By Uche Mbah
Vice president Yemi Osinbajo may have become targets of Northern irredentists that see him as not fitting into their plot to retain power in the North come 2023. Besides, he may allgedly not fit into the Ruga project, and may have to be checkmated.
For the past weeks, rumors have been flying around that the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, is being regarded as an anti-fulani man, and that his allegedly perceived ambition to rule the country after the incumbent must be nipped in the bud. This has been dismissed by those, particularly from the south west, who strongly believe that the Vice president is strongly rooted as a loyal protégé of President Buhari. But recent happenings tend to lend credence to the rumors.
The Presidency Monday had dissolved the economic advisory team headed by Osinbajo to reconstitute a new one that will be reporting directly to the President. This has made the Vice President more redundant, since he will have little to do under the new arrangement. Rumors are also rife that the removal of the economy from him is only the beginning of his humiliation. “In the near future, the National Emergency Management agency, NEMA, and the Social Investment Program, SIP, will be pulled from under him. These are agencies he statutorily chairs. But you know that the VP is only a spare tire and can only do what he is told by the president. And he stands as an obstacle to powerful Northern forces that are hell bent on retaining power in the North come 2023. As for (Bola} Tinubu, we shall see”, a source had told this magazine over the weekend.
Both NEMA and SIP may be moved to the newly created Ministry of Humanitarian affairs.
Part of the reasons, the magazine was told, is the new Ruga drive which he will be unwilling to be part of. This Magazine had reported that the Ruga issue was to accommodate Fulanis who were allegedly brought to Nigeria in the wake of 215 elections to facilitate the removal of President Jonathan from office. When Jonathan left, it became difficult to decide what to do with them, and, after being neglected by the government, they formed the nucleus of terrorism in the guise of herdsmen attacks and kidnapping as part of their self help strategy. This was allegedly why the government is weak in trying to deal with them. So the Ruga settlements were muted as a way of integrating them within the enclave called Nigeria.
Recently, government gleefully announced that Ruga will settle all Fulanis in Nigeria, since according to them, all Fulanis are Nigerian, no matter where they come from.In a recent interview with Channels television, Governor Bala of Bauchi confirmed this.
When asked why Nigeria should accommodate Fulanis who are not Nigerians, this was his answer:
“We are already accommodating them. Do you delineate and then know who is not a Fulani man from Nigeria? They are all Nigerians, because I said their identity, their own citizenship is Nigerian, even though we have relations all over the world, all over Africa. And so presumably they are Nigerians.”
