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By Nasir Kura
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo Thursday called on governors to be wary of their utterances because they are capable of igniting ethnic and religious conflicts in the country.
Osinbajo said this at the valedictory session of the National Economic Council (NEC) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said most people dissipate energy to stoke the embers of disunity, and stressed the need for governors to openly condemn those who engage in such acts because the country does not belong to them only.
The Vice President also called the governors to rise above the temptation of taking advantage of the country’s weaknesses in order to maintain peace and welfare of citizens in the states.
While stressing the need for more commitment of the governors to better the lots of the citizenry, the vice president said in a matter of years, the population of Nigeria would double.
He said the country depends heavily on the elite for survival, adding that governors do not need anyone to advise them any longer on the imperative of unity or security of lives and property.
“In the next few years, our population will double with the attendant challenges of jobs, education, health care, security and infrastructure. Every nation that has moved its people from misery to prosperity has depended heavily in fact almost completely on the political elite.
“Our people have nowhere else to look or to go, it is as they say, at the collective table that the bulk stops. I should advise that you should use your influence and reach to the advantage of Nigerian people. You have seen and heard for yourselves the enormity of our national problems.
“Very few people have the advantage to see closely as we do, the issues that concern our country – issues that even concern our different states. We here have that unique advantage. So, I think that we can help in one way or the other, we can do something in our states and other states in a way of advocacy or action on education and health care in particular and jobs.
“I think is important for those of us who have had the benefit of all of this experience and leadership not to now settle down to a life of business or perhaps of enjoyment or sleeping for eight hours. We need this time for action,” he said.
