Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo has stated that the major problem facing Nigeria was the lack of integrity on the part of its leaders.
According to him, the ugly trend reared its head especially with past leadership of the country.
He stated the remarks while speaking at the 11th colloquium of the All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, Bola Tinubu, on Thursday.
Osinbajo, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the event, said bad leadership of the past cost the country major infrastructure development.
He said past governments were wasteful in times of abundance.
“I have said it before, Nigeria’s main problem is not a lack of ideas – it’s not. Most of the time, especially with the leadership of the past, it is lack of integrity in leadership and corruption in particular and it is the reason we are finding it difficult to make any progress.
“That is why we earned $383 billion in four years – 2010 to 2014 – the highest ever in the history of our country and yet Lagos-Ibadan expressway not done, all of what is being done today not done.
“We cannot point to a single major project, a single major infrastructure project that was completed in the ten years period despite the high wealth, including power. So, a government coming after so many years of waste must be a government that first, emphasises fiscal prudence, a government that emphasises integrity in public finance so that we manage the little resources we have to achieve the maximum that can be achieved and that is what President Muhammadu Buhari has set out to do,” he said.
Osinbajo, who served as the attorney-general and commissioner for justice in Lagos state during Tinubu’s administration, eulogised the APC leader.
“We do it (the colloquium) in celebration of a man who has spent the last 30 years of his life in creative public service. Right from the days of being Lagos governor, he provided clarity of thought and rare vision in all aspects of life.
“Once in a while, I think that history gives us people who are gifted transformative leaders and I believe that our country has been gifted by this transformative leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
The vice-president also spoke on the aspirations of the President Buhari administration under the Next Level mantra.
He said the government was working to expand the Social Intervention Programme (SIP) which, according to him, is the biggest in Africa.
On health, he said the focus of the government “is on health insurance as the government cannot finance health care on budget alone.”
