As some mock former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo for returning to Lagos without any fanfare, one of his allies, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, has said that renting a crowd would not have caused him more than N10m if the erstwhile VP had chosen to do so.
He, however, berated those mocking the quiet return, saying Osinbajo was not given to frivolity.
Adeyeye said, “It would have been easy for Yemi Osinbajo to do what most politicians periodically do. He could have instructed some of his staff and supporters to organise an impressive crowd to await his arrival at the airport.
“For far less than N10m, he could have distributed bales of ankara along with snacks and some ‘chicken change’ to singing women and noise-belching men.
“Needless to say, the capacity of a politician to stage such shows is directly correlated with the extent of his involvement in crude, appropriative, cash-and-carry politics.”
Those abusing Osinbajo over the video of his return said he was reaping the fruit of arrogance and betrayal – for competing against President Bola Tinubu, his former boss, during the All Progressives Congress primary.
But Adeyeye was quoted as saying , “I have received, for the umpteenth time, a video of the arrival of Prof and Mrs Osinbajo at the Lagos airport. The arrival was without the pomp that holders of exalted political offices receive in Nigeria. Along with the video are tendentious and silly snide remarks.
Adeyeye, who was one of the major backers of Osinbajo to become President after ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, added that “May God bless Yemi Osinbajo for not embracing the wayward exhibitionism that often defines the thoughtless populism of the Nigerian political class. His job as Vice President has been done. A hallmark of the Christian life he professes is to be able to truthfully say with Apostle Paul, ‘I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Philippians 4:12-13.”
According to him, “Osinbajo does not need a red carpet. The real losers are not Yemi and Dolapo Osinbajo but those whose superficiality makes them to define a leader by the carpet on which he walks.”
