by Roqeebah Olaoniye

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, plays his role well, staying on message and doing what he’s told like a good VP. But what is he really thinking? Here is an attempt at reading his mind.

Can the President travel more often?

After months of back and forth, fuel subsidy was removed on May 11^th, and, in a Washington Post op-ed published on June 13^th, he said: “The central bank has moved to introduce greater flexibility in our exchange-rate policy. These actions are a down payment on our people’s ability to succeed”. That was the signal for the Naira to be allowed to float. Both times, the President was in London. There may or may not be a pattern, but since then the president has essentially stayed home, only going to Chad for Idriss Deby’s inauguration. Perhaps another round of foreign trips could see more steps taken on the economy.

 

 

Na anti-corruption people go chop?

While working for the Lagos state government as Attorney-General, Osinbajo definitely picked up a thing or two about stamping out corruption in an arm of government. An important lesson that must have stuck is that the fight against corruption while important, CANNOT sustain people’s bellies. Of course, we do not expect him to say or act in any manner that might be construed as being pro-corruption or even anti-anti-corruption but his to-do list based on a recently delivered speech at the Presidential Policy Dialogue doesn’t seem too concerned with anything anti-graft related. Instead here are a few of the things we can safely say the VP is currently busy with: Reducing fiscal and forex imbalances; boosting dollar liquidity (thank you Mr. VP sir!); curbing inflation; lowering interest rate and ensuring lending to the real sector; increasing FDIs and FPI by sustaining enabling policies; encouraging PPPs and other collaborative engagements in the private sector; deepening diversification; creating jobs directly and indirectly; and reducing poverty.

 

Can we all agree that the private sector holds more hope for our survival as a nation?

We’re going on a whim here, and just assume these are his sentiments (oh! is that not what we’re already doing here? Well …).

Here’s a direct quote to boot: “We do realize of course that the private sector has been the engine of growth in successful economies. This is why we continue to support and encourage massive investments by private investors and key employers of labour …”

Hey people of the private sector, I think that the VP can only drop these hints for so long. The federal government is saying something and I think the wise ones should listen and take heed.

 

For how much longer shall we apologize for the North-east crisis?

The Federal Government has taken most of the blame for the crisis in the North-east and rightly so seeing as security of our lives and property as citizens should be the government’s top priority. There’s however reason to be concerned when the blame game is taken a bit too far and taken a little more seriously than fixing what’s already gone sour.

The Vice President on Friday though Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, his aide in charge of monitoring and evaluating IDP programmes, has finally come out with no apologies and instead an action plan. According to him, the government’s commitments on the matter is basically three-fold: sustainable reconstruction, rehabilitation, and recovery in the region. So please stop asking where the FG’s loyalties lie every time an issue relating to the Northern region comes up or the price of a person’s bag for that matter.

 

What do I think about Dogara?

Apart from what we already know about the relationship between Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and VP, Yemi Osinbajo from the episode about constituency intervention projects by lawmakers (strained relationship in case you weren’t following), I imagine the VP’s answer to anyone asking him this question as regards the padding palava will be to just look away to something at a distance. Probably mentally referring the questioner to his speech at the inauguration of the Nigerian Bar Association House earlier this month where he admonished people to believe lawyers for what they say they are. Know what he thinks now?