It is no longer news that Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has been stripped of virtually every constitutional duty of a Vice-President and even his peripheral responsibilities. In fact, he has now been consigned to the desk of irrelevance. Over the last six years, Osinbajo has been reduced to a mere errand boy by the cabal that calls the shots in Nigeria; his ‘quota system,’ professorship notwithstanding.
In 2014, when the All Progressive Congress (APC) an offshoot of the merger between the Congress for Progressives Change, the Action Congress of Nigeria, and a few other mushroom parties were shopping for a running mate for Muhammadu Buhari, many names popped up and were reportedly considered. Some of these names were baggage-ridden and perhaps too dirty for a party that was about to sell an anti-corruption scam to Nigerians. Yemi Osinbajo at that time happened to be a masterstroke given his history which relatively had little or no dents – something that was in the best sense of it alien to Nigerian politicians.
Although Osinbajo was nominated by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a greedy man whose godfatherism in Lagos turned the most economically viable State in Nigeria to a patronage system, many Nigerians however, still haboured a positive feeling about it looking at his antecedents; a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, a pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), arguably one of the largest churches in Nigeria, and a professor of law (at the University of Lagos). Many Nigerians believed Osinbajo was going to end up as the ‘shining light’ of the administration. Nigerians were too elated with this potential Vice President who sat down with school children in public schools waiting for food while promoting part of the ‘Roadmap to a New Nigeria,’ a plan he helped to write for the APC whose content had a welfarist slant with provision for free education, free healthcare, and justice reform, capitalising on the frustration of Nigerians with the People’s Democratic Party who had ruled the country since 1999. Osinbajo’s dynamism led many youths to support APC and vote out Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Many Nigerians simply looked at Nigerians and felt they have finally gotten it right, Alas! They were all wrong as Osinbajo has not only grossly failed to live up to expectations six years down the line, he has also picked up or brought to bear corrupt tendencies and sycophancy. How are the mighty fallen one may ask?
Read Also: Why Nigeria will be worse-off With Tinubu, Osinbajo
When that trick eventually paid off, Buhari and Osinbajo were given the mantle by Nigerians; it didn’t take much time for any acute observer to come to the realisation that Osinbajo was the classical case of ‘the more you look, the more you see. Out of the blues, his role under the government changed from explaining economics and policies, overseeing the governing boards of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Boundary Commission (NBC), the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and indeed other constitutionally enshrined duties to that of a helpless official who only showed up wherever crisis occurred.
The cabal, having discovered how slavish his mental composition was, simply drafted him for roles that were best suited for that narrative. The cabal unofficially drafted him to play the role of the government’s ‘pacifier to the Nation-State.’ What this meant was that for every disaster that happened in the country, Osinbajo’s face was there to offer condolences, brief the president, and followed by photographs just to further demean him.
Coming from his legal background as a legal practitioner and as a Senior Advocate of Nonsense – Oh! Sorry, Nigeria; Osinbajo, simply watched while standing aloof while President Muhammadu Buhari denigrated the judiciary in broad daylight. Disrespecting and disregarding valid orders of courts, and even going on to flagrantly remove the Chief Justice of the federation – Justice Walter Onnoghen thus negating democratic principles. Not even a word was uttered by the slave in honourable apparel nicknamed ‘Osinbade’ by his ‘gworo’ chewing lord and personal saviour – the self-acclaimed ‘Baba Go Slow.’
To ensure his slave contract was always fresh, the cabal empowered the late Chief of staff to the President to always lord over him. When Abba Kyari took official letters to the President’s sickbed to attend to in 2017 many Nigerians thought that would restore Osibanjo’s sanity, indeed it didn’t, it only pushed him further up the ladder as a sycophantic stooge. Given that in most instances, President Buhari hardly found him worthy wielding power thereby refusing to transmit power to him during most of his medical trips abroad, no wonder, Nigerians were barely surprised when after inaugurating his cabinet in August 2019, Buhari instructed his ministers to report to him through Abba Kyari, his Chief of Staff and also asked that all federal executive council matters be channeled to him through Boss Mustapha. To the cabal, it was an aberration to allow a slave to enjoy undue privileges.
The question people asked and is still being asked is this, why not resign? The legacy Osinbajo is charting for himself in the mind of the public could be difficult to repair. How does a professor of law, a pastor, not see the contradiction of his presence in a government that has clearly failed to live to its promises? With Well-armed and well-funded Fulani militias are slaughtering Christians all over the country and the Government doing nothing to stop it or to bring them to justice, one would have expected that Osinbajo would speak up for the helpless and hapless people given his background, But No, that would infuriate the cabal whom he serves. Not even the murdering of a Christian pastor in Northern Nigeria could sway Osinbajo from the illusive promise of a 2023 ticket to the south West just to shout enough is enough to the dark, sinister, evil, and shameless Fulani cabal whom he serves. Not even the deep repudiation from his own people could make him take Osinbajo’s mouth out of the sh*thole of the Fulani Oligarch, he is that far gone into the pit of slavery.
To even make matters worse, Osinbajo has been severally fingered in corruption, with the absence of the President between 2017-2018, Osibanjo explored that lacuna to fritter away public funds from the public purse. His links with the looting of funds to the tune of N5.8bn from the National Emergency Management Agency is still fresh in many memories. His alleged roles in the diversion of funds from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) cannot be forgotten in a hurry. He is not just a sycophant, he is also a full-time corrupt Nigerian politician.
Having been subjected to chronic maladministration by the Buhari-led APC draconian regime, many Nigerians have now resorted to seeking self-determination and a possible break-up of the country. Jilted by this, the cabal have again commissioned their errand boy – Yemi Osinbajo to fashion out ways to dissuade these crop of Nigerians. Osinbajo, desperate to please his masters, first choose to mock these secessionists by informing them that if peradventure the country breaks-up, they would require a visa to travel to Kano – a State in Northern Nigeria as if Kano was the best place to travel to on the planet. That particular statement indeed exposed Osinbajo’s cluelessness further but he didn’t care, instead of advising his handlers to change their ways, he has found it more convenient to continue to lampoon Nigerians who are merely reacting to the misgovernance meted out to them.
When many Nigerian politicians are still in power, they often don’t place much premium on their legacy after politics or public office. How their actions or inactions fuel violence, incompetence and contribute to the daily destruction of the country seem not to bother those in power. In Osinbajo’s case, his credibility (if he still has any left) has been affected by his constant role of playing government apologist. If anything, what Nigerians will miss when this maladministration is voted out is the well-curated pictures in their minds that tell a story of incompetence, irresponsibility, and inaction. Osinbajo’s more painful legacy will be that he served under a two-time dictator who would leave Nigeria worse than he met it.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
