2023: Of Tinubu’s burden and Osinbajo’s relief

For me, the presidential ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) is neither diminished by the controversy over his certificate and age nor by his reported ill-health. Buhari, after all, has been president of the Federal Republic for almost eight years now and he is not exactly the most educated or the healthiest. The late President Musa Yar’Adua, who, in my view, was one of Nigeria’s most pragmatic leaders, given his efficient, effective and almost effortless handling of the Niger Delta crisis, which, for years, could not be resolved, died after barely three years in office as a result of ill-health. 

Now, let’s be clear about one thing: this is not an endorsement of uneducated and or unhealthy presidents for Nigeria. Certainly not. It is just to remind us that even though a lot of the criteria we have used over time to recruit our leaders have been largely ill-defined, we have not allowed any circumstances to deter us from using such inchoate, not to say disorderly, criteria to determine our choices of leaders for Nigeria, not even the setbacks we have suffered over the years as a result of such choices. Isn’t it obvious already that it is actually unproductive to bother about such matters in these parts? In any case, who has not noticed that, as the activities of healthy people go, BAT has been out and about town, always where he should be and at the time he should be there, constantly on speaking engagements, especially in this season of politics. So, as they say here, what’s the stress?

My misgivings about BAT’s presidential ambition centre principally on his not-so-stellar democratic credentials. I wonder, for instance, if this Nigeria would ‘democratically’ elect a president who, as party kingpin, had constantly stood against the re-election of Governors of his State (Lagos), not on grounds of non-performance or mismanagement of public funds or both by such Governors but reportedly for ‘disloyalty to the boss’ and ‘failure to oil party machinery.’ Would the nation enthrone a ‘democrat’ who would openly – and unabashedly – display a van of money obviously earmarked for voter buy-off on election day? Would it serve the democratic interest of Nigeria to elect a president who, as party chieftain and ‘kingmaker’, is believed to routinely unleash musclemen on the voting public apparently with intent to disenfranchise voters where he or his party is believed to be electorally weak, unelectable at worst? What sort of a democratic president would a BAT make if, as is often reported about him, he is intolerant of the opposition and his words and or actions must be unimpeachable?

The foregoing are certainly no flattering characterizations of BAT. But they are as true about him as it is true that Akinwunmi Ambode was denied re-election as Governor of Lagos State in 2019 because he reportedly annoyed the big man; or that Babatunde Fashola was almost denied a second term in office as Governor of Lagos because his popularity, thanks to his outstanding performance in office, became so high that he was evidently – and heretically – beginning to outshine the big man! And so you ask, would Nigerians be able to cope with such a president again after this time out? That is the big question.

On the other hand, consider Professor Yemi Osinbajo. Outstandingly educated, tolerant and spritely healthy, the nation’s Vice-President is defined by resilience. Practically swamped by political adversaries all of the past seven years plus, he has remained his calm, present-minded self, undoing such adversaries in words less spoken and actions less taken and steadily moving up the Buhari Administration’s favour ladder, to a point where he is now seen as the issue in the ruling APC’s calculations towards 2023. Simply put, Osinbajo’s is precisely the comportment expected of a king-in-waiting. Here is a professor-of-law vice president with a huge reservoir of savoir-faire which he routinely deploys to tickle the fancies of many who encounter him, hear about him or hear or watch him speak.

An unpretentious patriot with abiding love of country and citizens, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has, in the past few years, demonstrated in words and actions that he is one public servant who would effortlessly lay down his life for Nigeria if need be – if the risks he has taken in the service of the country are anything to go by. A destiny child, the Vice-President had on Saturday, February 2, 2029 escaped death by the whiskers when his helicopter crash-landed in Kabba, Kogi State while he was on an official assignment. His spokesman, Mr. Laolu Akande had then tweeted about the accident: “VP Osinbajo’s Chopper crash-lands in Kabba, but he and the entire crew safe. He is continuing with his engagements and plans for the day in Kogi State.”

Incidentally, that was the second time Prof. Osinbajo’s helicopter would crash-land. In June 2017, the Vice-President, according to a Premium Times report, “survived a similar accident when the chopper he was traveling in crash-landed shortly after take-off, in Gwagawalada, Abuja.”

“He was in the area council to attend the graduation of 40 senior officers of the Nigeria Customs Service,” the online platform further reported, adding that “Mr. Osinbajo has been traversing the country extensively as part of the implementation of the Social Intervention Programme of the Buhari administration.”

Many a less formidable character or less committed government official would have balked at the idea of continuing with an assignment after surviving a chopper accident. But not Yemi Osinbajo, a man to whom public service is an article of faith that one must serve one’s country even unto death. A rounded intellectual who executes his assignments with the passion of a corporate executive rather than a politician holding the position of Vice President, only an Osinbajo with his positive attitude to public service would, after “he and the entire crew” survived a chopper accident, continue “with his engagements and plans for the day in Kogi State,” as if nothing had happened.

Needless to say that Osinbajo’s work ethic has also endeared him to the people of Nigeria. It would be recalled that whenever President Buhari was out of the country and had the ‘magnanimity’ to let Osinbajo act as President, there was always a difference to be seen in terms of the oft-dramatic fall in Nigeria’s usually high social temperature, and the salubrious and unifying decisions of government. Thereafter, even taciturn President Buhari would pay him compliments while many stakeholders would call for the president to delegate more responsibilities to his Vice-President to enable the latter help put the government on an even keel.

It speaks a lot to the positivity of the Osinbajo aura, the balmy effect of his presence at the helm of affairs and the reassurances of his presidential pronouncements that people would appear to always want more of him long after he has played his part on a stage and gone. A great communicator, Osinbajo has a way of saying things nicely but firmly; he is a natural spokesman whose words often inspire, and a preacher of the gospel whose faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is perhaps the most important reason he seems to overcome even under rather foreboding circumstances.

Surely, Professor Yemi Osinbajo can lead a hurting nation like Nigeria at a time like this, not least because, as Nigeria’s serving Vice -President, he has seen it all in the past seven years plus at the pinnacle of power. And because he wears the shoes, he knows exactly where they pinch.  The Vice-President is, therefore, placed in a very good stead to initiate the healing process that Nigeria requires to be able to move forward.

It means, in essence, that were it to come down to a choice between BAT and Osinbajo, starting from the South West, it is most likely that many, in the light of the foregoing, would almost settle for Professor Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo, GCON, 65, a lawyer, professor of law, former Attorney General of Lagos State and politician who has served as the Vice President of Nigeria since 2015.

ABUGU, a veteran journalist, lives in Lagos.