I read the piece by Shaka Momodu in which he singled out Osinbajo for scathing remarks, his major grouse is that Osinbajo dared to speak about corruption, wanton lootings ,when according to him, his party is also full of people with questionable character.
He even went further to question the integrity, reputation and competence of Professor Osinbajo. He accused him of being ‘spineless’ and conspiring to cover-up or advancing the course of the killer herdsmen.
There are different ways to approach this write up. The writer is obviously angry and intimidated by the person of the Vice President, it is easy to notice the contempt he holds him by the deliberate distorting and misrepresentation of events and facts for the mischievous and devilish ends of casting doubts on the his reputation.
It’s ironic that the vice president is getting the stick for telling the obvious truth. The people need to know how the PDP government mismanaged and openly looted their commonwealth and why we collectively, should never allow this to happen again. He deserves commendation, not the abuse he is getting from the writer, unless of course, if corruption is fighting back.
There are two major ways of knowing someone; (i) where he/she stands on issues that are critically important (ii) by what people say about him.
Let me start with where the vice president stands on critical issues; we all remember during the Boko haram days when they had some local government under their control, Osinbajo was asked to undertake the scary trip to Maiduguri, the heart of insurgency, he went there and even had meetings with state actors and the troops, similarly, during the height of dark days of Niger Delta militancy, bombing of pipelines was the order of the day then, the indefatigable VP literally took the bull by the horn, against security reports, against all wise counsel, went to the heartland of the militants-Gbamaratu kingdom, the dreaded eye of the storm, as it were, without any fear for his life, met with the stakeholders and secured a ceasefire that has brought us the peace we are now benefiting from today. Surely, these are not the works of a spineless person, as the writer would want us believe.
The writer questioned the audacity of the VP to openly speak about the wicked, reckless and wanton looting that took place during the past regime, that has brought untold hardship to the people, he accuses the VP of not calling out the individuals that are equally corrupt within his party. That I also find faulty. If I recall the VP during his time as Acting President was confronted with allegation against the then SGF, He immediately undertook to investigate and suspended the SGF ,and after investigations were conducted, took the findings to the now present President Buhari for implementation. It was not the convenient thing to do at that time, yet, it needed to be done and he did it.
As regards to the killings in Benue, Taraba and other states, I recognize the unfortunate carnage taking place there, but the best way to approach the problem is not by making boisterous statements to appease the base, but to take painstaking time, engaging with major stakeholders and all concerns to unearth the remote course of the killings and find ways of resolving the matter holistically. This is the path the VP elected to pass. We must not forget that the VP is not for South or Christians alone, but for all Nigerians, therefore ,all Nigerians interest must be seen to be protected by him without any bias or prejudice, that is the hallmark of a great leader, to be a unifier , a peace seeker, not to play to gallery, just so that he can appease some individuals or section. He probably had ODI in mind, where senseless wiping out of a village was done and yet it never resolved the issues, instead it worsened it.
Secondly, let us examine what others say about Prof. Oluyemi Osinbajo, amongst all important and well meaning and unbiased groups, He is knowledgeable, intelligent, with impeccable character, integrity and fearless in pursuit of his objectives, not flippant and has attention to details (hence he carries about his little black book) . He has won several awards and recognitions for his excellence on his job.
These are too much for the writer to handle, hence he condescend to distorting and outright lies to seek to cast doubt on the character of our Vice President, maybe he sought to distract attention or to intimidate him from the good job he is doing or to force him to backtrack on corruption, but either way it is D.O.A –Dead On Arrival. It will fail. I believe the VP is too committed to be distracted by such a bad piece of writing.
