Meet Mamman Daura, the guy they call our ‘unofficial Vice President’

An online news portal, SaharaReporters, tweeted this:

mamman buhari
It went viral, with many believing it and others questioning the veracity of the tweet.
This particular question has been out there for a while now. Many have speculated and assumed but there’s little information to rely on.
But because we are doubting Thomases, we decided to do a little calculation.
osinbajo1
This is the official Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo.
But many are saying that this is the unofficial Vice President, albeit more powerful than even the official Vice President.
mamman daura buhariMamman Daura
Lets begin with this assumption:
Mathematical equation: Buhari  * (Daura/Osinbajo) =?
Daura is the nephew of President Buhari, even though the former is older than the later with a two and half year gap between them. But they are said to be close, much more closer than these two.
Osinbajo Buhari
Or even these two.Buharitinubu
Buhari, Osinbajo and Tinubu formed an alliance based on political reasons, foremost of which was to push the Jonathan administration out of power and form a political party that blew the supposedly ‘biggest political party’ out of power.
Before now, Osinbajo had no known dealings with Buhari, and that would have continued if not for the political genius of this man.
Bola Ahmed TinubuJagaban
But we digress.
In 1983, when the then General Muhammadu Buhari took over power from the democratically elected government of Shehu Shagari, Daura became very influential at the time. He even became the head of African International Bank and chairman of the board of Nigerian Television Authority.
Daura, a trained journalist and an industrialist, is said to be a man of few words and highly intelligent, always at the President’s side.
Black and White Concept Cartoon Illustration of Puppeteer Businessman Controlling other Man
Black and White Concept Cartoon Illustration of Puppeteer Businessman Controlling other Man
Since coming to power, the President has been accused of being inaccessible even to his cabinet members.
Including this man.
Amaechi15Who had a lot to say in 2015, But nothing to say now. Is he afraid of something?
But that brings us back to this man, Osinbajo.
The Vice President seems to have taken over the work of the presidency’s media team and has been churning out press release after press release while the media team look on as if confused, or scared.
Osinbajo is a professor of law, former attorney general of Lagos state (the most capitalistic state in Nigeria and a perfect example of free market system in Africa) and currently heads the federal government’s economic team. But the economic policies being implemented by this government doesn’t reflect Osinbajo’s precedents as a member of Tinubu’s cabinet in the early 2000s.
While Osinbajo has in the past associated with market intervention proponents, such as Tinubu, however, the economic policies of this present government are a far cry from his early associations.
It would appear that President Buhari is rehashing his command and control economic policies of the mid 1980s, which many describe as a failure. Read here and here.
Remember our earlier equation:
Buhari  * (Daura/Osinbajo) =?
Because Duara is always by the side of the President since his military days and is a close, albeit unofficial, adviser to the President, it is safe to assume that his actions will most definitely cancel out that of Osinbajo, who as earlier point out is but a recent political associate of the president.
Historically, Vice President have been known to be tools used by political parties to balance out political equations and capture more votes.
Example Atiku Abubakar was chosen as former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Vice President to compensate the north.
Osinbajo’s case is not much different. He was picked in 2014 to run for the Presidency with Buhari so as to capture Christian and southern voters, many of whom viewed Buhari as an ethno-religious bigot.
Furthermore, Vice President’s, like Deputy Governors, are, more or less, figure heads without any clear cut roles and power. In fact, the power of the VP -and Deputy Governors- goes as far as the President allows, with many president and Governors choosing to control their deputies by giving them as little power as possible.
Using the Obasanjo-Atiku example again.
obasanjo-atiku
In Obasanjo’s first tenure, Atiku wielded much power. However, he was cut down to size by Obasanjo in their second tenure, with Obasanjo going as far as working towards denying Atiku a ticket for the Presidency.
It comes as no little surprise that Osinbajo has little power in the Buhari administration and is more of a celebrity VP with no influence on the Presidency.
Perhaps Mamman Daura is to Buhari what Valeria Jarrett is to President Obama.
Hence it is safe to assume that:
Buhari  * (Daura/Osinbajo) = Buhari and Daura
Maybe SaharaReporters was right after all.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail