‘Tribalistic’ Osinbajo Did Not Abuse Power As Acting President – Junaid Moh’d

Second Republic lawmaker, Junaid Mohammed, has said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo‘s body language and verbal expressions did not lead Nigeria into crisis during his time as Acting President.

Naija News reports that Osinbajo assumed the position of Acting President during President Muhammadu Buhari‘s medical vacation in the United Kingdom.

In an interview with The Sun, elder statesman, Mohammed hailed Osinbajo for not abusing his powers as Acting President during that period.

He however noted that, like most Nigerians, Osinbajo is tribalistic and employed members of his church and tribesmen during the period President Buhari was away in London.

The former lawmaker accused the Vice President of making some mistakes in the discharged of his duties as the Acting President.

According to him, “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.”

Medical vacation

Speaking further, Junaid Mohammed stated that Buhari has had health challenges before he became the president but people did not pay much attention.

“And so when he became very seriously sick and the Federal Government mismanaged, not the sickness, but the flow of information; they were not at the same level with the rest of the country, they were not telling us the truth, until the man had to stay for 37 days and later again for over 100 days in-between hospitals and the official residence of the High Commissioner in London,” he continued.

“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.

“No! I believe he (Osinbajo) made some mistakes (in the discharge of this function), but I also believe that on the whole his body language and his verbal expressions did not lead us into a crisis. He didn’t abuse those powers.”

Junaid maintained that President Buhari had the power to reassign duties he gave Osinbajo to anybody else.