“How I Quit Alcohol Consumption” Fmr. Vice President Osibanjo

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

Immediate past Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, has given an insight into the circumstances that led him into  parting ways with alcoholic drinks.

According to him, he had developed a soft spot for red wine, and the Heineken brand of beer over a period of time.

Not even his pastoring job at the Redeemed Christian Church of God could prevent him from occasionally enjoying his red wine or the Heneiken beer.

However, in a video circulating online, Osibanjo relieved the defining moment during one of his international engagements in the war-torn Somalia when he had to reflect deeply and give up alcohol consumption.

During the engagement, which was a United Nations Mission assignment, the former Vice President recounted an encounter with colleagues at an eatery in  Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, that, at once, shaped his present relationship with not just red wine and Heineken beer, but all alcoholic drinks.

“Despite being a Pastor, I still, occasionally, enjoyed taking alcoholic drinks.

“Particularly, I liked my red wine once in a while, and then, some times, my beer.

“On this particular Sunday, I was coming back from a Fellowship, where I had preached and was hoping to buy two cans of Heineken beer and retire to my hotel room and read my Bible”, he narrated.

On the way, Osibanjo  decided to enter a restaurant/bar centre where incidently, his colleagues were already enjoying their drinks.

However, on sighting him, his UN mission- colleagues pleasantly surprised him by way of, suddenly, hiding their drinks from him.

According to him, shocked by the decision of his colleagues to hide their drinks, he enquired  about their reason(s)  for such a behavour from one of them, a Dane.

The reply he got was to send him into deep reflection, leading to a better understanding of his faith and personal choices in life, he stated

“You are the Priest, and we cannot be drinking around the Priest”, the Danish colleague had replied him.

Professor Osibanjo stated that since that day, he has never come close to anything alcohol.