VICE PRESIDENT, YEMI OSINBAJO RISING PROFILE WORRIES ASO ROCK CABAL

Osinbajo & his boss Mohammed Buhari

Plot to sabotage Southwest bid for presidency by clipping Osinbajo's wings.
In apparent bid to further its 2023 ambitions, the Cabal in the Presidency has taken decisive steps to neutralize the VP, seen as one of the most influential elements of the Buhari administration from the South and cut him off any significant engagements with the Nigerian people.

Last night the Vice President and the Economic Management Team he chairs was suddenly replaced by an Economic Advisory Council which will report directly to the President. Shocked Nigerians have expressed dismay at the curious need to unceremoniously terminate the EMT composed of the VP, several ministers replacing same with a private sector Advisory Council.

Abba kyari, Chief of staff to President Mohammed Buhari.

But that was by no means the beginning of the Cabal's moves. When Buhari announced the ministers' portfolios and created a new Ministry of Social DEVELOPMENT, Humanitarian & Disaster Management, many saw the hands of the Cabal trying to take away the most popular and acclaimed programs of the Buhari administration from the Vice President. How that move is to be done remains to be seen.

Earlier, the story was also making the rounds that Buhari's Chief of Staff, ABBA Kyari was in collaboration with Babagana Kingibe, Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna, John Fayemi of Ekiti & Senator Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun to take over power from Buhari in 2023.

To achieve this scheme, the team concluded early that it was necessary to pull down the rising profile of the VP & drive a wedge between him & the President as quickly as possible.

Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, master planner

This became especially urgent as the South West was being discussed as the Zone to produce the next President after Buhari. With the Economic Management Team dissolved and the Social Investment Programmes consigned to a Ministry, it is clear that that the Cabal has somehow confused and blindsided the President to render his VP redundant.

What happens in the coming days will show how successful or not, the controversially powerful Cabal really is, as it steps up on its 2023 anti-Southwest mission.

Excerpts Baba Ahmed