As
the economic recession lingers and bites hard at Nigerians, Reno Omokri
has highlighted the effect of the inconvenience on everyone both low
and mighty.
Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo
When recession hits the economy, it leads to inflation. When it
hits INEC it leads to ‘inconclusive elections’. When it hits APC, they
turn Graduate to Conductors. When it hits Davido he stops singing ’emi
omo baba olowo’ and starts singing ‘gba be oshi’.
When it hits P-Square they stop singing ‘chop my money’ and start
singing ‘bank alert’. When it hits Nollywood stars, they stop flashing
cleavages and bum and start flashing you with calls.
When it hits E-Money, he stops spraying dollar with spraying
machine and starts spraying Naira by hand. When it hits UAC they start
making gala with sausage only at the end and none in the middle.
When it hits Vice President Yemi Osinbajo he forgets mathematics
and blames Jonathan for looting $15 billion arms fund though less than
$10 billion was budgeted for defence under Jonathan. But when it hits
President Buhari, he stops promising change and starts blaming Goodluck
Jonathan!-
The incurable Responsibility Dodgers Syndrome afflicting the
current administration has reached alarming proportions such that they
have turned the weekly meetings of the federal executive council into
blame Jonathan sessions.
Rightly, agents of the government of the day have earned the
unflattering sobriquet, Responsibility Dodgers, because, the big guns in
this government, despite their manifest unpreparedness for office and
obvious cluelessness, have continued to blame past administrations,
especially that of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, for their own failure.
It is even most disappointing that a clergyman like Vice President
Yemi Osinbajo, a Professor of law, who incidentally is also the head of
the administration’s economic team would join the fray.
The latest outburst from Professor Osinbajo was made in a paper he
presented at an event in the United States last Monday, where he claimed
that the Jonathan administration was never committed to defeating Boko
Haram.
Really? Let me remind our revered Vice President of a statement
made by his boss when the then President Goodluck Jonathan unleashed the
firepower of the Nigerian Army on Boko Haram. Since the Vice President
has finally confessed that it was a national leader of the All
Progressive Congress who was a former governor that nominated him to his
present post, permit me to quote from a newspaper in which the same
national leader has interest to buttress my argument.
“On the 2nd of June, 2013, The Nation Newspaper in a headline
titled ‘Buhari Faults Clampdown on Boko Haram Members’ said “Former Head
of State and Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive
Change (CPC), Major General Muhammadu Buhari has faulted the federal
government’s clampdown on Boko Haram Islamic insurgents.”
“He accused the government of killing and destroying their houses
while the Niger Delta militants were given special treatment by the
government.”
“Buhari who spoke on Sunday on a Liberty Radio programme, Guest of
the Week monitored in Kaduna also admitted that the road to the
registration of the All Progressive Congress (APC) was rough, pointing
out that the promoters of the party were well prepared for any hitch
that may arise.”
“Buhari who first spoke in Hausa before the English version accused
politicians from the Niger Delta region of starting the current
insecurity in the country by recruiting and arming youths of the region
in their desperate attempt to retain power as governors.”
“The former Nigerian leader said that unlike the special treatment
given to the Niger Delta militants by the federal government, the Boko
Haram members were being killed and their houses demolished by
government.”
From the above, a few things become clear:
- There was a ‘clampdown’ on Boko Haram under Jonathan.
- It requires ‘commitment’ to unleash a clampdown.
- It was precisely Vice President Osinbajo’s boss, President Buhari who was against the clampdown.
- So now I ask, who was really never committed to defeating Boko Haram?
The three facts established by the newspaper owned by the very man
who nominated Professor Osinbajo to his present position has exposed him
as either a liar or a poor student of history.
Given that the Vice President earned a professorship, I am not
inclined to believe that he is a poor student of history which leaves
only one other conclusion. Let us recall that at one point, while
addressing pastors and leaders at a retreat of the Fountain of Life
Church in Lagos, Osinbajo had also claimed that the Governments of
Jonathan and that of late President Umaru Yar’Adua didn’t build a single
road in ten years!
On the issue of recession and how to get out of it, the Vice
President has continued to dither. In one breathe, he had blamed the
downturn on the past administration, and in another, he found it
convenient to put the blame on pipeline vandalism. And this is despite
the fact that the administration, through the Chairman of All
Progressive Congress (APC) Governor’s Forum, has assumed responsibility
for plunging the economy into recession.
