2023: Osinbajo drops a hint through media aide

He’s the vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, entitled to a max of eight years—or a minimum of four—in office as he tags along with his 70-something year-old boss President Muhammadu Buhari.

That’s no news.

But here’s the highlight: Being pre-occupied with the ups and downs of the office kills ambition. That is what Osinbajo’s media aide Laolu Akande fed Nigerians on Wednesday during an Instagram show with Ovation publisher Dele Momodu.

“I’m his spokesperson and all I know he wants to do is to do this job that he has been given very well and he doesn’t have any other plans right now about any such thing,” he said.

Right now, by the Gregorian calendar, it’s July 2020, more than three years away from the next presidential election, which many Nigerians believe Osinbajo is eyeing, something he—or Akande—is denying with both sides of his mouth.

For effect, Akande repeated the riff.

“I’m his spokesperson and we have not talked about what he is going to do in 2023. What’s the point?” he said.

The point is: It’s too early to start getting jiggy for that. But it doesn’t mean the veep isn’t giving 2023 a thought now—or can’t give it a stab later. Osinbajo might not just consider his media appendage the first go-to guy to spill his presidential obsession to.

So Akande, like other Nigerians, should put out their feelers.

Osinbajo could out later.