Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church in Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has advised Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to resign if he is not allowed to perform his role as the nation’s number two man.
But the cleric said he did not believe reports that Osinbajo was not being allowed to function and perform his constitutional role.
Bakare, who spoke on Tuesday night in an Instagram Live Chat with Ovation magazine publisher, Dele Momodu, added that he would like to hear directly about the nature of the problem from Osinbajo himself.
“I do not know if that statement is true that he is not allowed to perform because the constitution is very clear on what the role of the vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is, especially as it relates to steering the economy of the nation,” he said.
Bakare was President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the Congress for Progressive Change, but they lost to former President Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo of the Peoples Democratic Party.
But Buhari contested again in 2015 along with Osinbajo as his running mate, and they won on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
The cleric explained that he asked Buhari for specific details of his role when they ran together on the CPC platform in 2011.
He said, “Before I accepted General Muhammadu Buhari’s offer, I said what would be my role because I am not prepared to be a spare tyre and he said to me that my role will be as prescribed by the constitution and as many other things as you can be given to do.
“I want to hear it one day from the vice-president that he is not allowed to perform. I don’t like rumour and I don’t like gossip. If he is not allowed to perform, I would wonder what he is still doing there because he is not allowed to perform.
“If he is content in his office and he is given responsibilities and he is discharging those responsibilities to the best of his ability, I do not believe the story that he is not allowed to perform. If that is true, let him say so and not other people saying he is not allowed to perform.
“There is constitutional role for the vice-president, it is spelt out in black and white. If he is not allowed to do that, then, what is he doing there? Because if I am enrolled as a teacher and I am not allowed to teach in that school, I will look for another school.”
Recall that Buhari had reportedly said that he deliberately refused to hand over reins of governance to Osinbajo when he travelled to the United Kingdom on a private visit from April 25 to May 5, 2019 because the constitution did not compel him to do so.
But the President had in the past handed over power to the VP while travelling out of the country for unofficial engagements.
An instance was when Buhari travelled to London on a working leave on August 3, 2018 and returned on the 18th, he handed over to Osinbajo.
Recall that Osinbajo as acting President sacked the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, an action vehemently opposed by the cabal at the Aso Rock Villa then.
But since the sacking of Daura by the VP, Buhari has not transferred power to Osinbajo again.
