Buhari poorer now than in 2015, says Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday night said that President Muhammadu Buhari was probably poorer than when he was elected in 2015.

Osinbajo spoke during a dinner in honour of volunteers who canvassed for votes for the APC during the campaigns for this year’s general election, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said “When I looked at his assets declaration form, I was checking it in 2015, I said to him, “Mr President, I am so much richer than you, it is an embarrassment.”

“He said, “I am only a soldier, you are a big lawyer so you should have more money than me.”

“I can tell you that he is perhaps; even poorer than he was in 2015 when I saw his declaration of assets form.”

He also urged Nigerians to vote for the All Progressives Congress in the March 23 supplementary elections.

The supplementary elections will take place in six states of Nigeria where the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared last Saturday’s gubernatorial election inconclusive.

He said “We are still not done with the elections.

“On the 23rd of March, we still have some outstanding states and as you know we are re-running in about six states.

“And all of the efforts we need to put into those six states, we still need to do.

“We can’t afford to slack off and say the job is done; we still have some things to do.”

Recalling the experiences he had during the electioneering, Osinbajo said his encounter with Nigerians as he crisscrossed the country, campaigning for votes, showed that Nigerians are so trusting and supportive of their leaders.

“I think that one of the main characteristics of the Nigerian is how so supportive and trusting many of our people are and they don’t ask us for too much.

“They never really ask for anything that is impossible to do.

“And that’s why, for many of us that went around this country, we realized the tremendous amount of work that there is to do and our capacity to do so much work.

“What our people need, as we discovered, isn’t that much.

“As a matter of fact, I do not know any nation where the people are so generous no matter how poor they are.

 Osinbajo said there was need for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to connect more with the people.

“It just struck me that what we really need to do a lot more is to connect with the people.

“All the people need is opportunity for us to interact with them.

“We should have a way by which everybody is involved one way or the other.

“One of the complaints that people made about our government is that we were not communicating enough and that people did not know what had done.”

The vice president acknowledged that the diligent communication carried out to put across the APC message in 2015 was not sustained, making the administration lose some ground to the opposition, especially in the social media.

He said the new administration would ensure that it makes change in that regard.

Osinbajo said that he would take up everyone who has challenged the administration on the issue with a view to getting its communication of programmes and policies better.

Speaking at the event, the APC Woman Leader, Salamatu Eluma, commended the volunteers for believing in the vision of the President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo and working for their re-election.