2023: Osinbajo reportedly informs President Buhari of his intention to run for President
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has reportedly finally informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his presidential ambition in 2023.
DailyTrust reports that the Osinbajo told the president of his desire to take over from him at the expiration of his tenure in 2023 to consolidate the achievements they recorded since they took over from the opposition PDP in 2015.
By this the vice president will struggle for the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with the likes of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who had a few months ago visited the Presidential Villa where he told Buhari of his intention to succeed him.
“Certainly, VP Osinbajo has told the president that he wants to succeed him.
” The vice president had first consulted some prominent Nigerians who encouraged him to vie for the presidency and they also encouraged him to tell the president himself.
They told him not to allow a third party to tell the president so that the ambition will not be misconstrued” a source was quoted as saying.
According to Daily trust, another source said when Osinbajo approached the president with the story, Buhari was not surprised.
He said;
“Buhari smiled in his usual characteristic manner…he listened to the VP carefully and while responding, he gave him the green light and wished him well without giving him any commitment or assurance of supporting him ahead of other contenders.
He blessed the intention just the way he blessed Tinubu when he visited him in the Villa and unveiled his plan to vie for the presidency. And I think the president is being careful. Remember what he said while granting an interview to a national television.”
Though Osinbajo, a lawyer, politician and pastor, is yet to publicly declare his intention to run for the office of president in 2023, many support groups and individuals have sprung up rooting for him.
The groups have been going round the country and sponsoring adverts in print and broadcast media urging the vice president to contest.
Daily Trust reports that apart from pressure in some quarters within the APC, the VP was also in a dilemma because of his relationship with Tinubu.
A chieftain of the party, Senator Abu Ibrahim had told the Daily Trust that Osinbajo would find it difficult to contest against Tinubu.
In the another development Some sources also told Daily trust that the creation of the directorate for politics and governance recently by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), where Osinbajo is a senior pastor, had raised an eyebrow in many quarters.
They described the development as a move to use the church’s large followership across Nigeria and beyond to actualize the VP’s presidential bid.
But the church had said that the new directorate was expected to help mobilise support for members of the church who were into politics and not having anything directly to do with Osinbajo aspiration.
