Osinbajo’s support base soars across divides, as another Minna, PDP chieftain endorses Buhari’s deputy to succeed him

*Says he is best of APC available materials for 2023

*”If you say Tinubu made Osinbajo, did he send him to school?” Jimi Disu asked on Radio

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

In his words, he said to Osinbajo, “Mr. Vice President, do you know that you are the best aspirant in your party? Moreso, with your endorsement from Minna, I think that makes it more possible.  Many people are waiting for you. Do not leave charlatans and riffraff to take over.”

More meaningful Nigerians are endorsing Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), a professor of law, for 2023 presidency, as the former two-term Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, says he is best of available materials in the All Progressives Congress (APC) to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

This was as, on Tuesday, the Vice President got another major endorsement coming from no other than Minna but this time sounding from Kano to suggest that his support base has soared across party, ethnic and religious lines to make him the most popular candidate to be Nigeria’s next President.

Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, who also served as Permanent Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the of of military’s last leg in power, however, noted that even in his own party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), minds have been made up that anyone who does not understand the history of Nigeria and the sacrifices that made Nigeria as one or is not capable of keeping the peace and unity of the country will never get their presidential ticket.

Notably, The DEFENDER gathered that, Osinbajo’s politics uniqueness has been in the fact that he is an unwilling contestant that fate pulls into the ring, “whether he likes it or not. He has no choice,” many of those who voluntarily serve as his front are heard to be saying.

His latest Minna endorsement in Kano occurred on Tuesday, when he got another major endorsement coming from no other than Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, who not only is a strong Northern leader in the PDP politics but also remarkably succeeded Engr AbdulKadir Kure as Governor of Niger State doing it repeatedly for two terms.

Making the fresh endorsement at the Sardauna Ahmadu Bello Memorial Lecture held in Kano, the former governor and PDP chieftain, in no resemblance of any pretention, said the Vice President is the best of all the aspirants of his party.

In his words, he said to Osinbajo, “Mr. Vice President, do you know that you are the best aspirant in your party? Moreso, with your endorsement from Minna, I think that makes it more possible.  Many people are waiting for you. Do not leave charlatans and riffraff to take over.

“Somebody would say it is politics. Yeah! We are talking of political icons, we are talking of governors and Nigeria cannot afford a mistake in 2023,” he got emphatic.

On PDP he said, “At our own party level, we have made up our minds that we will not let anybody that does not understand the history of Nigeria, that does not understand the sacrifice that had been made to keep Nigeria one, no matter how much money he has, we will collect and then we will show him.”

At another forum on ‘Nigeria Info’, 99.3 FM radio programme tagged, “Let’s Talk”, where the discussion was centred on endorsement of Yemi Osinbajo, Jimi Disu, a Lagos based public affairs analyst, as captured in a video watched by The DEFENDER, said:

“Some people are saying that if Osinbajo contests against Tinubu, he will be disloyal to Tinubu, I don’t understand these things.

“Some people say Asiwaju Tinubu made Osinbajo. Did he send him to school? Did he make him a professor of law? Who added values to whose life? All through the tribulations that Tinubu had, Yemi, Jebi as we used to call him, was providing the legal whatever. So let’s get things right.

“The fact that you made somebody to serve as Commissioner like you also served as governor does not make him subservient to you for life.

“I saw his statement ‘yesterday’ and I stand with him, that “Look, I am a selfmade man. Nobody made me.” In association with this gentleman, a few things happened. So what?!

“I mean, I heard some of his (Tinubu’s) supporters say it was Asiwaju that made Osinbajo.

“Take away governor and take away Vice President, head-to-head, who is senior?

“The man is a professor of law! Common! At a very young age. So, let’s get this right and stop mixing apples with oranges.

“Yemi Osinbajo is going to run. I know that for a fact. He is going to run and, guess what, he will be the most, probably, intellectually endowed candidate we ever had.

“The man is a legal genius, let’s call a spade a spade. He was a professor at 30 something. I can’t remember that day and we heard Jebi (Osinbajo) was a prof. Professor of Law!

“If you want to go along that part, do you know how many “judges” he has made?

“If the APC will entertain us a little bit, let’s have a debate between himself and Asiwaju (including all the aspirants) and you will see who is who. He is probably the most intellectually endowed candidate that we are going to have so far,” Disu said.