Osinbajo’s Uninspiring Declaration

The Insight

By Lateef Adewole

“Eniti ko ba ti ku nigba ti awon egbe re ku, obe silo ni won fi n gbe ile iru won” (It is good to make hay while the sun shines).

Let me start by confessing my tremendous respect and admiration for the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN). This must have reflected in some of my public opinions such that many people already tagged me as “his campaign manager” (lol). On many occasions that I have watched or listened to him deliver speeches, in different fora, whether privately or in official capacity, representing himself or the president, within the country or around the world, I almost always stood and clapped for him after such delivery. My standing ovation.

He has never disappointed me. His brilliance always shone through. His grasp of subject matter he was addressing, the depth of his presentation, the extensiveness of his coverage, the clarity of his analysis, the fluidity in his delivery, the ease with which he does it and how unperturbed and confident he always do so. Listening to him would calm anyone down and likely be carried away. He is gifted. An orator. And every of those times, I always looked forward to having a person of his standing as the president of my country. Let me be proud of one for once, at least, in my lifetime as a Nigerian!

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This Monday 11th April, 2022, when the news broke that Professor Osinbajo would declare that morning, I simply dismissed it with a wave of hand. Reason being that, we have heard such “rumour” too many times that ended up in disappointments. So, it no longer “freaked” some of us again. In fact, some of us already gave up on such expectation. We concluded that the vice president might have “chickened out” of the race and would never declare again. But alas, he actually did that Monday morning.

The declaration came in a “strange” manner. It was not the usual gathering of dignitaries, press men, etc., and making formal public announcement but through a prerecorded video message, which was released online. People like me, who has been his fan, was unimpressed. The professor is not someone to be scared of crowd or public speeches, even impromptu. What then informed that method? We know that there are people who must be teleguided whenever they need to make public speeches or the speeches must be written for them and practised with them many times before such public appearance to avoid embarrassment, but that is not Osinbajo. Public speaking is one of his strength. His forte.

I watched the video and also read the full text. If it was someone else, less attention would have been paid to its content. Professor Osinbajo did as much as possible not to fall into the bobby traps that the administration he is part of has set, by their dismal performances in last seven years. I will get back to that later.

That my opening quote, is one of many reproachment proverb that my mother used for us as children, whenever we failed to do what we needed to do on time before it became too late. Even if such thing was eventually done, it would have lost it allure and possibly became stale. The ovation would not be loud or be there again. Same fate befell that Monday’s declaration. For many months, there were too much expectation from the vice president to make his aspiration public by personal declaration. We have seen for so long, many of his foot solders criss-crossing the length and breadth of Nigeria, canvassing for support for him to become the next president, but, can a man’s head be shaved in his absence? “Enu onikan la ti ngbo kanhun”.

While we tried to understand his circumspection of possibly waiting for green light from his principal that might have taken forever, “as usual”, dragging it for so long had its negative consequences. “Ireti pipe, o n se okan laare”. When at everytime he was put on the spot or in vantage position to ride the wave, he was non-committal. I once read a tweet by Kayode Ogundamisi where he expressed his frustration about how “the person” who his mind supports, seemed not to be ready and might not declare for the presidency. He never mentioned any name but “by their fruits, we shall know them”. This was few months ago.

Since he declared, the social media has been agog. In just few days, I am very sure Professor Osinbajo has never received as much barrage that have been shot at him in his entire life time before that day. In fact, all the great attributes and qualities he is made of and good characters, for which he was usually praised, became immaterial. Many, who do not support him, have been everywhere castigating him. These actually are mostly supporters of his elsewhile “boss”, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is contesting for the same position and has declared about three months earlier.

They might not have expected him to do, since his “godfather”, sorry, former boss (since Tinubu has said he doesn’t have a son that can make such declaration), had done so. They saw it as affront. A betrayal. Backstabbing. There is no appellation they have not given to him. They already concluded, albeit unconstitutionally, that he has no “right” to run. How undemocratic can people get, while canvassing for an aspirant in a democracy? That’s ludicrous.

All sorts of excuses and reasons were given for their stand. They are at best, sentimental subjective opinions. The most prominent claim is that “Tinubu made Osinbajo”. How so? How true? The premise is that, it was Tinubu who brought Osinbajo to the political limelight when he made him his Attorney General of Lagos State and Commissioner for Justice. Also, they claim he “dashed” (nominated) him the vice president slot that “rightfully” belonged to Tinubu. This has been a subject of more controversies since Chief Bisi Akande released his autobiography. Different accounts of what actually transpired have been all over the news.

The things that have been playing out all week have further reinforced the common saying that politics is dirty. The amount of exposé I have seen or read in the last five days about allegations of religious bigotry, christianisation agenda and “Reedeemisation or RCGGisation” against the vice president are in torrents, from some regular sources that have always spoken about them without much attention paid to them or people would just dismissed them for the love of the vice president who many perceived could do no wrong.

Many others have been mudslinging similar accusations. If these are Muslims alone, I would possibly have overlooked them and felt they were the usual religious rivalry that has ever existed between the adherents of the two main religions: Islam and Christianity, but not so. Many of the accusers are actually of the same faith with the vice president, but of different denominations. That is where the “Reedeemisation and RCCGisation” terms emanated from, depicting favouritism based on membership of The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), where Osinbajo is a pastor. The allegation is that, within the purview of his office, he gives opportunities to Christians majorly, but with riveting focus on Redeem Pastors and members mostly.

