Ahead of the 2023 Presidential election, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s support base keeps swelling by the day despite his reluctance to declare his Presidential ambition.
Several support groups urging him to run for the President have sprung up across the country even when Osinbajo has constantly described them as distractions to his current assignment as the nation’s Vice President.
Although the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has yet to officially zone the Presidential ticket to the South for Osinbajo to be eligible to contest the presidential slot, there are expectations that such would be done by the party in no time.
Already, a former Lagos State governor and National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, who is generally considered Osinbajo’s political godfather had declared his intention to run for the President in 2023.
The declaration has made many in Tinubu’s political camp to consider Osinbajo’s rumoured ambition an anathema as they argue that a house divided against itself can never stand.
It would be recalled that Osinbajo was the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney- General for the eight-year Tinubu’s tenure as the governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007. Osinbajo’s emergence as the Vice Presidential candidate to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) in 2015 was also attributed largely to the backing of his former boss, Tinubu.
Since their political paths crossed, Osinbajo’s loyalty to the Tinubu’s political family has never been in doubt. However, even when Osinbajo has yet to make up his mind on whether to run or not, the Tinubu political family in the ruling party has been divided between the Vice President and the APC National Leader.
Only recently, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters in the Office of the Vice President, Babafemi Ojudu, came out boldly to rule out the possibility of his working for Tinubu’s Presidential ambition.
While debunking the claims that the APC National Leader made him and some other persons politically, Ojudu argued that their relationships were mutual and symbiotic.
