VP Osinbajo’s Trip To India Cancelled Due To Protocol Error
Nigeria’s Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, has made a last-minute
cancellation of a trip to India owing to protocol blunders by the Protocol
Department of the Presidency as well as a realization that Senate President
Bukola Saraki would have had to act as President for a couple of days. Mr.
Saraki is currently embroiled in a trial for corruption that he and his legal
team are using all kinds of controversial maneuvers to beat.
“When the President and VP are out of town, the running of the country will
fall automatically into the hands of the Senate President,” a Presidency
official told SaharaReporters this evening. He added, “We did not want the
awkwardness that would come with that scenario.”
SaharaReporters learned that a 27-member delegation, including the VP and two
ministers, were scheduled to travel today to India for a conference. But Mr.
Osinbajo’s trip was shelved when the Presidency’s protocol team discovered at
the last minute that
President Muhammadu Buhari
was also going to travel to Equatorial Guinea on Sunday for a state visit that
is scheduled to start on Monday.
Mr. Osinbajo’s trip to India, which was billed to end on Wednesday, would have
meant that Nigeria would for more than two days be without its first two
citizens, leaving the reins of power in the hands of Senate President Saraki.
A source close to the VP stated that the prospect of Mr. Saraki’s assumption
of presidential powers could not be tolerated in view of the ethical clouds
around the senator. Mr. Saraki is currently facing criminal proceedings at the
Code of Conduct Tribunal for alleged failure to make a correct declaration of
his assets.
SaharaReporters learned that VP Osinbajo had already sent his advance party to
India, and had booked hotels and made arrangements for ground
transportation, all at a cost of $250,000, before the cancelation of the trip
on Saturday.
President Buhari
is still scheduled to travel to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, for a two-day visit
that begins on Monday.
A source at the Presidency blamed the State Chief of Protocol (SCOP), Lawal
Abdullahi Kazaure, as well as the protocol team for the near-blunder. “The
president’s protocol chief, Malam Kazaure, and the protocol department again
displayed great incompetence here,” a source at the Presidency fumed. “They
ought to have caught the issue earlier before it cost Nigeria a huge sum of
money,” he added.
According to the source, the current SCOP was ill suited for the demands of
the protocol department, but he was hired at the behest of Mamman Daura, a
powerful but shadowy figure who is the nephew of President Buhari.
Both Mr. Kazaure and the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, have drawn criticism for
their incompetence, with some Presidency staffers complaining that the only
reasons they got their posts was their closeness to Mr. Mamman Daura. Whereas
Mr. Kyari worked for Mr. Daura's company for more than 20 years, Mr. Kazaure
is married to Mr. Daura's sister.
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