Mynd44:

He might be a dark horse

By Farooq Kperogi

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

A Yemi Osinbajo presidency would, without a doubt, plunge Nigeria into the depths of a smoldering religious volcano that will hasten its self-immolation. This isn't some idly churlish oracular indulgence. It's based on an intimate familiarity with Osinbajo's trajectory of religious bigotry, overpowering anti-Muslim prejudice, and irrevocable devotion to the materialization of a Pentecostal, specifically RCCG, capture of the Nigerian state. Here're 10 reasons for my fears:

1. The RCCG memo that asked churches to actively support its members vying for political offices was inspired by Osinbajo and is consistent with his history of exclusivist religious politics. In 2013, for example, he formed the Christian Conscience Group—along with Enoch Ajiboso, Dele Sobowale, and Most Reverend Joseph Ajayi—to champion the cause of a Christian governor of Lagos State.

According to a September 27, 2013, Daily Post news report titled “It's time for a Christian to govern Lagos – Group,” the group was led by “former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos, who is also a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.”

Just like he has masterminded the religionization of the politics of 2023, in 2013, Osinbajo delivered a lecture titled “Christianity, Politics, Now and Beyond” that instigated Christians to deploy Christian religious blackmail to force Tinubu to endorse a Christian governor for Lagos in 2015 —in a part of Nigeria that deafens the rest of the country with the tiresomely sterile mantra that “religion doesn't matter in Yorubaland.”

2. Osinbajo's advocacy for a Christian governor in Lagos was not inspired by any desire for religious pluralism. A Muslim has never been elected governor of Ondo and Ekiti states. In Ogun State, his natal state, Ibikunle Amosun is the only Muslim governor the state has ever elected since 1979, even though Muslims are at least 50 percent of the state's population. Osinbajo is fine with that.

3. The strategy Osinbajo used to incite religious fervor in Lagos prior to 2015 is the precise strategy he's using now. The RCCG memo is just a small part of a bigger religious incitement strategy.

On Nov. 5, 2021, for example, the Guardian reported Bishop Wale Oke, President Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), of which Osinbajo is a pivotal member, to have said, “We do not want another Muslim president come 2023.”

In another Feb. 12, 2022, interview with the Guardian, Oke said, “Not only should the South produce the next President, the next president ought to be a Christian, not a Muslim. This is very important.”

And in a Feb. 20, 2022, reading in Jos, according to the Sun , CAN president Rev. Samson Ayokunle said Christians must unite to elect a Christian president. He said this during a lecture disturbingly titled “Defeating Your Enemies through the Power of Unity,” which creates the impression in the minds of his Christian audience that Muslims are “enemies” of Christians who must be defeated in 2023.

“In the last election, [Buhari] had about 14 million votes and that is not more than a population of two denominations in Nigeria talk more of [sic] the entire Christian body,” the CAN president said during the lecture. “If we are united, I can see rightly in the spirit, God knows the person and we by the mind of the spirit, we can know the person God want [sic] to use. We have leadership in CAN, and if we listen to the leadership, it will be well with us.”

4. Osinbajo is a suave, charming but toxic Islamophobic bigot who clothes his bigotry with oratory. He is only associating with Muslims because of his political agenda. He visits mosques ( with his shoes on — in a betrayal of his ice-cold disdain for the religion) and awkwardly utters salaams only as a stoop-to-conquer strategy.

Osinbajo's overt Christianization of the 2023 election has already caused the normally secular Bola Tinubu to, on March 19, appeal to the Supreme Council for Shari'ah in Nigeria in Osogbo to create a political wing to support Muslims running for political offices because “Other religious groups have begun political sensitization by creating political departments or directorate among themselves to promote their own.”

You see what I'm talking about? That's a first in the Southwest. The stigma of being labeled a “Muslim fundamentalist,” a favorite, overused rhetorical cudgel used to silence Yoruba Muslims, used impel Yoruba Muslims to grin and bear their suppression.

Osinbajo's overt bigotry is blunting that. Imagine what will happen in the Muslim North should Osinbajo by any chance become president.

5. Osinbajo sees Muslims not as fellow citizens who practice a different faith but as lost souls in need of salvation. If they can't be salvaged, they should be inferiorized, victimized, and excluded.

For instance, on Feb. 22, 2020, according to the Sunshine Truth , an Ondo State newspaper, during the funeral of the mother of former Ondo State governor Olusegun Mimiko, Osinbajo intentionally went out of his way to hurt the sensibilities of Yoruba Muslims when he gloated that the woman, identified as Mama Muinat Mosekonla Mimiko, left Islam for Christianity toward the end of her life,

This was a touching subject because although Mama Muinat's two children—former Gov. Olusegun Rahman Mimiko and Prof. Femi Nazheem Mimiko—converted to Christianity, she'd resisted pressures to leave Islam. She had been supported in her Muslim faith by her US-based third son, Abbas Mimiko.

