the Vice President started acting that is not
something that started far back in the past.
‘’A good example is the Niger Delta
initiative.
“The President called the Vice
President and gave him the mandate to go to the Niger Delta and meet with
everyone who is a stakeholder there, the communities where oil is produced, all
the leaders of the place, talk to militants and make sure to resolve this
problem to the benefit of Nigerians.
“We are losing 1.2 million barrels of
oil per day, all the gas pipelines powering the turbines are being blown up and
the President said that unless and until we solve this problem we will not come
out of recession.
“The VP took up the mandate and went to
the Niger Delta.’’
According to Ojudu, the Niger Delta
dialogue is the initiative of the President, not that of the Vice President.
He said it was mischief makers who did
not wish the country well that are promoting that kind of divisive ideas.
The presidential aide said that the
Acting President was consulting the President almost daily in running the
country.
According to him, there are things that
the Vice President needs to consult the President, especially on major
decisions because he is acting.
He noted that “the Acting President is
in charge at present but the President is still the President no matter what’’.
He said it was incumbent on the Acting
President to call on the President where there were major issues to be decided
on to get his opinion.
He said the consultation did not also
mean that the Acting President was not independent, adding that Osinbajo would
ensure that the country was well administered.
“Again one other thing you have to see
is that if you give someone a responsibility, he must also be able to show to
the President that the fact of his not being around he is not going to create
any vacuum.
“Even, he can then decide not to have a
sleep at all through the time that the President may be away just to let him
know that he is capable of ensuring that Nigeria goes on well while he is away.
“And the President could also have
given a mandate, `let nothing go wrong, I believe in you, I appointed you as my
Vice President, you must make sure that you do this.
“If you have somebody who is your boss
and gives you an assignment, you want to impress him and you want to impress
Nigerians as well.
“That for me is what has happened, not
in the sense that one person is better than the other, certainly not. ’’
On the alleged propagation that the
President was poisoned which appeared in the social media, the aide described
the report as untrue.
He advised the media men to be careful
about the information they got from the social media as there was a fake
factory for fake news in Nigeria.
He said the publication about some
imaginary money kept somewhere by the President which the alleged poison maker
wanted to inherit was untrue.
He noted that Nigeria had a President
whom no one could question his integrity in all his public and private lives
adding that none could succeed in tarnishing his image.
NAN
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