Those tagging the Vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo are unfair to the nation’s Number two citizen.
This was the view of an Ondo state based legal practitioner and public affairs analyst, Sola Aregbesola while speaking on a Positive fm Akure programme, POLITICAL PODIUM.
Vice president Osinbajo had on Monday, 11th April 2022 officially declared interest in the number one position after the exit of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
His declaration had however been greeted with mixed reactions as some Nigerians now described Osinbajo as betrayal having shown interest to be Presidency against his political godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Aregbesola said such development was strange and undemocratic.
“It is unfortunate that people are calling Vice president osinbajo a betrayal. He has not done anything wrong and absolutely not wrong. It is right or the right of anybody to aspire to be President of this country. Aspiration is one thing ,realisation of what is aspired is another thing” Aregbesola said
“No one has the right to say others are not entitled to it. I think that’s one of the things that tied Lagos down in spite of the economic viability that is attached to Lagos. But politically, lagos is tied down because the politicians there are not free to choose and pick and to decide who they want.
“So if Bourdilon does not say or approve it, nobody should speak. That’s not democracy.
“That is one of the reasons I believe that Lagos needs to be liberated from the political jugular of one person or a small group of people. It can not happen in Ondo State.
“When Oluwarotimi Akeredolu was contesting, I remember that five aspirants from Owo, his own home town showed interest and also battled him to the last point. The man (Akeredolu )did not talk of anyone betraying him. It means that if there are certain things you should do and if you don’t do it, they will be waiting for you on election day.
So if our own Rotimi Akeredolu could wallow through that and succeeded in getting the second term, why not others.
But here, we are talking about Federal Republic of Nigeria that has 36 states and the FCT.
Assuming it eventually zoned to the southwest, would they say Lagos, or Ibadan or Osun ? No. They won’t say a particular state. It will now left for the political leaders from the Southwest to sit and decide on who to send.
When Obasanjo was chosen in 1999, nobody consulted the southwest. They just brought him out and he was elected. That’s why the party that brought him out did not do well in the southwest.
But when baba wanted the second term, he got himself in politics and got reelected.
Betrayal is a very strange language in politics except where they swore to an oath or something that they have taken oath of secrecy.