What’s Prof Osinbajo Not telling Us?

By Bolaji Tunji

The Vice and Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, during the week paid a short visit to President Muhammadu Buhari. It was a very short visit which lasted less than 24 Hours. The man left the country on Tuesday and was back by Wednesday to preside over the Federal Executive a Council (FEC) meeting.

*Osinbajo

The Vice President’s visit is just one of the many visits to the President in recent time. The president’s wife, Aisha Buhari, had equally paid a visit to her husband including other prominent Nigerians, amidst rumours that the first lady had been shielded from seeing her husband during previous visits.

In all these, the story had been that the president was responding to treatment and would soon come back. This is contrary to information from the opposition figures that the President is on life support machine. Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, had said that the president was on life support machine. His statement was further amplified by former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode.

Indeed, the Ekiti state governor went further to state that he would release some pictures of the president on life support machine to corroborate his claims.

It is over two months now that the president left the country, it is rather shameful that Nigerians are still in the dark about the president’s condition. There had been speculations in the past about the president’s status, with a few false social media platform stating he had passed on. No one is wishing the president dead and he deserves the prayer of all to get over whatever ails him. But Nigerians, like some of us have argued in the past, should know the situation.

We should know what ails our president; this would even help us to focus our prayers on the medical challenge. Hasn’t Nigeria been described as a praying nation? It is not enough to state that the president is recuperating and would soon arrive the country.

As much as one does not want to join the opposition in speculations without clear cut evidence to support the claims, the conspiracy of silence about the president’s condition goes to show the level of esteem that our leaders hold the masses. To them, the masses do not deserve that much respect, hence the disdain with which our request to know the president’s condition is fobbed off. That takes me to the acting president’s recent visit. Surprisingly, he also came back to  mouth the same inanities of others that the president is responding to treatment. That’s quite surprising that President Buhari is just responding to treatment after more than two months that he left for treatment. Should it not be about his being okay now?

After his treatment, one hopes it would not be that he still has to take time to recuperate. Should Professor Osinbajo, the Pastor and a Man of God in the administration, not have offered us much more truthful information. I hope and pray the Vice President is not caught in a lie. God forbid!

The credibility of what the VP said when he came back would have been lent more fidelity if we had been shown the picture or video clip of his visit. This would have doused speculations and permanently shut up the oppositions. This was not done, giving more rooms to gossips and bar room talks.

In constitutional democracy, our elected leaders seem to have forgotten that they hold power in trust for the people and the people reserve the right to know what is happening at any point in time. The people can and should request for information on how they are being governed.

They have the right to call for the president’s resignation if they felt they are not getting the best from him, due to health challenges. Late President Umar Yar’Adua was only gone for less than two months when agitation for the then Vice  President, Goodluck Jonathan  to replace him began. President Buhari was one of the vociferous advocates that Yar’Adua should resign.

The cabal or whoever is responsible for the present situation should do well to look at the Constitution and bring the President back home before Nigerians start looking at relevant sections of the constitution to compel the needful to be done.