Prof. Yemi osibanjo: A delicate walk on the south side

By Joseph Edgar…

Professor Yemi Osibajo who is our current Vice President is a thoroughbred intellectual. He has carried himself with so much gait ever since he emerged that one cannot help but admire him. It seems he has perfected the art of adroitly walking through a pig sty without really getting stained. Or, how do you explain his turn as the Attorney-General of the Tinubu-led Lagos State Government which has been heralded by so many watchers as not too above aboard, especially in its handling of some transactions and projects.

If one understands the role of the Attorney-General in some of these transactions especially in the enactment and enforcement of some of the laws you will begin to wonder why and how he has majorly escaped the label that has dogged that administration and its head honcho ever since.

The well-respected Prof has brought this rare skill to play in his turn as the country’s Vice President. He has tried very doggedly to excuse himself from the very many scandals that have continued to pervade this administration, impossibly attempting to position himself as with them and at the same time not with them. This he has succeeded in because relatively his image still remains almost untarnished and the blame for the many issues that beset this administration is heaped on the main man himself with many watchers not even remembering that the number two man is integral to all that is happening.

However, he has not achieved this mean feat without losing something. He has in his attempt to play the ‘’I am not there’’ style failed to build a political base, no political currency he could trade on as negotiations emerge towards 2019. So he remains the sitting duck that he has always been, waiting for someone else to do the dirty job and appoint him once again.

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If you ask me, I think he would really have it tough this time if not impossible to return as running mate. The angelic anti-Jonathan wave which brought all parties together in the quest to oust Jonathan has petered away on the altar of mal administration. Today, the people are not happy and would not be seeking a pastor without any real political experience to run with a very old and tired elder statesman on the platform of a regrettable change. Today the tables have been broken and as they say it on the street, the hustle is real and if I may dare say, Osibajo would be the first casualty.

It is very clear and apparent that Buhari will not have a smooth sail towards the Presidency again. He may have to fight and beg to be returned and in that manner, he would have to cut deals. I do not see him tying himself to a cosmopolitan candidate who can ony deliver his elitist enclave VGC to the ballot. His traditional godfather who is daily loosing relevance would also be fighting for himself and may not have that clout to nominate a VP again and the even if he had, won’t he go for a candidate that would deliver block votes or at best consolidate with him as he seeks to reclaim lost ground.

The women delegation that visited the President seeking for the Vice presidency is not by accident. Nothing at that level is by accident. That, to a lot of us, is the Presidency testing the waters. Honestly in Buhari’s shoes, I think the female vote is the angle to go.

With an increasing unpopularity and facing the prospect of mass revolt, I would throw my VP into the raging storm to calm the vote and replace him with a strong woman candidate as running mate. Let me tell you why. The female vote is emotional. The women who make up the vast majority of our land would rally around their own like they always do devoid of creed, colour and positioning. It is a woman and they will flock in.

The prospect of the very first female VP comes with an immediate attraction even to very stern political watchers like myself. This would be the joker that would scatter all political calculations and free the Buhari candidacy from the clutches of the megalomaniacs who are bent on holding him to ransom.

Will Buhari do it? I think not but if you ask me, that is the way to go. Osinbajo should come back home, it is time for his memoirs.

 

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