…New conspiracy exposed
They are going after him from right left and center. The jabs are coming from enemies within and without.
As they throw the punches he shakes them off and awaits the next. The punches are coming through publications both known and shadowy. They throw dirts at him, and his lawyer fights back and apologies, profuse ones at that , follow.
The publications that are used to throw these dirts are known but those promoting them or paying the publications to so do are in the shadows waiting to see their target fall and destroyed before he has even ventured into the ring for a battle.
The more the punches are thrown, the more sturdy and unmovable Professor Yemi Osinbajo appears to be.
Last week he was appointed the chair of a tripartite group by the President to coordinate the affairs of the leadership of the executive , the party and the legislature. This was after he concluded work on the Federal government’s economic sustainability plan . This ,economist and government watchers , have adjudged brilliant and “if implemented to the letter has the capacity of bringing Nigeria out of the economic wood.”
Political observers will however not stop asking who ,despite his hard work and loyalty to his boss , are these elements aiming at bringing Osinbajo down?
Searchlight is beaming at some members of his party as well as some desperate members of the opposition.
Those in his party and government are said to be members of or remnants of the so called Cabal once led by the late Chief of Staff Abba Kyari. Also in the core of this group was the late Alhaji Isamaila Isa Funtua who though not a government appointee, but so powerful and influential, that he once boasted of being the Cabal.
In this inner group of Osinbajo haters is said to be former running mate of Bashorun MKO Abiola , Alhaji Babagana Kingibe who is known to have control of one of the security agencies which he has deployed actively for the purpose of hounding Osinbajo, according to our sources.
It is not clear what the role of President Buhari’s uncle, Mamman Daura is in all of this. But there are those who vow that he is the most subtle of all in the Cabal circles.
The Cabal is said to have its leg men in some governors , ex governors , one or two ministers and the head of a government financial institution and some journalists with affiliation to a newspaper owned by a Delta State media mogul.
From the onset of the administration, their task, said an insider, has been to cage Osinbajo because of his political origins – the political family of the Lagos one man mafia, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
They had thought he will be made a mince meat of in a short time due to his little or no experience at the national level. Osinbajo however quickly learnt the game , added patience, humility and competence to his arsenal and beat them to their game.
It is also not being ruled out by observers of Nigeria politics that few within the tendency that brought him to power may also be fueling some attempts to bring him down.
The more popular he gets the more angry they become. All of the conspiracy to prune his feathers and tar him with the brush of corruption has met with comprehensive failure.
They are however not giving up just as the opposition PDP is also not relenting in its hatred of him. For the PDP , if Osinbajo issue is not quickly resolved , they reasoned, it may be difficult taking him on in 2023.
The manifestations of the plots have become more pronounced with recent developments in the polity. Osinbajo enemies have never concealed their displeasure to the Vice President’s disposition to politics and governance, and ultimately his personal integrity (rising profile).
At different times and forums, they have planned and executed plots to outrightly unseat him, reduce his influence, bench him and tarnish his public image, and pit him against Nigerians .
In the South West where he comes they have been using the media to come up with stories that “Oh Buhari has taken this or that initiative to his Katsina State origin , Osinbajo has not done anything for Ogun State and particularly his home town Ikenne.”
The have also employed the media and some unscrupulous individuals to circulate the narrative that Osinbajo is against some political elites of his catchment area. Attributing everything happening in that part of the country to him and faulting him for those things has become the past time of these elements.
The trial in court of politicians like Dr Doyin Okupe and Jumoke Akinjide for example , we learnt, has been deliberately attributed to him. Femi Fani Kayode , lawyer and son of first republic politician and member of PDP has been fingered to be the purveyor of this falsehood.
Despite his hostility to President Buhari and his government some elements within the government, it is alleged, have been financing him to dish out falsehood against the Vice President. It would be recalled indeed that after the death of Abba Kyari, FFK as he is called confessed publicly how close both of them were. It was a shock to many because FFK regularly taunts and abuses not just the VP, but the President, Kyari’s boss.
Some of the fake stories Fani Kayode has bandied around is that Vice President has been appointing persons from a particular part of the country and the Redeem Church where he pastors and worship. This, his aides said is however not true as Prof. Osinbajo “has never exhibited bias or favoritism in appointments made into government positions and offices.”
Independent checks done indicated this is false. Two of the topmost officials working with him who they claimed are not only Christians but members of the Redeemed Church are actually practicing Muslims – the Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Ade Ipaye and the Special Adviser on Political Matters Sen Babafemi Ojudu. Of the four Special Advisers working with him directly, two -Babafemi Ojudu, Ambasador Dipeolu are Yoruba while Ahmad Zakari and Hajia Maryam Uwais are Northerners.