Many Yoruba Muslims who'd hoped that she'd continue to be steadfast in her Muslim faith in spite of immense pressure to leave it felt gratuitously mocked by Osinbajo when he crowed with perverse joy over her late-life conversion to Christianity.

If Osinbajo was just a pastor, that wouldn't be out of line. In fact, it would be perfectly legitimate. But when you're president or vice president, you wield enormous symbolic and cultural power. When you use that power in the service of divisive religious politics, you inflame raw passions that can provoke communal convulsions.

Imagine Atiku Abubakar attending the funeral of a late-life Muslim convert in Adamawa State (which has a vast indigenous Christian population) and gloating over the person's conversion from Christianity to Islam.

6. Yoruba Muslims say there's a “standing rule” in Osinbajo's law firm, Simmons Cooper Partners, that the employment of Muslims there must be regulated, which has ensured that “99%” of people who work there are Christians.

In fact, someone confided in me that Osinbajo once asked an employee with a Muslim last name, who's actually a Christian, if he thought about how his name might “work against" him, subtly encouraging him to change it.

7. Political Pentecostals want Osinbajo to be president so they can say that the prophecy of Pastor Enoch Adeboye-- that one of them would become a president in his lifetime-- has come to pass, which would then be used as a recruiting tool, particularly in Yorubaland.

But this is a dangerous game because it will inspire a sustained pushback from other Christian sects and from the Muslim North. When Saudi-trained Muslim clerics start to run for elective offices as a strategy to counter political Pentecostals and to also swell their ranks, a religious civil war would be a question of “when,” not “if.”

8. Osinbajo's religious bigotry and Pentecostal Christian particularism aren't anything we've ever seen in Nigeria before. Most politicians exploit religion to gain political power, but Osinbajo wants to exploit political power to advance a narrow, divisive religious agenda. That's a big difference, and it's a potentially destabilizing difference.

Osinbajo isn't the only religious bigot in high office in Nigeria. I spent the last seven years calling out the religious bigotry of fellow northern Muslims, including calling out the northern Nigerian Muslim clerical establishment for being in bed with the Buhari regime, at the expense of my ostracism not just in my region but even in my hometown where Imams recited curses against me, but Osinbajo's is in a world of its own.

9. In a previous article , I called Osinbajo a “matchbox” that a collision with a Muslim matchstick would cause to ignite a religious conflagration. He's actually worse than that. He's a flame. Like flames, he is rhetorically attractive, and the politically naïve like to hover around him like moths to flames, which end up burning them alive.

In a Nov. 10, 2019, column titled “The trials of Brother Osinbajo,” Nigerian Tribune columnist Festus Adedayo revealed that while Buhari was sick and away in London, Osinbajo attended a Redeemed Christian Church of God prayer session in his home state of Ogun where the pastor prayed for Buhari to die so that Osinbajo would take over as president “with the VP shouting [a] thunderous 'Amen'.”

Osinbajo was so rattled by this revelation that he urged his media aide to frantically issue an incoherent, unconvincing denial. Otto von Bismarck is often credited with saying, “Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.” Incidentally, just last week, a Southwest friend confirmed to me the authenticity of this incident.

10. Although he is married to Chief Obafemi Awolowo's granddaughter and even shares the same hometown as him, Osinbajo doesn't share the late sage's wisdom that politics and religion shouldn't be merged.

In a perceptive January 27, 1961, lecture titled “Politics and Religion,” Chief Awolowo advised against the religionization of politics and the politicization of religion. “A religious organization should never allow itself to be regarded as the mouthpiece and instrument of the powers-that-be,” he said. “If it did, it would sink or swim with the government concerned…and would no longer be well-placed to tell the truth as it knows it.”

After 2023, let Osinbajo retire to the church. He has no business being the president of a complex, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic country like Nigeria.

Osinbajo's anti-Muslim bigotry is especially surprising because, politically, he rode on the coattails of Muslims to get to where he is today. Prince Bola Ajibola, a devout Muslim who established one of Nigeria's first Islamic universities, gave him his first political break when he appointed him as his Legal Adviser when he was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation during the IBB regime. He again took Osinbajo along to the International Court of Justice.

Osinbajo's next major consequential appointment was his choice as Lagos State's Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General. He was given that job by Bola Ahmed Tinubu whom he is now fighting using Christianity as a dagger.

