Former deputy governor of Kano State, Professor Hafiz Abubakar has denounced plot by persons he labeled as paid hack writers allegedly spreading the rumour that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s election as the next president would trigger a religious war in the country.
Professor Abubakar, at a current affairs programme aired on an Abuja-based television station, Wonderland TV which was monitored in Abuja and followed by an interactive session with top journalists in the nation’s capital said that no amount of smear campaign will dissuade several Nigerians calling on the vice president to enter the forth-coming presidential contest.
The former deputy governor who assumed duty in Kano last January as the national coordinator of Osinbajo Support Organisation (OSO) comprising over 45 associations in the country expressed sadness that Osinbajo whom he dubbed a true God-fearing man of character and vision was being profiled as a religious fanatic and bigot.
‘’It is a smear campaign meant to deceive us northerners, blindfold us and cheat us. It is a cheap, malicious and mischievous smear campaign and I feel sad for those hack writers who write without facts. I’m not talking politics now. The north has the worst case scenario in terms of Human Development Index. We are the headquarters of poverty and illiteracy with the highest number of children out of school.
‘’But due to the several developmental programmes which Vice President Osinbajo has conceived and executed on behalf of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, he has become the darling of the ordinary northerner’’, he said.
He averred that Osinbajo’s rising profile arising from the increasing public interest in his presidency had become worrisome to some of the contestants. He said no amount of smear campaign by commissioned writers could stop the wave of calls on the nation’s No. 2 man to contest, contending that the moves were an agenda to deprive the poor and helpless northerners of gaining more goodies already been dished out by the office of the vice president on behalf of the president.
The former deputy governor who is currently a Visiting Professor at the National Universities Commission and the National Open University Abuja said that he was personally sad and bitter hearing some people calling the vice president a religious fanatic and bigot when, according to him, the reverse was the case.
‘’When I see a religious fanatic, I will know. That tag does not define Osinbajo at all. He is the reverse. I come from five generations of Islamic clerics. I practice my religion as and how I want to do it, and I will be very angry if somebody calls me a bigot simply because I practice my religion.
‘’I am from a renowned family of muslim clerics, my father is a muslim cleric, my grand-father is a muslim cleric, his father was a muslim cleric, the last five generations of my family are muslim clerics. Currently my uncle is the head cleric of my family, my grand-father who gave birth to my father was one time the representative of Nigeria in the World Muslim League, so am saying this to lay the foundation of where am coming from’’, he said.
‘’I have known and interacted closely with Osinbajo since 1999 till date therefore I am in a position to know. What is important to me is that these offensive articles are meant to deceive my brothers and sisters in the north simply because the north has the largest number of votes, and some of the contenders feel very threatened by the vice president because he is the finest character in the entire race from all the political parties that I know, and I’m being very objective’’, he noted.
‘’I felt extremely sad to see the words used on one of the finest human beings Nigeria has ever produced in the person of PYO as we call him. Imagine words like religious bigot, religious fanatic, somebody was even saying that there would be religious war in this country if Osinbajo becomes president. These are very serious tissues of lies. In fact, if I were in his shoes, these allegations are odious and libelous, and I will take anybody to court because nobody has any evidence to prove such allegations’’, he said.
According to him, over 85 per cent of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s senior personal staff are northerners and practicing muslims who see in the vice president as a rallying point for a new tribe of patriotic and genuine nation-builders. He urged Nigerians to verify his claims.
‘’He (Osinbajo) is a man godly in character, he is God-fearing in action so the tag of fanaticism is a sponsored smear campaign to deprive Nigerians of critically examining the contestants. To the best of my knowledge, he is a man of the moment. When you have such a material, instead of war those few mischievous people are shouting, there will be peace and prosperity and I am sure he will not disappoint Nigerians because I know him so well’’, he said.
He urged Nigerians to consider the respective track record of personalities presently jostling for political positions in the on-going leadership recruitment process.
He said: ‘’we should look at qualities, I support this gentleman called Osinbajo because I believe he is the right man in terms of character, competence, vision, compassion, empathy, we need leaders with great sense of care and empathy.
He emphasized that since he met and worked closely with the vice president, he had never seen any trace of fanaticism or bigotry in him other than humility, tolerance and respect to fellow man.
‘’I knew him way back in 1999 when he was attorney general of Lagos, at the same time I was commissioner of finance in Kano State and I had cause to work with him by the directives of our then 36 governors that took the Federal Government to court over onshore-offshore oil revenues, he was the one who took the case to court on behalf of the 36 state governors.
‘’Myself and his colleague in Lagos, Mr. Wale Edun, commissioner of finance, were the ones given the briefs so I had the opportunity of working with him and I had another opportunity of working with him from 2015 to 2018 when I was deputy governor of Kano, I was the one representing my governor in the National Economic Council for most of this period and he was the one chairing the meetings of the NEC, so I had cause to work with him. In effect, I’m saying that Osinbajo has the qualities needed to lead this country from the front’’, he submitted.
He said that the vice president has in the course of time connected well with critical stakeholders across the country displaying the finest essnce of servant leadership.
‘’You would observe that in his various national programmes, it was the compassion in him that gave birth to the social investment programme, addressing the problems of the poor, deprived and unemployed, if these do not show compassion and empathy, then what else?
‘’When you talk of religion, his deputy chief of staff who was a former attorney general and commissioner of justice is a muslim, in the person of Abdulrahman Ipaye, he is from Lagos, he took over from him and he is the highest ranking official in his office. The social investment programme which is a flagship programme has a special adviser to the president in charge of that programme, a lady, a muslim from my State, from Kano, from a family of muslim clerics, Maryam Uwais, from the Wali family whose husband was one-time chief justice of this country; her deputy, Barrister Ismaila Ahmed, is a muslim from Nasarawa in Kano, representing the youths; there are also other staff i.e. SAs, PAs, etc. Ahmed Idris is a muslim, Bilkisu from Sokoto is a muslim, his political adviser who is also a muslim is Senator Babafemi Ojudu, a minority in Ekiti where there are more Christians than muslims, but PYO picked a muslim from Ekiti.
‘’During the last 2019 elections, Osinbajo encouraged and supported some of them that were interested in running for political offices, one of them, his PA from Kano, a muslim whose father is a friend (in fact his father named him after me) he is now in the House of Representatives where he is vice chairman, House Committee of Banking and Finance. These are cold facts which define the Osinbajo personality’’, he said
Professor emphasized that as Nigerians examine those who are jostly for positions, they should look at their track record which should be based on facts.
‘’As a scholar with the responsibility of bringing up the young, we don’t write or teach lies, we don’t teach falsehood, we teach facts, so when you want to allude, the facts should speak to the allusion, not the other way round. In his particular matter, they have no fact to say the man, Osinbajo is a fanatic because he is a pastor. These lies will continue to fall flat’’, he argued.
