BEVERLY HILLS, May 17, (THEWILL) – The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN has stated that the decision to jack up the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol from N86 per litre to N145 was a tough one for President Muhammadu Buhari.
He regretted that several things which the administration of President Buhari would have done to ease the sufferings of Nigerians at the present economic crunch could not be implemented owing to the massive stealing and the depletion of the nation’s foreign reserves.
The Vice President disclosed this to a gathering at the Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Abuja, during the public presentation of a book ‘Anatomy of Corruption in Nigeria, Issues, Challenges and Solution’ written by a senior advocate of Nigeria, Alhaji Yusuf Alli.
He pointed out that corruption is an existential threat to our country, adding that the scourge directly affects the lives and livelihood of everyone and destroys the Nigerian economy.
According to Osinbajo, “It is not just an evil, it is not just an immorality, it is existential because it could truly destroy lives and it has destroyed many lives and has continued to destroy the Nigerian economy.
“And I think that the reasons are very obvious if you just take a clear example. All through the period when Nigeria was earning huge sums of money as proceeds from oil sales for almost five years, the external reserves of Nigeria remains much the same.
“It did not increase at all despite the high earning, now we know also that we are investigating cases which showed that over $15 billion was lost in one type of contract alone. We are not talking of oil contract, we are talking of security-related contracts, $15 billion. We have not talked at all of oil contracts in several billions.”
