Nigeria’s
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo seems to have been everywhere while his boss is
away. He even conducted a spot check on the public toilets at Lagos
international airport. The clear aim, it seems, is to give the impression of
business as usual while President Muhammadu Buhari is about 3,000 miles away in
UK on medical leave.
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| Osinbajo: Nigerian Vice President |
Since Buhari who is 74 years left for the
British capital on January 19, A 59 year old man, Osinbajo has rarely been out
of the newspapers or off the television news. His consensual style and short stature have stood in marked
contrast to the long-legged Buhari, an uncompromising former army general who
headed a military government in the 1980s.
The
vice-president has toured the oil-rich Niger delta something Buhari has yet to
do and held talks to end militant attacks that have wreaked havoc on the oil
and gas infrastructure. He has meet with ambassadors and delegations, and
chaired cabinet meetings in Abuja with an ease, professionalism.
Even the
unannounced visit to Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Thursday was a
media event. But in it, he stressed an important point, given the parlous state
of Nigeria’s economy. There was a “need to ensure that facilities are working
and that things are being run properly”, he said in a statement, which noted
the need to fix lifts and faulty baggage carousels. First impressions counted
if Nigeria was to attract foreign firms, added Osinbajo, a trained lawyer and former
university professor, who is also a pentecostal church pastor.
Buhari and his government have seen Nigeria’s
economy nose dive since they came to power in May 2015, on the back of a slump
in global oil prices. The country has been in recession since August. But there
are indications the weakened naira currency could be showing small signs of
recovery after the central bank this week moved to ease some foreign exchange
restrictions. In the last few days, the naira has strengthened to about 480 to
the US dollar on the black market after being 520 or higher in recent weeks.
Fitch’s BMI Research said the policy could be “a precursor to a more meaningful
move in the exchange rate” given the yawning gulf between parallel rates and
the official inter-bank rate of 305. That could pave the way for a further devaluation
which Buhari has likened to murder.
Some
analysts have seen it as significant that the measure was introduced while
Buhari was away. Osinbajo has also reportedly vetoed four parliamentary bills.
Buhari has long been known for deferring economic matters to the London School
of Economics graduate. But how far the latter’s powers stretch in taking
individual decisions is unclear.
Political analyst Chris Ngwodo said despite
Osinbajo’s high visibility and apparent competence, he was limited as acting
president because of Nigerian political realities.
“In
Nigeria, powers are vested in persons rather than in the office they occupy.
The acting president is in office, not in power,” he told AFP. “He may have
been taking some decisions which I see as mere palliatives: for instance, the
adjustment in the foreign exchange policy which flows from a broader consensus
of the people.” He would not be able to take unilateral decisions and was
restricted in his reach as “he is not the executive president Nigerians voted
for”, Ngwodo said.
Osinbajo,
a former justice commissioner in Lagos state, comes from the southwestern state
of Ogun and was appointed to be vice-president as a counter-balance to Buhari,
a northern Muslim. Identity politics play an important role in Nigeria, as does
the expectation that the presidency alternates between north and south, even if
it is not enshrined in the constitution. Spokesman for Afenifere, representing
the ethnic Yoruba people of the southwest, Yinka Odumakin, said Buhari’s inner
circle would always try to keep him in check. “We are not going to see much
from Osinbajo apart from symbolic movements and gestures here and there because
his powers are limited,” he added. “He will be acting under the shadow of his
principal or a cabal loyal to him.”
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