₦airaland Forum

No doubt, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is one of the forces to reckon with in the politics of 2023 general elections as the race to pick the sole presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) gathers momentum.

Though Osinbajo, a lawyer, politician and pastor, is yet to declare his intention to run for the office of president in 2023, many support groups and individuals have sprung up rooting for him.

His support groups have been consulting stakeholders across the country despite the declaration by the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for president in 2023.

Tinubu had nominated Osinbajo in 2015 as President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate to douse the concern over the Muslim-Muslim ticket at the time.

The ambition of the 64-year-old Professor of Law who has been serving as Vice President since 2015, is said to be strongly backed by some Northern emirs and four governors from the North; two from the North West and two from the North Central because of what they see as his “uncommon loyalty” to the president.

Can Osinbajo enjoy a smooth sail into the presidential office? This is a poser that can be answered if he can address some challenges, which analysts have identified ahead of his reported ambition to succeed President Buhari.

Daily Trust in this piece highlights some of the challenges the politician who hails from Ogun State but lives in Lagos State must tackle to realise the ambition to occupy the number one seat in Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Tinubu factor
Pundits say the first major hurdle Osinbajo must cross is the presidential ambition of his benefactor, Tinubu, who seems to enjoy more popularity in the North and the South West having remained in the opposition before the APC defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 general elections, after 16 years’ grip on power at the centre.

They believe that Osinbajo, who served as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice under Tinubu, must strive to get the support of the former governor of Lagos State to brighten his chances at the coming presidential primary of the APC and 2023 general elections.

Another cogent reason why the vice president must get the backing of his benefactor is the fact that he seems to have full control of the party structure in Lagos State and enjoy the support of more incumbent and former governors in the ruling party who determine where the pendulum swings.

However, pundits say the possibility of a truce is being jeopardised by not only the campaigns of calumny being championed by the supporters of the two leading contenders for the APC presidential ticket but also the declaration of Tinubu that the desire to become president was a lifelong ambition when he spoke after a meeting with the president on January 10.

The Jagaban Borgu, while reacting to a question on the president’s response to his ambition, had said: “That’s our business. He is a democrat. He didn’t ask me to stop. He didn’t ask me not to attempt and pursue my ambition, is a lifelong ambition.

“So, why do I expect him to say more than that? You are running a democratic dispensation and you must adopt the principles and the values and the virtues of democracy. That’s it.”

Fear of marginalisation

One herculean task before the vice president’s reported dream is the fear of marginalisation from the Muslim community in Nigeria; because as a well-known pentecostal Pastor, he has never hidden his religious inclination, unlike typical Nigerian politicians.

Osinbajo is the pastor in charge of the Lagos Province 48 (Olive Tree provincial headquarters) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a factor that worked for him in 2015.

The APC settled for a popular pastor as the president’s running mate to assure the Christian community at a time the party had been projected as a “supporter of APC” and “Muslim political party” by the party in power.

Nigeria has continued to witness stiff competition between the two main religions: Islam and Christianity. This development has nurtured the ground for mutual suspicion among the adherents of the two religions as every action of government in power is always scrutinised, leading to popular terms such as “Islamisation” and “Christianisation” agenda.

In his South West zone, political analysts say he needs to assure the Muslims that the issue of Hijab wearing by female students among other controversial matters threatening peaceful co-existence in the region would be allowed in public schools without interference in matters seen as fundamental human rights enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.

However, the attendance of Osinbajo at the 2019 Interfaith Religious Dialogue on “Promoting Religious Tolerance and Acceptance” organised by the embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Abuja; the General Assembly of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), and reception of a delegation from the Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC) led by its Executive Chairman, Mr Disu Kamor, in 2021 were seen as subtle moves by the cleric-turned politician to assure the Muslim Community of his commitment to the promotion of peacebuilding and interfaith cohesion.

Secure PMB’s backing and Villa ‘cabal’

Pundits say the support of President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and his close think-thank popularly call ‘Villa cabal’ will boost the chances of Osinbajo to secure the APC presidential ticket.

They say he needs to get the backing of the ‘cabal’ who is said to have been angered while acting as President. The situation is said to be responsible for the decision not to trust him with power again when the president is on medical leave of less than three weeks.

Before the present situation, he had taken serious decisions relating to governance in the past.

It was while the vice president was acting president that he transmitted a letter to the National Assembly seeking the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on July 14, 2016.

The Senate under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki, however, rejected Magu after many months of politicking.

It was also while Osinbajo was acting president in February 2017 that a letter seeking the confirmation of then acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen, was transmitted to the Senate. Onnoghen was confirmed but sacked in a controversial manner before the 2019 general elections.

Similarly, while acting as president, Osinbajo in August 2018 sacked the Director General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Lawal Daura, one of the most powerful kitchen cabinet members of the administration following the invasion of the National Assembly by operatives of the service.

