Osinbajo comes under pressure, gives condition for resignation from Buhari”s govt

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has stated how far he is willing to go before calling it quits as the nation’s No 2 citizen in the President Muhammadu Buhari government.

He said this while responding to a barrage of questions on ethnic cleansing and Islamisation agenda while he was on a fact-finding mission, at the behest of his boss, to Benue on Tuesday.

Christian leaders in the state had a meeting with him at the new Banquet Hall of the Benue State Government House, Makurdi, where they alleged he, as a pastor, is condoning ethnic cleansing and an Islamic agenda of the Buhari administration.

Gboko’s Catholic Bishop Williams Avenya noted that the killing of Christians and members of the minority ethnic group particularly in Benue os proof that the federal government under Buhari is not living up to its campaign promise of not Islamising Nigeria.

“A day will 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,” he told the V.P.

“So, as a Christian person, exonerate yourself from this situation.”

Responding, the vice president, a member of the APC, told the gathering he is not a politician as they too claim they are not, and that he, like they are, is also a born-again Christian and priest whose destiny is not determined by any man but by God.

“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,” the VP said.

“Even the position that I currently occupy… I did not ask for it, and I’m prepared to leave it at a short notice.”

He then launched into Bible-thumping on theology and jurisprudence, claiming he is a professor of law of evidence called by God to exemplify the cross between faith and evidence.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Another speaker, Dr. Magdalene Dura, put it to him that the herdsmen invasion of Benue is an ethnic agenda.

“I do not accept and I do not believe that there is an agenda,”said Osinbajo.

“No one will deliberately kill his own people. No one will do so. But we cannot bring back the dead but we can make life more bearable for the living.”

He said he was sent to Benue to get a first-hand view of the situation because the president has mandated him to take this on board and deal with the issues.

Governor Samuel Ortom, responding, appreciated the federal government for deploying more troops to the state, appealed for more effort to ensure that peace reigns in his state.

According to him, the killing of the two Catholic priests and 17 parishioners could have caused a religious crisis but for the prompt action of his administration.