Pastor, professor and now politician, if Osinbajo seeks to add president to the alliteration of his career progression, he must consider the fact that he is no longer the public figure with little or no baggage of 2015.
The average presidential candidate in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (1999-present) is a former head of state or governor. They can leverage on the networks, funds and contacts they have amassed over years, or decades, of being in the public sector. The restrictive nature of Nigerian politics, the need for excessive funds and national recognition, means that there are few feasible alternatives.
On 11 April 2022, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo declared his intention to run for president in the 2023 election as the All Progressives’ Congress candidate. Should he win the APC primary election, he won’t be dramatically different from his predecessors. Two of the three recent vice-presidents —Atiku Abubakar, who was vice-president from 1999 to 2007, and Goodluck Jonathan (2007 – 2010) also ran for the office of president. But, in comparison to his predecessors, the incumbent brings a different background to this contest. Osinbajo’s rise to prominence was meteoric; he was so little known a political figure in 2015 that his surname was misspelt and even his running mate mispronounced his name on the campaign trail. But this factor, for better or worse, might prove the difference between Osinbajo’s future being that of a senior lawyer with government experience or the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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