By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor and Omeiza Ajayi

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has been put to task for placing shaku-shaku dance rehearsals as a priority at a time his government has reportedly helped Nigeria become the poverty capital of the world.

VP Osinbajo delivers keynote remarks as he declares the conference ope

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP vice-presidential candidate, Peter Obi and Senator Ben Murray-Bruce threw the challenge in response to reports quoting the vice-president as saying that he was set to learn the in-style dancing steps, Shaku-Shaku ahead of the forthcoming election.

Speaking at a book launch in Abuja at the weekend, Osinbajo had noted how a politician garnered votes through his dance steps and intimated that he was set to follow suit.

“I can never forget my dear friend in one of the states who just danced his way through the campaigns; all he did was dance; he did nothing else but dance and he won 250,000 votes.

“So myself and Kabir are now learning Shaku Shaku; we have to learn; who knows what will win,” he said.

Obi while speaking with reporters after returning from Dubai where he interfaced with PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and other party strategists, said that for the Atiku team, what was paramount was “spending our time with the best minds on how to start creating jobs and putting food on people’s table and not learning how to dance Shaku Shaku”.

According to Peter Obi, “I know Vice President Osibanjo is a gentleman and may not have made such a comment. However, why I am not against people dancing or learning how to dance “Shaku Shaku”, as I believe it is one of those things that is keeping our people going on in these very difficult times, I believe that the crossroads that we have found ourselves in as a nation requires sober reflection.

“For me in particular, this period calls for sober reflection not dancing or learning how to dance as there are many challenges facing our nation at the moment. Not the least being recently having our country named the world headquarters of extreme poverty with over eighty seven million people. Worse still, millions more are losing their jobs, with four million by the third quarter of this year alone.

“Millions of Nigerians go to bed hungry not knowing where the meal for the next day will come from, hundreds of thousands risk death by crossing the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea to wherever they can make a living.

“These and other challenges are indicative of the dire straits facing us as a nation today. And these are what we on the Atiku team are spending our time with the best minds on how to start creating jobs and putting food on people’s table. We must get Nigeria to start working again for the good of everyone,” the former governor stated.

Senator Murray-Bruce in a tweet said it was incongruous that the vice-president would be devoting his priority to dancing when his government had forced the country into negative financial indicators.

The Bayelsa senator in a tweet on his twitter handle on Monday morning said:

“Under your watch, 11 million jobs created by other administrations have been lost, Naira has lost 80% of her value and Nigeria has been named the world headquarters for extreme poverty, yet @ProfOsinbajo’s priority is learning ‘shaku shaku’ dance? I would laugh if I wasn’t so sad.”

The vice-president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande did not answer his phone when Vanguard sought his response on the issue yesterday and neither did he respond to a text message on the issue sent to him.