Still smarting from its victory in the just concluded presidential election, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, appears set for another leadership crisis, following the call on the National Chairman Adamu Abdullahi, to resign his position.
The call was made on Friday, in a statement by the APC Vice Chairman, North West, Salihu Ibrahim, who said it’s no longer fair for Adamu to remain in his position, in view of the emergence of two Muslims as President-elect and vice President -elect.
Salihu is referencing Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shetima who had been declared winner in the February 25 presidential election c inducted by the Independent National Electoral commission, INEC.
The two are Muslims. Salihu believes that Adamu should resign to pave way for a Christian National Chairman..
Salihu who has been known to defer with the party in the past, also demand led the resignation of Iyiola Omisore, the National Secretary of the party for the alleged role he played when the party lost the governorship election to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Osun state..
He said the resignation of Omisore will unite the party, calling him a divisive politician.
He has called on the party leadership to organise and emergency National Convention to effect these changes.
He stressed that with a National Chairman who is also a Muslim, it would be important that every necessary step is taken to inject a change of leadership in the party so that a new National Chairman who is a Christian can take over.
Lukman explained that part of the advantage of this is that the National Chairman could be retained in North-Central.
He said the current National Chairman has done an excellent job to manage a successful campaign to win the 2023 election with all the attendant challenges, there should be no difficulty in convincing Adamu to resign as National Chairman to create an opportunity for a new National Chairman of APC to emerge who is a Christian.
Lukman said: “For that to happen, it may require an Emergency National Convention because if the hierarchy of the current leadership is to be followed, the successor to Sen. Adamu will be Sen. Abubakar Kyari who is a Muslim from the North-East.”
“For that to happen may require an Emergency National Convention because if the hierarchy of the current leadership is to be followed, the successor to Sen. Adamu will be Sen. Abubakar Kyari who is a Muslim from North-East.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has debunked the claims that its former Director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Engr Chidi Nwafor invented the BVAS.
It, also, described as laughable the notion that his transfer to Enugu as the Administrative Secretary, was responsible for the crisis with BVAS, and that had he not been transferred, there could have been no breakdown of the Apps during the Presidential Election of February 25, 2023.
Laughable, too, according to INEC, is the erroneous belief that making Nwafor an Administrative Secretary was a demotion. It explained that it was, actually, an elevation, as the Administrative Secretary is INEC’s second-in-command in Enugu State.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, explained this on Thursday in Abuja in reaction to claims that Nwafor was the inventor of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System
Contrary to the claim, Oyekanmi said that BVAS was neither an invention of Nwafor nor that of any single staff member of INEC. BVAS, according to him, is a baby of INEC which created the idea and invented it, just as it did the rested Smart Card Reader (SCR).
He said: “Having decided to invent the BVAS, the Commission gave the assignment to the most relevant Department within the Commission, namely the ICT, to bring the idea into fruition.
“The ICT Department is populated by a sizable number of brilliant Engineers and IT experts, who worked very hard, as a team, for several months to successfully actualize the Commission ’s dream.
“After completing the assignment of designing the BVAS, the ICT Department notified the commission.
“Therefore, it is improper to insinuate that a former Director of ICT, or any other staff for that matter single-handedly designed the BVAS.”
He added that if anyone deserves commendation for the invention of BVAS, it should be Chairman, Yakubu, who makes the final decisions and INEC which conceived the idea.
On the claims that Nwafor’s transfer to Enugu was responsible for the glitches with the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in the Feb. 25 presidential election, Oyekanmi dismissed it as attempt to mislead and deceive the public.
His words: “First, the IReV and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) are two separate entities, and they are independent of each other.
“The relationship between the two is that the BVAS is used to transmit the picture of Form EC8A, which is the Polling Unit Result Sheet in PDF format, as well as the Voters’ Accreditation Data to the IReV.
“Therefore, the glitches suffered by the IReV for some hours on Feb. 25 could not have affected the functionality of the BVAS, which in any case, performed its duty excellently on election day.
“There’s also a provision for the BVAS to transmit the Polling Unit (PU) results in offline mode if there is no network at the polling unit at the time of the activity.
He said that Nwafor’s presence could not have stopped the glitches.