Tinubu introduced Osinbajo to Buhari whose opportunistic love for pastors to help dim his image as a Muslim fanatic caused him to pick him as Vice President.

So, beneath his harmless, debonair, smooth-talking exterior, Osinbajo is a vile, hateful, intolerant, inveterate, and treacherous religious bigot who will incite a religious civil war if he becomes president.

Religious civil wars are messy and dangerous. Few countries survive them. Don't say I didn't warn you.

9th January, 2022

Leaders of Economic Community of West African States meeting in Accra showed utter disrespect to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday.

Osinbajo who is representing President Muhammadu Buhari at the summit was pushed to the third row in a photograph taken by Osinbajo’s personal Photographer, Tolani Alli.

Osinbajo was hardly visible in the picture, as Macky Sall of Senegal, host Nana Akufo-Addo, Abubakar Ouattara of Ivory Coast and Maada Bio of Sierra Leone took the front row.

If this is the rule of diplomatic protocol, we think there is a something wrong for the rep of the leader of the biggest black nation on Earth to be turned into an ‘invisible man’ at the summit.

December 16, 2021

Ahead of the 2023 elections, the Board of Trustees, BoT, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has advised national chairman of the party, Senator Iyorchia Ayu not to take side with aspirants vying for the various elective positions, particularly the Office of the President.

Chairman of the board, Senator Walid Jibrin stated this Thursday at a special meeting of the BoT with the newly inaugurated National Working Committee, NWC, of the party.

This is as Senator Walid pledged the readiness of the board to work closely with Ayu to deliver victory to the party in the next general election cycle.

“Do not be detracted by the ambition of individual members but keep the party as formidable as possible. Concentrate on your duties and not more of who shall be the President, Vice President, Senate President etc. Do not side any individual with self ambition and please, try to reduce the state of Godfatherism. Please respect the dignity of individuals and dynamism of a group.

“May I urge the national chairman to use his wealth of experience to make the party great as it remains the largest party in Africa. You must try to reconcile Individuals, states, and national issues,” he said.

On his part, Ayu reiterated his commitment to transparent and participatory stewardship saying “this party requires a lot of openness and courage to carry everybody along. That is the only way that this party will move forward successfully.

“We want to assure you that we will do just that. Every member of the BoT, every member of the party far and wide will have access to all members of the National Working Committee. If you call me and I don’t answer, you will know that I am busy but I will return your call. I will be so open to everybody,” he assured.

Reflecting on the highs and lows of the party since its formation in 1998, Ayu predicted glorious future for the PDP under his watch.

“When we built cohesion in the party, it was possible for us to have 21 governors and President. We increased this number to 28. Our declined started in 2011. Today, we are down to only 13 sitting governors but never you worry. Very soon, the number will increase to the appropriate level.

“When this party was formed, in a meeting at Professor Jerry Gana’s house, the idea of a BoT was mooted and I remember vividly that one person who was so passionate about this was Dr. Alex Ekwueme. The idea was that the Board of Trustees will be the conscience of the party.

“If there are difficulties, it will be referred to them in an advisory capacity. It was advisory but very powerful advisory body because of the calibre of people that were to be represented in the BoT. People who had experience, people who will be respected, people who will stand objectively to guide those who are running the path.

“I am proud to see that the BoT has risen from that modest number of 15 to over 100 members. Now, I think the first 15 had no woman representative but today, we have so many women on the beard which shows that the party has grown. Even the conscience of the party has expanded. I want to congratulate the woman who are today members of the BoT. We hope in future there will be more women than men in the BoT.

“The BoT has over the years played a very pivotal role in the affairs of the party. We have run into all sorts of crisis and I thought the BoT would have fallen apart with the recent crisis that led to the change of leadership of the party.”

Ayu also called for adequate recognition to be afforded the BoT insisting that “we must return the party to the corporate processes of initiating policies at the National Working Committee.”

He continued: “The various critical organs of the party must be carried along. One of those critical organs is the BoT. We also have the caucus, the governor’s forum, the National Assembly and the state chairmen of the party.

“The moment you begin to take decisions that isolate these organs, it means the party will be working at cross purposes. It is very important to me and my colleagues in the National working committee that we constantly regularly consult with all members of the BoT.

“If we do that, the party will move smoothly. And if the party moves smoothly, it means we will be stronger, then if we are stronger, It means we will win more elections because the objective of a political party is win elections, not just to create unnecessary intrigue within the party.

“I personally have no any personal interest. I will not be part of factions in any state and we are not encouraging factions. I also want to say clearly that no single individual can win elections in the states.

