Why global community needs to understand Nigeria’s size – Osinbajo

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By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has emphasized the need for the international community to change their negative perception about the most populous country in Africa, saying that it is in understanding the size of Nigeria that the world can better appreciate the enormity and complexity of some of the country’s challenges.

The Vice President said this at the weekend when he interacted with a group of Harvard Business School students who visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Numbering about a dozen, the students who are currently on an African excursion asked questions about leadership, faith, spirituality, government policies in education, health, economy, and national image, among others.

According to the VP, “first, there is a need to appreciate the size of the country, which is crucial to understanding what the issues are.

“For instance, Borno State is about the size of the whole of the United Kingdom plus Sweden or Denmark. So, when it is reported that there is violence in Nigeria, it is probably an incident in one remote area of the country, and many people in Abuja and Lagos may hear about it on social media, such is the size of this country.

“When they talk about the 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”, he stated.

Osinbajo said, in a situation where societal or governmental institutions are not strong enough to compel individual behaviour in a way that advances the common good, spirituality and commitment to such values as social justice and transparency are important.

“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,” he said.

He articulated his personal commitment to the virtues of integrity, transparency and social justice which are also virtues exhorted in the different faiths and religions in the country.

Responding to the question about some inaccurate characterization of Nigeria in sections of the international community, the Vice President said “it is important to constantly engage the international community to show them how we feel about the stereotypes. It comes down to the work we do as government and people about the characterization.