Osinbajo has steered Nigeria away from tension — COL UMAR Former military administrator of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (retd), has lauded Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for steering the country out of tension since he assumed office in acting capacity about two months ago. Umar, who is also chairman of Movement for Unity and Progress, made particular reference to his intervention in forcing the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to tinker with the forex policy that had led to marked appreciation of the Naira to the dollar.

Osinbajo has steered Nigeria away from
tension — COL UMAR
Former military administrator of Kaduna State,
Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (retd), has
lauded Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for
steering the country out of tension since he
assumed office in acting capacity about two
months ago.
Umar, who is also chairman of Movement for
Unity and Progress, made particular reference
to his intervention in forcing the Central Bank
of Nigeria, CBN, to tinker with the forex policy
that had led to marked appreciation of the
Naira to the dollar.
Ag Pres Osinbajo
In a paper, titled: The Deft Moves of Acting
President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Col Umar said:
‘’It’s one and a half months since President
Muhammadu Buhari sent a letter to the
National Assembly conveying his decision to
proceed on leave.
‘’He also transferred power to his Vice
President Prof Yemi Osibanjo as is required by
the Constitution. The President has now
extended his leave to an indefinite period on
the advice of his UK doctors.
‘’Since taking over, the acting President has
embarked on measures which have effectively
set the country on the path of positive
change. In an effort to reunite a dangerously
polarized nation since the APC took power at
the centre, he has paid visits to the Niger
Delta region and parts of the southeast.
‘’These are two zones of the country which
feel genuinely alienated by the Federal
Government’s discriminatory doctrine of
favoring those who gave President Buhari over
95% of their votes over those who gave him
less than 5% of theirs.
‘’The implementation of this policy in the initial
political appointments, including those of the
military service chiefs had the negative effect
of spawning a more determined Niger Delta
militancy. That in turn, succeeded in crippling
most of the nation’s oil and gas assets.
‘’As we all know, this country depends for over
90% of its foreign exchange earnings and an
equally huge proportion of governments’
revenue on the oil resources in that region.
Even more, it exacerbated the agitation for an
independent state of Biafra.
‘’The acting President’s initiative appeared to
have convinced the belligerents to engage in
meaningful dialogue. This has led to the
suspension of acts of sabotage and in raising
our crude oil output to the optimum level of
over two million barrels per day; as per our
OPEC quota.
‘’Power generation has also gone up
substantially, thanks to the reduction in gas
pipeline vandalism. He has been proactive in
attending to state affairs. He has so far signed
seven bills while rejecting four, offering cogent
reasons for rejecting the others.
‘’Much to the relief of the nation, the acting
President forwarded the name of the acting
Chief Justice Onnoghen to the Senate for
confirmation as substantive CJN just before
the expiry of his 90-day acting status. This has
averted what could have been a major political
crisis in a fragile federation as we have.
‘’The acting President has been chairing very
lengthy and regular weekly Federal Executive
Council meetings, at which memos are
dispassionately debated after, which far
reaching decisions are taken.
‘’He has prevailed on the CBN to adopt new
and more transparent Foreign Exchange
Management procedures, which have yielded
the desired result of reducing forex market
volatility.
‘’The Naira is making tremendous gain against
the US dollar and other currencies, much to
the delight of the masses.
‘’He met at the state house with senior
members of the NLC and other demonstrators
who are protesting the current economic
hardship in the nation.
‘’This is a departure from a situation where
such demonstrators were forcefully dispersed
by security forces and refused access to
senior government officials. Even members of
the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group, a
recognized ally of this administration, were
prevented from meeting with the President.
‘’The acting President has also demonstrated
an unalloyed loyalty to his principal by
continuing to attribute his successes to the
President’s inspiration. He has also debunked
any criticism of the Buhari administration in
his absence.
‘’In contrast, the governor of Imo State, Mr.
Rochas Okorocha, criticized the Buhari
administration for allegedly marginalizing the
Igbo. He complained that even under a
President they supported, they had nothing to
show for it.
‘’The governor went on and on in indicting the
Buhari administration which he had hitherto
praised for its wonderful achievements. In a
show of loyalty to his principal and his
administration by the evident disloyalty of a
governor who had pretended servile obeisance
to the President, the acting President
responded with a rebuke: “If there is any
governor in this country that has the ear of
the President, I will say that it is Governor
Okorocha. As such, it cannot be said that the
state is marginalized by the APC-led federal
government.
‘’This definitely was intended to discourage
traitors and effectively shut down the door to
would-be turncoats. Credit for the acting
President’s trialblazing actions and high
performance must surely be attributed to
President Muhammad Buhari who selected a
running mate with tremendous intellectual
capacity and character where most
Presidential candidates would go for docile,
inefficient and greedy ones; a person whose
blind loyalty is to his principal as to himself.
‘’President Buhari’s choice of a running mate
might well have been informed by his
prescient consideration of the need to select a
competent, patriotic and loyal person in
appreciation of the challenges of his advance
age and the enormity of the task of reclaiming
the country.
‘’The President also deserves praise for his
prompt transfer of power and continued
support to his deputy as required by law. This
will undoubtedly enhance and sustain our
nascent democracy.
‘’All people of goodwill must condemn those
who are making ill thought out comments that
portray the acting President as a puppet and
who needs continuous prompting from his
principal to function. This is likely to cause ill
will and disaffection between them. The acting
President must continue, undeterred with the
good actions he has already started.
‘’He must maintain the zeal and tempo of his
good performance which will do justice to the
patriotic wish and desire of his convalescing
principal. He cannot afford to succumb to
blackmail and selfish machinations of his
critics.
‘’Nigeria is a nation in need of rescue. We
must all come together to rescue it. The
acting President needs all the support to steer
the ship of state. As Deng Xiaoping rightly
observed: “It doesn’t matter whether the cat
is white or black as long as it catches mice”.
We cannot allow the forces of division to
prevail at this point.
‘’We also have to caution all those who are
regaling us with stories of their daily phone
contacts with Mr. President as this can only
misrepresent him as belonging to a few and
therefore not to everybody as he initially
declared.
‘’We are optimistic that the President will
speak to the nation as soon as he can and
return as soon as he is able.’’