Nigeria Is Big; Stop Comparing It To Smaller African Countries, Vice-President Osinbajo Tells Nigerians

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has claimed that there are 10 states in Nigeria with bigger Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than some African countries.

Osinbajo, who made the claim on Sunday when a group of Harvard Business School students visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said in terms of national economy, it is wrong to compare Nigeria with “smaller” African countries.

The Vice President’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande, who made the claim known in a statement quoted Osinbajo as saying, “First, there is a need to appreciate the size of the country, which is crucial to understanding what the issues are.

“For instance, Borno is about the size of the whole of the UK plus Sweden or Denmark.

“When they talk about economy, we are often compared with smaller African countries, but there are 10 states in Nigeria that have bigger GDPs than those countries, it is a huge target market.”

According to the statement reported by TheCable, the Vice President also said that integrity, transparency and social justice are important to him and that he came into the government with these values.

He said, “Just looking at these values, there is a great deal of unanimity about what is the right thing to do.

“The question is whether or not you will do those things, or whether you are motivated enough to do them, or whether you are compelled to do them.

“Spirituality helps in that sense to help you to decide what to do and what not to do; especially where institutions are not strong enough to restrain people from behaving in a particular way or not.

“I came into government with values about what I think is important, especially around transparency, social justice and justice, among others. You are almost always a product of the values you believe in.

“Fortunately, a lot of these values cut across the different faiths, they are not necessarily restricted to a religion or one faith. In societies that are more developed institutionally. You don’t need to be told that you shouldn’t do certain things, because you could end up in jail.

“If you do and there is a good likelihood that you could be detected and the process will go through and you will be punished.

“I speak about corruption and all that; but where the institutions are weak, some people have reasons for not doing the right thing.”