Acting president Yemi Osinbanjo talks about his personal and official relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari during his visit to the palace of the Emir of Katsina, Dr. Abdulmumini Usman.
Osinbajo while speaking at the palace said he cherished his relationship with Buhari in the last two years because he does not only treat him like a brother but also like a son.
“The president has been treating me as a brother. In fact, the president has taken me as a son in the way he treats me.
“Going by the amount of responsibilities the president has given me, it shows that he seriously believes that we can live as brothers in this country.
“He seriously believes in the unity of Nigeria. I pray the Lord will preserve our president to continue to lead us just as the nation has voted him to do so.
“One of the reasons why I feel very much at home in Katsina State is because this is the home of President Muhammadu Buhari who has taken me more like a brother.
“In fact, sometimes more like a son than his vice-president,” he said.
He commended the Government and people of Katsina State for being a role model in terms of peaceful co-existence of all ethnic tribes and religions in the State.
At the launch of the Katsina State’s MSMES Clinic, Osinbajo averred that the Federal Government’s newly launched Economic Recovery & Growth Plan (EGRP) places high premium on the nation’s capacity to grow it’s export potentials rather than continue on the unsustainable path of total dependence on import.
He said the focus of the Plan is to develop “the capacity of Nigerians to do everything that we need internally; to become a net exporter of the various things that we are importing today.”
Explaining Federal Government’s reason for the inauguration of the MSMEs Clinics that is now going round major cities in the country, Prof Osinbajo stated that it was designed to give small businesses the opportunity to meet with the industry regulators, to talk to them and to hear their problems.
He explained that the idea of the MSMES clinics which he has personally attended for the fourth time now is the Buhari administration’s effort to close the gap between MSMES and relevant FG regulatory agencies like NAFDAC, CAC, SON, BOI, FIRS and others and ensure that those agencies become facilitators of businesses not obstacles to business development.
Prof Osinbajo who declared the MSMEs Clinic open in absential of the President due to a follow-up on his medicals, was accompanied to Katsina by the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar, Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service, Babatunde Fowler and Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu.