Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has
spoken on the reason he and President Muhammadu Buhari have not visited Dapchi
in Yobe state where 110 students were abducted two weeks ago.
Both men have been criticised for
not paying condolence visits to places where abductions and avoidable deaths
were recorded in recent times.
Among these states are Benue,
Zamfara and Taraba.
Speaking with journalists over
the weekend, Osinbajo said while the government has expressed sympathy with the
people, condolence visits alone would not solve the problem.
He listed some of the measures
which the government has embarked upon to reduce killings and widespread
violence.
“There is no amount of condolence
that can compensate for the loss of life. Benue killing is one set of killing
far too much; there is no amount of condolence that can compensate for that.
And I want to say that it’s a massive tragedy,” he said.
“But the question that you seem
to ask I’ve been to Zamfara, I’ve been to Adamawa when this killing took place.
There are those who said, ‘oh, why don’t you visit the Fulani settlement, why
do visit only where Christians were?’
“I even visited Benue in
September where there have been killing before; then I’ve visited them when the
flooding took place and we looked at all the issues and tried to address many
of these. There have been several of these issues in different places, recently
Dapchi. We have expressed condolences, but no amount of condolence would do.
“The more important thing and our
focus has been, is first of all ensuring security in these places.
“We have to address the security
question in a much more robust way; that the police are able to do these
effectively. We have deployed the military to Kaduna, two battalions to Kaduna.
In Benue and Taraba axis, we have the 93 battalion, we have 72 Special Forces.
We have full concentration in Taraba and all of that, and by the way, the
military is fighting in most of the north-east. So, there is a situation where
the military is overstretched. So I think the most important thing is, first of
all, to ensure they actually address the security of the people.”
NO FAVOURTISM IN BUHARI’S
GOVERNMENT
He also debunked the allegations
that most appointments by president Buhari were skewed in favour of the north.
The vice-president said the
cabinet is comprised of 20 Christians and 18 Muslims.
“In the north, seven northern
states have no senior minister, including the president’s home state, Katsina.
Now, there are those who will say, if you are nepotistic; surely seven northern
states have no senior minister. It’s a narrative depending on how you want to
run it,” he said.
“The south-west, for the first
time in the history of this country, has one minister who is in charge of three
ministries: Power, Works and Housing. The ministers of finance and
communications are also from the south-east. These are critical ministries. You
can run the narrative in whichever way that you choose.
“There are people who don’t know
that the number of CEOs from Anambra state are more than the number of CEOs
from Katsina state or anywhere else, except Ogun.”
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