Osinbajo’s office has been rendered useless, impotent —Afenifere

Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, says from the look of
things, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s office has been rendered
useless, impotent and irrelevant.

It, 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.

The spokesman for Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, 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.