Prof. Osinbajo And His Hired Obituarists -By Nathan Emmanuel

After reading through Abimbola Adelakun’s carefully scribbled propaganda titled “now that Osinbajo survived his obituarists”, published in the Punch, one would conclude that the Nigerian media space is a deluge of paid assassins who are responsible for smearing and undermining the reputation of people with incredible antecedents, impeccable character, and intimidating credentials. One is therefore forced to ask, “who’s afraid of the towering popularity of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo?”

We know that paid propagandist like Abimbola Adelakun, would cease to exist the day she stops writing invective articles against a government that is making frantic efforts to put Nigeria on the path of greatness. Since the inception of this government, Auntie Adelakun has never written anything good about this regime. But of course, one is not surprised; her economic survival depends on her ability to twist facts in order score cheap political points and as a way of massaging the brutally deflated ego of those political displaced individuals that benefited from the old order. Although, these individuals, those whose interest Adelakun protects, have been forced to their political cocoons, her constant wailing on the pages of newspaper are a reminder that the profiteers of the old regime still grind their teeth in their closets. Her voice represents the cries and tears of the looters of yesteryears. No matter how much she tries to shield her malicious and wicked intention, Nigerians with critical minds understand her very well.

President Muhammadu Buhari did not make a speck of mistake by appointing an intelligent, amiable, tested and trusted personality like Osinbajo. A country, whose tolerance for corruption was second to none, needed a Buhari and an Osinbajo to untangle the grips of greed, sleaze, pilfering, plundering and other negative vestiges that characterised governance of the past regimes. However, the enemies of this nation, knowing well that one of the reasons this government is succeeding in all fronts, is due to the cordial relationship that exist between Buhari and Osinbajo, are struggling hard to splinter this enviable conviviality. But of course, they will fail because a house built on deceit cannot stand the test of hurricane. The poor, who are the majority; the ordinary Nigerians, who are the greatest beneficiaries of this regime, those who queued in the sun to make sure that Buhari and Osinbajo’s re-election did suffer mishap, will equally queue behind this government, to ensure that the good works they started are perfected.

It is visible to the blind and audible to deaf that there are lots of enemies who are not comfortable and happy with the cordial relationship between the President and his Vice. Many are intimidated by the perfect combination of the two leaders who are striving to re-write the history of this country, as expressed through their genuine deeds and actions. The humane disposition of the duo and their simple lifestyle are proofs that they both see life from same prism. There are evidences that the President and his Vice are closely knitted; what Adelakun and her ilks always struggle to destroy through cheap antics.

How can a right-thinking person write that the Vice President has been “systematically denuded of the power due to his office” without pointing at even a single constitutional power that was snatched from Osinbajo? The article can therefore be best described as a futile effort to discredit one of the most cerebral Nigerians to have occupied the position of Vice President within the context of the country’s embrace of democracy. As much as we know, none of the duties of the Vice President as provided by the constitution has been taken away from him.

What Adelakun described as the obituary of the Vice President was nothing but futile media spectacle orchestrated to crack the enduring relationship between Buhari and the Vice President. As a matter of fact, the so-called obituary started and ended in the media and nothing more. It was a brief jostling between truth and falsehood and as we know, when there is a combat between truth and falsehood, the latter will always crumble and prostrate before the former. Someone should remind her that paid media propaganda has a short lifespan within communication ecology. Like smoke, it vaporises with time. It is even more fleeting when the thrust of the propagandist is rooted in lies, deceits and hoaxes.

Adelakun and her paid-masters have failed because no amount of media weaponisation against the person of Osinbajo can decimate his popularity. His works are always there to speak for him, even when he is no longer on the political field. Good men like Osinbajo have a way of recreating themselves in the minds of people; they don’t die politically. Even when they are no more, the symphonies of their good deeds will be coated eternally on the lips of people. Yes, their good deeds always outlive them.

Nigerians have not forgotten how the economic team of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan plunged the nation into abyss of recession. Recall that the then economic team was led by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, an expert in finance and economics. During this inglorious era, there were series of rhetoric on diversification and revitalization which ended up an illusion. Instead, what the nation witnessed were some voodoo growth figures that did window dressing but in reality left us perpetually attached to the apron of the zero-sum and precarious oil economy. Although not an economist or expert in finance, Osinbajo’s perfect blend of intelligence, perspicacity and sincerity has ridiculed economists and financial experts; he succeeded where some economists and financial experts had woefully failed. Let me now ask, can such enigma die politically and so easily?

Now that the country is out of recession, is anything wrong if the government changes strategy by constituting Economic Advisory Council, while Osinbajo concentrates on the constitutional duties of a Vice President? Does that amount to denudation of the Vice President’s powers? I wonder why some Nigerians find it difficult to use their heads to think.

In the history of democracy in Nigeria, Osinbajo is a cypress among pliant shrubs; he stands out among his contemporaries. It is not just because he is a pastor of one of the largest and most influential religious assemblies in the world as Adelakun and other rabid critics of the Vice President would always want us to believe. Standing tall, distinguished, and venerated in the murky water of Nigerian politics, requires a tested and trust character, and these virtues have placed Osinbajo above the amoral atmosphere that the polity epitomises.

Yes, Osinbajo is pastor and a professor of law, but his resourcefulness and reliability in helping to steer the ship of nation building under the leadership of President Buhari in times of peace and in times of turbulence are what endear him to Nigerians. Pastors and professors world over are not respected merely for their ascribed appellations or titles; they are largely respected for their character.

Osinbajo will always survive his obituarists because they often ride on the wings of manipulation, misinformation and disinformation to trade their wares, using vapid vituperators like Adelakun as conduit. Thus, while the hired obituarists continue to beat their drum of resentment, bile and hatred, Vice President Osinbajo will continue to provide solid support to the President. The greatness of this country is non-negotiable.

Nathan is an Abuja-based media consultant.