2023: Tinubu's Presidential Ambition Won’t Stop Osinbajo – Aide

 

Nigeria's Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo will not shelve his ambition to contest in the 2023 presidential election because the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu has declared interest to become President.

 

An aide to Osinbajo made the clarification on Tuesday.

 

Tinubu had on Monday announced that he had informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his interest to vie for the country's presidency.

 

The development had elicited several reactions, with many claiming such move would mark the end of Osinbajo's interest in the same office.

 

But speaking with Daily Independent on Tuesday, the vice-president's aide, who preferred anonymity, said his principal is “very much inter­ested in vying for the number one office in the country.”

 

He, however, said unlike Tinubu, the APC national leader who went to Buhari to in­form him of his intention to contest for the presidency in 2023, Osinbajo was waiting for di­rectives from President Buhari, who is the leader of the APC, on the way forward for the 2023 presidential election.

 

The aide said the vice pres­ident enjoys a lot of goodwill from Nigerians who believe that he is the best candidate who can sustain the legacies of the present administration and even do things better.

 

He said those claiming that Tinubu beat Osinbajo by declaring for the presidency were wrong because “the vice president has no declaration to make unless authorised by the president.”

 

He said, “The vice president is very much interested in contest­ing. From what we have seen, many Nigerians, including key figures in the political and corporate world, believe that he is the best to succeed President Buhari.