“State leaders must work as a team. If you work as a team, you will win elections in your state. Most of the elections we lost in PDP is because PDP defeated PDP; that should never be encouraged. And part of the problem is because the leadership of the party sometimes take sides with certain factions,” he added.

Moferere:


Seriously, who they throw up as their candidate will go a long way to determine if they will take over power.
But for now, they are still dreaming

Direct primary: Govs angry over uncertainty to produce successors, win senatorial tickets

Tunde Ajaja and Leke Baiyewu

13 November 2021

•How Osinbajo, APC govs, NASS caucus agree on primary mode – Presidency

There are strong indications that many governors are angry that the direct mode of primaries passed by the National Assembly may deny them the opportunity of producing their successors or winning senatorial tickets after their tenure, Saturday PUNCH learnt on Friday.

These, it was gathered, were some of the reasons why they opposed the adoption of a direct mode of primaries in the amended electoral act.

One of the governors of the All Progressives Congress, who was at the tripartite meeting held at the State House with the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and members of the National Assembly on Tuesday, said he and the majority of his colleagues were against the adoption of the direct primary.

Those who attended the meeting, chaired by the vice president, included the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan; Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi; Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the APC and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni; Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, and the Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

Both Lawan and Gbajabiamila were said to have come to the meeting with lawmakers who supported the direct primary idea.

The governors, it was gathered, felt that the members of the National Assembly decided to opt for the direct primaries as a way of getting back at them (governors) over the outcome of the just concluded ward, local government and state primaries in their states.

“Some of these lawmakers don’t come home like they do when they were looking for the ticket, but as soon as they heard that congresses were on the way, they remembered they came from a constituency. Unfortunately, there are people at home already eyeing their seats,” the governor said.

The governor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that the passed bill was aimed at the state executives.

He added, “What the primary is aimed at getting is to deny us the privilege of choosing those who will take over from us or those that would win the party’s governorship ticket. They think without controlled delegates, we would not be able to determine our successors. They also felt we might not even be able to win senatorial tickets.

“The fact is that some of the two-time governors are eyeing the Senate while there are those who want to run for the Presidency. The lawmakers knew and that’s why they tried to move against us.”

Explaining the outcome of the tripartite meeting, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, described its outcome as a “victory for the party’s internal democracy.”

He said though tension was high at the meeting, the Vice-President played the role of a great conciliator.

He said, “While the younger elements in the House of Representatives were vehement and uncompromising in the expression of their preference, the senators were calm but resolute. The VP laid out the reasons for calling the meeting and allowed the parties to ventilate.

“It was a victory for the party, the governors and the legislators. We should commend the party leaders for reaching an agreement in a democratic manner.”

Explaining further on a post on his Facebook page, Ojudu said, “I think the outcome of today’s meeting is a victory for internal democracy in APC. You recall that in his sagely wisdom, President Muhammadu Buhari had set up a tripartite mechanism to interface whenever conflicts of this nature arose between the party, the body of governors and members of the National Assembly.

“Acting on the President’s mandate, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo called today’s (Tuesday) meeting to allow for all parties to ventilate their voices in a no-holds-barred manner. It was a family meeting. In the end, a common ground was reached, the direct primary was upheld and aspirants under our party can now go back to the people and seek endorsement rather than giving a few delegates the power to decide for all.”

N’Assembly prepares electoral bill for transmission to Buhari

Meanwhile, the National Assembly is cleaning up the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill ahead of its transmission to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), for assent.

A senior official in the Senate told one of our correspondents on Friday that after the Senate and the House of Representatives adopted the report by their conference committees on the bill on Tuesday, the document is expected to go through the Department of Legal Services of the National Assembly for verification.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives would later sign off the bill for transmission to the President.

Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, on Tuesday after the passage of the bill, addressed journalists where he said the bill would be transmitted within seven days.

He stated, “The question is ‘where is the legislation heading next?’ It will go to the Clerk to the National Assembly from where it will go to the President. The matter, in the eyes of the parliament, has been decided, which means that the parliament has done all that the law requires it to do with regard to lawmaking.

“We have asked the bureaucrats (National Assembly management) to pass the ball fully to the executive.

“I am sure that within seven days or thereabouts, the legislation will be transmitted to the President, who is interested in ensuring that democracy in our country is strengthened. This he has shown in the recent elections in the country where he wanted the people to speak and let the voice of the people be the voice of democracy.”

Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, the source informed our correspondent that the bill had yet to be transmitted as of Friday evening. The official also said the seven-day period speculated by the House’ spokesman was not realistic.

