Nigeria is now a “an investment destination of choice due to deliberate actions of the Buhari administration to diversify and reform the business environment”, so said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Osinbajo was speaking on Monday 10 December, as the special guest at a forum with German investors, international business people and diplomats during the first Nigeria-German Business Dialogue held at Adlon Kempinski Hotel in the German capital city, Berlin.
The Vice-President claimed also that Nigeria would soon “be the world’s food basket”.
Earlier on Sunday 9 December, addressing a group of Nigeria diaspora in Germany, Mr. Osinbajo said the country’s “greatest problems is one of grand corruption; that is the biggest problem we have; not the problem of planning or plans”, and that one of the key issues the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration was dealing with in partnership with European leaders was the repatriation of the country’s stolen assets stashed abroad.
Back home in Nigeria some of the remarks of the vice president in Germany were understood simply as his attempt to pitch the country for potential investors.
Several opponents of the administration reacted harshly to the VP’s comments. On corruption, former aviation minister Chief Femi Fani-Kayode wondered if the government has not had enough time in 4 years to do something about the country’s “biggest problem”.
“When our Vice President goes to a foreign country and tells them that ‘grand corruption’ is Nigeria’s biggest problem does he understand the implications of what he is doing? You have been in power for almost 4 years and that is all you have to say about your people? Shame on you!” he said.
“Nigeria is now feeding the world”. Can you believe that? I have said it before and I will say it again, the APC [the VP’s party] is nothing but an Association of Pedophiles and Coprophiliacs (APC). If you don’t know what a coprophiliac is google it or look it up in the dictionary” he concluded.
Pastor Reno Omokri, another very strong critic went further, calling the VP’s comments “lies”. “The only way this statement can be true is if VP Yemi Osinbajo meant that Nigeria feeds the world with lies. With the way they lie, they can feed not only the world, but hell and the rest of satan’s kingdom with lies. Government of fake news.”
He wondered whether Mr. Osinbajo was referring to another Nigeria or the “Nigeria that is officially the world headquarters for extreme poverty, under the watch of this administration.”
Later Mr. Osinbajo paid a courtesy visit to the German President Walter Steinmeier in Berlin and visited an agricultural processing firm at Thuringa, Germany.
He has since gone to London to speak at Invest Africa Forum organized by The Africa Report publication, and on Thursday 13 December is billed to be in Cairo, Egypt to showcase the country’s trading potentials at the Nigeria Day of the first Intra-Africa Trade Fair.
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