It was always going to be the case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” That popular saying captures the dilemma that the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, faced on the 2023 presidency. If he decided to run, as he now has, he would be viciously attacked, as he now is. Yet, if he decided not to run, he would disappoint millions of people and expose himself to eternal ridicule.
The only credible excuse Professor Osinbajo could have for not seeking to run for president was if his party, All Progressives Congress (APC), had, as some of us have advocated, micro-zoned its presidential ticket to the South-East. But since the party has not done that, it would be utterly irrational if Osinbajo did not run for the office.
Think about it. Professor Osinbajo has been at the coalface of governance in Nigeria for the past seven years as vice-president and has served twice as acting president to worldwide acclaim so much so that some foreign investors wished he had more stints as acting president.
Of course, there are grounds for criticising Osinbajo’s presidential ambition, notably that he bears a collective responsibility for the failure of the Buhari government. But accusations of betrayal and religious bigotry are off the mark. They are the stuff of gutter politics
In December 2018, I spoke at an international business conference organised by Global Trade Review in London and saw how business leaders praised Professor Osinbajo. They said that the best periods during President Buhari’s first term were when Osinbajo was in charge as acting president and took critical decisions on the economy. The Financial Times said he “injected real energy into policy-making.”
So, what reasonable justification could Osinbajo give for not running for president? Would he say: “I have decided not to run for the presidency because my godfather, Bola Tinubu, wants to run for the office?” Is that what some people wanted him to say? As Osinbajo rightly said last week, he owed allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and to nobody else. Truth is, no rational and intelligent human being would expect a sitting vice president not to run for president simply because a “godfather” wants to vie for the same office.
In the US, every modern vice-president who sought to succeed a president got their party’s nomination; indeed, sitting US vice-presidents always have the inside track when it comes to running for their party’s presidential nomination. So, what kind of a country is Nigeria if, due to the absurdity of godfatherism, a sitting vice president could not run for president?
Of course, running for the presidency does not necessarily mean winning it. But as I argued in this column last year, in an article entitled “2023: Would Osinbajo run for president or chicken out?” (BusinessDay, December 13, 2021), history would be unkind to Professor Osinbajo if he allowed himself to be frightened out of running for the 2023 presidency simply because Tinubu wanted to run for the office.
But damned if you do, damned if you don’t! Since declaring his presidential ambition on April 11, Osinbajo has faced a barrage of vicious attacks. The Dictionary defines an “attack dog” as a person who “is very aggressive in their defence of someone or something.” Well, Tinubu’s attack dogs have been merciless in savaging Osinbajo for daring to challenge their boss for the 2023 presidency.
Last week, I wrote that the APC in Lagos State behaves like a mafia organisation, whose members are totally obsequious towards their capo dei capi. Well, their toxic reactions to Osinbajo’s declaration confirm the party’s mafioso’s nature. They’ve effectively declared Osinbajo persona non grata in Lagos APC, branding him a traitor.
Indeed, Lagos State APC spokesman, Seye Oladejo, likened the vice president to Judas Iscariot, saying that Osinbajo’s declaration of his presidential ambition during Easter was a fitting reminder of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus! That’s how epochal the APC in Lagos saw Osinbajo’s declaration!
Well, Lagos APC members must have short memories or suffer from selective amnesia. For if not, they would know that Tinubu himself had godfathers and that he betrayed them. In 1998, Afenifere leaders and founders of Alliance for Democracy, AD, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, AD chairman in Lagos State, treated Tinubu preferentially over Wahab Dosumu and Funso Williams, his more popular rivals, and made him AD’s governorship candidate in Lagos State as a reward for his activism over the annulment of the presidential election of June 12, 1993. The Afenifere grandies were Tinubu’s godfathers; he wouldn’t have become governor without them!
But what did he do once he became governor? He turned ruthlessly against the Afenifere leaders. He forced Dawodu out of AD, having hijacked the party’s machine in Lagos, and triggered the impeachment of Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, who Afenifere made his deputy. Truth is, Tinubu will throw anyone under the bus to further his interests. Thus, his supporters are utterly hypocritical and self-serving to accuse Osinbajo of betrayal.
Read also: Abiodun to Osinbajo: Ogun will support your presidential ambition
So much for Tinubu’s attack dogs. We must also call out supposedly independent commentators whose hyperbolic reactions to Osinbajo’s declaration border on character assassination. I refer to Farooq Kperogi and Reno Omokri. The bile, hatred and untruths in their interventions are beyond the pale.
Take Kperogi, a professor in the US and newspaper columnist in Nigeria. He’s arguably this country’s most prominent conspiracy theorist, notorious for saying that Buhari suffered from senile dementia until the president appeared alert and alive in several TV interviews.
Kperogi’s response to Professor Osinbajo’s declaration is sacrilegious. He described Osinbajo as “a compulsively narrow-minded, intolerant Christian fanatic who nurses a noxious, deep-rooted loathing for Muslims and who sees his being in government as an opportunity to promote the supremacy of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), which I have characterised as his RCCGification project”. He went on: “A Yemi Osinbajo presidency would, without a doubt, plunge Nigeria into the depths of smouldering religious volcano that will hasten its self-immolation.”
Woah! Does anyone really share these outrageous views? Being a professor is not just about the ability to write beautiful prose. It’s also about character, integrity and intellectual rigour. Unfortunately, Kperogi has consistently failed to demonstrate these attributes with his penchant for conspiracy theories and outlandish claims. Truly sad!
What about Omokri, a pathological sophist? He’s a former aide to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and former President Goodluck Jonathan. Well, he, too, had a perverse view on Osinbajo’s declaration. In a recent interview with Arise TV, conducted by the brilliant and knowledgeable trio of Dr Reuben Abati, Tundun Abiola and Rufai Oseni, Omokri described Osinbajo as a “backstabber,” saying “it’s a personal trait.” He said Osinbajo was made vice-president “as a placeholder for Tinubu.” Shocking beyond belief!
Unfortunately, the Arise team largely allowed Omokri to mouth utter gibberish. Indeed, at one point, after Omokri rabbited on about Osinbajo’s “disloyalty,” Tundun Abiola said: “Right, you’ve made that extremely clear, Reno.” Except that he made nothing “extremely clear.” He’s a sophist, who prizes rhetorical success over philosophical truth.
Given that Omokri’s main theme was the importance of loyalty in politics, he should have been challenged on the characters of his former bosses. For instance, what did President Obasanjo accuse Atiku of that caused the breakdown of their relationship in government? Was it not disloyalty? And talking about “placeholder” and “betrayal,” wasn’t Jonathan’s betrayal of an agreement to serve a single term as president the main cause of PDP’s collapse and defeat in 2015?
Sadly, Omokri went unchallenged with his phoney sanctimony over Osinbajo’s “disloyalty.” He served leaders known for their betrayal of people, parties and causes. But he ignored the beam in his former bosses’ eyes while fixating on the mote in Osinbajo’s. It’s utterly hypocritical!
Of course, there are grounds for criticising Osinbajo’s presidential ambition, notably that he bears a collective responsibility for the failure of the Buhari government. But accusations of betrayal and religious bigotry are off the mark. They are the stuff of gutter politics.
