Osinbajo’s humility excites Lagos family

Oluwole in Ogba, Lagos is a vast government estate populated mainly by middle class families. There is nothing special about it – in environment, in aesthetics and in the type of buildings housing its huge population.

Not anymore. The estate hosted at the weekend its most popular visitor ever.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo got a rousing welcome as the door-to-door campaign train of the Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation hit the estate.

Prof. Osinbajo inaugurated the All Progressives Congress (APC) door-to-door campaign organised by the Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (PYO) Support Group.

At the estate, which is in the heart of Ikeja, the state capital, Osinbajo met with the chairman of the Community Development Area (CDA), Mr. Lukman Ashiru, who praised his humility.

The CDA chief was excited. He said it was the first time the community has hosted such a high-profile personality. He received the vice president in the company of his mother Alhaja Muyibat Ashiru and wife, Sukurat right in his modest sitting room.

The vice president’s message to the community was what it will gain by supporting the reelection of the APC government.  He got a good reply.

Ashiru said: “We will mobilise the people in the community to vote for the APC because the party has demonstrated that it cares for the masses.”

But Ashiru had a request. He would like the vice president to help in tackling the regular power failure in the estate, “which you have seen yourself”.

There was power outage during the visit. The Ashirus’ sitting room was lit up by a torchlight.

“We know of other leaders who only criticise, but in the case of the vice president, what the people have seen is a display of humility in him and we are really happy in view of what we are seeing. We will deliver our votes to the APC in the coming election”, Ashiru said.

Osinbajo sat on the same chair as his host and hostesses. The sofa is obviously a three-seater.

Speaking earlier, Osinbajo said President Muhammadu Buhari will neither steal nor allow others to steal public funds.

He said the difference between the President and those jostling to unseat him is that he sought political office to better the lot of Nigerians; others seek the office to plunder the nation’s wealth.

Addressing a crowd of supporters, the vice president spoke of two categories of leaders – those who want to steal and those who want to use the country’s money for the common good. According to him, President Buhari belongs to the first category.

He said: “We should not allow those who have stolen our money in the past to come back. They stole all the money and they want to come back. People are saying enough is enough.

“In four years, PDP spent $383 billion. And they want to come back. Sixteen years is enough. After 16 years of ensuring that the country did not make progress, they want to come back. They will never come back.”

Osinbajo noted that Nigeria’s greatest problem is corruption and the inability to plan “because without money, you cannot execute any plan; hence the need to stop those who have stolen in the past from returning.”

The vice president said the door-to-door campaign had proven to be more effective in reaching out to the people about the government’s plans for them.

PYO Support Group Director-General Pastor Yomi Kasali said the organisation had raised 900,000 canvassers for Lagos State. Each canvasser has a mandate to meet with 50 people.

The vice president later visited some parts of Ogba and Ikeja, where he was received by cheering residents.