VP Shettima admits things hard for Nigerians, says they’re not different from their animals

Vice President Kashim Shettima has admitted that a majority of Nigerians are angry with government officials as a result of the rising cost of living and its attendant hardship being inflicted on the people.

Shettima who made the admission in Abuja on Saturday at the graduation ceremony of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 16 which had participants from different security agencies and nominees of state governments, noted that the poor in the country were angry with government officials and other members of the elite who constitute the minority of the populace.

In his keynote address, Shettima who is the first official in the President Bola Tinubu administration to admit that Nigerians are going through harrowing times, however, urged citizens to be patient with the President and support his efforts to reposition the country.

“All of us here belong to a tiny segment of the Nigerian population. And you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that the poor are angry with us,” the VP said.

“Go to the slums and mingle with the poor. I am a native of Maiduguri, Borno State capital. Anytime a rich man brought a new car to his house, it (the house) used to be a place of pilgrimage.

“People used to go and see not out of anger, but out of admiration. But now, as we cruise around in our bulletproof cars, one will see contempt in the eyes of the poor.

READ ALSO:Shettima advocates global alliance against external aggressions, domestic threats

“The poor are the most neglected segment of our society. You can hardly differentiate between them and their animals. Even the animals they rear belong to those in the city. So, there have to be kinetic and non-kinetic solutions to all the problems.

“We have to improve the quality of governance. And what we have is a tiny window of not more than 10 to 20 years. Let’s improve the quality of governance.”

As a panacea to solving the myriads of problems in the country, Shettima suggested creating jobs and giving hope to the populace as that would go a long way in curbing insecurity in the country.

“Let’s create jobs; let’s give hope to the populace. And once we create jobs, all this madness of insecurity will disappear. There won’t be Boko Haram and banditry if this is done, especially for us from the North. We can blame the bandits, but we in leadership positions owe it to posterity to address this.”

Pleading with Nigerians to be patient and give the present administration time to solve the problems, Shettima said:

“I want to ask you to give the President the benefit of the doubt. Let us support him. Let us rally around and be reassured that he is determined to redefine the meaning and concept of modern leadership, and is ever ready to reposition the Nigerian nation. But without the support of you and I, he can’t do much.”

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