👤 Adenike Lucas, DENISAURUS News
Those that drive know that having a spare tyre in the boot is a good standard to have, but these days, most people do not bother with this practise anymore. I mean, why carry a hefty spare tyre everywhere, when you can easily take small repair kits (sealant and compressor). It is better to fix small damages than replace the entire wheel.
Well, it is almost the same thing with being a spare tyre in government. Although, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo in 2018, tried to argue against this statement, by explaining his functions and uses.
“The vice president is the chairman of the national economic council…that is a constitutional role,” he stated then.
But, within months, precisely September 16, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari dissolved Professor Osinbajo’s Economic Management Team, EMT, and constituted an Economic Advisory Council, EAC, which was to report directly to him and not the Vice President.
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The Vice President has lost his constitutional role in government, and if we thought he was a spare tire, he is a very useless one.
Why do I say so? Well, the other day, the Vice President waded into the issue of banning crypto currencies at an event he was invited to. He argues that instead of the ban placed by government, it should be regulated. But, why not make this advice directly to the President, who he once claimed to be his “chief advicer?”
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Does not the Vice President have a direct line for his principal again? or is he even consulted for such issues to do with economy at all?
He is incredibly silent these days! Does he talk in FEC (Federal Executive Council) Meeting? Do they require his opinion on anything or does he even represent the President in any capacity?
There are so many questions, but I am sure you can see that in Aso Villa, they have since realised that instead of carrying a spare along, you can easily repair a sick President. All the necessary repair kit needed – such as an expensive medical centre, can be bought and flown into the country.
The time when President Buhari handed over to his Vice in order to get medical treatment in London in 2017 is long gone. It was within that 103 days, while Vice President Osinbajo was in charge that it was realised that instead of keeping the car going, this spare tyre was flat.
The puncture in Professor Osinbajo came when he decided to sack the Director General of the Department of State Service, DSS.
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Lawal Musa Daura, who wrote a memo saying that Ibrahim Mustafa Magu, (the only one to have his nomination at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, rejected) was not only a “perennial offender,” but a “liability” to the President’s fight against corruption, was removed while Professor Osinabajo, held sway at the Villa.
By removing Alhaji Daura and spearheading several media campaign against him, Professor Osinbajo was trying to cover his back and that of his ally, Mr Magu.
Despite being rejected twice by the lawmaker who were to regularise his position, Mr Magu remained in office thanks to the VP who regularly made a case that he was the best person for the role.
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Sources even told DENISAURUS News that when it was time for Mr Magu to attend a mandatory course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, the Vice President, who chairs governing bodies such as NIPSS, helped get his name out of the list.
But, Mr Magu, was later arrested and then replaced by a core operative, over the disappearance of billions of naira and assets a worth the same.
It is not the first time he would be arrested by the police. In 2008, he was sacked and arrested on the authority of his then boss, Mrs Farida Waziri, for taking out files belonging to the commission.
This were things the DG of the secret police was able to investigate and conclude on the person Mr Magu was, but instead the VP, while in power sacked him. This terrible mistake has never been forgiven. The VP has never been in acting position since then.
In 2019, President Buhari while in London, rather than hand over to his Vice, he stated that he was on a working holiday. It was in that period he signed the Deep Offshore Act into law.
The deceased Chief of Staff Abba Kyari even flew into London to collect and transmit the bill to the Senate. Should not that have been the work of the VP, as spare, to sign the bill and then transmit it to the Senate?
He could even have been present to collect the bill from the President in London and transmit it to the Senate himself. It is only a seven hour journey and before anyone says the two men can’t be out of the country at the same time, I would flash your mind back to 2017, when Professor Osinbajo made a visit to President Buhari in London.
The fact that he can not even advice the President directly on issues to do with the economy, or that he is not even allowed to step in as acting President, I am saying this spare tyre, an appellation used recently by Sunday Igboho against the good old Professor, Pastor turned Politician, is so irrelevant.
And, when it comes to it, I think Alhaji Duara, has been vindicated. Mr Magu turned out to be exactly the “perennial offender” he predicted he would be.
Adenike Lucas is the editor and publisher of DENISAURUS News.
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