The Trial of Brother VP -By Kenny Oladipo

There’s a saying that catches one’s attention whenever it’s uttered, “ if you don’t know where you are going, every bus stop looks like it”. Prior to the 2015 Election, Gen. Buhari of CPC a formidable party in the North West, and Asiwaju Tinubu of ACN another viable political party in the South West came together to form APC with the primary aim of wresting political power from the PDP. In 2015, the newly formed political party went on to displace the incumbent president and his party out of office. An outcome that reset the balance of power in overall scheme of things in the country.

Before the 2015 Election, APC by the circumstance of its formation was a party without a distinct ideological identity rather it was a special purpose vehicle to attain political power. Hence, strange political bedfellows of all ideological stripes found a tent under which to camp. Disenchanted PDP members moved in droves to join foundational members that made the alliance possible in the first place. The admixture of folks of questionable antecedents with the self-appointed anti corruption brigades morphed into an unholy alliance. The division was apparent but common goal of winning the presidency temporarily refocused everyone’s gaze, papering over the noticeable cracks.
While still struggling to hold disparate groups together, another political dynamic arose at the time of selecting the running mate for Gen. Buhari. Ordinarily, the choice would have been straightforward given that the top man in CPC is at the top of the ticket, it’s only sensible to nominate the top man in ACN as the running mate for the presidential ticket. Unfortunately, both individuals are of the same religion prompting a rebalancing of the power structure. In the magnanimity of Asiwaju Tinubu, Prof Osinbajo was instead tapped to take the spot. The VP came into office without a political base of his own and relies wholly on the political structure he doesn’t control. As it is typical in politics, you’re as relevant as the political base behind you. Ab initio, the VP’s political clout was limited and his own political footprint nearly insignificant to the presidency he deputizes.

APC as a party prepared very well for Election Day not so much for the Day after. The party planned to achieve political power but not necessarily what to do with it afterwards. The fractures within the party soon became evident once victory was won. Three factions popped up within the party at the time. The Saraki/Atiku Group, Buhari Group and Tinubu Group, a dangerous political triad that threatened the stability of the new party and by extension the nation. After it’s all said and done Saraki/Atiku Group got the National Assembly, Buhari Group the Presidency and Tinubu Group got the short end of the stick. This trip through the memory lane is to properly predicate the basis for the current power play in motion in the country.

In the first term of the present administration, Asiwaju Tinubu was the person that went through similar political humiliation that VP Osinbajo is now going through in the second term of the same administration. However, like a cat with nine lives, he worked his way back into political relevance and eventually dominated all his political detractors in the process. His political revival was only possible because he has a solid political base that he almost single handedly nurtured behind him, a base that can deliver critical votes to ensure victory for President Buhari in 2019 and did deliver. Asiwaju Tinubu not only got back in the game, his preferred candidates for the leadership positions in the Senate and House of Representatives that were denied in 2015, sit atop the National Assembly power cubes.
Fast forward to the present VP Osinbajo’s travails in the same government he worked so hard to see succeed is somewhat disheartening but shouldn’t come as a surprise because political persecution comes with the territory. A quintessential tool applied to either frustrate a burgeoning political career or whittle down political influence. To a vigilant observer, the overarching political subterfuge is apparent. The question to ask then is, how and where did the once enviable relationship between the President and his beloved Professor go sideways. Perhaps, a clash of agendas may be blamed. In retrospect, then Acting President Osinbajo inadvertently made a few rookie political missteps and those actions are now being used as a powerful cudgel by political enemies and rivals alike to beat him into submission. As it’s often said hindsight is 20/20.