Sources at the villa claimed that the sacking of Daura angered the people around the president, hence the decision never to hand over to him again to serve as acting president.

Daily Trust reports that due to heightened suspicion, Professor Osinbajo had through a memo in September 2019 received a presidential directive asking him to seek presidential approvals before taking action in some agencies he was asked to superintend.

Before the memo, President Buhari had disbanded the Economic Management Team (EMT) headed by Osinbajo and replaced it with Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) chaired by the Chief Economic Adviser to the President.

Keen observers say Osinbajo must now find a way to assuage the feelings of the close aides of the president since those incidents happened during the period of the late Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari.

LAGOS – Since Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s declaration of his intention to run for the presidency in 2023, there have been subdued disquiet between the camps of the All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader and the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who many believe could end up as the anointed and preferred choice of President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari was non-committal when asked if he had a ‘favourite’ candidate in his party to succeed him. The president said he would rather keep the matter close to his chest, knowing that if he revealed his favourite, he could be taken out.

Although Prof. Osinbajo is yet to declare his intention to take over from his boss, many observers believe that both the president and the supposed cabal are rooting for the vice president.

After Tinubu’s declaration, one of the groups supporting the calls for Osinbajo to contest the 2023 presidential election, said they remained unruffled by the decision of Tinubu to throw his hat in the ring for the 2023 presidency.

Looking Like Two-Horse Race

The chairman of the Public Opinion Leaders Group, a unit of The Progressive Project (TPP), one of the groups rooting for Osinbajo presidency in 2023, Shettima Umar Abba Gana said it is the beauty of democracy for many aspirants to show interest in a position. He, however, added that they won’t be shelving their calls for Osinbajo to succeed President Buhari in 2023 just because Tinubu has also declared his intention.

Speaking further, Gana disclosed that though Osinbajo had not commissioned them to campaign for him nor has he openly declared interest in the race, the Vice President is their choice to become the next leader of the country and every other person had the right to support his/her preferred candidate as well.

He said: “What is happening is democracy, he (Bola Tinubu) wants to run, we want our own man (Osinbajo) to run. That is the beauty of democracy; we want our man to come out because we believe he has some good qualities.
“In a democracy, everybody has his own opinion, his own wish and his own vote. Let them come out and let us go to the field. Ours is that this man is good, let him come out and we’ll support him. What we’re doing has nothing to do with Bola Tinubu coming out or not, let him come out and let everyone that wants come out. It’s a democracy that is not a problem.”

However, those who belong to Tinubu’s camp have been raising concerns and observations over what they term the high profile political movements for Vice President Osinbajo for the 2023 presidential race which they believe must have been sanctioned by President Buhari.

Sources in the Tinubu camp believe Osinbajo may be the secret weapon Buhari mentioned in his recent television interview.

The complaint by the Tinubu camp came against the background of high level endorsements and notable moves by canvassers of the Vice-President’s alleged 2023 presidential aspiration. The endorsements have been especially manifest in the North and recently the trend moved downwards to the South with Delta State as its launch pad.

The Tinubu camp, which has vowed not to raise the issue with the Presidency is, however, irked by the fact that Osinbajo’s name is being mentioned and projected everywhere for the 2023 presidential election with Buhari looking the other way.
A source within the Tinubu’s camp said, “You cannot tell me that the President does not know anything about this and that his deputy is being worked up to take his office and he is ignorant? No, no.

“How can your subordinate be moving about like that as if you have anointed him for your office? You send him here and there to expose him?
“If you have a wife and she is misbehaving, who am I to complain when you, the husband, are indifferent? So, we will keep on watching.”

Those Who Stand Against Tinubu

On Tuesday, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, in a Facebook post which he titled, “Principled Political Choices are not Betrayal”, explained his decision not to support the presidential bid of Tinubu, saying his stance should not be interpreted as a betrayal.

After he released the lengthy statement on his Facebook wall, Ojudu came under serious attacks from Tinubu’s followers and loyalists who accused him (Ojudu) of betrayal and double standard.

Ojudu, who claimed to have been receiving threat messages for his stance not to support Tinubu’s aspiration, said although he and Tinubu had been long-time associates, supporting the former governor’s presidential bid does not agree with his conscience and ideals.

The presidential aide, who seems to have taken sides with Osinbajo whose presidential bid he is now energetically promoting, in his Tuesday statement, said he was being threatened while his family members were being embarrassed because of his political opposition to Tinubu.

According to the statement, “I have seen a statement made by me, many years ago, to celebrate the 60th birthday anniversary of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu making the rounds. Yes, I did make that statement. And more of such will come in my autobiography. We, together, have seen good days and bad days.

