By Oluwafemi Popoola
The presidential spokesman, Mr Laolu Akande, has given insight into why his principal, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, is gunning for the country’s top job in 2023 ahead of All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries set for May 30 and 31, 2022.
Speaking during a radio 101.9 FM Programme Friday morning, April 22, 2022, Akande said Vice President Osinbajo came into politics to serve the people, emphasizing that the VP is well prepared to ensure the strength of the country is adequately utilized to the maximum.
His words, “Everybody that comes out to the public space including those of us journalists like you and myself, we do it because we want to impact to the public for the good.
“In this case, I know that Yemi Osinbajo is into politics to serve the people, so that is why he is running and what he wants to do is to ensure that we take advantage of all the strength of our country.
“For instance, he wants to ensure that we have a full-scale welfare system whereby people who cannot rise on their own because of how life has treated them, they get the chance to live in a dignified way.
“We want to find a situation where people can have a good road system and the President has already started. He started with the massive infrastructural development that is going on in the country today.
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“So, as he said in his declaration speech, he will ensure that we finish the good work and then we will continue to build the technological space so that our young people can get employed.
“We will ensure that the judicial sector is properly reformed so that we can have a solid regular observation of the rule of law in our country.
“He will ensure that every Nigerian that has an idea is encouraged to develop business.
“He will ensure that government regulatory agencies don’t become tools to obstruct the progress of the people and all of these things are already in the pipelines so that we can support small businesses, we can support young people who have ideas so that our agencies are not going to be seeing them as trying to just take from them now they are trying to create values so there is a whole lot of things that he wants to do.”
When asked why it took the Vice President so long before declaring to contest for the Office of the President, Akande said: “When a man is chosen and he has the conviction to come and serve the people he needs not to worry and being the Vice President, he must follow the law at the same time make consultations before declaring to run so that is why it took that long.”
Speaking on the VP’s experiences being the number two man for seven years and having acted as President on three occasions, Akande said Osinbajo is the best man and the most qualified for the top job.
According to him: “The best part of it all is his experience as VP, that is why he is the front-runner naturally. And God gave him the opportunity, likewise the President himself gave him a chance two or three times to act as an acting President. And we all saw what he did within those short periods.”
“So, it is not a matter of let’s see what will happen or how he will perform. We have seen how he will do it, God has shown us.
“He has been allowed to show us how he will do it. So, if we gather everything together, it is very clear he is the most qualified for the job,” Akande said.
On whether the VP has a political structure to win the APC presidential primary election and the general elections, Akande said, “there is no such thing as a political structure if there is no place of popular support.
“A political structure is dependent on the people in the grassroots, what they want, who they like, who they believe in and who they want to work with.
“I don’t think there is anybody today that has the popularity, that has shown interest in the race as the VP among the cross-section of Nigerians. That is the foundation of political structure. The political structure is about the people.
“A political party is organized to win an election and elections are won by the famous people, that are loved, this is where the VP has an edge, above shoulder advantage over several of the other candidates.
“If you look at history, we haven’t had this kind of a VP in a long while. I don’t think there is any since 1999 that got the opportunity to act.
“The President trusts the VP so much to transfer power and we saw how the VP managed the situation very commendably.
“So, a political structure is built on that kind of foundation. I have no doubt in my mind about the VP’s competence. And as you can see, Nigerians are beginning to see and organize themselves to support Osinbajo.
“Just recently, a group of professors organized themselves and visited the VP and told him it has gotten to a point that they don’t want to sit down, sit by and watch what happens in the political terrain, that they want to get involved because he is throwing his hat in the ring,” Akande concluded.