The other lie which we learnt they have circulated to paint him bad is that he appointed a pastor from his church a minister. Unknown to many, it was not Prof. Yemi Osinbajo that recommended the former Industry, Trade and Investment Minister, Pastor Okey Enelamah of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Similarly, the nomination of another RCCG pastor as Chief of Defense Staff, Lt. Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin was not the direct idea of the Vice President who has been accused by his haters over and again of packing the Buhari administration with RCCG pastors. This particular plan is calculated to attribute the narrative of lopsided appointments in Buhari government to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Informed sources have revealed that the late Chief of Staff Abba Kyari had adopted a rather curious strategy early in the administration to bring out people that are his own contacts and associates developed in the business and banking world in Lagos and suggesting to the President and anyone that mattered that these individuals were from the Vice President.
The strategy was to at once use the people perceived to be from the Vice President and so get Presidential nod but then pit him (the Vice President) against other interests in the party, especially those that are not in the church or Christians fold.
This was certainly what happened in the case of Enelamah. The interesting thing was that once Enelamah was not willing to do deals with the late cabalist he got into trouble with him and promptly got him arrested and locked up by the Police . It took Osinbajo effort at calling the attention of the President’s to Enealamah’s plight to get him released while his traducer Abba Kyari vowed he will not return to the cabinet for a second term. And he never did.
In another instance, the late Chief of Staff was reported to have told a former governor in the South West that he had ensured his name was on the ministerial list for the Buhari second term but pulled out at the last minute and replaced by Osinbajo. The governor, it was learnt , was livid with anger. He and his supporters , we are told , held this against the Vice President. When it came to his attention he denied knowing anything about it and called the governor to tell him who the supposed replacement was to prove his innocence.
While the then Chief of Staff has passed on, sources say there are still a few including a Southwest governor who is bent on continuing this kind of curious strategy to silently smear the reputation of the Vice President especially now among his people in the Southwest.
The latest idea is to ask Yoruba traditional rulers and leaders to nominate a candidate to the Federal Government as new EFCC Chairman. The Governor in question is said to be working in tandem with a top minister. And they both know that the nominations from the Yoruba leaders would not become the EFCC Chairman. But the plan is to blame it on Osinbajo, when someone else is appointed. Said the source who is aware of the plans “they will just say Osinbajo opposed the nominations from Yoruba leaders just to damage his esteem in the eye of those leaders, like the late Chief of Staff used to do.”
Another twist to the plot, one source said, is to accuse the Vice President of sheilding the suspended EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu from prosecution, and to directly link him to the N250 million probe of an ex-aide in his office, Mr Donald Wokoma.
Said an inside source: “Clearly, the plot is another botched and fruitless attempt to denigrate the person and Office of the Vice President because since the probe of Magu, the Vice President has not made any comments whether in public or private to influence the work of the panel. He also has not in any way stopped Wokoma’s investigation by the EFCC.
“For the avoidance of doubt, appointing Ibrahim Magu as EFCC Chairman, like other key appointees of the administration, is purely Mr President’s choice and prerogative, ” the source in the Presidency noted
Prof. Osinbajo was never involved in the affairs of the EFCC whether in appointment or in the running of the agency under Magu, the source further said.
In the case of Mr Donald Wokoma, the Vice President is said to have maintained a neutral stand. This explains why “Mr Wokoma’s appointment was terminated immediately the matter was discovered to allow for proper investigation by the EFCC” , said our source.
Recalling previous attempts, a source who is familiar with the scheming against Osinbajo said there have been several instances in the past (prior to 2019) where manifestations of discontent against the Vice President were openly expressed or exhibited by the cabal.
Though the attempts have been called different names in the past, recent accounts indicate that the latest wave started shortly after the 2019 elections. The cabal influenced policies, decisions and even key appointments to ridicule and malign Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, all in a bid to whittle down his influence ahead of the race to 2023.
Perhaps calculated to give its plot a human face, all of the cabal’s conspiracies were disguised as executive policy decisions as well as certain legislative resolutions and actions, including maligning publications.
Likely actors involved in the various schemes designed in the plot include; Alhaji Abba Kyari (now late) who did everything to humiliate him while alive including not providing necessary finances when sent abroad on assignment by the President. A case in point was the trip to Zimbabwe for Mugabe’s funeral when the VP had to travel without his aides and advance team because the COS blocked the release of funds for the advance teams.
Others recruited into the battle against the VP were elements such as a serving governor in the SW as well as a former one. The former governor who now serves in the parliament always ensured that all appointments at the Federal level is cornered for his own supporters as as to ridicule the VP. Recently the appointment the headship of a Christian welfare body was snatched by the SW governor for his own candidate even when the President has asked the VP to nominate someone for it.