He noted: “Recently, Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter had serious glitches that prevented many people, including me, from using those applications for many hours.
“But, eventually, the respective companies surmounted the challenges.
“Now, would you say that the glitches occurred just because one Engineer resigned from, or was transferred, within the company? Of course not.”
Oyekanmi praised Nwafor as brilliant, but pointed out that the Commission also boasts of other brilliant minds.
“While the former ICT Director is indeed a respected, brilliant employee who played his role satisfactorily, there are equally other staff members within the Commission that could effectively play his former role.”
He debunked the claims that Nwafor’s transfer to Enugu State as Administrative Secretary was a demotion. On that, he pointed out:
“Again, contrary to this impression that the position of Administrative Secretary is a demotion, I would say that it is an elevation.
“The administrative Secretary at our State office is the most senior staff there, second only to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).
“It’s like the role of a Permanent Secretary in a Federal Parastatal.
“When the REC is not around, the Administrative Secretary becomes an Acting Rec. That’s how important the position is.”
Not a few Nigerians hold the view that Nwafor invented the BVAS, and was deliberately transferred to Enugu a few months to the election, to give room for manipulation of the App during the General Elections.
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, says the fire outbreak at Akere SpareParts Market and the Ikeja Train/Bus accident are mishaps too many for the good people of Lagos state.
The Presidential flag bearer said his heart goes out to the victims of the various mishaps in Lagos and other parts of the country as he prays for God to supply them with the required fortitude needed at this time.
Obi said that “the sad news of the fire outbreak at Akere Spare Parts Market in Olodi, Apapa, Ajegunle Lagos plus the train-bus accident that left deaths, injuries and loss of properties at this critical time are disheartening, knowing the hardship Nigerians are going through already.
“I commiserate deeply with all those affected by these accidents. I call on the affected government and relevant authorities to investigate the cause of the accidents thoroughly, and forestall future occurrence while finding ways to help the affected victims”
Obi said that there is a need for equal protection under the law, and the Government’s meeting of its responsibility to protect lives and property cannot be over-emphasized
He noted that in a new Nigeria of his dream which is possible, lives of citizens and their property will be better appreciated because the system will work and avoidable accidents reduced drastically.
The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, allegedly, cancelled a Scholarship Scheme instituted by his predecessor because the Igbo were benefitting from it.
Wike’s predecessor, Chibuike Amaechi, revealed this at a stakeholders interaction with the very large Igbo Community in Rivers State where he appealed to them to vote for the Governorship candidate of his Party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the March 18, Governorship Election, Tonye Cole.
Amaechi, a foundation member of the APC, who is the immediate past Minister for Transportation, has been indifferent to political activities since he lost the APC Presidential Ticket to Bola Tinubu, now the President-elect. He was not present at most Presidential Campaign rallies, and was conspicuously absent when the Party held its Presidential Rally in Porthacourt, Rivers State.
Aside from his loss to Tinubu, Amaechi, this medium gathered, feels betrayed by the leadership of the APC which surprisingly struck a deal with Wike without referring to him. He was ignored all through the discussions that led to Wike’s support for the Presidential ambition of Tinubu. In appreciation, a faction of the APC, which recently announced that Amaechi is no longer their leader, has promised to give full support to Wike’s Governorship Candidate, Sim Fubara. The Governor is of the PDP.
Now, Amaechi is fighting back. Wooing the Igbo Community, he appealed to them to vote APC candidate, Tonye Cole. As an incentive to the Igbo, he promised that all their properties seized from them after the Civil War, and labelled abandoned property, will be returned to them.
He said: “I am sorry for the issue of abandoned properties. I apologised to you when I became governor and I am still apologizing. We are sorry.
“In the North, the Igbo, who returned after the war, were given back their properties, but here our people seized them and called them abandoned properties.
“The second thing I did as Governor was to abolish the disparity in school fees between indigenes and non-indigenes.
“Thirdly, I instituted a scholarship for all, irrespective of State of origin, as long as you were in Rivers State.
“But when I left office, the next governor cancelled that scholarship on the premise that Igbo people were benefiting from it. I employed 13,200 teachers in this state and 3,000 of them were Igbo people”.
