APC speaks on attempt to down grade Osinbajo’s influence

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has refuted reports of an attempt to “whittle down” the roles of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

This followed claims that a cabal in the Presidency was trying to render the office of the vice president ineffective and humiliate him.

President Buhari in his independence anniversary address on Tuesday had announced plans to move the National Social Investment Programmes (N-SIPs), which was hitherto domiciled in the office of the VP to the newly created Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development. The programmes to be moved include N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfers, National Home-Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes (GEEP).

In a statement by its spokesperson, Lanre Issa-Onilu, yesterday, APC dismissed the reports attributing the movement to a ‘rift’ between President Buhari and his deputy.

It said President Buhari’s decision to move the N-SIPs to the new ministry does not portend crisis at the presidency.

“The conspirators are desperately trying to link government decisions on the N-SIPs, which have been under the office of the Vice President since it started in 2016 to support the conspiracies, however mundane.

“In the same October 1 address, the President announced the recent redeployment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF). Was this also to ‘whittle down’ the powers of the OSGF?

The party said the N-SIPs since 2016 has impacted “over 12 million direct beneficiaries and over 30 million indirect beneficiaries….

“A question we should ask the conspirators and their partisan sponsors is how did they miss the import of the president’s decision to create a whole ministry to superintend the social investment programmes and humanitarian issues?