A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Daniel Bwala has disclosed that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would not contest for the presidency in 2023.
Bwala explained that it would be injurious for Osinbajo to run for the Presidency since Bola Tinubu, APC National Leader had signified interest.
Reports had it on Monday that Osinbajo would declare his interest to run for the Presidency after the ruling party’s National Convention scheduled for February 26, 2021.
But, Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, dismissed such claims, which he described as false and speculative
Bwala stressed that contrary to such reports, the Vice President has shot down such moves.
Featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, the APC chieftain said: “Yemi Osinbajo is not running for President.
“He is not interested.
“I think I know the wisdom behind why VP Osinbajo is not running and he is shooting down every attempt to point towards that.
“He may have understood that the general principle of equity and fairness is that one good turn deserves another. He had a principal who supported him for eight years and because Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) has indicated interest, morally, not legally, it would be injurious for the Vice President to express interest.”
Bwala also urged Osinbajo to publicly downplay insinuations of running for the presidency in 2023.
He also called on the Vice President to openly support Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
“Secondly, there’s an idea that if someone has helped you and indicated interest, your best bet is to go about supporting him with the hope that he doesn’t get it, he will now throw his weight behind you but you will not challenge him and I think that since the Vice President is not interested, it is important that he comes out and downplay his supporters and support Asiwaju, because if you continue to leave people in limbo, there is going to be a crisis between your supporters and his supporters,” he said.
Tinubu recently declared his interest to run for the highest political seat in Nigeria.
The former Lagos State Governor said becoming Nigeria’s president had been his life-long aspiration.
While Tinubu was governor, Osinbajo was the Attorney General of Lagos State before he rose to become the Vice President of Nigeria in 2015.
