By Adeoye Adelekan
Since completing his 8-year tenure as Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, continues to feature in international and global circles with one assignment here and another recognition there. For instance, last week, the immediate past Vice President of Nigeria was named among 100 peace icons in Africa.
Founded over a decade ago, Peace Ambassador Agency Worldwide (PAAW) seeks to address ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria and Africa. PAAW aims to propagate peace and foster unity. Speaking about why Osinbajo was selected, the project director of the group, Ambassador Kingsley Amafibe, said the peace icons were being recognized due to their dedication to promoting peace and calm on the continent.
“By sharing their narratives, our intention is to amplify the ripples of their endeavors, produce a collective resolve to foster a calmer and more prosperous Africa,” Amafibe stated.
Osinbajo’s selflessness and pursuit of peace, dialogue, and diplomacy have never gone unnoticed, which is why his selection as one of those who foster peace in Africa and across the world didn’t come as a surprise.
As a peace advocate, Osinbajo has often sought negotiations and dialogues as means of resolving differences. When he is not on a peace mission, as demonstrated in the Sierra Leone general election where he led the Commonwealth team, he is seeking to empower Nigerians irrespective of their language, culture, or religion. Who can forget how, as Acting President, Osinbajo gathered leaders of thought and traditional rulers together at different meetings at the Presidential Villa to rally the nation at a time of ethnic antagonisms and tensions? He has indeed earned his peace laurels.
That Osinbajo reinvented the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria during his eight years at the helm is an understatement. When he completed his task on May 29, 2023, many analysts debated his next moves, but they didn’t have to wait for long. First, it was the Commonwealth, and then the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) announced that it had appointed Osinbajo as its Global Advisor to guide their mission to accelerate clean energy deployment in emerging economies.
While in office as Vice President, Osinbajo was very vocal about what Africa could achieve in clean energy, greenification, and other related fossil fuel issues. He attended many continental and global fora advocating for Africa as the world pushed for a safer environment.
Several times, Osinbajo has spoken flawlessly about Nigeria’s energy transition and how the global narrative should focus on Africa’s perspective on climate change. For example, at the 7th Annual New York-based Columbia University Global Energy Summit, he stated that Africa was committed to a net-zero future, especially given its vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change. He added that the continent had expressed commitment to its national development contributions under the Paris Agreement. But his main thrust had always been the fact that, in the course of the transition to the net-zero emission targets, Nigeria should be able to tap into its gas-rich potential to improve energy access for its people and industrialize the economy.
One of his many informed ideas in climate change advocacy was in 2022 when he proposed a global Debt-For-Climate Swap deal in the US at a public lecture to advance net-zero emission targets, facilitate energy access, and promote development in African countries. In his proposal, he said, “Debt for climate swaps is a type of debt swap where bilateral or multilateral debt is forgiven by creditors in exchange for a commitment by the debtor to use the outstanding debt service payments for national climate action programs.”
Osinbajo was possibly positioning African governments and others from developing countries in the global South to focus more on climate change issues, something many African countries have not paid adequate attention to. In fact, it was Osinbajo who led Nigeria to become the first African nation to develop a comprehensive energy transition plan.
Prof. Osinbajo put things in perspective when he reacted to his latest appointment by GEAPP. “Several conversations have highlighted the need for a global energy transition from fossil-fueled products to more sustainable and ecologically-friendly energy options,” he said, noting that energy transition is not efficient if it is not inclusive.
He continued, “That being said, it would be remiss of us to ignore the current inequities developing countries face concerning energy access at different levels. Africa could lead the way in tackling climate change by leveraging its renewable energy potential, young workforce, green technologies, carbon removal, and green manufacturing.
“In other words, Africa can provide jobs for millions of its young people, prosper, and lead in the fight against climate change by becoming perhaps the first green or carbon-free civilization. And we have the comparative advantage to do so. But building this climate-positive growth future in the context of a just energy future that includes energy access at all levels and drives economic growth in developing countries requires international consensus, collaboration, and investment,” he said.
His advocacy goes beyond energy. As Vice President, he demonstrated enviable and vast knowledge in climate change, economy, monetary and fiscal policies, innovation technology, education, etc. Speaking of technology and education, Osinbajo reiterated his commitment to Nigerian youths by partnering with UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) to address education challenges facing developing countries.
Through his newly formed organization, Future Perspectives, Osinbajo seeks to deepen innovation in education training, especially through the use of technology. The organization, which has a strong focus on Africa, is convinced that in order to shape the future of the world, the voices of African youth must be prominently woven into global conversations. Their involvement and activism will not only have a significant impact on the region but will also bring Africa’s priceless perspectives to the world stage.
“Education must respond to the dynamism, speed of development, and massive changes in society, and educators must be trained to understand the skills required to take full advantage of a world dependent on technology,” Osinbajo said in his quest to produce the best educators.
The far-reaching, all-encompassing initiative began with a consultation process in July 2023. The upskilling training provided through Innovation to Transform Education Training (ITET) will take place in November 2023 with 50 young people from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds and different connections to education in Nigeria.
The support for the new organization from the UN agency actually shows Osinbajo’s wide appeal. He is undoubtedly one of Nigeria’s biggest exports to the world, and this is the beginning of a global chapter that will leave lasting legacies at home and abroad.
Professor Chidi Odinkalu, a former Chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), put this best when he said in an op-ed titled “Osinbajo Is an Oasis of Competence in Buhari’s Presidency” that “When he emerged as Vice-President in 2015, Osinbajo arrived with an intellect and record more accomplished than any previous occupants of the office since Dr. Alex Ekwueme in 1979.
It was a record built on an ethos of empathy, clarity, relentless application, timeless values, and a stubborn belief in the better angels of human nature, all of which have been severely tested in eight years at the most rarefied levels of Nigeria’s public life and politics. The expectations were unrealistically stratospheric, and he may, in hindsight, be surprised at how quickly many in and around the government dispensed with the platform on which they were elected.”
So it seems a settled point that Nigeria’s immediate past VP, who managed to carve a tremendously positive niche for himself under the past Buhari presidency, will still go farther in the eye of the public both at home and abroad.
Adeoye Adelekan writes from Lagos, Nigeria