- Media house retracts story on alleged corruption
- Lawyers differ over renunciation of legal protection
The ongoing controversy surrounding the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo over an alleged strained relationship between him and his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, took a new turn yesterday when the former declared his readiness to waive his constitutional immunity to “enable the most robust adjudication” of several baseless allegations, insinuation, and falsehoods against his person and office.
Last week, Buhari set up an Economic Advisory Council (EAC) which, according to a statement from by his media aide, was to replace the Economic Management Team (EMT) headed by Prof Osinbajo with directives that members of the newly created body would report directly to the president.
The decision, which was given several interpretations, suggested that Buhari in collaboration with the ‘cabal’ might have made up their mind to frustrate the vice president or force him to resign.
Osinbajo has also recently been accused of mismanaging N90 billion, being funds allegedly provided by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for the prosecution of the general elections.
But Osinbajo, in a tweet personally authored yesterday and made available to the media by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, said: “In the past few days, a spate of reckless and malicious falsehoods have been peddled in the media against me by a group of malicious individuals.
“The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique had mostly been making the social media rounds anonymously.
“I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank, and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods.
“I will waive my constitutional immunity to enable the most robust adjudication of these claims of libel and malicious falsehood.”
However, Osinbajo’s plan to waive his immunity is generating reactions, with some Nigerians asking if he has the constitutional right to do so.
Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, described the resolution as a serious and intricate question because it is a constitutional matter.
He said the vice president does not have the capacity as an individual to waive his immunity. “However, this shows Nigerians that Osinbajo is clean from all the allegations against him. He has no skeleton in his cupboard. I can personally swear on his behalf that he will not tamper with the public fund but will rather use his personal money for the good of Nigeria if the need arises.”
In another reaction, a former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, who is also a lawyer, said the vice president has no constitutional right to waive his immunity as far as Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution is concerned.
According to Momoh, “Osinbajo has no right to waive his immunity except he resigns from office or if he is impeached. My advise to him is to allow those who made the allegation to go and prove their case in the court. As a public officer and politician, he should develop a thick skin to accommodate all forms of criticism. I don’t think he can waive his immunity without resigning from the office. But as long as he is doing well, we will encourage him to continue offering his good service to the country.”
A professor of History and Strategic Studies, Ayodeji Olukoju, said that even though the constitution does not allow the vice president to waive his immunity, “if the man feels strongly to defend his integrity, he should be given the opportunity. This shows the premium he places on his integrity, which to me he values even more than the office he is currently occupying. This is an indication of his readiness to sacrifice his position to clear his name, which is very rare in Nigeria or among our public officers.”
Olukoju also commended the vice president’s courage, saying that he has raised the bar in terms of governance and integrity. He added that if the decision to waive his immunity is unconstitutional, Nigeria should make it a convention henceforth that if allegations are weighty, public officers should waive their immunity if they wish to clear their name and integrity.
According to the don, “What the vice president has done will introduce a new dimension of discipline in Nigerian politics and democracy.”
But sharing a different opinion, factional chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Mr. Fouad Oki, said it is within the ambit of Osinbajo to waive his immunity if he feels strongly that his name and integrity are at stake.
In a telephone conversation yesterday, Oki said: “Since Osinbajo is a beneficiary of the immunity clause, he also has the right to waive it to prove his integrity. This has shown that he is a honourable man who is above board. It shows a lot of guts and courage on his part. I hope other politicians and public officers like him will follow his example. We support his decision, not because he is Yemi Osinbajo but because his action represents the Nigeria of our dream.”
Osinbajo’s travails might not be unconnected with the struggle for power among southwest political gladiators ahead of the 2023 elections. The rising profile of the vice president and his acceptability in the north in recent times is said to be creating confusion in some camps that have vowed to bring him down.
Nothing exposes the fact that Osinbajo is not a politician than the recent decision to announce his resolve or preparedness to waive the constitutional immunity conferred on his office in a bid to regain his credibility in the face of allegations of purloining campaign funds.
As a lawyer and pastor, Osinbajo seems not to have come to terms with the knife fights in Nigerian politics. As such, by joining issues with those who flew the kite about his current travails with the famed presidency cabal on the claim of unaccounted campaign fund deployment, he fell into an ambush.
Despite the alleged imbalance in the use of the campaign fund believed to be from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the vice president should have known better that as sociologists say, scandal improves by refutation.
But jumping the gun to extricate himself from the messy tales, the law professor will be surprised by other details that have been making the rounds in hushed tones.
Now having been boxed into a corner, the vice president will begin to confront his travails all alone because Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who should have taken up the fight, allegedly has some misgivings about him too, it has been learnt.
The Guardian