Amaechi, therefore, asked the Igbo community to come out en masse to vote for Cole.
“Anything you have lost in this state through violence, whether house or properties, please write your name and phone number and give to us. We will give them back to you”, he promised.
Speaking, the APC Governorship candidate Cole, promised to protect the interests and businesses of the Igbo.
He said: “The future of Rivers State and Nigeria is at stake. Democracy is about giving people the right to chose their leaders.
“I am one of you. Igbo blood runs in me. My mum is Igbo, my wife is Igbo, you have nothing to fear.”
The Governorship election is slated for Saturday March, 18, 2023.
President Muhammadu Buhari has described, as wishful thinking, those suggesting that his government is planning to annul the results of the recently conducted presidential election.
The president said he does not want to create another June 12. He was referencing the cancellation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, MKO, but was annulled by former military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the disputed election conducted on February 25.
The former Lagos state governor defeated his closest rival in the keenly contested election Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP who have now gone to court to challenge the results.
Some Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasqnjo have also called on the INEC to conduct a fresh election, on the basis that the one that produced Tinubu was flawed by irregularities.
But President Buhari, in a statement by Garba Shehu his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, said those aggrieved can go to court, that the government will not cancel the election, as doing so will lead to serious crisis capable of destabilising the country.
The statement said, “The wishful thinkers appeared to assume that the June 12, 1993 election crisis, the worst ever since the Civil War could be recreated.
“Those who sought to do this forgot what the President said at the palace of the Gbong-Gwon Jos, when he went to the city to inaugurate the Tinubu-Shettima campaign: ‘This election will not be annulled; whoever is the winner will be president.”
Shehu assured Nigerians that President Buhari will hand over to a new government on May 29 to serve as an example to other African countries.
A Professor at the Bayero University, Kano, Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai, has confessed that the results he submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, at the National Collation Centre, were fake.
Professor Yakassai was an Electoral Officer in the February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
In a letter he personally signed and addressed to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Yakassai said he and the other officers, were forced to sign and submit the fake results so as to save their lives.
He said they were threatened with instant death by thugs who invaded his Collation Centre, and threatened to burn down the facility unless he announced the fake results within the hour. To save their lives and the INEC facility, he obeyed them and announced fake results.
Part of his letter reads:
“I served as Electoral Officer for the 2023 Tudun Wada/Doguwa House of Representatives elections, the results of which I announced on February 26, 2023.
“I would like to testify that the statement I made was under duress for fear of losing my life and that of other INEC officials who were with me.
“The Collation area was completed under siege by thugs who threatened to burn down the INEC facility if I didn’t report the result within an hour.
“I was completely traumatized, hopeless, and confused which did not give me the mental stability to work in accordance with the Electoral law and Electoral Guidelines”
According to him, a number of polling stations where elections were canceled, did not “compare to the total number of accredited voters on the fringes.”
Lamenting, he said the difficult situation they “found ourselves in could not allow us to deal with the complaints about the non-use of BVAS in some polling stations.
“I hope that my testimony will be kindly examined and that the necessary action will be taken under Section 65 of the Elections Act 2022.”
The conduct of the Elections on February 25, has been strongly dismissed by not a few people as very much below standard.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo Olu has declared a three-day mourning for victims of the Bus Rapid Transit, BRT, and train collision which led to the death of, so far, eight people. Several others were injured in the early Thursday morning crash.
The BRT used as a Staff Bus was conveying workers of the Lagos State Government to the State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, early Thursday morning when it collided with a train at the PWD Bus Stop.
85 State Government Workers were recorded to have boarded the Bus which came from Isolo around 7:30 am, heading to Alausa.
Two people died on the spot while six later died at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.
At the PWD rail crossing, the driver attempted to make a dangerous turning but was caught up with the coming train, which dragged it to another spot.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, who visited the victims at the hospital, also announced the suspension of all political campaigns and ordered half-day work for state workers, starting from Friday beginning from 12pm, just as he equally ordered the flag to be flown at half-mast.
At the hospital, 42 were found to have suffered moderate injuries. The number of those with severe injuries was put at 29.
Sanwo-Olu thanked the Governorship Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. AbdulAzeez Olajide Adediran, popularly called Jandor, and the candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Rhodes-Vivour for visiting the scene of the accident.
