OPINION…Osinbajo: No, Prof. Farooq Kperogi, No!

Professor Farooq Kperogi is a Nigerian-born Journalism and Emerging Media lecturer at the Kennesaw State University in Atlanta Georgia, the United States. He is one of the writers I read religiously week in, week out. Few others are Azu Ishiekwene, Olatunji Dare and Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo. He is insightful, intrepid and patriotic. His profundity of thoughts, analysis and delivery marks him out as a great mind worth giving attention to.

Prof. Farooq knows the inner workings of power in Nigeria that sometimes his predictions or submissions turned out to be true turning him into a glorified oracle with authoritative takes on power and the wielders back home. He spares no one, muslims or christians, and calls a spade a spade no matter whose ox is gored.

I have never met Prof. Kperogi before but we had exchanged a couple of emails last year or thereabout. Of course, he is a great writer and through his public commentary he has a lot of reach with readers (online and offline via traditional media outlets) following his social activism.

Prof. Kperogi recently called out the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo in a scathing article he published on his popular blogging website known as “Notes From Atlanta”. Entitled “10 Reasons Osinbajo Will Ignite a Religious Civil War” Kperogi sounded more like he had an outstanding issue awaiting settlement with the number two citizen.

Displaying his usual verbosity and grammatical superiority complex he had sought to take down the Vice-President hammering out ten reasons why the affable VP could unleash a religious civil war in the event of his election as President post-Buharism.

In the diatribe he had described Osinbajo as “a suave, charming but toxic Islamophobic bigot who clothes his bigotry with oratory. He is only associating with Muslims because of his political agenda…He visits mosques (with his shoes on — in a betrayal of his ice-cold disdain for the religion) and awkwardly utters salaams only as a stoop-to-conquer strategy.”

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And quoting a ‘Nigerian Tribune’ columnist, Festus Adedayo, he revealed that while Buhari was sick and away in London, Osinbajo attended a Redeemed Christian Church of God prayer in his home state of Ogun where the resident Pastor prayed for Buhari to “die” so that Osinbajo would take over as president “with the VP shouting (a) thunderous ‘Amen’.” The article from which he quoted was dated Nov. 10, 2019, in a column titled “The trials of Brother Osinbajo”.

I had read that article by columnist Adedayo but what he said in it was a bit different from the interpretation it was given by Prof. Kperogi. He said the RCCG Pastor had indeed prayed for Osinbajo to rise to the top as President but not at the expense of Buhari’s ailment or death!

I am not a fan of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Nor that of the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo or Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the ruling party’s so-called National Leader. I believe both of them deserve to be beaten electorally when the time comes for the successor of President Muhammadu Buhari to be chosen next year in the event of any of the two throwing their hat into the presidential ring.

President Buhari‘s presidential scoresheet is null, so any party could easily defeat the ruling party next year. The 8-year presidential pestilence, Buharism, must be sent back to the showers no matter who holds the broken broom next year as the APC flagbearer. Whether Osinbajo or Tinubu, for us, it is akin to six and half a dozen!

We believe religion in general and God in particular should be removed from our national politics. God does not play politics! Again, the constitution does not allow a President to be elected as a religious leader or on religious ground. The last time we checked Nigeria is still a democracy and not theocracy.

If God should be put in the larger political picture then the monumental failures of the system could have been averted long ago. To His utter consternation God must have turned His back on our national woes after observing from above the oppression and repression of our elite; their penchant to pauperize Nigerians and steal what would have made them comfortable.

If God is the issue, politically speaking, then China and Japan, for example, cannot be leading the world economically and technologically. Now, Nigeria with our thousands of churches and mosques, millions of worshippers and hypocrites little or no progress is being made on every front. Who is fooling whom!?

The national power grid had recently collapsed leading to more darkness. At the best of time it was obscurity galore in many villages, towns and cities and now with the generalised power failure coupled with toxic fuel supply (which had led to steep increase in PMS pump price) the nation is living its version of hell on earth.

If Osinbajo was in attendance at the religious event where a prayer was offered for Buhari’s demise and he, instead of condemning it vehemently, applauded it then he must have committed a criminal, nay, treasonable offense worth investigating thoroughly and dealing with. If the veracity of the claim was proven to be true (which is not the case) then VP Osinbajo ought to have been sacked long ago for insubordination and disloyalty.

Osinbajo is often accused by critics (including yours truly) of being blindly loyal to the system, to Buharism that he is willing to sacrifice anything or everything to please his boss. Despite their religious differences Osinbajo and Buhari have governed together in harmony and deep respect for each other’s faith.

We refuse to accept the controversial submission made by the respected America-based Professor concerning Osinbajo especially where he said the diminutive VP shouted a resounding ‘Amen’ to a prayer for the death of his principal and his consequent enthronement as President.

No, Professor Kperogi, no! We disagree!

AUTHOR: Ozodinukwe Okenwa

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Articles published in our Graffiti section are strictly the opinion of the writers and do not represent the views of Ripples Nigeria or its editorial stand.

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