By Tosin Olatokunbo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo may be heading for a collision with his mentor and leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the 2023 presidential election.
Osinbajo was nominated by Tinubu to be President Muhamadu Buhari’s running mate in 2015.
Tinubu has signified interest in succeeding the incumbent, President Muhammadu, whom he helped to power, when the latter bows out of office in three years.
Other aspirants who are also determined to become the nation’s number one citizen are Governors Nasir el-Rufai, Kayode Fayemi, Dave Umahi and Pastor Tunde Bakare, a popular cleric who ran a joint ticket with President Buhari in 2011, and has vowed to occupy the highest office by the time the incumbent leaves office.
But lately, Professor Osinbajo has also been rumoured to be interested in the top job.
The vice president has not openly thrown his hat in the ring, but those close to him said he’s under pressure from his close associates to contest for president.
Apart from his aides who believe that the former Lagos Commissioner for Justice has what it takes to lead the country, some groups have started putting pressure on Osinbajo to enter the presidential race.
Yesterday in Abuja, a group Good News Nigeria said the vice president is the only eligible candidate to take over from President Buhari.
The advocacy book, has asked Osinbajo to run a joint ticket with Borno state governor, Babagana Zulum, adding that the duo will get a massive support from Nigerians.
According to Dauda Mbaya, the group’s national coordinator Nigeria would emerge as the next developed country in the world if Osinbajo and Zulum are allowed to rule the country in 2023.
In case Osinbajo decides to run, the political group under the leadership of Asiwaju Tinubu, political watchers say, could explode ahead the 2023 presidential election.
The King of Bourdillon, as the former Lagos governor is popular, some recent reports suggest, has been having a crisis of confidence with some members of the group.
“Muiz Banire has left the group, Fashola has not been very close to Asiwaju recently, including Rauf Aregbesola who’s now fighting Tinubu, because the former Osun governor believes, he, as a leader did not intervene in the plan by his successor, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, to rubbish him,” a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Lagos told the magazine.
Governor Oyetola is Tinubu’s Cousin.
The APC chieftain, however told the magazine that Osinbajo “will support Tinubu when it’s time because he will not want to bite the hands that fed him.” He may be right.
Meanwhile, the APC Caretaker Committee set up by President Buhari last week, was at the Bourdillon, Lagos home of Tinubu on Thursday to consult with him, on the way forward for the party following the leadership crisis that led to the ouster of Adams Adams Oshiomhole as the chairman.