First, the sack of the Director General of DSS occasioned by the bizarre invasion of the National Assembly Complex by some security personnel seemed necessary on the flip side. The downside to the action however was that it removed a position that’s held by the North from its grasp and immediately transferred it to South South (that didn’t vote for the president) by a stroke of the pen. The additional fact that the individual is a relation of the president is a secondary consideration. Before anyone says is it how it’s supposed to be in democracy, and the obvious answer is yes. Even in the US as advanced as their democracy is, Republican presidents neither nominate Democrats to substantive and sensitive positions, nor from states that aren’t his party’s political stronghold and same rule applies to Democratic Presidents. Frankly speaking, consequent upon the ridiculousness of the event, a tough response was warranted to calm down the political frenzy that gripped the nation at the time, a more judicious course of action should have been a suspension instead of an outright removal. The final determination of the individual’s fate ought to rest solely on the substantive President. By removing the DG, the Acting President effectively deprived his boss the ability to choose or retain his own team. Because a president has to the sole right to choose whomever he wants to work with, the Acting President could have threaded more carefully political pressure of the hour notwithstanding.

Second, the appointment of the Chief Justice of the Federation ratified by the Acting President was another sore point. This decision should have been left for the President to make on his return. It’s unnecessary to relitigate the sequence of events that followed and the embarrassing situation it left in its wake.

Third, appointment of aides to fill spots already occupied by presidential aides was an unnecessary move. The prudent step should have been to draft some of the president’s aides into those positions and then add a few others to complement or supplement them. Had this been done, the Acting President would have secured the loyalty and trust of these aides. Keep in mind that the president won the mandate and all his men deserve to be carried along pending the return of their boss.

Fourth, this perhaps is the most damning of the missteps. Some individuals with questionable characters milked their access to the VP and probably enriched themselves in a dubious way. These folks exploited the openness and simplicity of the VP to do some corrupt acts. That said, guilt by association is a proven and potent smear campaign there is and expectedly it’s being used to tarnish the image of the VP and to diminish his standing in the court of public opinion. Needless to say that in politics, optics is everything.

Fifth, the VP is a political threat to the ambitions of quite a few politicians as planning for 2023 begins to hit its stride and any opportunity to damage the integrity and cordial relationship between President Buhari and Vice President Osinbajo is a net positive for their aspirations.

Having identified a few issues that are now being used as a pretext to attack the person of the vice president, none of these issues should have been enough reason to assail him this viciously. The VP didn’t seek power it was thrust on him and any effort to strip him of the very thing he didn’t lobby to get shall undoubtedly fail.

In the general analysis, the VP’s position isn’t strengthened when South West APC bloc stands aloof and raised no discernible objections to the treatment meted out to one of their own. It’s also incongruent to see Afenifere, the same group that went into overdrive to see APC defeated in the last election suddenly becomes the champion of the VP. The VP is better served rejecting any overt or covert support from the organization and rather focus on shoring up his support among his party men and women in the zone. To be clear, the ongoing campaign of calumny against the Vice President is by no means an agenda against the Yorubas as being portrayed some self serving individuals, it’s practically a political pressure campaign aimed at the VP that’s got no bearing on the ethnicity of the individual. If it were to be an all-out attack on the Yorubas in the government then the Speaker of the House would have been caught up in the same scheme as well. Not to mention other cabinet ministers of Yoruba extraction. Neither would the economic team have been chaired by a Yoruba professor. It’ll be dangerous to drag Yoruba people into the current situation and it will be wise to leave the people out of it. Let politicians sort themselves out. The drama will soon run its course and orchestra will play its final note as the curtains are drawn on this political theater.

To Vice President Osinbajo, there’s no cabal that can stop the Almighty from having His way, and it is a difficult thing to kick against the torn. Surely, in gathering they shall gather… as the holy scripture admonishes. Mr. Vice President do not shrink in the face of brutal opposition because greater is He that’s in you, and don’t shirk your duties to the nation that you love and the president that you respect. Stand firm, ride out the storm and surf upon its waves. And above all, fear no man, principality or confederacy.

Finally, take solace in the text of Charles Albert Turdley in the song titled Beams of Heaven:
“Harder yet may be the fight, right may often yield to might, wickedness awhile may reign, Satan’s cause may seem to gain. But there’s a God that rules above with hands of power and heart of love. And if I’m right, He’ll fight my battle” Go with this thy strength and the siege will soon be over.

Kenny Oladipo
@kindodey
Houston, TX.