Any discerning mind seeking to appraise the Vice President by what
he says, about the past administrations, cannot but come to the
conclusion that Osinbajo simply does not realize the weight of the
responsibility that rests on the seat he occupies.
I have no doubt in my mind that accountability requires that a man
in his position, whose word bears the full stamp of the administration,
should always aspire not only to speak the truth, but to say it with
candour and dignity.
In the first place, he has continued to raise wide and baseless
allegations of an embezzled $15 billion security equipment fund, without
any shred of evidence. Again, I state that this is the kind of loose
and trite talk that a Vice President should never be associated with. It
is self evident that the entire five year defence budget under the
former President did not have a security equipment component that was
anywhere near that figure.
Also, when he insists that the military were poorly equipped, he is
simply being economical with the truth. This is because, despite his
distant disposition in office, we expect that he should at least know,
that the entire military arsenal currently being deployed in the
prosecution of the war against Boko Haram, are still the ones ordered or
purchased by the past administrations, as the Buhari Administration is
yet to replenish the nation’s armoury.
Funny enough, as I was writing this piece, Vanguard Newspaper
published a video of the hero of our time, Lieutenant Colonel Abu Ali
fighting Boko Haram with the headline “Video: Footage shows artillery
weapons bought by Jonathan, used by Late Col. Abu-led troops against
Boko Haram!” APC’s lies are catching up with them!
I leave Nigerians to determine the wisdom in the Vice President’s
claim that Boko Haram occupied 20 of the 27 Local Government Areas in
Borno State at the time his Government came on board, when the fact
remains that the election that produced both the APC presidency and
Borno State Governor, held in all the local government areas in the
state.
I have to painfully admit that, going by his insensitive and
offhand comments, Osinbajo has not impressed Nigerians either as a
Senior Advocate, pastor or Vice President. We believe that as a senior
lawyer, he understands that his garb of silk conveys on him the
responsibility of speaking factually and evidentially. We are also
convinced that as a Vice President, his office requires that he speaks
with decorum and respect at all times.
Above all, as a minister of the gospel, apparently schooled in the
forbearing ways of the Saviour, his utterances should only seek to heal,
and not revile. Unfortunately, Osinbajo has failed woefully on all
these counts.
I urge Vice President Osinbajo to rummage the archives to bring
himself up to speed on how Chief Alex Ekwueme, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and Arch. Namadi Sambo, all reputable former Vice
Presidents, functioned during their time, to make themselves effective
in office.
For instance, Osinbajo should be reminded that during Jonathan’s
short time as Vice President, he left a good track record as the head of
the nation’s economic management team.
Beyond providing a sterling leadership for the well-placed economic
direction of the Yar’Adua administration, Jonathan was also the face of
the amnesty negotiations that brought about the peace in the Niger
Delta. He did not achieve that through pointless drivel empty
sound-bites. We have to point out that while the economy bleeds, this
Vice president as the head of the economic management team of the
present administration, who ordinarily should be marshalling out policy
initiatives, remains aloof and marooned. Let us not forget that he was
the head of the economic team when padding was introduced in our
budgeting lexicon.
The 2016 budget which he supervised and sent to the Senate with all
grime and warts, has gone down as the most scandalous and worst ever to
be prepared in this country.
Ditto for the $29.9 billion loan request which has just been thrown
out by the Senate, as a result of the opaque and vague nature of the
proposal. It appears the shame of plummeting naira value, galloping
inflation, mounting job losses and collapsing economy, increasing hunger
as well as worsening unemployment numbers, are not enough to rouse the
Vice President to action.
Otherwise, Osinbajo, did not have to wait for the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the National Assembly to remind
his Government that a humongous loan bid without a comprehensive
economic blueprint, simply cannot fly.
But did he need to be reminded that a depressed economy, or any
economy at all, can never recover or flourish when placed on auto pilot,
like Osinbajo and his team have done?
The earlier Osinbajo realizes that a good Vice President avoids the
distractions of tactless activism, the better for him. What is required
of him is to strategically apply himself to the job of helping his
principal and the administration to succeed, especially in these trying
times.
*********************
Omokri is the founder of the Mind of Christ Christian Center in
California, author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God and Why Jesus
Wept and the host of Transformation with Reno Omokri
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