Osinbajo’s 100 days stewardship as Acting President

Following the resumption of work by President Muhammadu Buhari, Deputy Editor, LEON USIGBE, in this piece, runs through some developments that took the attention of Professor Yemi Osinbajo while he served as Acting President.

President Muhahammadu Buhari left the shores of Nigeria May 7, 2017 for London, United Kingdom for what turned out to be a 105-day medical vacation. It was the third since his assumption of office on May 29, 2015. Unsure of how long he would be away in London, he did the needful by transmitting executive powers to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo through the National Assembly. Osinbajo went work immediately with his first assignment under his new Acting President status being to offer congratulations to the newly elected 49 years old President Emmanuel Macron of France. This was a day after Buhari travelled.

While noting that under successive governments, the relations between Nigeria and France had blossomed, Osinbajo in a congratulatory letter to Macron, expressed the optimism that the incoming government would further strengthen the bond of friendship between both countries.

Same day, Osinbajo received Borno State elders led by Governor, Kassim Shettima on a thank-you visit at the Presidential Villa, over the safe return of 82 Chibok girls and promised that the Federal Government would review welfare package for victims of Boko Haram insurgents, particularly Chibok community in Borno State. He regretted that current allocation for humanitarian services in the region was not enough to cater for the people traumatised by their experience with the insurgents.

On May 10, he presided over a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as controversy raged over his exact designation arising from the letter written to the National Assembly transmitting powers to him. Aspects of the letter had suggested that he would only coordinate the affairs of government in Buhari’s absence. But this was later described as an unnecessary distraction by government.  His predecessor in office, Architect Namadi Sambo was to make an unusual visit to him later that day in what the former number two man said was a normal exercise.

On May 12, the acting president inaugurated the second board of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), praising the vision behind the setting of the fund. He followed this up three days later with  a meeting with several top security officials including Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), Gabriel Olonishakin; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno as well as the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali as well as the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. A similar meeting followed four days later, but this time with Governor Sam Ortom of Benue State in attendance. It was to discuss the outcome of efforts to stamp out the nagging menace of Fulani herdsmen which had led to several deaths and destruction of property in Benue State.

On May 17, another controversy broke out on who would sign the the 2017 budget. It was not helped by the statement made by Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who had claimed that  there was no decision yet on who would assent to the passed budget even though Osinbajo was supposed to be discharging full presidential powers under Section 145 of the constitution. More controversy followed when Osinbajo could not also swear in two screened ministerial nominees with Mohammed still unable to give a definite date as to when they could be sworn in. “In due course,” he simply said when asked by State House correspondents.

On May 18 though, the Acting President signed three Executive Business Orders in the exercise of the presidential authorities vested in the executive arm of government. Osinbajo believed that the signed executive orders would significantly change some of the ways government business and operations are conducted in the country. The next day, he received the 2017 budget.

On May 23, the  Manchester, England terror attack engaged his attention as he strongly condemned what he saw as the despicable terrorist attack on innocent people of the city. He thereafter, the next day headed to Garki Market, Abuja to have a first hand feel of the people’s pulse. It was a surprise visit that enabled him to gauge the feelings of the ordinary Nigerians.

In the absence of President Buhari, Osinbajo had the rare opportunity to address the nation in a radio and television broadcast on Democracy Day to mark the second year of the administration in office, using it to highlight the achievements of government and to reassure citizens of a more prosperous future. This was followed by his equally very significant assent to two bills including the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act, 2017 (otherwise known as Collateral Registry Act) and the Credit Reporting Act, 2017.

On June 5, he presided over a Conference on Promoting International Co-operation in Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Enhancing Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development, where he observed that financial institutions connive with treasury looters to keep away funds from legitimate owners and therefore called for their criminalisation and retrieval of the funds. He regretted that the financial institutions were also expected to have “a handshake” before agreeing to return stolen money.

He have assurance that the present administration would finish whatever programme it begins in line with its new vision of development came on June 6 while meeting with a delegation from Bayelsa State regarding the $3.6billion Brass Fertilizer & Petro-Chemical Company. He said the administration was promoting a new way of thinking and engagement that would secure the development of the Niger Delta and the entire country.

Osinbajo made sure that the significance of June 12 was not lost as he chose the day to perform the vitally important duty of signing the 2017 Budget into law. Some critics observed that his assent to the bill occurred only after obtaining the go ahead from ailing President Buhari.

The next day, he took on the National Assembly for their penchant to tinker with the appropriation bills sent by Executive. He spoke at the flag-off of the Planning of the 2018 budget at the Presidential Villa, where he maintained that what was sent to the National Assembly as appropriation bill by the Executive remained a property of the Executive.

He bared his fangs on June 13 when he warned that the Federal Government would visit the full weight of the law on perpetrators of hate of divisive speeches which he said were capable of causing violence and disrupting the peace of the country. It was at the beginning of a series of consultations with regional leaders and traditional rulers from the North and the South East. Osinbajo also pledged the next day that the Federal Government would urgently address rising agitations and proclamations in the country as it could not pretend about them.

