Re: Before the president returns
Returning President Muhammadu Buhari will find a country that has been governed much as he would wish it to be governed and as he, himself would have governed it. After all he set the template; any speculation that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo veered off course is mala fide, an unjust attempt to give him a bad name in order to hang him. There are no discernible lapses and/or inaction on Osinbajo’s part; in fact president Buhari would laud him for his deft handling of the IPOB-Coalition of Northern Youth (CNY) confrontation.
It is difficult to find any difference in the tempo of the prosecution of corruption cases under president Buhari’s watch and now when Osinbajo has been in charge for the last couple of months. Most of the cases before the courts date back from 2007, the cases initiated since the coming into office of the present administration are not as many. Unfortunately, majority of the cases, both old and those started recently, are still in the basement of legal proceedings, kept there by the legal gymnastics of an army of well-paid SANs. President Buhari himself has had cause to decry the slow pace of justice when what is needed is swiftness of action in order to set an example. Any blame for alleged “any signs of compromise” should be laid at the door of the Ministry of Justice, the prosecuting authorities. It is worthy of note that it is under his watch that Ibrahim Saminu Turaki was finally brought back to court - he has been hiding in plain sight these last ten years and has been quite visible since the current administration came into office.
Where is the favouritism in the Acting President’s handling of the row between Health Minister Prof Isaac Adewole and NHIS Executive Secretary Prof Usman Yusuf? Both are Buhari’s appointees, except one is Yoruba, the other Hausa. No need to go beyond Osinbajo’s instructions to the minister to ensure fairness in the investigation he (the minister) ordered. The clear preference would be for Osinbajo to order the immediate recall of the suspended ES and Adewole’s chastisement.
The seeming lull in the war against Boko Haram has been noted by many observers: I had cause to voice unhappiness in an article published recently by the Daily Trust. It looks as if the exertion to capture Sambisa forest has drained the military of its energy - momentum was lost since mid-last year. Buhari has been away just two month, he would have agreed strategy with the military before his departure. There’s no way of knowing what the military asked of the Acting president and he didn’t give or authorise.
The Federal Executive Council members are, one and all Buhari’s appointments: Osinbajo cannot order the Council’s dissolution. The simplest task in this area is for Osinbajo to swear in the two new ministers and post them to the ministries vacated by their predecessors. It is surely not Osinbajo’s doing that they are yet to assume duty.
The noteworthy part of the article is the hope that president Buhari has used the period of his recuperation for introspection so as to tweak his administration immediately upon return for better service delivery to an expectant nation.
M T Usman, Kaduna.