VP Osinbajo: “We are progressing but it is slow"

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday admitted that although the current administration is making progress, it is slow.

He attributed the slow nature of the government’s progress to what he called “damages of the past.”

According to a statement from his media office, Osinbajo spoke when he paid an unscheduled visit to the Mpape artisans’ village, located near the Maitama district of Abuja.

The Vice-President who was accompanied by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Muhammad, cited the vandalism in the Niger Delta as one of the problems facing the country.

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.