Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is not associated with a group using his name to shame President Muhammadu Buhari and former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu, his aide said on Wednesday.
Osinbajo’s spokesman urged members of the public to ‘ignore’ statements from an ‘Osinbajo Think Thank’ group.
One Olugbenga Olaoye, a co-covener of Osinbajo Think Tank, granted a television interview earlier where he referred to Buhari and Tinubu’s health as one of the reasons to vote for Osinbajo to be elected president in the 2023 elections.
Olaoye described Osinbajo going head to head with Tinubu as a contest between the “masses versus the bourgeois,” noting that the vice president is the choice of the Nigerian people.
He also suggested that Buhari is the weak link in the management of Nigeria’s economy.
“It is possible you have a quartet in a relay race. You could have a weak first, second, third leg and have a strong final leg,” Olaoye said.
“This is what Vice President Oluyemi Osinbajo represent. We believe strongly that if given the power as C-in-C, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he would take us from this doldrum and get Nigeria to the promise land.”
When asked by Arise TV host to clarify his statement, Olaoye pointedly made reference to Buhari’s health history.
“We all know what happened to President Muhammadu Buhari at the inception of his administration,” Olaoye said. “He spent a lot of period out of Nigeria because of his ill-health.”
He said that gave “some people” to hijack the running of the country from the president.
But Akande said Olaoye and his group do not represent the vice president who on Monday declared his interest to succeed Buhari in office.
“Indeed this gentleman does not represent the VP nor the Office,” Akande said. “His views are completely & totally his own.”
Osinbajo’s spokesman said “this particular opinion he has expressed on TV is deplorable and in bad taste. I am not even aware of the so-called Osinbajo Think Tank he purports to represent.”
