‘I did not beg to be VP and I’m prepared to leave it at a short notice’ – Yemi Osinbajo

On Tuesday night, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said he would rather vacate his office as the nation’s Number Two man than compromise his Christian faith. He spoke while responding to questions raised by some Christian leaders at the stakeholders’ meeting held at the new Banquet Hall of the Benue State Government House, Makurdi.

At the event, one of the speakers, the Catholic Bishop of Gboko, His Lordship, Williams Avenya, had reminded Osinbajo of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign promises that he would not Islamise the country and would protect the interest of all Nigerians including citizens of minority ethnic groups if voted into power.

Avenya noted that the killing of Christians and members of the minority ethnic group particularly in Benue State had proved that the Federal Government under Buhari was not living up to these promises.

The bishop said, “the point I’m trying to make is that a day is going to come when you, as the Vice-President, will bear the brunt of that problem of injustices in our land, especially those perpetrated on smaller ethnic groups that have no one to fight for them. So, as a Christian person, exonerate yourself from this situation”.

Responding, the vice-president said;

“My Lord Bishop, you said you are not a politician, I am also not a politician. As a matter of fact, I’m also a priest and I’m a Christian, a born again Christian. Because I’m a born again Christian, my destiny is not determined by any man but by God who I serve. Let me assure you that under no circumstances, none whatsoever, will I give up my faith or refuse to stand up for my faith. You can take that to the bank. Even the position that I currently occupy, I did not ask for it and I’m prepared to leave it at a short notice.

It doesn’t mean anything. I became a born again Christian after I became a professor, a professor of the law of evidence, a professor of proof. But when the Lord Jesus Christ met me, He persuaded me by showing me clearly that there is such a thing as the evidence of things that are not seen. It is because of the evidence of things that are not seen, it is because you can make something out of nothing that I stand here today as Vice-President. How possible can anyone say that the killing of women and children doesn’t matter because he is Vice-President or because he is President? How is that possible? Certainly, it cannot be for a person who is born again. A renewed mind will know that there is justice, there is consequence even if there is no justice here on earth.”