Osinbajo: It’s time for Vice President to become a ruthless politician [Pulse Opinion]

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is the most cerebral and articulate person in the Nigerian presidency at the moment. He is also a quietly efficient policy wonk who loves to operate by the books; he is a modernist, 21st century ‘cool kid’ visionary who goes everywhere with his iPad and smartphone and who writes his speeches himself, and most of the time on his iPad. He is also soft spoken and eloquent.

Osinbajo’s worldview is markedly different as well. He comes from the church altar and was groomed in the nation’s finest law classrooms. He's a fine gentleman by any stretch of the definition of that phrase. He is not your typical hare-brained Nigerian politician who hasn't got a clue.

What Osinbajo doesn’t have in spades however, is that ruthless, nasty political streak. He is perhaps too urbane, too modernist, too ‘righteous’ to yank off his gloves and get himself enmeshed in the trenches. He prefers to remain above board. Osinbajo prefers to see the glass as half full rather than half empty. He would rather see the good in man than the monstrous dimension of God’s most complex creature.

Osinbajo has now found himself in a bind. He is being targeted by the hawks in the presidency. For two weeks running, some of his top ranking aides have been singing to Pulse. Their man, they tell us, is gradually being led to the guillotine. They tell us that the infamous presidency cabal has perfected plans to emasculate Osinbajo politically, preen him to size and render him unattractive for the 2023 presidential race.

They tell Pulse that they fear that Osinbajo will soon be framed for alleged corruption and that the media trial has already commenced. They tell us that President Muhammadu Buhari is being made to regard their man differently and that he is being fed a cocktail of lies. They tell us that they are afraid. They tell us that Osinbajo is sore afraid.

The press has been awash with stories of President Buhari’s perceived ill treatment of his once most reliable deputy. It is not a coincidence that in the same press statement where Buhari declared that his new Economic Advisory Council (EAC) would report to him directly, the Economic Management Team (EMT) which was chaired by Osinbajo, was pronounced dead. 

It is no coincidence that Buhari has instructed Osinbajo to receive clearance from him before approving monies for certain agencies under his purview. In Buhari’s first term, this was absolutely unnecessary. Why is it necessary now? Why is Buhari suddenly distrustful of his deputy? What new information does Buhari have? Who is snitching on Osinbajo?

Why is the loudmouth Timi Frank accusing Osinbajo of manipulating the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) into splurging N90billion during the 2019 elections? Why is the world being made to believe that an Osinbajo who has always been cast in the mould of a squeaky clean political office holder is in fact as corrupt as they come? Where are the stories emanating from? Who wants to hang Osinbajo out to dry? Who benefits the most from a castrated Osinbajo?

There are rumours that some of the agencies Osinbajo oversaw, like the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Boundary Commission (NBC) and the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA), will soon be yanked off his desk. Pulse has also been told that the National Social Investment Program (NSIP), a brainchild of Osinbajo and one of the most successful projects of the Buhari era, will soon cease to be a part of Osinbajo's purview. 

There's been a thick cloud of smoke in the last couple of days to suggest that there's a raging fire in the horizon. Every day, it appears, Osinbajo is gradually being reduced to a lame duck, toothless vice president—as was the lot of most of those who occupied the office before him. Unless his fortunes improve considerably in the next couple of days, Osinbajo’s role in the villa will be reduced to the occasional ceremonial appearances as the president 's representative at public functions, condolence visits approved by the president and reading the newspapers. 

Once heralded as the ‘star boy’ vice president, Osinbajo’s fortunes now appear to be heading south. Each day, it seems, his position, persona and office are considerably being weakened deliberately for political reasons.

Of course Osinbajo’s travails have everything to do with the 2023 political permutations and the race for who succeeds Buhari when his constitutionally permissible second term in office elapses. Of course Osinbajo is in with a shout among the front-runners who want Buhari’s job. He’s been for a while actually.

With an unwritten agreement in the governing APC ceding the 2023 presidency to candidates from the south from where Osinbajo hails, the vice president from Ogun state was always going to be caught in the intricacies and intrigues of the dirty politicking before 2023. He should have known this. He should have been prepared for the brickbats.

There are those who say it is too early to play the politics of 2023, seeing as Buhari’s second term is yet to get off the ground. I disagree. You actually play politics in and out of season and politicians do not have a political time table. What is playing out in the presidential villa is a game—a vicious power play that has targeted Osinbajo. And these players appear to be winning. For the moment, they have their noses in front.

Of course Osinbajo has not publicly told anyone that he is running for the office of president in 2023. It’s still early days for that sort of announcement. However, if he is remotely interested in Buhari’s job, he’s got to begin to play the politics like everyone else. No one was going to hand over the office of president to him on a platter.

The vice president must begin to strategise as well on how to deal with the bad press of the opposing political camp. He’s got to assemble a silent war room cabinet whose job will include being proactive, while attempting to beat the cabal at their own game. He's got to be a step ahead of the cabal as well, at all times. Whatever he does, he must not cut the image of a cry baby or victim. As they say in these parts, the game is the game. Osinbajo has no choice but to play the game by its current set of amorphous rules, warts and all.

It’s time for the technocratic, bookish and cerebral Osinbajo to roll up his sleeves, emerge from beneath the veneer of morality and become a politician. A real, mud reeking politician. And politics, the kind that gets you the throne, actually abhors decency.