By Godwin Etakibuebu
Nunc Dimittis was the famous prayers of Simeon; that old righteous man of God, whom God kept alive until he saw Jesus Christ – the Messiah, being born. This article is not about Jesus Christ, nor about the old man of God – Simeon, whom God used to dedicate the Saviour on the seventh day after He was born, in the temple, at Jerusalem. Of course, we can read the true live-story in the Bible book of Luke 2: 25 – 35.
This article is all about Professor Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo, the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and his political travails. And the most important place to start the narration of his troubles, in my own calculation anyway, is to go to the man of God’s departing prayers – Nunc Dimittis. I am calling it Yemi Osinbajo’s Nunc Dimittis. Except that while Simeon in the Bible lived long enough before singing his Nunc Dimittis, Osinbajo’s is coming too early. But then, that is just life’s mathematics – sometimes, the music comes later and sweeter and at other times, it comes earlier and bitter.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a very brilliant individual, started lecturing at the age of 23, became a professor of Law at the tender age of 33 years and became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2002. The star in him started shining between 1999 to 2007 when he became Lagos State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General. In this capacity the man distinguished himself as extra brilliant in his law profession to the admiration of all.
That was the time he introduced the famous Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the concept of Fast-tracking, Front-loading of list of documents and witnesses, and many more that were hitherto not available in Nigeria except in Britain, into the Lagos State Judicial system – all these concepts, which the man introduced in Lagos State, have now been adopted into the Nigerian Judicial System. We cannot take these lifetime achievements [he is referred to as the one that revolutionize the Nigerian judicial system] away from the man, no matter the quantum of his present political predicaments.
His brighter days in Lagos State were products of three sources. The first is God – his Creator, who created him [Osinbajo] wonderfully and brilliantly too. God, in addition to the creation, sustained the life He gave to him [Osinbajo], as the merciful Father does with all of us.
The second source to be acknowledged is the fact that the guy [Osinbajo] is such a very brilliant guy, even from inception, if you care to read his odyssey. Because in life, it is one thing to be fearfully and wonderfully created by the Creator, it is another thing for individuals so created, to develop his or her full capacity to manifestation – Osinbajo did the latter religiously and rigorously too.
The third source to be credited would be the man that saw his [Osinbajo] potentials earnestly and picked him [not from the gutter please] for an appointment into the Lagos State cabinet as Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General. And this man is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; then Lagos State Governor.
The fact remains that Bola Tinubu has one major attribute, out of many expected from those that would make success of leadership. The man has extra sixth and seventh political senses, like a creative great hunting dog, of identifying great human political materials from far off and holding to them tenaciously for future utilisation. In addition, he has, over the years, invested in making/developing of people from nowhere to somewhere and bringing people from obscurity to limelight. On making of people, Ahmed Bola Tinubu is first among equals within his contemporaries.
Permit me to add quickly that Yemi Osinbajo is not one of those he [Tinubu] brought from nowhere to somewhere because the star of the former had started shining, even from his school days, before they met. Nevertheless, Bola Tinubu, in doing what he knows how to do best, held on to the man until 2014, when he nominated him [Osinbajo] for the candidature of the Vice President’s office.
The ever-strategic Bola Tinubu did not just start with the nomination of Professor Yemi Osinbajo on a platter of gold. No, but instead, he started by decoding the People Democratic Party’s [the ruling political party then] morbid and frail prosecution of governance, the hostility that started between the then Governor of Rivers State; Rotimi Amaechi, and the wife of then President, Goodluck Jonathan; Patience Jonathan, until it snowballed into major crises for the ruling party then, and the man [Tinubu]’s political intellect told him that the wild crack on the wall of the PDP was good enough to strike. And he struck.
It was at this point that he reached out to General Muhammadu Buhari; who had tried severally in grabbing the presidency but failed severally too. Having secured the former’s consent in negotiating a condusive working formula together, Tinubu proceeded to the next stage of bringing about a metaphor of a mega political party and thus emerged the All Progressives Congress. Brilliant moves by Bola Tinubu, you would say.
Until this point however, Yemi Osinbajo was not in the political calculations of vice presidency’s candidature. But when the “master of the game”, the Jagaban of South-West politics, failed to interpret himself into becoming the vice presidential candidate of the Party, for the election of 2015 [as Muhammadu Buhari refused the so-called Muslim/Muslim ticket himself and Tinubu would have constituted – this rejection itself was a wonder because the retired Army General is not a man with much respect for such considerations], the name of a trusted loyalist; who could hold the front, creeped into the negotiation.
And Professor Yemi Osinbajo; a tested and proved loyalist, name propped-up as first among equals, for the opportunity of holding on until the political messiah comes. It means what Yemi Osinbajo got that day was, in strict interpretation, an ad-hoc appointment of something like – occupy until l come.
Did Professor Yemi Osinbajo understand it that way? Did Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu explain it explicitly this way to his stooge-loyalist? We need decoding the dynamics of this genesis before going into the exodus of Osinbajo’s political travails, because the travails are coming in deludes.
N:B
With my Editor’s permission, I shall be running this episode of Osinbajo political travails for the next three days. Keep a date with this page for the next days, ipso facto.
Good News.
Next week Monday, September 30, 2019, will make it a year since the collaboration between thenewsguru.ng [TNG] and Lagos Talk 91.3 FM, which produced the popular Sadiq and The Guru [yours sincerely is The Guru] every Monday, from 9:30-11am, on review of topical issues, came live on the Nigerian airwaves, having started the program on October 1, 2018. We hope to celebrate the anniversary in our own little and modest way that day.
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Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.
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