Smaller fries who acts as legmen are also recruited into this gang up against the VP. Mr Donald Wokoma (a former aide in the Vice President’s office), a former spokesman of the APC and an associate of Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Mr Timi Frank; Publisher of Pointblanknews, Mr Jackson Ude. Also the former Minister of Aviation, Mr Femi Fani-Kaoyde; among other individuals in the south west region (the Vice President’s home base) are regularly induced to carry out the hatchet job in this battle .
All these individuals had defined roles to play in the grand plot to denigrate and humiliate the VP.
The grand plot, as now being unearthed, was to be implemented through several schemes with certain individuals within and outside of the APC playing specific roles. They include: presidential directive to ministers; dissolution of the Economic Management Team (EMT); the redeployment of the Social Investment Programme (SIP) from the Vice President’s Office to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, among other policy decisions and the sponsor of false publications against the Vice President.
Specifically, in August 2019, a directive was given to ministers to forward all requests and memos requiring presidential approvals and FEC consideration, to the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President, Mr Abba Kyari (who was then the face of the cabal).
On September 16, 2019, five days after the presidential election tribunal had dismissed the case against President Buhari, the cabal struck again. This time around it was the dissolution of Prof. Osinbajo-led Economic Management Team which was seen by the cabal as one of the vehicles driving the “Osinbajo brand” across the length and breadth of Nigeria. The timing of this particular action with the decision of the election tribunal was indicative of the cabal’s conclusion to dump the Osinbajo brand, having won and concluded with the 2019 elections.
Reminiscent of the cabal’s style, President Buhari announced the creation of an Economic Advisory Committee (EAC) led by Prof. Doyin Salami to replace the EMT led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. The ugly side of the story was that the creation of the EAC was announced while the Vice President was chairing a meeting of the EMT in his office. This again was designed to ridicule Prof. Osinbajo, otherwise why would such a sensitive decision be taken without at least putting him in the picture.
Closely following the EMT saga was the speculation (reported in the news media) that a memo from President Buhari directed Osinbajo to seek his approval before taking decisions on any agencies under his watch (though the VP’s office vehemently denied the speculation in a statement).
Consequently, the rumour about the sack of aides working in the Office of the Vice President spread all over the place with an explanation by the spokesman to the President, Garba Shehu, defending the decision infamous decision. Later it was revealed that the President actually never sacked any of the aides.
Moving on with its plan and fast forward to 2020, the cabal switched to the phase that involved Femi Fani Kayode, who often without a good cause and lacking in merit, embarked on a campaign of calumny against the Vice President (even though he had engaged in vile attacks on the Vice President before now).
But shortly before that incident, Jonathan Ude, another PDP member who publishes a blog known as Pointblank News from a base in the U.S., manufactured a grievous rumour that the suspended EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, had given Osinbajo N4 billion from the N39 billion he allegedly looted from the agency.
This is coming against the backdrop of last year’s media campaign against the Vice President, there was a sensational, but false publication which alleged that Osinbajo had collected some N90 billion from the FIRS to fund that year’s elections in Lagos.
As if this was not strange enough, it was further revealed in another publication that Garba Shehu, one of the President’s spokespersons, was behind the tale of Magu giving billions to the VP. This was a confirmation of insinuations that some parts of the plot were hatched right inside the villa.
Since then, every negative report emanating from the presidency had to be linked to the Vice President – from the NEMA Emergency Food Distribution Programme in the North East, the N90 billion FIRS fund, to the N10 billion TSA funds and the most recent one being the EFCC investigation of a former aide in the VP’s Office, Mr Donald Wokoma.
A point that validates the failure of the media campaign component of the grand plot is the recent retraction of fake stories published about the VP and publication of apologies to Prof. Osinbajo by four leading media organizations in the country (Vanguard, BusinessDay, Daily Sun and Wazobia FM).
Though the booby traps are scattered all over the place, the intriguing twist in all of the scheming and onslaughts is that the Vice President has not even, either directly or indirectly, indicated interest to join the race for the presidency in 2023.
As the race for 2023 gathers momentum, it is possible that those who see Osinbajo as a potential obstacle to achieving their inordinate ambitions will not relent in their efforts to make him look bad before Nigerians. Thank God the plot has been unearthed. But is the game up for them? “No, I don’t think so” , said a lawyer who is a friend to the VP.
The Vice President has to push back forcefully in defense of his personality. Hopefully, another lawyer friend, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria , said with optimism that “light will overcome darkness and the truth will prevail.”
Akinyide Aminu writes from Abuja