Also, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, suspended a political walk across Agege following the train accident.
The Speaker met the thousands of youth, men and women as they walked towards the Pen Cinema area of Agege on his way from an official engagement and abruptly stopped them.
Obasa described the train accident as a sad occurrence just as he sympathised with the families of the victims.
The Speaker thanked the various groups for their support, while asking them to return home in honour of those affected by the accident.
“I want to thank you all for coming out because of me. You have planned this walk since over three weeks and I understand.
“However, there was a sad incident today. A train collided with a bus conveying government staff and I learnt that casualties were recorded.
“You can imagine people who left their homes to go to work only to experience such terrible accident.
“As a result of this, I want to urge us all to return to our homes for the sake of the victims. Nobody prays to experience such. So I understand the feelings of the victims’ loved ones at this moment.
“I commiserate with the families of those who lost their lives and support Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu as his administration commences a probe of the incident.
“I also urge us all to pray for the bereaved families and the injured as you all return home,” Obasa told the crowd.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has observed that the burning of a spare parts market in Lagos is one of the fallouts of the defeat of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state during the last presidential election.
While commiserating with victims of the incident, the opposition political party called on security agents to bring to book the arsonists.
In a statement on Thursday, the party’s spokesman, Debo Ologunagba stated that “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) condemns in very strong terms the barbaric and unprovoked burning of Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Market in Lagos by suspected hoodlums alleged to be agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The PDP bewails the heartless killing of 65 years old Baba Hakeem, the brave security guard at the market, who was reportedly shot dead by the arsonists before touching the market to destroy goods worth hundreds of millions of Naira and devastate the lives and means of livelihood of innocent, hard-working Nigerians.
“This attack further exposes the APC as a Party of vicious, hateful and vindictive power mongers, who derive pleasure in inflicting pain and anguish on other citizens.
“Our Party is shocked by reports in the media that after the announcement of the loss of the APC in the Presidential election in Lagos State the arsonists last Thursday made attempt to set the market on fire, but were resisted by security guards in the area who were shot in the leg by the assailants.
“Numerous public analysts had expressed the opinion that APC agents are resorting to violence with the intension to foist a siege mentality on the polity, frighten and discourage citizens from exercising their civic responsibility in a democracy.
“This is a clear danger to the sustenance of democracy and corporate existence of our nation.
“Moreover, this attack on Nigerians by suspected APC agents confirms fears in the public domain that the APC intends to perpetuate a hate-inclined, repressive, vindictive and abusive administration in total disregard to rights of citizens, Constitutional Order and the Rule of Law.
“The PDP calls on the security agencies to ensure the immediate apprehension of the arsonists, their backers and make them face the full wrath of the law.
“Our Party commiserates with the family of Baba Hakeem as well as all the victims of the Akere Motor Parts and Allied Dealers Market over this cruel action by suspected APC agents.
“We call on all citizens to remain at alert, united and not allow the APC break the bond of unity that exists among Nigerians.”
President Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been asked to ensure massive youth participation in his proposed Federal Cabinet.
In a statement on Thursday, the Yoruba Afenifere Youth Organisation of Nigeria (YAYON) warned those alleged to be planning mayhem after the Gubernatorial election to desist from doing so.
The group said it has set up a monitoring team to fish out trouble makers and report them to security operatives.
YAYON said youth inclusion in the Federal Cabinet will go a long way in reducing social unrest across the country.
The umbrella body of youth organisatiions from the South West, also, congratulated the President-Elect on his victory in the February 25 Presidential election.
The Afenifere Youth Organisation earlier had mobilised thousands of supporters across the South West months before the Presidential election to sensitize the electorates on the need to vote and defend their votes regardless of any intimidation that may arise.
The Group said, “We join our Afenifere leader worldwide; Pa Reuben Fasooranti to congratulate Asiwaju.”
The statement was signed jointly by the Yoruba Youth National Leader, Comrade Eric Oluwole, leaders of Yoruba Youth Alliance, Mr Lekan Wilki; Yoruba Youth Community Policing, Abiodun Rosanwo, representative of Yoruba Afenifere Youths, Adewale Adeyemo, and leader of Congress of Yoruba Youths, Yinka Adedugbe.