The source said, “It has not been transmitted. It won’t happen so fast. The bill will still go to the Legal Department for clean-up. After that, the presiding officers will sign it and the Clerk will transmit it to the Presidency. The process should take another one week.”

helinues:




As how lousy Trump is, did you see America going into senseless war during his tenure?

He instead make some those who have been enemies to each other for long as friends. E.g Israel- Saudi new friendship.

We are in the 21st century, there are so many diplomatic ways to resolve issue without escalating the issue

tamdun:

Osinbajo made onnoghen chief justice, he sacked DSS boss because of saraki(despite their differences)
Mr man, just tell us u hate osinbajo

helinues:


What you guys don't know is different people with different methods of approaching issues.

If Osinbajo can talk to NDA, SS leaders about the unnecessary destruction which they listened to, he could also handle Boko Haram with ease.

Kyase:

Let’s face it
Only Tinubu and Atiku can fix this country
And nobody should tell me they are thieves
Buhari wey no be thief, see where we dey today
Nigeria is too complex for a novice to preside over it and we all know Osibanjo is a big Novice, Obi is even more experienced than him politically, so Osibanjo is a No No for me

helinues:


Remind us how Osinbajo handled NDA palavas without igniting ordinary a fire cracker?

Kyase:


Any southern candidate that the North West supports wins the election

Anyways I prefer Tinubu to Osibanjo
I just want everybody in this regime to fuvk out excluding Ameachi

Yet-to-be identified hoodlums have set ablaze the palace of the traditional ruler of the Etekwuru community in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State.

His highlander jeep and properties were not spared as the attackers supervised the razing.

The incident which happened Thursday night came just 24 hours after youths and soldiers clashed in the community.

The clash led to the killing of a soldier and in a reprisal attack, the enraged military men burnt some houses in the agrarian community.

On Thursday night, the attackers stormed the king’s palace with explosives and when they could not find the monarch or any member of his family, they set his house and properties which included his official vehicle on fire.

The traditional ruler told our correspondent that he was taking refuge at the Divisional Police Headquarters located at Mmahu.

He said that he and his wife who were in the house when the hoodlums struck, escaped death by whiskers.

The monarch who said that he was rescued by police operatives, decried that he left his palace half-naked.

Calling on the public to come to his rescue, the monarch said that he had lost a lot to the attack.

In a text message sent to our correspondent, the monarch said, “At 10.30 pm of Thursday 21/10/21 hoodlums came into my compound, broke my window glasses, pour fuel into my rooms, and set my house on fire.

“They were shooting sporadically and I couldn’t find a way of escape with my wife and child. I started making calls to the police for help but the help could not come until the building burnt beyond control. My 4runner Jeep burnt to ashes.

“The police came around 11.45 pm but could not get the arsonists. I learnt it was those boys responsible for the killing of the soldier whose houses were set on fire by the Army on reprisal that are responsible for the arson.

“I left my house with only boxers as all properties in my house burnt. As the police arrived, I came out from my hidden point and discovered that the next building to my house is also on fire.

“I am calling for help from any good-spirited person to enable me to survive the shock, as I am now in the police station.”

Men of the Imo state police command have repelled an attempted attack on Isiala Mbano Police station by armed bandits suspected to be IPOB/ ESN terror group on Thursday, October 21.

A statement released by CSP Micahel Abattam, spokesperson of the command, said the bandits arrived the police station in about five vehicles and three motorcycles and threw petrol bombs on the roof of the already damaged building in the Endsars imbroglio and started shooting indiscriminately.

Abattam said the gallant police operatives attached to the station returned fire, engaging them in a gun duel. He said they were able to repel the bandits and in the process, they zoomed off in their vehicles and motorcycles. Due to the gallantry of the police operatives, no arm was lost. The fire was extinguished not after causing some damages to the building.

He said one of the police operatives who sustained a gunshot injury was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.

October 20, 2021

By Arogbonlo Israel

It’s a dramatic moment as some protesters fight over undisclosed sum handed over to one of them by a Nigerian artiste.

Vanguard gathered the singer who came around to felicitate with protesters who are out to mark the one year anniversary of the ENDSARS movement.

On getting the money from the artiste, a yet-to-be identified protester flee as others ran after him to get their portion of the money.

Charmingrascal:



Infact it was Tinubu that nominated Osinbanjo but what we are saying is that.
It is not just to have the "I must rule" mentality.
It is having what it takes to lead that matters, Osinbanjo has proven that he can indeed lead the Country and everybody knows that.

duro4chang:
You link is not going. I doubt the authenticity of your post.