By
Rotimi Fasan
It’s been more
than one month now since Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, assumed the status of
Acting President. Even when this is not the first time he would be holding
forth for the president, it is the first time he would be doing it for this
long. Except in an actual state of incapacitation it is doubtful if anyone
could envisage a situation like this when the president would be away from
office for over a month without being declared ill or incapacitated.
 |
| *Osinbajo |
But by embarking on a medical vacation which
has been indefinitely extended on the advice , Nigerians have been told, of his
British doctors President Buhari has afforded his deputy an opportunity to
demonstrate what he could do if given the chance. Before now, Osinbajo had
operated in the shadows of President Muhammadu Buhari. This is the way things
should be as the presidential system of government is a monarchy of sorts that
does not leave room for two heads.
The Vice president in such a system is a
ceremonial leader who can only operate at the behest of the president and to
the extent the president permits. Which thus makes the office of the vice
president that of a sinecure. The vice president performs delegated duties,
only such responsibilities assigned him or her by the president. But President
Buhari is not a stranger to such a system of delegated responsibility. As a
military head of state he had a deputy, Tunde Idiagbon, that many Nigerians
thought had as much power as the head of state.
This was in a dictatorship that had no room for
democratic niceties and in which the word of the leader was itself the law. Yet
Idiagbon functioned apparently with the full support of Buhari. Although others
with a revisionist mindset have had cause to read things differently but that
Buhari gave Idiagbon a wide latitude within which he shared the power of the
leader with him was a sign of self-confidence. The same self-confidence, even
if unintended, appears to be at work now. Ag Pres Osinbajo Osinbajo has never
looked the part of the over-ambitious; he appeared content to operate from
behind Buhari where he belongs constitutionally.
But the dramatic manner in which the
president’s medical vacation of ten days has now been extended indefinitely has
thrust him into the limelight in a way he may not personally relish. For it is
turning out that some Nigerians are already making invidious comparisons
between his mode of leadership and that of his principal.
Yet it would amount to self-deceit for anyone
to deny that both men have different approach to governance. This ought not to
be surprising for being two different people with different background there
cannot but be some difference in the way both men see matters. So far Osinbajo
appears to be taking the right step forward. Without courting attention he has
stepped into his new role with a measure of self assurance. He has been up and
about, stepped up his activities and been a little more active than before the
president decided to extend his vacation.
To do otherwise would only invite unfavourable
comments about how the country has been grounded by the absence of the
president. But thank God that history seems to have taught us all a lesson,
making the president to transmit a letter to the National Assembly handing over
governance to his deputy. Otherwise we might by now have found ourselves where
we were in 2010. As I said above, Mr. Yemi Osinbajo, seems to be doing the
right things in the view of many. He has moved things a bit forward from where
the president left them.
He has made conciliatory overtures to estranged
sections of the country that felt alienated by the stance of President Buhari.
He has visited the Niger-Delta, opened dialogue with and engaged leaders of the
region in a way many had expected Buhari to. His visit to the South-east could
kickstart the process of bringing that section of the country back on the same
page with the rest of the country. He may likewise have doused the tension that
was rising following the failure of President Buhari to forward, in time, the
name of Walter Onnoghen to the National Assembly as the next Chief Justice of
the Federation.
Osinbajo has since done this. As luck would
also have it the naira seems to be on the upward swing against the dollar at a
time the price of oil seems to be stabilising to an appreciable level in the
international market. In all, Acting President Osinbajo seems a lucky man and
presents the image of a leader that is attentive to his surroundings. This
might be endearing him to those who felt alienated by Buhari and some of these
individuals and groups have been drawing comparisons between him and Buhari in
a way that less confident people might find invidious.
Indeed some of the comparisons appear designed
for that very purpose- to rub off badly on Buhari and his supporters. This
could be a bait to distract the administration from following what looks like a
promising path to national healing and economic recovery. It is up to those
close to the president and other members of this administration to see whatever
commendable steps the Acting President takes not as personal success but a
credit to his principal and the administration he heads.
There is no competition between Buhari and
Osinbajo especially as Nigerians know who they handed the mandate to govern
them for the next four years beginning from May 2015. We are not in a zero sum
situation where the gains recorded for the current government by Osinbajo is
viewed or made to look like a loss for Buhari. Anyone who has good thoughts for
the people of this country ought to welcome any ideas that could move this
country forward irrespective of its source or who takes credit for it. This is
where the closest minders of the president, the so-called cabal of mainly four
men around him, have to be very careful.
A lot depends on them and the vibes they create
around the president. Already reports are emerging of them shielding family,
close friends and associates of the president from him. Beyond the need to keep
him from the disturbances of the political throng out for eye service no good
can come of such action. The president has taken steps to ensure history does
not “repeat” itself and any unelected bystander trying to do otherwise cannot
be a friend of Nigeria
*Rotimi Fasan is a commentator on public issues
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