By Isaac Olamikan
Professor Yemi Osinbajo is on a nationwide consultation, as he terms it, to get a hint of his acceptance for the 2023 presidential poll on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He has been on this now for a while and one would expect he must have over the period mastered his act as the days progress.
On Thursday, April 28th, his train berthed in Benin City, the capital of Edo State. He had a good reception at the palace of the Benin monarch, His Royal Majesty, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare 11.
By the time he arrived at the palace the media was not well represented to capture his arrival so his minders hurriedly arranged for reporters to be shipped in from wherever they were to witness the epoch event.
The commercial bus that was assigned to do the job arrived at the palace almost half way into the event, when Professor Osinbajo had finished his presentation.
All the same the reporters were able to capture the monarch’s response well. Of course, Omo N’Oba poured encomium on his guest and prayed for his success in his endeavours.
The next port of call was the APC state secretariat off Airport Road, Benin. Much as they tried the media men were barred from gaining access into the place. And the wise idea for the reporters was to move ahead to the next port of call ahead of the Osinbajo team.
At the next port of call which was the Constantial Hotel opposite the Benin Airport instruction had already been issued that no reporter must be allowed into the hall where the Vice President will meet with the party delegates to the national convention in some weeks time.
All these hide and seek from all reasoning was meant to prevent the reporters from getting to know what monetary inducement that the Osinbajo team was negotiating with the state APC officials and national convention delegates.
Soon the Osinbajo team was on its way to Delta State which was its next port of call. All these while nobody in the team thought it worth the while to entertain the reporters who were running helter skelter all over the place to gather their news for publication.
As it is today, Sunday, May 1st, 2022, four days after, nobody in the Osinbajo team has deemed it necessary to reach out to the reporters to appreciate them for a job well done as they have since done series of publications on the visit.
If this is the way Osinbajo will rule Nigeria then we are in big trouble. He should start learning how to delegate authority to trusted aides who will carry out his assignments with honesty and promptly.
Having spent over seven years as the Vice President of Nigeria one would think Osinbajo would have mastered most of these leadership attributes.
A good leader should know how to pick the right team to make his work easier.
