- It’s untrue says Youth coordinator
Nigeria’s Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo may be considering putting his presidential ambition in abeyance in deference to his former boss and leading chieftain of the All Progressives Congress Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who formerly threw his cap in the ring on Monday.
Tinubu after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday told journalists that he had come to formally inform the President of his ambition to run for the nation’s presidency in the 2023 election. He said the presidency has been lifelong ambition.
Feelers gathered by Sunrise News showed that the declaration is already giving the Osinbajo camp some concern as the Vice President is considering dismantling his campaign structures in deference to his former boss.
Osinbajo, a successful lawyer and pastor, came into political limelight when Tinubu, appointed him as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
As the state’s Commissioner for Justice, he won several landmark cases against the Federal Government, and pioneered several reforms in the state’s judiciary, developments which endeared him to Tinubu.
The relationship of mutual trust and confidence between the two, was said to have informed and facilitated Osinbajo’s emergence as Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in 2015.
Though Osinbajo is yet to declare interest in the presidential election, sources asserted that he is considering asking his growing supporters to put an end to all their activities and queue behind Tinubu.
One of the sources close to the Vice President, who was part of the team that opened an office in Wuse 2, Abuja, said that loyalty is an important virtue for the vice president.
“We, Osinbajo’s supporters won’t have any scruple against Tinubu. Whatever our principal decides we will follow,” he said off record.
He added that, “We won’t force him (Osinbajo) because he’s the one that will run while we will support.
“Following Asiwaju’s declaration, we held an emergency meeting and it emerged while we were at the meeting that the Vice President wouldn’t want to be seen to fight his political mentor.
“We were told he will inform everyone to support Tinubu and that he won’t declare. I don’t know if he will openly ask us to stop campaigning for him as he hasn’t declared, we don’t know yet.
“But it’s true that we would be told to stop our activities. Besides, the funding will stop if there’s no movement in the VP’s camp.”
While the spokesman to the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, failed to respond to enquiries made to the Vice President’s office, the National Coalition for Youths and Students for Osinbajo, NCYSO, Mr Festus Ofume, denied the reports declaring that, “That is not true”.
He however said the group “cannot categorically tell that the VP is contesting.”
According to the youths coordinator, feelers all pointed to Osinbajo contesting for the ticket of the APC, despite the declaration by Tinubu.
He said the group and other support groups would have long been asked to stop if the VP will not contest.
He further informed that the Osinbajo group, especially the NCYSO, had been carrying out advocacy and sampling opinion of Nigerians especially the youths, “who are yearning for the VP’s leadership as a president of Nigeria.
“There are youths in Nigeria who feels that governance is within their reach. We are protecting our interest. And we have sampled opinion and found out that the VP is a capable person that the country needs right now to be the number one citizen. That’s why we are not only going to give him support, we are calling upon him to come and serve in this capacity as a president for the nation.
“If we had the notion that he has been asking people to dismantle structure, we won’t be doing whatever we are doing. We have never really spoken to the vice president.”
He explained that based on sampled opinion, the VP remained the best candidate, adding that the group had risen “to make this clarion call for him to come and run for the office of the president.”
He however said the group had no reason to wait for the VP to indicate interest.
“If he indicates interest we will support him. That is what we want. Now that he has not indicated interest, we are more focused on sampling opinion and the interest of the generality of Nigerians pointing towards him to be the person that will lead for the country next 8 years so that we can consolidate on what this present government is doing and also correct areas where the government has not met the expectation of Nigerians.”
He discountenanced insinuation that Osinbajo will not challenge Tinubu for the APC ticket saying while both were qualified, the support group will work hard to produce him as the next president of Nigeria.
He added that both Osinbajo and Tinubu were working towards the same path to produce the best person as the president of Nigeria.