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Vice President Osinbajo : ‘I did not want a job’

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Vice President Osinbajo : 'I did not want a job'

By Joseph Edgar… This is the statement, I hear, Vice President Osinbajo made in a reported sermon he made to his church members and what immediately came to my mind was, ‘Why did he take it?’ This has continued to be the issue with our country when leaders are forcefully thrown at us without any iota of preparation or vision.

The man was going on his own, minding his business and building a lucrative private legal practice and wining souls for the lord when he was suddenly thrust into a position which he has now stated very clearly that he did not vie for and as such was really not prepared for.

This is a cardinal sin committed on a people especially at this time when we need rigorous and robust leadership. The Vice President, if I am not wrong, heads the Economic Management Team and you begin to see why the economy is on a free fall. For how do you begin to tackle something as enormous as an economy with its tethers cut loose by the vagaries of tumbling oil prices and the actions of militants and other economic agents of destruction.

My annoyance in all these is the fact that he must have gone on all that campaigns, carrying the broom and giving the speeches knowing deep inside of him that he was not prepared for the task and as such did not have the capacity to deliver on the campaign promises. Being the number 2 citizen in a country like Nigeria is not a tea party. People who have lived their lives within the corridors of power and who wake up to the realities of their’ God appointed mission to lead’ still ‘fumble and wobble’ their way talk less of a gentleman of the gown who would rather be on a pulpit preaching and waiting to hear the voice of the Lord.

If he listens clearly, the lord will tell him to resign and come to the vineyard where his preaching skills would be of more benefit to Nigerians who really need to be comforted with the spiraling food prices. People are literally dying (read simon Kolawole’s last piece titled ‘left with a broken heart’ ) and you will agree with me that this is not the time to make this ‘Shagarisque’ kind of statement. Remember that Shagari as our first civilian President had said that his ambition was to be a teacher before he was also forcefully thrown up to the Presidency and we all saw the consequences of that misadventure.

Read also: The Myth of a Tight 2016 US Election

Today we are faced with another scenario. We should all learn not to sell our votes, we should all learn how to look at the issues as we make our choices. A grueling and institutional based electoral process would not have thrown up this ‘reluctant candidacy’. See what the Americans are doing, see how the system is guiding the process. See how the system is grilling the candidates making sure that they stand the test while vetting their candidacy.

Even with the seeming ‘disaster’waiting to happen with Trump, the electoral process is still putting him in check, inspecting him and getting him ready for the task if he eventually wins. Ours just allows some godfather put his person there to represent him and be his eyes and ears at the centre. The interest of the masses are not very near when these decisions are made, the willingness and much more importantly the capacity to understand the dynamic and very complicated terrain that is governance in Nigeria is never considered. So all we get are lackeys who do their masters bidding.

This is not me calling the person of the Vice President a lackey. I hold him in very high esteem. I just do not believe that you should get the epiphany when you get the job and suddenly start ‘working’. It does not work that way. You must have been prepared and groomed for the task, you must have worked for it, built the bridges that you need to build consensus over the various power zones and ethnic configurations before you even begin to dream of the vice presidency, not to talk of the Presidency.

You see people like Obasanjo, IBB, Atiku, Saraki, MKO, Tinibu, like or hate them, are people who have the manifest destiny and it shows in their actions and strategies for power. They have over the years built strong profiles, bridges and power bases that they can leverage upon to deliver whatever is their plan and would not really rely on another person’s structures or relationships thereby exposing themselves to what I want to call, ‘ political stoogism’.

This is not time to go to church o. God will not answer this prayer and I swear, he has not been speaking to you for if he has, you will be a permanent pastor at your parish instead of being our reluctant Vice President.

People are dying, what we need now is a savior and not a messenger.

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