Interesting Times Ahead… As Osinbajo’s Influence in Aso Rock Gradually Wanes

President Muhammadu Buhari and his Vice, Prof Yemi Osinbajo are perhaps the most curious tandem in Nigerian presidential history. Many people subscribe to the appellation that the duo have settled on a tenuous “Bad cop, good cop” relationship with themselves and the Nigerian populace.

Whereas Buhari is largely accused of using the stick to beat already impoverished populace into further subservience, his vice is credited with putting in place the few positive achievements of their first tenure. He is the carrot to Buhari’s stick, so many affirm. Recall that when Buhari infamously made a habit of shuttling out of the country on one medical leave after another, Osinbajo admirably held down the forte and gave a good account of himself.

It seems forces have noticed and the plot is on to weaken the vice president’s influence. Barely few months into Buhari’s second term, calculations have already turned to 2023. With the presidency widely expected to return to the south, in particular the south west, certain elements within the Buhari administration have taken a dim view of Osinbajo’s burgeoning popularity.

The grouse of these set of people, sources disclosed, is that the vice is outshining his principal despite occupying a position with no real legal power. The moon should not outshine the sun, so they claimed. To this end, machinery is allegedly in motion to whittle down his influence into nothingness.

Those in the know claimed that the recent and shocking dissolution of the Economic Management Team headed by Osinbajo and its replacement with a private-sector Economic Advisory Council was a step in this direction. Key members of the Osinbajo-led EMT include the Ministers of Budget and National Planning; Finance; Agriculture; Information; Trade, Industry and Investment; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); and the Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO).

If that was Step One in their agenda, step two was claimed to be the recent directive that the vice president must henceforth get the president’s approval for contract awards, annual reports, annual accounts, the power to borrow, and power to make regulations, among other key functions of agencies under his supervision.

These agencies include the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Boundary Commission (NBC) and the Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA). He is also the chairman of the board of directors of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), a limited liability company owned by the three tiers of government; and the National Economic Council (NEC), a constitutional body made up of state governors and key federal government officials, as well as the National Council on Privatisation (NCP).

With these moves, the nation’s number two citizen is being gradually reduced to a lame duck. It is thought that he would now have to do the bidding of the Buhari cabal and accept whatever crumbs from their table is offered him. It remains to be seen what the Prof Osinbajo will do, especially as he is said to be close to Bola Tinubu, whom many believe will run for president in 2023.