The group warned people allegedly planning to jeopardise the ongoing efforts of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, and his team from putting in place a more credible electoral system that will help greatly in stabilising Nigeria’s Democracy through free and fair elections.
According to the statement: “The Yoruba Youth groups came together under the Yoruba Afenifere Youth Organisations of Nigeria (YAYON).
“We join our Afenifere Leader worldwide, Pa Reuben Fasoranti to congratulate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an illustrious Yoruba son and a Leader of superlative qualities who ranks among the brightest stars, for emerging victorious in the last presidential election as the incoming President of our Great Country, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We strongly believe that Asiwaju Tinubu, as President, will use his exceptional leadership traits to address the prevailing worrisome challenges confronting Nigeria, which have their roots in the unjust, lopsided and imbalanced federal system imposed by the military, which, for many years, has been suppressing the noble aspirations of our people, and thereby has been stifling the true development of the generality of our Country’s composite ethnic groups and dragging us backwards.
The group said “Like our revered Leader, Pa Reuben Famuyide Fasoranti counselled Asiwaju to be a true federalist who will restructure this Country, we equally call on our President-Elect to hearken to the long term popular cry of our People across the length and breadth of our Motherland for an urgent restructuring of Nigeria into a true federalism where every citizen will be given equal rights; where no citizen will again be subjected to any discrimination based on his language, religion or social status; and where true Justice, fairness and egalitarianism shall prevail for all indiscriminately.
“We strongly believe that Asiwaju Tinubu, in view of his brilliant credentials as a highly gifted and compassionate Leader,
a dogged fighter and gallant leader of the nation’s pro-democracy struggles in our nation’s darkest hours, is eminently qualified to restructure Nigeria and give us a new Country that all the citizens will be proud of, into which the thousands of our brothers and sisters who had fled the hardship at home to seek refuge abroad and are now living on crumbs and demeaning jobs, will wish to return soonest and join in the new up-building of Nigeria into a Haven of Joy, Happiness and Progress, of harmonious and peaceful co-existence among all the composite groups.
“We use this medium also to warn those people who have intentions to attack the INEC chairman and jeopardise his effort in stabilizing our democracy in terms of free and fair elections, to desist.from their unpatriotic campaigns and plans.
“Long live our President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu! Long live the Good People of this Great Country still with rich potential for the heights! Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
Trying to fit him into a mold can be sometimes problematic. I have always thought of him as a teacher and mentor. And later, only much later, as a friend. For over three decades he has been more than enough in each of these roles.
My path with Dr. Yemi Osinbajo, as he then was, first crossed at the University of Lagos when he was a lecturer at the Faculty of Law and I was a student at the Department of Mass Communication at the same university. Just a busybody trying to indulge my fantasy of becoming a pocket lawyer, I met him out of curiosity.
One of his students and good friend of mine who passed on many years ago, Sunday Okoli, fondly called Harry, gave the impression that the Law Faculty had four of the university’s biggest talisman – Jelili Omotola, Oyelowo Oyewo, Amos Utuama and Osinbajo.
One day, I strayed into one of Osinbajo’s classes in what can only be described as ambulatory trespass. I was struck by his charm, ease of delivery and how his students connected with him. I thought to myself as I snuck out, with a lecturer like this, perhaps I should have studied law? I never returned to his class but that encounter stayed with me.
I followed him through the many pleasant stories Harry told of him but our paths never crossed again until many years later when he was appointed Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos by Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In 1999, Lagos was a mess. A big mess.
Although the city still retained its vibrancy and boisterousness as the country’s commercial capital, years of neglect and centralised government had robbed it of vital energy, threatening to bury it in crime and filth.
To make matters worse for a new government at the time, a nasty turf war between the PDP-controlled central government and the six AD states in the South-West (including Lagos), meant that any serious attempt at clean-up which obviously required significant resources from the centre, would be a tug of war.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, smarting from the humiliation of the 1999 election in which he was roundly rejected by his home base, the South-West, was not in any mood to do Lagos or any other states in the region any favours.
