President Muhammadu Buhari has warned Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to be careful while disbursing the Trader Moni initiative of his administration.
Mr Buhari gave the warning when he played host to Mr Osinbajo and top government officials to the breaking of Ramadan fast at the Presidential Villa on Monday.
TraderMoni is an empowerment scheme of the federal government created specifically for petty traders and artisans across Nigeria.
Osinbajo who heads the scheme has been in charge of disbursement of the funds across Nigerian Markets.
“This `market money,’ I warned the vice president, I don’t like him to be mobbed, especially the way I see hefty women coming and confronting him, he should be very careful,” Buhari was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to have warned.
“These are very good initiatives. Initially, I was quite reluctant but I must admit that they are very good programmes and they endear this government to a lot of poor people because of these N5,000 or N10,000 being given to them as loans.
“They are fantastic programmes and I have to admit quite honestly that the vice president was ahead of me by insisting on them.
“But he knows me, if he insists I will say `okay go and do what you like.’ He did it and I’m very pleased as he is being very successful,’’ he said.
The president also frowned at elites in the country for doing nothing to tackle the living conditions of poor Nigerians.
“When I drive around the country what upset me very much is the status of our poor people in this country – you see young people, the so-called Almajiris with tore dresses, with plastic bowl. They are looking basically for what to eat.
“The question of education (to them) is a luxury. I think Nigerian elite we are all failing because I think we should have a programme that will at least guarantee some basic education for our people no matter how poor they are,” Buhari said.
On his part, the number two citizen thanked his principal for giving him the opportunity to serve the country in that regard.
