Yesterday, Nigerians woke up to Vice President Pastor Yemi Osinbajo’s declaration to contest in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election. To some tagged ‘sponsored speculators’ by Pastor Osinbajo’s own media aide, Laolu Akande, the declaration was long overdue since they goaded the man to do it after-all. To others, Pastor Osinbajo’s declaration was shocking! It’s shocking not because the oratorical Pastor of the Pentecost was not qualified or competent at least to be the president of Nigeria – hasn’t he acted as president on few occasions that his present principal thought it wise to allow him to act? It’s shocking, especially to discerning, politically dispassionate Nigerians that Pastor Osinbajo made a declaration over a plum position as presidency without a personal conviction that he’s ready to lead Nigeria.
It was an afterthought on the part of Pastor Osinbajo to make yesterday’s declaration to satisfy his close aides like Babafemi Ojudu and others and his personal friends who have been deafening both traditional and social media spaces to goad Pastor Osinbajo into contesting at whatever cost. One incontrovertible fact to support the above summation is the constant rebuttals from Laolu Akande, Osinbajo’s media aide, that his principal was not interested in the presidency, and to register his (Laolu) displeasure over the unceasing ridiculousness of close aides like Babafemi Ojudu over the touted aspiration, Laolu Akande was forced to tag them ‘sponsored speculators’. Since the attempt in this intervention is not to do content analysis of the phrase ‘sponsored spectulators’, it’s just reasonable to proceed with the meat of this article. But what’s obvious is that Laolu Akande did not coin the phrase for the fun of it except to show that it was spurious for Ojudu and his co-travellers to embark on errands they weren’t sent.
It’s just by the way that Pastor Osinbajo’s unpreparedness for the presidency he was too timid to reject from his opportunistic hangers-on found mention in this intervention. Yet, the mention is apt as one of the immoralities that Pastor Osinbajo’s declaration brings to the fore of national discourse of ‘who and why’ of the occupation of the Nigerian presidency.
There have been arguments and counter arguments as to whether Pastor Yemi Osinbajo betrays his political benefactor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for his touted interest in and eventual declaration to vie for presidency since Asiwaju Tinubu is eyeing the same presidency. It would be monotonous to toe the line of whether there’s betrayal again since attempts to defend political actors we anoint have reduced, or obliterate, our past unfeigned perception of betrayal as essentially against the ethos of Omoluabi. However, there are identified immoralities in Pastor Osinbajo’s declaration.
To put things in proper context, and especially to refresh the memory of Osinbajo’s emergency loyalists, the CPC bloc of APC produced President Muhammadu Buhari while the ACN bloc, led by Asiwaju Tinubu, produced Vice President Pastor Yemi Osinbajo. It’s therefore implied that Pastor Osinbajo represents the political interests of the defunct ACN in the administration of Muhammadu Buhari. If the oratorical Pastor of the Pentecost swears allegiance to President Buhari on governance, it’s no dispute that his allegiance on politics must be to the leaders of the defunct ACN, especially Asiwaju Tinubu and Baba Akande, who are now both national leaders of the APC. Pastor Osinbajo cannot now claim to be more familiar with Osho’s mother than Osho himself. Since it was Asiwaju Tinubu who brought him into national political limelight, Pastor Osinbajo has a moral duty to revert to Asiwaju on his political future and decisions. It’s nice that VPP Osinbajo deemed it fit to consult with President Buhari, his principal in government, over the presidential ambition he hesitantly accepted. It would have been nicer if the VPP also consulted Asiwaju Tinubu and Baba Akande, his political principals, over his next political move.
What makes VPP Osinbajo’s declaration more immoral is that he ignored the fine act of reciprocity. When Asiwaju Tinubu wanted to begin his presidential consultations, he confirmed that he informed President Buhari, VPP Osinbajo and his political family of his presidential aspiration. Why VPP Osinbajo feel indisposed to also inform Asiwaju Tinubu in return of his own presidential ambition should baffle sincere minds about the kind of president he’s going to be if elected at all. Will VPP Osinbajo have the moral conscience to reciprocate the gestures of votes Nigerians may have given to him if elected as president with better governance? Let Nigerians remember that an abusive husband doesn’t throw away the cane used to flog the senior wife lest the junior wife also deserves it.
