hurches preach the principles of integrity, truth, righteousness among other moral gospel to those in government and other citizens who imbibed and act on them.
He wondered why preaching’s in churches across Nigeria are centred around prosperity and miracles which according to him, encourage the get rich at all cost syndrome’ which is largely responsible for the corrupt practices in government and other places in the country.
Prof. Osinbajo also said most churches in the country are not doing much to support the anti – corruption crusade of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration, stating that most of their sermons and preaching’s glorify corruption instead of discouraging it.
He urged Nigerian churches and theme leadership to live up to their duty as pillar of the society by spreading moral gospel and supporting the government in the fight against corruption and those that engage in it in order to move the country forward.
After leaving the church, Osinbajo and his entourage, which included Senator Babafemi Ojodu and Hon. Abike Dabiri Erewa, moved down to the Ayangbure palace where he first briefly met with the traditional rulers in Ikorodu division in the inner chamber of the palace before addressing two gatherings both in the palace hall and at the pavilion outside the palace.
The massive gatherings had traditional rulers and Chiefs, religious leaders, honourary chiefs, captains of industry, market men and women, students, people with disabilities among others.
In his address, the Vice President described Ikorodu as a land of progressive politics and appealed to the residents to continue to toe progressives line by voting for President Buhari and other APC candidates in the coming elections.
Osinbajo told the large crowd that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration would bring more development to Nigeria if re-elected.
“We do not need to start canvassing for votes here because Ikorodu is a progressive town. Here is not where we have to start giving people voting education. The residents have been known for progressive type of politics”, Osinbajo stated.
While stating the achievements of the government, Osinbajo also revealed the second term agenda of President Buhari which according to him, would focus majorly on employment, power and loan to develop small scale businesses in Nigeria.
“Our government is planning to focus on three key areas out of the numerous list on our agenda.
“The first is to tackle the issue of job creation for the youths. This is very important for our government. This is why we created N-Power to absorb the 1.7million youths that are being graduated every year due to the fact that there is no job.
“N-Power was initiated to give graduates and other youths the opportunity to get something doing after their youth corp service before they secure employment”.
Osinbajo stated that the Federal Government has been providing jobs for 500, 000 graduates from the 1.7million that are being graduated from the institutions of higher learning in the country every year through N-Power adding that another 20,000 non-graduates are also included in the scheme.
“If we look at it critically, 500, 000 is a small fraction of 1.7million graduates every. This is why we are saying that when we get to the ‘Next Level’, we shall be employing 1.5milion every year. Through this, we shall be able to curb employment challenges.
“When we employed them into N-Power, we usually give them iPad for self-training in entrepreneurship, code writing, computer programming. We don’t just employ them, but we also exposed them to trainings for them to be skilled.
“This is not our only focus to create employment, there are other areas. We created Entrepreneur Bank for the purpose of job creation. Through this, youths with business initiatives can get loan to achieve their dreams.
He explained that the new bank will assist the existing Bank of Industry in helping to develop businesses in the country.
“Our second focus is power. This is very important to the Nigerian economy. We met 3000 Megawatts of power when we resumed office in 2015 but we have now increased it to 700 Megawatts which is still not enough for what we have on ground.
“More importantly, private companies that bought NEPA do not have the capacity to provide transformers and metres which is why Nigerians are still the ones procuring these themselves. It is also the reason why they are sending estimated Billings.
“We have resolved as a government to give other companies that are willing to contribute to our power situation the opportunity by further decentralizing the system. If we have any company willing to handle power situation in Epe or Ikorodu, we are ready to give them the license.
He stated that the he government has started issuing license to such companies at Iponri and Sura markets in Lagos and also Sabo-Garri in Kano and other places.
Pro Osinbajo also said that tradermoni, meant for market men and women, would also be increased to enable small scale businesses to have easy access to loan for their businesses to thrive.
“The third agenda is to provide soft loan to business people and traders. That is what we called Marketmoni and Tradermoni. We are planning to create a Peoples Money Bank that would serve this purposes.
“Presently, we have giving Tradermoni to 2 million traders but we want to increase it so as to be able to reach more people.
“Because of this, we are extending our reach to 10milion so that every market man and woman can access the money.”
Oba Shotobi in his response, thanked Prof. Osinbajo for the visit, saying that it was a privilege being the first time a sitting vice president would visit Ikorodu.
He, however, called for more federal presence in the area.
“Today, we are very happy to receive the Vice President of Nigeria, as the first of its kind in Ikorodu town, I know he will come back to this town and by that time, it will be for celebration on his re-election.”
From the palace, Osinbajo briefly moved to Olubi Street for a courtesy visit before heading to Sabo along Ikorodu-Itoikin road where he addressed the Arewa Community.
The atmosphere around the Sabo axis on that day was carnival-like as hundreds of members of the Arewa community trooped out en masse to receive Osinbajo amidst fanfare. They brandished brooms and intermittently shouted ‘Sai Baba’ to demonstrate their support for President Buhari.
Speaking in vernacular English, Prof. Osinbajo asked the Hausas and Fulanis in Ikorodu to vote for the APC Presidential candidates for a better Nigeria.
“We must not allow those people scheming to return to power after the mess they have put our country into. This is the only way for us not to go backward.
“If we must move forward in Nigeria, our people must vote for Buhari who is going to further put our country on a path of development.
“We have enough resources in this country that we can use to make life better for you but bad governance and corruption which made few that ran the previous governments cornered our collective wealth has put us in the sorry position that we are in now.
“President Buhari is “Mai gaskiyah” (an honest) and he is going to make our country better”.
Also at the Sabo rally, Vice President Osinbajo presented Hon. Babajimi Benson as the APC candidate for the Ikorodu Federal Constituency and Hon. Sanai Agunbiade for the Ikorodu Constituency I State Assembly seat.
The two returning lawmakers, in their separate brief speeches, pleaded with the Arewa community to vote for President Buhari and all the APC candidates in the coming elections for good governance.
Meanwhile, a leader of the Arewa community while responding on behalf of other members, thanked the Vice President for the visit and pledged that they will deliver 100% votes for President Buhari.
