“Osinbajo employed church members, tribesmen when Buhari was sick”

Outspoken northern thought leader Junaid Mohammed, has revealed how Vice President Yemi Osinbajo over-reached himself while he acted as president in the dog days of President Muhammadu Buhari in London.

Mohammed described Osinbajo as tribalistic because he employed members of his church and tribesmen during the period Buhari was away in London on a sick leave.

He also insisted Osinbajo made some mistakes in the discharge of his functions as the acting president.

“You don’t run a country by assuming that you are entitled to certain powers, certain privileges. You are not! We have a written constitution, which provides enormous powers to only one person – the president,’ Mohammed told the Sun.

“The president has the right to delegate some of these powers to anybody, including the vice president. But in terms of a written authority to exercise certain functions and powers, the vice president in my reading of the Constitution has basically only two powers.

“One, the vice president is the Chairman of the National Economic Council and that is an occasional meeting – not more than once in a quarter – to discuss general economic policies because we are running a federation.

“Apart from that, the vice president also is the Chairman of the National Boundaries Commission. Again that harkens back to the issue of running a federation.

“If you are running a federation, there must be somebody that advises the president or the vice president on the issue of legal borders, even for the purposes of taxation.

“Beyond these, every single responsibility, which is being exercised by the vice president was at the instance or was the responsibility delegated to him by the president.

He noted Buhari had health challenges before he became the president, though many paid no attention until he spent 137 days in London.

“Whether he wanted to hand over some or all of the responsibilities, there was just no way we could have a country without a president or somebody exercising the powers of the president. But that doesn’t mean that these powers are or belonged to the vice president as a birthright,” he said.

While he believed Osinbajo made some mistakes (in the discharge of this function), he added that on the whole the VP’s body language and his verbal expressions did not lead us into a crisis.

“He didn’t abuse those powers,” he said.

Many have attributed Osinabjo’s recent travails, hyped by the media, as signs Buhari was angry with him, and the cabal were ready to strip him of his authorities.

“I find that most unfortunate,” said Mohammed.

“If a man says go and do this on his behalf, he has the right to withdraw and say I have reassigned it to myself or to somebody else as the law provides.

“I find the whole attitude from these people [rumour-mongers] rather disgraceful.”