Trust deficit encumbers Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s 2023 aspiration
OpenLife Nigeria reports that in a departure session with newsmen at the airport recently, President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed that in his absence Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo would be in charge.
The President told the news men as he embarked on a medical trip to the United Kingdom that he is not working alone and as such, there will be no vacuum in government even in his absence.
“Well, I cannot claim to be doing the work alone. The government is fully represented. The Vice President is there. Constitutionally, when I’m away, he’s in charge,” the president said in affirmation of the recognized constitutional order.
President Buhari was to add immediately “we have the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and then the Chief of Staff, so, there’s no problem.”
So, even if Osinbajo was the first one he mentioned, the dialectics of the President’s departure note as seen in the second paragraph would be that with the SGF and the Chief of Staff around the vice-president, that there would be no problem.
Of course, that explains the problem at a time when the president departed the country and left Osinbajo truly in charge without the SGF and then Chief of Staff (the late Abba Kyari) to monitor him.
The problems of that presidential holiday in 2018 subsists and have led to an erosion of trust between the president’s camp and the Vice-President.
However, those who don’t forget easily point at that period as the genesis of the Trust Deficit Theory that has continued to impede the transfer of power when constitutionally required by Buhari to his deputy.
Central to the theory were some reported and unreported actions taken by Osinbajo which were said to have seriously grieved the president and his minders.
Among them was the firing of the Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Lawal Daura.
Notably, Lawal Daura was fetched out of retirement by Buhari to handle his internal security. So, when Osinbajo fired him, reportedly against the advice of a prominent national leader of the APC that was at one time also reputed as the VP’s godfather, President Buhari’s henchmen vowed to teach him some administrative lessons in the course of time.
While the dismissal of Daura was a cheer to many, that decision and some others are at the centre of the trust deficit that have led to the refusal by Buhari to formally transfer power to Osinbajo even when constitutionally required.
So, in the face of the clamour in many sections of the APC that Osinbajo may be the surest bet for Buhari and APC to retain power, it is no shock that he is not in the permutation of those around the president.
Indeed, just hours after the president departed for London, leaving behind bedlam in the APC, party enthusiasts and officers did not look towards Osinbajo for the resolution of the most serious crisis to have shaken the ruling party.
Rather than confer with Osinbajo who should be in charge, the report at the weekend was that some senior government officials took six hour flight to London to confer with Buhari on issues affecting the polity.
In most quarters, the views are that Vice President Osinbajo is only in charge of the chair he sits on in his office.
Meanwhile, earlier report in the liberationnews.com stated that
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s touted but surreptitiously pursued Presidential ambition was dealt a fatal blow recently as former President Olusegun Obasanjo turned away the VP’s Political Emissaries at his Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State the Liberation News can confirm.
The Team, led by Osinbajo’s Special Adviser on Political Matters and chief Canvasser, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, was also composed by Dr. Awosika, a Senior Special Assistant on Community Engagement.
They were said to have recently stormed Abeokuta along with some eminent persons apparently to drum support for the yet-to-be-announced Presidential aspiration of their Principal.
While the team visited the paramount ruler of Egba Kingdom, the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Aremu Gbadebo and had a chummy run, the reverse was the case at Obasanjo’s Hilltop Residence within his Presidential Library.
Journalist who was at the scene, observed that the Osinbajo’s Emissaries were kept waiting for a considerable period before words came to them that they were not welcome Visitors to the Place.
Ojudu was particularly advised by one of Obasanjo’s Staff to make haste to leave as the former President reportedly took exception to Ojudu’s “garrulous and unstable incursions into sensitive political matters”.
While Obasanjo refused the Team, ostensibly sent by Osinbajo to seek the former President’s blessing on his behalf, a source said Obasanjo was displeased that Osinbajo could be hiding behind a finger in pursuit of an ambition that is already known in the Public Domain and also for diminishing his relevance by sending to him mere Aides working for his Office.
“Baba (Obasanjo) believes that if Osinbajo is truly interested in becoming President, he should be bold and also feel free to come and tell him, rather than send a Proxy/Errand Boys,” a source close to the former President who craved anonymity, hinted.
Another Source within the former President’s Household also disclosed that Obasanjo disbelieved the claim by the Ojudu-led Team that they were sent to him by Osinbajo, as he patently disbelieves anything the VP’s Aide says.
He sees Ojudu more as a rabble rouser.
The octogenarian former President was also said to have been irked when Ojudu recently announced on Facebook that his son, Olajuwon, who came on a casual visit to Ojudu in Abuja, was out to campaign for Osinbajo.
“One thing is certain: if VP Osinbajo actually sent Ojudu to lead a team to come and lobby for him before Baba Obasanjo, it was a clear misadventure because Obasanjo would not sit down with a man like Ojudu considered to be loquacious, unreliable, sly and a quisling.
“Again, Baba believes that a man who wants to be President should be bold enough to say it, and not to go about whispering through a third party,” a source close to the former President, who sought anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the issue, also quipped.
Source: Liberation News
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