For Professor Yemi Osinbajo

By Sunny Awhefeada

Nigerian politics since the return to civil rule in 1999 has become skullduggery. What has consistently befallen Nigeria in the last twenty-four years is a vicious cycle of the worst form of misrule. The euphoria that greeted the nation in May 1999, albeit cautious, evaporated even before the people could understand the import of the transition from military to civil rule. At the time of that transition, a new generation of Nigerians born from around the period of the Nigerian civil war up to the time of the coup that removed General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s war time head of state, had come of age. Members of this generation were in primary and early years of secondary school when the Second Republic which began in 1979 collapsed in 1983. Thus they had no concrete memory of the dominant strain of the events of that era save for what they read. This generation spent sixteen grueling years, 1983 to 1999, under brutal military dictators during which the finesse of political discourse and ideals were subverted by decrees which decreed arrest, detention and other forms of human abasement.

By the late 1980s the generation had been forged in the fire of hardship and had begun to stir by asking questions and embarking on civil disobedience to make its point. The agitation by that generation peaked with the events that attended the annulment of the June 12, 1993, elections. The struggle that followed the annulment was epic and romantic. The generation saw that struggle as a one in a life time opportunity to birth the country of their dream. In their harsh experience of history, the generation has had to recede into the ideal past of around 1957 to 1966 during which Nigeria appeared to be headed in the same direction with many nations of the Western world. In those nine years of tentative nation building, Nigeria’s aspiration and decisive steps to greatness were not surpassed by any country in the world. In fact TheWall Street Journal rated Nigeria as making the same development strides with Japan as far back as 1954.

The reason for Nigeria’s phenomenal development from 1957 to 1966 was that the nation’s ship of state was captained by visionaries and thinkers. The leaders of that era were not just educated, but were men and women of convictions with cultivated minds. They knew history, read literature, reflected on philosophy and embodied the mathematics of development. Among them were cerebral men like ObafemiAwolowo, NnamdiAzikiwe, AbubakarTafawa-Balewa and others who stood very tall among world leaders of their time. Awolowo, Azikiwe and Balewa held global audiences spellbound with their uncommon erudition. Although they had their weaknesses, they worked hard to build a Nigeria that was considered as the fastest growing newly independent nation of that time. Sadly, all that changed when illiterate soldiers disrupted the chain. What followed were thirteen years of visionless military rule during which Gowon lamented that Nigeria’s problem was not money, but what to do with it. The buccaneering soldiers who overthrew him knew what to do with money as they went on to allocate the nation’s wealth to themselves retiring as triple-chinned billionaires.

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Nigeria remains tethered to an end time syndrome. This destructive aptitude has been fostered by politicians who stand in obvious antithesis to those of old. Absent in the character of these politicians is the intellectual rigour, discipline, selflessness and humane vision that are desiderata for the making of a nation. Political philosophy and morality, development economics, rule of law and other indicators of national cohesion and development are largely unknown to them. Politics for them is bolekaja and the grandfather of their brand of politics unashamedly declared that elections should be “a do or die affair”. It is from this moral rubble that the morally luxuriant and cerebrally attuned politician, pastor and professor, Oluyemi Oluloke Osinbajo, sprouted with a character that is uniquely his and at variance with those of his contemporaries.

Osinbajo, despite the unmitigated failure that the administration he served as vice president recorded, will remain a shining model of the ideal leader that never had the opportunity to govern Nigeria. This is an attribute he shares with his grandfather-in-law, the redoubtable Pa ObafemiAwolowo, described as “the best president Nigeria never had”. Osinbajo came to political visibility as Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007. Every evaluation of his performance in that capacity earned him distinction in surplus. Before then he has had a splendorous career as a teacher of Law, a career he began at the callow age of twenty-three. Diligence saw him becoming a professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). In between, he served as a special assistant to the late Prince Bola Ajibola when he was the nation’s Minister of Justice. Osinbajo also had a stint as an international civil servant serving in Hague when Ajibola was a judge of the International Court of Justice.

Mild and meek, Osinbajo’s cerebral sparks belie his sober looks. His oratorical skill is upscale and his sense of humour is enlivening. He brings a refreshing effulgence and profundity of thought to issues. As Nigeria’s number two man, Osinbajo’s brilliance and character matched to confer dignity on that office. Although, forces within the presidency tried to stiflehis voice and dim his illuminating presence, Osibanjo nonetheless had moments when he shone like a thousand stars. Each time he mounted the podium to talk about Nigeria, he came across as one who not only cared about the country, but thought deeply about her. On the two occasions that President MuhammaduBuhari handed over to Osinbajo due to his absence, the latter acted decisively and the nation witnessed sanity no matter how short lived. It was during one of such brief spells that he fired the power drunk Director-General of the Department of States Services (DSS) who ordered the invasion of the National Assembly. Shocked by Osinbajo’s gumption, the addle-brained cabal in the presidency never allowed him to act for Buhari again.

Buhari’s disastrous eight years as president would have been a huge success story had he sat back and allowed the astute Osinbajo to run the government. Instead Buhari impliedly told his ministers that his Chief of Staff was in charge of governance. So much has been said about the malfeasance of the regime, but it is a testimony to Osinbajo’s character that no accusing finger is pointing at him.

Osinbajo’s ennobling vision for Nigeria nudged him into giving the presidency a shot. Despite criticism from some benighted voices, Osinbajo put Nigeria first and armed with courage and patriotism contested the presidential primaries of the All Progressive Congress (APC). A few castigated him for contesting against Bola Tinubu, his erstwhile benefactor, in the primaries. But Osinbajo did it for Nigeria. His speech before the commencement of voting that night was nonpareil and with it went the ideal Nigeria that would have taken us out of the wood. The other candidates who shamelessly stepped down for Tinubu did so for IOU. But Osinbajo refusedto trade away his vision for Nigeria.

The curtain came down for Professor OluyemiOlulekeOsinbajo (SAN) as vice president of Nigeria on 29^th May. A video of him arriving Lagos with his omoluabiwife, Dolapo, made the rounds in the social media. Osinbajo descended the aircraft first then he offered a hand to Dolapo as she alighted and they both walked into the anonymity of Lagos nay Nigerian life. Nigeria will do well to embark on a quest for the likes of Osinbajo. Hope still beckons on Nigeria and the ideal that we all yearn for will come and Osinbajo and those driven by altruism will embrace that moment.