As the clouds continue to gather on the situation in the Presidential Villa, where Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is reported to be battling a cabal, emerging indicators presage a sinister plot to force the resignation of Osinbajo; who would be replaced by politician Pastor Tunde Bakare; senior pastor and founder of Latter Rain Assembly, who was President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election, which they lost to Goodluck Jonathan.
Huhuonline.com has learnt from an Aso Villa source that to douse the rising inferno around Osinbajo, President Buhari invited the Vice President to see him before he departed for the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The source said Buhari and Osinbajo are still on same page, except that there are vested interests in the Villa that are bent on exacting their pound of flesh from the vice-president. The source said the VP has an inkling of recent developments designed to limit his reach and sphere of influence and consign him into irrelevance; but was rather surprised that it will begin to play out so soon. The source admitted that at the root of whatever is playing out now, and what will emerge more with time, is the agitation for 2023.
“Some persons are trying to pay the Vice President back for some actions he took as Acting President when Buhari was away on medical leave, especially the ignominious sacking of former Director General of the Department of State Security Services (DSS), Lawan Daura, after the invasion of the National Assembly by hooded and gun-toting secret agents. Osinbajo had denied approving such executive lawlessness and brigandage by the executive against the legislative arm of government. Daura was seen as a sacred cow with friends in the ruling cabal, but Osinbajo by a masterstroke had him smitten and dislodged with one deft blow! He would not be forgiven and plot after plot were conceived but could not be executed until after the 2019 general election. Slowly, but surely, the fake rumors started circulating, clandestinely, that Osinbajo wanted Buhari dead,” the source explained.
The source was categorical that the cabal in the Villa are in overdrive and hell bent on getting rid of Osinbajo. “What we are witnessing is a prelude to more devastating attacks. He is being stripped of the last vestiges of relevance and importance, as typified by how the appurtenances of his relatively powerful office have been whittled down and almost totally degraded. The aim is to make his position so tenuously untenable that he is forced to resign. If he does not bite the bullet or fall on his sword, my understanding is that he will be pushed and replaced by that politician Man of God,” the source added.
With the battle lines drawn, a source close to Osinbajo confided to Huhuonline.com that the vice-president is not going down without a fight. When, at the instance of the cabal, President Buhari replaced the Economic Management Team (EMT) headed by Osinbajo with an Economic Advisory Council (EAC), chaired by an economist, Prof. Doyin Salami; which reports directly to the president,
Osinbajo was said to have moved to rally the support of APC governors to defend his position as head of the National Economic Council (NEC), which is the prime constitutional economic body in the country.
At last Thursday’s meeting of NEC, in Abuja, two governors, one from the Southwest and another from the Southeast expressed confidence in the VP’s leadership and asked President Buhari to clarify whether the new Economic Advisory Council is going to subordinate a statutory body such as the NEC; arguing that such an action would be unconstitutional and might precipitate a protracted legal fracas.
But Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Femi Adesina in a statement said the new EAC would advise the president on economic policy matters, including fiscal analysis, economic growth and a range of internal and global economic issues, working with the relevant cabinet members and heads of monetary and fiscal agencies. He said the council, which is expected to assist the president in the development of critical policies, would hold monthly sessions. Adesina said: “This advisory council will replace the current EMT and will be reporting directly to the president. The EAC will have monthly technical sessions as well as scheduled quarterly meetings with the president. The chairman may, however, request unscheduled meetings if the need arises.”
The Villa source said the cabal was shopping for a new Vice President and even if President Buhari refuses to agree with them over such a proposition, the power mongers will keep trying to reduce the influence of the VP in whichever way possible. The idea is to provoke a dispute in the Villa and exploit it.
Huhuonline.com also learnt that the Villa cabal berated the vice-president for fostering pig-headed economic policies and initiatives like Trader Moni, which they said was a subterfuge to dispense public funds to his cronies.
As speculations continue to swirl around the vice-president, a video of Pastor Tunde Bakare, with claims that he will be Nigeria’s next president has gone viral on social media platforms. Two separate reports published Monday, by Vanguard and Legit, claimed Bakare made the declaration during last Sunday service. “Bakare, during his sermon on Sunday, September 22 said that nothing could change it because he was born for that purpose,” Legit reported. Vanguard also claimed, “Bakare, during his sermon on Sunday, said that nothing could change it because he was born for that purpose to be president.” Social media platforms were also awash with similar claims, making Tunde Bakare number one trend in Nigeria on the twitter trend table.
The video has been seen or retweeted more than 4,000 times since it was shared on Twitter. The same video was shared on Facebook with claims that a news platform, Nigerian Tribune, wrote an “explosive” story on Sunday, September 22, 2019 after Bakare “made this prophesy.” The controversy over the video may have sparked by the recent rumors of the Nigeria’s vice-president Yemi Osinbajo’s troubles.
There are unconfirmed reports predicting that Osinbajo may be impeached and replaced with a popular pastor from the Southwest, with all fingers pointing to Bakare; one of the most politically influential pastors in Nigeria; who has many times criticized previous and present governments. Bakare was the running mate to President Buhari in the 2011 presidential election which they lost to Jonathan. But the video, while authentic, was from a Sunday sermon on February 18, 2018. The video was first shared on a YouTube channel on February 21, 2018, here. A keyword search on Google also confirmed the date, February 21, 2018.
