By Temidayo Akinsuyi
Since the declaration by the Vice- President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo to contest the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), supporters of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Lagos state governor have been making scathing remarks, launching the most vitriolic attacks on the number two citizen. On social media, some overzealous loyalists of the APC national leader resorted to name-calling, describing Osinbajo a betrayer, traitor, backstabber, fake pastor and so on.
Osinbajo’s offence, according to these ones was that he dared signified interest in contesting the 2023 presidency on APC platform when his former boss and benefactor, Tinubu had also indicated interest in the same position which he described as his lifelong ambition. Going further, they nicknamed Osinbajo the ‘modern day Akintola who betrayed Awolowo’ in reference to the 1962 Action Group crisis which was a result of the struggle for power between two political leaders of the Western Region and Action Group (AG), Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola.
On the day Osinbajo declared, the word ‘Judas’ also trended at number one on Twitter with many Tinubu supporters accusing the Vice-President of betrayal. The Tinubu supporters also claimed the fact that the purported betrayal was taking place barely days before Good Friday was not coincidental.
The National President, Asiwaju Women Cooperative Society of Nigeria, Toyin Badmus, in a Facebook post, described Osinbajo’s declaration as the “re-enactment of Awolowo vs Akintola in the old Western Region,” adding “The traitor always loses…. Yemi is the traitor.”
Last week, precisely on Good Friday, April 15, several posters were pasted in strategic places in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with the image of the Vice- President. The poster which has Osinbajo looking away from the camera with two fingers across his cheek described him as “the Judas who betrayed his master”. It also has “Repent because JESUS is COMING” written on it.
The posters drew the ire of many Nigerians who were initially indifferent to the political hullaballoo. Many of them, while asking Tinubu to call his supporters to order condemned the action of those behind the posters, saying it is ‘political attack taken too far’.
According to Adenike Ayo, a social media commentator, those behind the posters were doing Tinubu’s presidential ambition more harm than good.
She said “ If they can’t respect the man, at least they should be decent enough to respect his office as the Vice- President of Nigeria. Just because he said he wanted to run for Presidency, you are describing him as Judas who betrayed Jesus. If Osinbajo is now Judas, who then is the Jesus he betrayed? For someone like me, this amounts to blackmail and rather than tarnish his image, it may even give him sympathy votes”.
Also speaking , Emma Aziken, a popular columnist wrote “In what way has Osinbajo betrayed Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who chose him to be a commissioner in his cabinet? The assertion of betrayal flows from the assertion of supporters of Tinubu that Osinbajo should not have made his bid for the presidency given the life-long ambition of the former Lagos State governor. For many, it is a moral dilemma for anyone to contest against his political benefactor”.
“This supposition flows from the lack of ideology in the political landscape. Tinubu wants to be president because it is his life ambition. So, one may ask, is Osinbajo’s life ambition to perpetually serve as a surrogate to Tinubu? This question comes to mind following the rash of opportunism as the children of many political leaders in the polity are being thrust upon the electorate by their parents”.
“Nothing wrong with that, but they are supposed to bring forth their ideological…
