'No room for corruption' - Vice President says

dimeji akinloye

October 23, 2015 9:31 PM

He said this at an interactive with staff members of the Nigerian High Commission in London.

Yemi Osinbajo

The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, says public officials getting involved in graft and bribery that undermine the country would no longer be tolerated.

He said this at an interactive with staff members of the Nigerian High Commission in London.

He added that no country would survive with high level of corruption.

"No country can survive with the level of corruption we have experienced in Nigeria; you should fight against corruption not only as a moral value but also as a matter of survival.

"If public officers steal and take bribe, it is undermining the country and we intend to challenge the trend because it is not tolerable’’, he said.

The Vice President also said that the Nigerian armed forces were defeating Boko Haram and other security challenges in the North East.

"The major challenge is the emergence of teenage suicide bombers among the insurgent group.’’

He told the workers that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the Army to end insurgency by the end of the year, adding that the mandate was being achieved while the government was going to de-radicalise and educate the people as well as rehabilitate the victims.

"Sometimes, we are shocked that very young girls are used as suicide bombers. But at home everyone has come to terms with the fact that we have to live together as Christians and Muslims.

"We must not allow division in us as Nigerians; we must come together to fight this menace called Boko Haram; no religion will accept these atrocities of Boko Haram’’, Osinbajo added.

Osinbajo said that the Buhari administrations had taken the supply of electricity as a major programme.

He noted that the focus on providing power through solar was to ensure that more Nigerian rural homes were connected faster, cheaper and with reliable electricity.

He said, "Solar is available everywhere in the country and you do not need to put it on the grid.

'"The cost of using our fossil fuel is very high; if we want to deliver power at cheaper cost we must take the solar option.’’

According to him, the country’s power generation is about 4,000 mw adding that by early 2016 it will rise to 5,000mw which he describes as "ridiculous’’ for a populous country.

"Once we start manufacturing our own solar panels, the solution will be quicker’’, he said.

dimeji akinloye