Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Saturday, said that Nigeria’s unity remains non-negotiable. According to the
Osinbajo, the country is and would remain better of as one nation than divided.
He insisted that dividing the country into different entities across ethnic lines would serve no one any good.
Osinbajo spoke in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capiral, during the solemnisation of his Chief Detail, Ekene Nelson Nwokoro and his wife, Ngozi, at the Pastoral Centre of the Catholic Diocese of Abakaliki.
The Vice President noted that the country was a great country and has everything in it to provide for the people. It was also a wedding involving another couple, Stella Awoke and her hubby, Peter Nwenyi.
Osinbajo also opined that the country is better together, stronger together than separating but identified corruption as its only problem.
“This country is better together, stronger together than separating. There is nothing that we will gain by being separated. The countries around us are all tiny countries, very tiny countries. Rwanda which is celebrated in Africa, Lagos state alone is six times the economy of Rwanda. So, we are a great country and anybody who wants to separate us, we must reject the person because this country can provide for every one of us, it can carter for all of us.
“Our problem is corruption. If we check corruption in this country, there is more than enough for all of, more than enough. We should just bear it in mind that this country must remain a united country, we must stand together and as we go along, where there are difficulties, we must sit down and look at those difficulties, resolve them and move along as brothers.
“That is the way great countries developed. Let us come together, stay together and I want to thank his Excellency the Governor for his stand on the unity of the country” he said.
On the request by Governor Umahi for the Federal Government to construct railway that will pass through the South East, the Vice President said, “the Port Harcourt–Maidugari end of the road has been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and that will pass thorough Enugu, Abakaliki and Awka, the capital of Anambra State.”
“So, there is no question at that the railway will pass through Enugu, Abakaliki and Awka. So, there is no need to make that request because it has already been granted by Mr. President. The budget has been approved,” he said.
Osinbajo also lauded the agricultural policy of the Ebonyi State Government which he described as phenomenal and therefore promised that the federal government would support the state to realize its full agricultural potentials.
This is even as he described Gov. Umahi as one of the bridge builders of federal government administration. “We will do our best to support Ebonyi State. The progress Ebonyi State has made is phenomenal and it is what everyone in the country has the knowledge about. I listened to all that His Excellency has said about what Ebonyi state required and I want to say that there is very little we will not do for Ebonyi state” said he.
Earlier, Governor Umahi commended the Federal Government for support of the state. Present at the ceremony is the former Governor of the state, Chief Martin Elechi; Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi; Mrs. Rachel Umahi; Sen. Sam Egwu and wife, Ukamaka; among others.