The mission to clean up, rebuild and renew the city (among several other election promises made by Tinubu) would require tough, even brutal, political engagement; no less than it would also involve soft skills, especially prudent and robust use of the law, to clear landmines and claw back vast subnational territory long appropriated by the unitarist state, rendering the federating units mere appendages of the centre.
It was in the pursuit of this latter part that Osinbajo, a member of Tinubu’s outstanding cabinet at the time, had to deploy his legal genius in public service for the first time outside the classroom.
Azu Ishiekwene
Leading human rights activist and senior advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, once told me that even though political activism will continue to be a major tool to restructure Nigeria, the progress made through legal activism has been largely understated.
Before Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike made VAT a court issue, challenging the right of the federal government to collect the taxes from the state, Lagos had been there in its quest to expand its income and the relative autonomy of the constituent states by testing the law.
Osinbajo led Lagos in a series of litigations to claw back swathes lost to federal meddling in areas such as creation of local governments, physical planning, title registration, registration and production of vehicle number plates and casino licensing. In the area of physical planning and title registration specifically, the court ruled that the federal government has no land. The Land Use Act vests ownership and control of land in state governments.
In a ruling in 2019 in a case earlier originated by Lagos State when Osinbajo was AG, the state also secured a judgement that upheld its right to charge and collect consumption tax from hotels, restaurants and event centres within the state.
The judgement is based on the principle that the power to impose consumption tax is on the Residual List. This judgement was also given against the FIRS that deemed that it had the right to collect those taxes.
These battles on legal interpretations of the Constitution are not cut and dried. The dispute that arose over the right of control of inland waterways between the federal and state governments, for example, was fought in court for over 10 years, before a ceasefire was brokered between the National Inland Waterways Authority and Lagos State.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable legal battles of all in Osinbajo’s time in Lagos was in the case of Attorney General of Lagos State v. Attorney General of the Federation 2004, a feisty and protracted legal tango in which Lagos sought to recover local government funds seized by Obasanjo after his futile attempt to crush and capture Tinubu’s government in an electoral heist which claimed five of the six states in the South-West region for the PDP.
That recovery effort, in the words of Osinbajo, “made Lagos to start thinking like a sovereign.” It set the tone for raising the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from around N600 million monthly in 1999 to N45 billion as of 2021.
It also set the tone for Osinbajo’s performance on the bigger stage.
Have you seen him lately? His hair has greyed not a little since he became Vice President eight years ago. Which is a little surprising considering that former President Goodluck Jonathan, himself a former Vice President, once said a Vee Pee’s job is essentially to read newspapers.
Or to quote first US Vice President, John Adams, who described his office in a letter to his wife as, “the most insignificant contrivance” ever contrived by man.
But that’s precisely the source of Osinbajo’s festering grey hair. In the last eight years, the job of Nigeria’s vice president has been anything but a spare. He has been acting President during which time he took a few of the most consequential decisions.
His office has been at the heart of Nigeria’s first attempt to develop a social safety net programme.When COVID-19 hit with its depredations, the database from the safety net programme came in handy.
Osinbajo has been the Buhari government’s face-of-the-youth, rallying them, speaking to and for them on all things – from crypto to ICT and innovations. Surely, in a country where people under 40 form about 65 percent of the population, these exertions are more than “insignificant contrivance.”
I’m not so sure how meaningful his knowledge of the law and expertise in jurisprudence has been to this government. One thing he has been passionate about which the government has flaunted, however, is the Ease of Doing Business. It’s largely to his credit that Nigeria has improved from a ranking of 169 (out of 190 countries) in 2016 to 131 two years ago.
I have sometimes wondered what is next for him, after he leaves office. Of course, he has a thriving law practice from which he was extricated to serve as Buhari’s running-mate one fateful morning in December 2014 after an appearance in a case at the Supreme Court, Abuja. If he returns to his Chambers in Lagos, it may well be a holding place.
At 66, he remains a calm, thoughtful debater and fun to be around. He has inspired and challenged millions of people, especially the young and the young at heart across ethnic and party-lines, to believe. With an extraordinary sense of humour, a rock-solid wife and a heart of faith, his best years of service to God and country still lie ahead.
He is not only a teacher, mentor and friend. He is, above all, a leader for all times.
