“If Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry can post pictures of themselves on their private islands and we are ‘oohing ‘and ‘ahhing’, why not me?”

President Muhammadu Buhari

So you didn’t notice that our president lifted from Obama’s 2008 victory speech and passed it off as if the words were his own?

The argument will rage, but the moral problem of plagiarism on a day Mr. President launched a campaign to demand honesty and integrity from the people is what we should concern ourselves with.

The very last thing you should do when you’re launching a campaign like this is to be dishonest with the people.

As Buhari talked down on Nigerians during the launch of the campaign spearheaded by no other person, other than the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, known for his trash-talk, particularly for the opposition, I started following the speech line-by-line.

I was alarmed to make the discovery. It was a scandal that escaped the attention of our newspapers. It is one of two things: either people don’t pay particular attention to Buhari’s words or we are a nation of anything goes.

We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long.

Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice. Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another.

What the current problem has taught us is that we cannot have a thriving army of rent seekers and vested interests, while the majority suffers.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Kemi Adeosun

“We have a strategic plan that will take us out of the recession we have found ourselves in; we want to make sure the recession is as short as possible because we do not want a prolonged recession.

From what we are looking at we do not think that it will be a prolonged recession; we think that some of the initiatives that we are working on will now begin to bear fruits.

We are on course and are confident that the plan we have put together will work and put the economy back on track.

It is a long term plan that would reposition the economy so that we do not go into this boom and burst circles that are driven by the oil price.

The economy has to be more resilient than that so that we do not find ourselves back where we are,” she said.

“The biggest problem we have is not wages but the cost of living which is too high so it is not how much money you have but it is what it costs you to live.

The problem we have is that many of the things that people are spending money on are the things government should be doing like roads, power and so on.

So we have to address these things because that is what will really make impact for the average working Nigerian and so when you address the infrastructure you address the cost of living and that is what this government is working on,” she added.