Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, says from the look of things, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s office has been rendered useless, impotent and irrelevant.
The group, however, said it would be too early to speculate if Osinbajo’s “ordeal” was caused by any misdemeanor on his part or if it was based on permutations ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Mr. Yinka Odumakin, the spokesman for Afenifere, said this during an interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday.
He said, “We are watching as events unfold. We are studying the situation, but we must also not muddle up issues.
“For now, we will not jump into any premature conclusion that this is about 2023 alone.
“We will need more information to know whether it is political or whether there was abuse of office or process.
“But the barrage of the last 48 hours shows that there is something wrong.
“We will wait to have all the facts because we don’t want to say a Yoruba man is being attacked.
“They may have had a justifiable reason to do so; but we are taking note of every development and at the appropriate time, we will make our position known.
“But clearly, what has happened is that the VP’s office has been rendered impotent, useless and irrelevant.”
It may be recalled that the Economic Management Team hitherto led by Osinbajo was suddenly dissolved on Monday and replaced with an advisory council that would report directly to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The following day, online news medium, The Cable, reported sighting a memo in which the President instructed the Vice-President to, henceforth, seek presidential approvals before taking any action over agencies under his (Osinbajo’s) supervision.
Currently, Osinbajo is the chairman of the governing boards of the National Emergency Management Agency, the National Boundary Commission, the Border Communities Development Agency and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company — a limited liability company owned by the three tiers of government.
It was learnt that some agencies, such as NEMA, would rather deal directly with the President than with Osinbajo.
There are also reports that some of Osinbajo’s aides had been transferred out of the Presidential Villa and seconded to some Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.
The Presidency, it was reported, is planning to strip the Vice-President of his brainchild known as the Social Investment Programme which comprises the TraderMoni Scheme, N-Power, school feeding programme and others.
The welfare programme is expected to be placed under the newly-created Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development headed by Mrs. Sadiya Umar.