Sincerely, as a staunch admirer of Professor Osinbajo, I have always dismissed these allegations as frivolous over the years since he became the vice president. But with the diversity of the sources of these allegations, with many naming names and documents circulating on social media, I have had to ask myself if I was not living in denial. Like I didn’t want them to be true. I will actually be convinced that they are lies if those accusers can be sued for libel. Afterall, Osinbajo is an erudite law scholar with abundance of capacity and reach to legally prosecute such “libelous” accusations. And even those people whose names were severally mentioned in the whole “Reedeemisation” agenda, should sue.

If all these are true, I will never support such agenda. I have been a fierce critic of President Buhari for similar allegations of nepotism and tribalism, as far as distribution of “key” political positions and appointments are concerned. I cannot be caught condoning the same thing, no matter how much I respect the vice president. If they are true, it is unacceptable. This case might even be worse than that of Buhari’s own since it is narrowed to a denomination majorly: The RCCG! This is the reason other Christian faithfuls from other denominations still criticised him.

Let’s get back to the content of that presidential declaration. In my earlier article few months ago, I stated that the biggest albatross that an aspirant or candidate Osibanjo will carry is the burden of the sorry state their government has put Nigeria and Nigerians today. In as much as his supporters would like to excuse him that he was not in the saddle, he is part and parcel of this government. All the successes and failures must and should be shared with him. We know that a vice president in Nigeria is like a spare tyre. He only gets to do as much as the principal desires of him to.

That was exactly the problem with the declaration. This reminds me of 2014 to 2015 while they were still in opposition and Jonathan was the president, I could imagine if a Professor Osinbajo had to make such declaration then, he would have mesmerised the whole country into a standstill. This is because, he would only have to be making “promises”, no matter how unrealistic they might be. That was exactly how we were politically “swindled” at the time, with a “Change” mantra. Unfortunately, out of our hypnotic naivety, we forgot to ask “to which direction” was the “change”, and here we are!

Therefore, now in 2022, with him as the vice president in the last seven years, memes have been made of his statement that he will continue where his principal will leave Nigeria by 2023. That was interpreted to mean “continue to hell fire on earth”. Anyone who wishes that Nigeria continues like this does not wish Nigeria and Nigerians well. But, how would Osinbajo have put it? That was a crossroad. He could not have distanced himself from what he has been part of since seven years.

Every single content of that declaration is what has afflicted the country negatively till now. How could we believe he can make something happen only when he becomes the president, when he has been part of the team that brought us here in the first place? How can a Professor Osinbajo promise to secure Nigeria and Nigerians? How can he promise to better the lives of the citizens economically when he was constitutionally responsible for our economy as the vice president and we are in this sorry state, with some of the worst indices in our history?

Unemployment 33%, Inflation 15.92%, we are now second poorest nation on earth after India, third most terrorised country after Iraq and Afghanistan. Even Libya, Syria, etc, surpassed us. Exchange rate at his worst ever at 575 naira to a dollar. Petrol at back to 165 from as high as 500 naira per litre recently, diesel at over 700 naira per litre. Foods inflation highest in history (17.2%), with cost of living gone through the roof. I know there will be defences or excuses for all of these to exonerate him. But, can he extricate himself from them?

Nigeria has never been this divided. Not even during our unfortunate civil war. Whereas, he wants to see a Nigeria where we are all united in love. How possible is this still?

The truth is, his former boss, Jagaban, will also share in the blames for all these consequences of bad governance, for the single reason that he technically brought Buhari as the president. He is a founding father of APC. He mobilised and deployed all available resources at his disposal to help Buhari snatch power from the then incumbent PDP President Jonathan. Many of his videos during those campaigns in 2014 to 2015 have resurfaced. It is incredible listening to all the promises he and many party chieftains made on those campaign trains, with their exact opposite being what we are going through since.

Promises like; Nigeria will be secured by crushing Boko Haram in the shortest time. Poverty will be alleviated. Exchange rate will go down. Fuel prices will be reduced. Economy will be more buoyant. Corruption will be fought to a standstill. All the Chibok girls will be rescued. No such mass kidnapping of school children will ever happen under the watch of their government. But we have lost count of such kidnappings now. And many more. How can he or any other aspirant or candidate of the same party APC stand tall and repeat the same failed promises so as to get votes, come 2023?

In my opinion, it is within the right of Professor Yemi Osinbajo to aspire and contest for the coveted office. He is eminently qualified. And I even believe he should have been given the right of first refusal, being the sitting vice president (I expected to be crucified for this). That is a common tradition in many democracy, especially where there is cordial relationship between the president and his vice. Examples are all over around the world, especially in the USA, whose democracy we copied.

So, using mob action in an attempt to silence him is a display of intolerance and undemocratic tendency. They are unacceptable. Let everyone go to the field and get the votes. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for whom this mob action against Osinbajo is being orchestrated, is a “fighter” and a “Master” in this game of politics. No one should smear his records as they could not have represented his views truly. Although, some people adduced such frenetic panicky behaviours to the fact that “true” democracy never really took place in Lagos since 1999 to date, in the selection of who are fielded in various political posts. So, their camp is jittery of a competition. They said Lagos practises a “baba so pe” (baba said) democracy. That’s hilarious.

Whatever the case may be, 2023 is fast approaching. Nigerians need to critically choose their elective leaders based on competence and sincerity. “You deceive me once, shame on you. You deceive me twice, shame on me”. “Ina esisi kijo ni leemeji” (once bitten twice shy). The choices can no longer be based solely on ethnicity and religion. Many northerners should have seen where that took them now. We need a unifier to come and rescue the nation on the brink. We cannot afford to get it wrong once more. 2023 is a make or mar year for Nigeria.

May God continue to protect us and guide us aright.

God Bless Nigeria.

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