Similarly, he admonished church leaders not to accord respect to treasury looters who he said brought misery to the country by their action. This was on the occasion of this year’s Father’s Day celebration at Aso Rock Villa Chapel, Abuja on June 14. In much the same way, he assured that the Federal Government would address all reasons that are responsible for the present agitations in the country.

While at a consultative meeting with Northern traditional rulers, he admonished people with grievances to express them graciously without scorn or disdain as he reiterated that government is not deaf to such agitations. But he also restated his warning that government would deploy every means at its disposal to ensure that nobody threatens the territorial integrity of the country or the lives and property of the people. He also expressed the wish for leaders to speak more forcefully against hate speech while stressing the need for Nigeria to remain a united nation. Osinbajo made this assertion while receiving a delegation of the Muslim community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) who paid him homage to mark the 2017 Eid-el-Fitr.

On July 3, Osinbajo left Abuja to represent Nigeria at the 29th Ordinary Session of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. But two days after, he was greeted by yet another controversy over the swearing in of newly screened ministers when the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, distanced the FEC from the statement made by Osinbajo which suggested that Senate has no right to approve some nominees of the president for the positions.

He paid an inspection visit on July 10 to the collapsed Bakinobridge at Tatabu community near Mokwa in Niger State, assuring that the flow of vehicular traffic on the Ilorin-Mokwa-Jebba road affected by the incident would be normalised within two weeks. The next day, he assured that with government’s focus and commitment, there would be a turnaround in the Nigeria economy in 12 to 18 months. This was during the Quarterly Presidential Business Forum.

At the end of that engagement, he left for London for a meeting with ailing President Buhari. It was an unusual trip which lasted for less than 24 hours. On his return from the visit, he directed the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, to release the sum of N1.6 billion to 16 states affected by flooding in the ongoing rainy season.

At last, on July 26, the long wait of the ministerial nominees cleared by the Senate for months finally came to an end as they were sworn in by Osinbajo who still could not assign portfolios to Stephen Ocheni and Suleiman Hassan from Kogi and Gombe states respectively. He left FEC meeting that day for Port Harcourt to inaugurate a new $1.5billion fertilizer plant built by Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited.

As all this was going on, Boko Haram resurgence was gathering pace, causing the Acting President to order the security chiefs to return to Command Centre in the North East. This was in an apparent bid to roll back resurgent Boko Haram terrorists activities. The directive was given during a meeting he held with the  Minister of Defence, Manir Dan Ali; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, Chief of the Air Staff, Saddiq Abubakar and Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok Ette EkweIba.

Following the gruesome attack on soldiers and personnel of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on oil exploration activities in Borno state,  Osinbajo on July 30, again met with service chiefs ostensibly to determine ways to stem the menace. Also, at the meeting apart from the service chiefs was Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu. The Acting President was to later express regrets that the humanitarian consequences of the insurgency were being compounded by deep poverty, making the costs of dealing with the situation “huge and enormous.” He expressed this sentiment while receiving a delegation from the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC). He noted that there were for instance about 2.4 million displaced persons, extensive destruction of property, infrastructure, schools, homes and farmland.

For the first time in his acting presidency, Osinbajo on August 2 had a purely partisan political party meeting at a closed door session with state chairmen of All Progressives Congress (APC) in  closed doors on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa. Close at the heels of this was another meeting with leaders of Niger Delta under the aegis of  the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). This meeting came after PANDEF issued an ultimatum to the Federal Government to open dialogue with the group on its 16-point demand or it would withdraw from negotiations. The following day, he appointed a Judicial Commission to review compliance of Armed Forces with human rights obligations and rules of engagement.

And following the uproar raised by his nomination of Maimuma Aliyu and Sa’ad Alanamu as members of the board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and related Offences Tribunal (ICPC) even though they were subjects of interest to anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),  he was forced to withdraw their nomination on August 5 and three days later, he was again compelled to deny calling advocates of restructuring “political jobbers.” This followed a report to that effect quoting Chief Ayo Adebanjo.

Osinbajo inaugurated the Presidential Investigation Panel to review compliance of the armed forces with human rights obligations and rules of engagement and insisted that the present administration must investigate allegations of human rights abuses by members of the armed forces in the war against insurgency as the allegations were capable of undermining the work of the military.

He was finally able to assign portfolios to Ocheni and Hassan three weeks after he swore them in as ministers. It came on a day he also, administered the oath of office on 22 newly appointed federal permanent secretaries.

Osinbajo pulled off a National Security Retreat organised for state governors, security chiefs and top government functionaries where he vowed that government would deal with any attempt to intimidate the population through the use of words.

He also represented Nigeria at the inauguration of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda in Kigali, the nation’s capital. Osinbajo retuned to the country in time to lead the welcome party for President Buhari at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja last Saturday. Buhari announced his official resumption last Monday, effectively ending the Osinbajo’s acting presidency after about 105 extra-ordinary days.