Things that cannot wait

Now that the furore has died down [I hope] as to whether Prof Yemi Osinbajo is Acting President of the Federal Republic or he is “coordinating the activities of the government” during President Muhammadu Buhari’s absence, he must quietly adopt a personal road map of what he will do and not do during his uncertain, open-ended and booby trap-laced tenure. It was the combined forces of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Senate Leader Ahmed Lawan, with the acquiescence of all senators, that swept Senator Mao Ohuabunwa’s observations on Buhari’s letter under the carpet and affirmed Osinbajo as the Acting President under Section 145[1] of the Constitution. That is correct under the law but constitutional rectitude alone cannot erase doubt in Osinbajo’s mind as to whether Buhari really wanted him to act as president during his absence.

It is entirely possible, as some people are suggesting, that Buhari signed that letter to the National Assembly with less than full attention, given his impending travel on medical grounds. Anyone who is going to a hospital, even a local one, is bound to say and do things without realising their full import because going to see a doctor is stressful. Anyway, Osinbajo did three clever things quickly in order to lift the clouds around his Acting Presidency. He said Buhari handed over to him before he left. He then made a snap visit to Buhari’s home state allegedly to launch a micro-credit scheme. And while there, he made a profound statement that Buhari treats him as his own son. In Africa at least, no relationship is better than that.

All these are important because there are many people around who are saying and doing things that create personal and political difficulties for Osinbajo, in pursuit of their own interests and ambitions. The most worrisome ones are not even Femi Fani-Kayode or Governor Ayo Fayose’s incendiary comments, since Nigerians generally know where to place those two, but the comments issued earlier this month by the mainstream, measured and non-controversial Chief Bisi Akande. His statement that “this is not 1993” is particularly pregnant. It is in this misty atmosphere that the Acting President must navigate a way for himself and Nigeria because there are many things that cannot wait for President Buhari’s return, if it turns out to be extended.

Two days ago, Daily Trust on Saturday listed what it called “five crucial decisions Osinbajo will take in Buhari’s absence.” Let us begin with those five. The first one is assenting to the 2017 federal budget. This one is relatively easy, to the extent that it is already five months overdue and government could soon shut down without the budget. If he were around, Buhari could have objected to the National Assembly jerking up the budget by N143bn but Osinbajo’s best bet is to sign it as it is. The second is inauguration of the two ministers that were cleared by the Senate two weeks ago. Hard luck for Prof Stephen Ocheni and Malam Sulaiman Hassan; Osinbajo did not swear them in at last week’s Federal Executive Council [FEC] meeting because that will entail assigning portfolios to them, and Buhari apparently had not told him which posts to give them.

There are some prerogatives that one may not want to exercise as Acting President. I was in Sokoto in 1981 when Emir of Yauri Alhaji Muhammadu Tukur died a few days after Governor Shehu Kangiwa embarked on a long trip to China. Though it is traditional to appoint a successor to a deceased emir within days, Acting Governor Dr. Garba Nadama held up the appointment for one month until Kangiwa returned. It will be embarrassing if these two ministers are not sworn-in at this week’s FEC meeting. Osinbajo’s options are to quietly reach Buhari and ask for guidance or, failing that, to take the path of least resistance and assign them to the two posts vacated by the late Barrister James Ocholi and Mrs Amina Mohammed. The third one, determining the fate of suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation [SGF] Babachir David Lawal and suspended Director General of Nigeria Intelligence Agency [NIA] Ayo Oke is the trickiest. Since Osinbajo headed the panel that probed them, it will be improper for him to now “accept” the report as Acting President and act on it! The last time that was allegedly done in Nigeria was in the 1960s when Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu, who was Defence Minister, Acting Finance Minister and Acting Prime Minister at the same time, allegedly signed the same memo three times in three different capacities, using three different pens!

The fourth one, deployment of non-career ambassadors, is far less tricky. At best, Buhari may have a few countries in mind where he wants to send certain ambassadors. Osinbajo can find that out, fulfil the president’s wish and go ahead and post the others. One can guess that Buhari has ideas about who he wants to send to London, Washington, Pretoria, Accra, Niamey, Riyadh and Beijing, maybe also Paris, Moscow and Abu Dhabi but not much else. These ambassadors have been in the pipeline for too long and the Acting President should better send them on their way. As for appointments into boards of federal corporations and agencies, the fifth crucial decision that Daily Trust on Saturday listed, Osinbajo could be reluctant to conclude them even though Buhari did many of those in the past month. It was reported some weeks ago that the committee headed by Babachir Lawal that was working on those appointments was dissolved and replaced by one headed by Osinbajo himself. If Buhari trusted him to produce a new list of board chairmen and members, I think it is alright to simply appoint all of them.

There was one other assignment that Buhari publicly assigned to Osinbajo for which the public has not heard anything since then. That was the one about improving relations with the National Assembly. Apparently that assignment never got off the ground because Senate President Saraki said he “did not hear anything” about it and no one invited him to a meeting. Osinbajo himself probably shot it down when he publicly said the presidency will never remove Acting EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu, the main issue in the dispute. So will he perpetuate the conflict with the Senate during his Acting Presidency and ensure that Buhari’s 27 nominees for Resident Electoral Commissioner are still in Senate’s In-tray when the president returns?

Many authorities including the International Monetary Fund [IMF] say Nigeria is creeping out of economic recession but this is the area that the Acting President ought to devote most attention to. The Federal Government’s economic recovery and growth plan involves so many agencies that it requires total presidential devotion to get it moving. The Central Bank’s determined effort to shore up the naira is not in clear sync with fiscal policies and it might just fritter away foreign reserves before we realise that we are pouring dollars down a bottomless pit of Dubai shopping, foreign schooling, undue medical tourism and repatriating dollars abroad under the cover of sourcing industrial machinery and raw materials.

Other things Osinbajo should worry about include pushing the military to further degrade Boko Haram, retrieve the remaining Chibok girls and other abducted persons and accelerate the return of IDPs to their homes, all rolled into one. He should work even harder to ensure that militancy does not return to the Niger Delta, which will postpone our coming out of economic recession. And he should find a way to stop the reverses that the anti-corruption campaign has suffered in the courts lately. Let me stop here, lest someone says this is an El-Rufa’i-like memo, and I will be under pressure to defend it. No wonder US President Calvin ‘Silent Cal’ Coolidge once said that if one does not say something, he will not be called upon to defend what he said.