Osinbajo has steered Nigeria away from tension — COL UMAR.

Former military 
administrator of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (retd), has lauded Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for steering the country out of tension since he assumed office in acting capacity about two months ago. Umar, who is also chairman of Movement for Unity and Progress, made particular reference to his intervention in forcing the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to tinker with the forex policy that had led to marked appreciation of the Naira to the dollar.

 

                          

In a paper, titled: The Deft Moves of Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Col Umar said: ‘’It’s one and a half months since President Muhammadu Buhari sent a letter to the National Assembly conveying his decision to proceed on leave. ‘’He also transferred power to his Vice President Prof Yemi Osibanjo as is required by the Constitution. The President has now extended his leave to an indefinite period on the advice of his UK doctors. 

‘’Since taking over, the acting President has embarked on measures which have effectively set the country on the path of positive change. In an effort to reunite a dangerously polarized nation since the APC took power at the centre, he has paid visits to the Niger Delta region and parts of the southeast. ‘’These are two zones of the country which feel genuinely alienated by the Federal Government’s discriminatory doctrine of favoring those who gave President Buhari over 95% of their votes over those who gave him less than 5% of theirs. 

‘’The implementation of this policy in the initial political appointments, including those of the military service chiefs had the negative effect of spawning a more determined Niger Delta militancy. That in turn, succeeded in crippling most of the nation’s oil and gas assets. ‘’As we all know, this country depends for over 90% of its foreign exchange earnings and an equally huge proportion of governments’ revenue on the oil resources in that region.

 Even more, it exacerbated the agitation for an independent state of Biafra. ‘’The acting President’s initiative appeared to have convinced the belligerents to engage in meaningful dialogue. This has led to the suspension of acts of sabotage and in raising our crude oil output to the optimum level of over two million barrels per day; as per our OPEC quota.