Nigeria: VP Yemi Osinbajo to run for president in 2023

GBNews24 Desk//

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has declared he will run for the country’s top job next year, when incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to step down.

Osinbajo becomes the latest figure from the two main parties to join the race to lead Africa’s most populous country and biggest economy, reports Al Jazeera.

First elected as Buhari’s deputy in 2015, Osinbajo made the announcement on Monday after months of speculation on whether he planned to succeed his boss.

In a statement, the senior lawyer and former university teacher said his years of stewardship under Buhari had made him the best man for the job.

“Which is why I am today, with utmost humility, formally declaring my intention to run for the office of the President … on the platform of our great party, the All Progressives Congress,” Osinbajo said.

He promised to continue with Buhari’s policies and programmes, including huge projects of new roads and railways.

A key issue ahead of the February 2023 election is security, with Nigeria’s armed forces battling an armed campaign in the northeast, violent criminal gangs in the northwest and separatist tensions in the southeast.

Osinbajo joins an array of aspirants from the ruling APC to vie for the party’s ticket.

APC leader and former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu has already announced he would run. Osinbajo served under Tinubu as justice commissioner in Lagos for eight years.