“I and Bola Tinubu have come a long way and we have been there for each other. So, let no one use my acknowledgment of his good deeds and my refusal not to support him in his bid for Nigeria presidency portray me as a betrayer.

“Tinubu remains my leader and I will forever cherish him and the contributions he made to my Organisation during our fight against the military.

“He, however, knows I don’t follow the herd. I make my choices based on very rigid parameters. He will tell you I am very Independent in my actions and ways.

“As a third year university student my dad chose to be in NPN. I never considered the fact that he fed me and paid my school fees to join him in a party I despised. I went to UPN and became a youth leader.

“Tinubu will tell you that whatever and whoever Ojudu is committed to is in for 100 percent commitment. Reasons I did rather faced torture and possible death in General Sani Abacha’s detention than reveal certain things they wanted me to reveal about him.

“The idea that everyone who has related with Tinubu and disagrees with him on this Presidential bid is a traitor and a betrayal is puerile. Many of us, his associates, were not made by him as you also want the world to believe.

“We were already made before meeting him and in the course of relating we gave one another a helping hand. As far back as 1992 when I came to know him, I was already one of the editors of a popular news magazine with a good standing too in the civil society. I walked out of my job when our billionaire publisher (Chief MKO Abiola) requested I and my colleagues apologize to General Ibrahim Babangida over a story critical of the regime. That was 1992.

“When I left that job, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, a man whom I was indebted to greatly (gave me a scholarship in my school days alongside King Sunny Ade) invested in my publishing platform (The News, publisher of PM news). The same one that was consequential in the battle to bring democracy back to Nigeria.

“At the conclusion of that struggle, Chief Fawehinmi insisted we sit out politics. Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu disagreed with this notion, and I did as well. Against an obvious choice to blind loyalty, I went along with Senator Tinubu, even serving severally in critical roles as he assumed the governorship position. My actions angered Chief Gani so much he asked that I repay his investments. Guess what? I gladly did.

“So, if my principled stance against NPN, against IBB, and against “siddon look” was not betrayal of my father, Chief MKO Abiola, and Chief Gani Fawehinmi respectively, why would my principled stance against our leader’s present ambition be?

“So, on this matter of 2023, I wish him well but I cannot in good conscience give him my support or cast my vote for him in the coming primary. It is my right. I am above 60 years of age for God sake. I almost died seeking this inalienable democratic right, held up in detention and severally tortured. Your god is not my god.

“Let no one think he can browbeat or blackmail me to do what does not go with my conscience or my ideals. Enough of your phone threats and embarrassment of my family members.

“I know Tinubu. I respect and adore him. Many of his latter day supporters do not even know him. If they do, they won’t resort to emotional and physical blackmail. When Tinubu decided to go against Afenifere and the Yoruba elders in 2003 by not supporting President Olusegun Obasanjo, he wasn’t betraying the Yoruba nation or a traitor to Afenifere. He made a choice and history has been his judge. Let history be my own judge too. When he supported Chief Olu Falae against Chief Bola Ige, our respected leader, who fought for him to emerge as the candidate of Alliance for Democracy in Lagos, no one shouted betrayal.

“For the irritants who have been sending threat messages to me and members of my family or calling to abuse me for not supporting Tinubu, do know that is not democracy. It is something else. I spent my youth years fighting autocracy and intolerance of the military and I am still willing and ready, even now, to stand up for what I believe , even if it will cost me my life. Enough said.”

Meanwhile, former Governor of Niger State, Babangida Aliyu, on Tuesday, said the APC will give its presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections to Vice President Osinbajo.

Speaking at the ongoing 2022 annual lecture of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation in Kano State, the former governor, while referring to the National Leader of the APC, said the party would only be interested in his (Tinubu) money.

According to Aliyu, any “riff-raff or moneybag” will not get to the highest office in the country, even if they bring out money.

“No matter how much money he has, let him bring the money and we will collect it. Mr. Vice President, wherever you go, we will follow,”

He described Osinbajo as the best candidate for the ruling party. “Mr. Vice President, do you know you are the best candidate in your party?”

He stressed that Osinbajo has the acceptance of most Nigerians regardless of tribe, religion, and political party.

On Saturday, January 15, thousands of Nigerians campaigning for Osinbajo’s presidential aspiration converged on Kano where they unveiled a new support group called ‘New Nigerian Tribe’.

FreeStuffsNG:
Asiwaju Tinubu and a Northern Nigerian Patriot

mogbeyiteren:
Next president of Yoruba land

Sabadon:
Indeed Osibanjo will handle the economy, buhari will handle insecurity, and both re in the mud....iranu

Maxymilliano:
Animal talk ...

Osinbajo is part of this failed government and you cannot excused him from the numerous atrocities perpetrated under his nose.

He should go and rest as it's obvious he has nothing different to offer.