• Calls out People’s Gazette over fake headline on VP
Social crusader, Aisha Yesufu, has described the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, as a leading voice in government who knows how to soothe Nigerians’ nerves.
Yesufu, who made this known on Friday, said the Vice President should be credited for “knowing what to say at the right time to soothe nerves.”
She said this while reacting to a story published by the People’s Gazette, with a fabricated headline, where the Vice President was quoted as saying: “Nothing special about Nigerians being violently killed, hungry and unemployed,” but which the news medium’s editor later acknowledged as “misleading.”
The editor was quick to admit his platform’s goof, after a teeming social media users who reacted in Osinbajo’s favour, condemned the news report and called out the People’s Gazette for publishing a story misleading its readers with a fabricated report against the Vice President.
Retracting to the story, the platform tweeted: “Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the accurate context of Mr Osinbajo’s full statement, which was not previously made available to The Gazette.”
But, Yesufu, who had called out the @GazetteNGR quoting its controversial headline via here Twitter handle, @AishaYesufu wrote: “This cannot be an Osinbajo statement. The one thing you can give Professor Yemi Osinbajo
@ProfOsinbajo credit for is knowing what to say at the right time to soothe nerves.”
However, Yesufu, one of the leading voices in the #BeingBackOurGirls and #EndSARS campaigns, and a fiery critic of the Buhari-Osinbajo administration concluded in her typical style of criticising the Vice President, saying: “He might not do anything to change the situation but he will say what will soothe nerves.”
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Her full post read: “This cannot be an Osinbajo statement. The one thing you can give Professor Yemi Osinbajo @ProfOsinbajo credit for is knowing what to say at the right time to soothe nerves. He might not do anything to change the situation but he will say what will soothe nerves.”
Prof Osinbajo had spoken on the National Social Cohesion Dialogue organized by the Africa Polling Institute, which held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, on Thursday, but his statement was doctored by Gazette.
The Vice President, said despite the activities of those with divisive agenda, Nigeria will prevail over her tribulations due to the resilience, faith, hope and strength of its people.
Describing Nigerians as “an unbreakable people”, the Vice President emphasized the shared interests of Nigerians across different facets of life, noting that Nigeria’s diversity can be used to drive further economic growth.
He explained: “And in the face of the challenges confronting us, we must remind ourselves of certain truths. The first is that our present challenges are neither unique nor exceptional. Various nations at various points in their histories underwent similar tribulations. It is within our power to address these issues and emerge from them even stronger as a people.
“Despite the divisive rhetoric of demagogues and the utterances of those who profit from disharmony, Nigerians do not hate each other. Every day, millions of Nigerians of different ethnicities and creeds comingle, make common cause and forge friendships across our fabled fault lines. While we have our share of such acrimony, the situation does not support the narrative that we are a nation of fragments condemned to be perpetually at each other’s throats.
“What matters is how committed we are to the constructive management of diversity and the peaceful resolution of such conflict. This is where we can and should certainly work much harder.”
Advocating for unity despite sundry differences, the VP warned against “polarising identity politics”.
He said, “the truth is that Nigeria has evolved beyond the sort of easy balkanization that is proposed by some separatists. Politicians who continue to traffic in division and discord are behind the times and have failed to take note of how much more integrated our society has become.”
Noting that the fair, swift and equitable dispensation of justice to address both everyday grievances and long-suffered wrongs is essential for fostering social cohesion, the Vice President added that, “we must strengthen institutions which at every level can deliver justice, inclusion and mutual security.”
According to the Vice President, “an abiding feature of being a Nigerian is our optimism… Our capacity for hope is a creative optimism… Every day, millions of our people armed with their faith, skills, determination and wits take their destinies into their hands, working hard to forge a better life for themselves and their families.
“Nigerians of this ilk are everywhere repairing, healing, building, trading and doing business. They believe that tomorrow will yield a greater harvest than that of today and that as long as they have breath in them they can change their material conditions. It is this capacity for hope that makes us resilient in the face of incredible odds and even in the teeth of adversity. This is who we are as a people and it is why I believe that we will prevail over today’s tribulations.”
