We hear President Jonathan is worried over the emergence of Yemi Osinbajo as Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate.
In a meeting with some Pentecostal pastors led by Bishop David Oyedepo, President Jonathan was reported to have said: “Osinbajo is my problem. Everything was okay until APC picked Osinbajo.”
Bishop David Oyedepo led the Pentecostal pastors to the meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan
State House.
Osinbajo, a prominent cleric with
the Redeemed Christian Church of God, law professor and Senior Advocate
of Nigeria, SAN emerged APC’s presidential running mate last month
giving President Jonathan and the ruling party, PDP, what is being
described as sleepless nights, by sources.
Specifically last Thursday, the
President held a meeting in Abuja, with a number of Pentecostal pastors
led by Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners Chapel, with the main agenda
being how to fashion out ways to solve the “Osinbajo” problem.
Sources at the meeting told SaharaReporters
that President Jonathan confessed in a rather rattled and humbling
manner that “Osinbajo is my problem.”
According to those at the meeting, the President added that “everything was okay until APC picked Osinbajo.”
Sources at the meeting, said
Jonathan was ruffled and much distracted as he confessed to the
challenge to him, of the APC naming such a person as Osinbajo as General
Buhari’s running mate.
In response, the Pastors led by
Bishop Oyedepo assured the President at the meeting that they would,
“starting from today,” use every device possible including social media,
the pulpit and influence peddling, to campaign in support of President
Jonathan and against the Buhari-Osinbajo ticket.
Before the meeting with the
President, sources said the pastors held a meeting on the same day to
strategize and agree on how and what they would present to the
president.
After the meeting, the pastors gathered together
again on the same day to device strategies they will use to campaign
against Buhari/Osinbajo, with the main scheme being to label the ticket
as an Islamist one.
Some of the pastors also suggested that they can influence Christians
that the position of Vice President is not an effective one, and that
having a Christian hold it makes no difference, although the Nigerian
constitution and the order of precedence makes the office the next in
rank to the president.
Indeed as if carrying out the resolve, members of the Winners Chapel
said Bishop Oyedepo has already started using the pulpit to achieve the
goals set out at last Thursday meeting in Abuja.
Some of the members said on Sunday January 18, Bishop Oyedepo
raised a prayer point that an Islamist would not become the President of
Nigeria in the polls coming next month to the chagrin of many of the
church attendants on Sunday.