Osinbajo: Game-Changer?

By Dan Abubakar

And all of a sudden the 2023 Presidential election race is taking on a different aspect –  from  the  mild irritation, then outright annoyance at the motley crowd of characters who seem to think that running for the presidency is a contest for a chieftaincy stool, driven by thoughts of the privileges the position confers rather than  a sacrificial opportunity to take on the immense challenges it presents. Indeed many of our aspirants even by their posturing alone had come to trivialise politics and make politicians, at least the present set, seem like an unserious bunch  at a time the nation is faced with grave difficulties.

Enter Prof Yemi Osinbajo, current vice president and  the political terrain is animated by the possibility of a new  narrative.

Pitching his cap into the ring this week, he appears to have provoked the ire of those with notions of entitlement to the presidency. Cheap shots of betrayal, mainly from the Tinubu camp, are being lobbed in his direction.

Much of it is of course nonsense  as you have to wonder how Tinubu could have made   a man who was already a professor of law at the time he served in Tinubu’s cabinet in Lagos. But in the dark art of politics, as Donald Trump reminds us, the big lie is a ready and surprisingly effective tool. Repeat it often enough and it would stick or at least sow doubts.

But no where is mischief more manifest than in the present attempts, promoted notably by a U.S -based  armchair know-all, to paint  Osinbajo as a raving religious fanatic out to conquer the world for the Redeemed Church!  It is a charge being amplified by political opponents who until now never saw the inside of a mosque or knew the direction of the east.

To respond to every one of such charges  is to distract from the needed conversation on the serious issues of the day quite apart from giving the purveyors undeserved attention. But publicity whether negative or positive is the oxygen of politics and the Osinbajo camp may secretly be delighted that their man has in such a short time become  the focus of attention, leaving the other political aspirants  at least in the APC, struggling for space.

It is clear why Osinbajo is getting such attention. First he does not belong to our run of the mill class of tired and jaded politicians who have little ambition  beyond serving self with the privileges, perquisites and ill-gotten gains of office. Politicians of such ilk are hostile to ideas and to any talk of programmes to implement in office. They are at home sowing conflict and division, manipulating tribe and religion.

And now comes Osinbajo with a rich pedigree and education who does not fit into their familiar categories,making them very uncomfortable.

He speaks of techpreneurs and creating a tech economy  to absorb a large segment of our youth population.  He speaks of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within a decade and establishing the Nigeria of our dreams in a short time. He speaks of deploying the country’s immense resources “to birth the greatest black nation on earth”.

This may be just inspirational talk at the moment which fails to acknowledge the baleful legacy the next president has to inherit and which he will be constantly reminded, no matter how unfairly, he has been part of.  Indeed he would constantly face the challenge of drawing a fine line between his office and the position he held and his actual role for there is no running away from acknowledging the present anguish of Nigerians and the primary source, an administration many see as failing to address their pain.

Still when last did you hear a Nigerian leader speak to our hopes rather than drive our fears of a future even worse than the present?

There is no doubt Osinbajo has much work ahead if he is to clinch the APC nomination.

But to the extent that his entry into the race forces us to take a more critical look at the nature of our politics and the quality of aspirants to political positions, his candidacy seems poised to enjoy great traction and to elevate the political conversation.

Abubakar, a Political Analyst, wrote from Abuja