As the 2023 presidential election is fast approaching, a group named: South West Movement For Osinbajo (SOWEMOVE), has urged Yoruba monarchs and governors in the region to prevail on a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to step down his ambition to vie for the presidential seat in 2023 and instead back Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for the highly coveted position.
The group urged southwest stakeholders and interest groups to also support the candidacy of Osinbajo.
While both Osinbajo and Tinubu are yet to officially express their intentions to contest for the highest seat in the land, many groups, individuals and stakeholders have been canvassing support for them openly and discreetly.
Meanwhile, SOWEMOVE, in a report sent to several Obas and other eminent personalities in the South West, have begun mobilisation of support for the Vice President.
According to the group, Osinbajo is the best shot for Southwest to get hold of power in 2023.
The group added that Osinbajo has the requisite character, capacity, capability and the intellect to run Nigeria to the satisfaction of the generality of the Nigerian populace.
The report partly reads, “Not too long after the Moshood Abiola political era, our emphatic strides within the Nigerian power equation is being threatened and today, there are obvious political traps with the potential to dislodge the South West from a vantage point through which we ought to ascend higher, to real power at the centre.
“If current realities are not adequately weighed, using the wisdom of elders like you, the South West may play itself out of the power equation in 2023.
“He (Tinubu) is one leader out of many who has been actively involved in the struggle towards making Nigeria work, he is unique in all respects, irrespective of whatever one may think of his political method.
“In the light of the above, we, members of the South West Movement for Osinbajo believe that our revered Obas across Yorubaland, the APC Governors in the South West geo-political zone, all Yoruba political elites, business moguls and leaders of thought should now rise to prevail on Asiwaju to invest his political capital in the person of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, in the overall interest of the Yoruba people.
“We cannot afford to keep distracting ourselves with wrong steps and faulty strategy at the risk of neglecting the very core of our geo-political zone’s priority of regaining power at the centre and actualizing further positive impacts for ourselves and the entire federation come 2023.
“Today, he sits in vantage position and he is greatly enriched with great purposeful insights into what needs to be done towards achieving lasting change; as the number two in Government, he is the closest to the highly coveted seat.
“Prof. Osinbajo has the requisite character, capacity, capability and the intellect to run Nigeria to the satisfaction of the generality of the Nigerian populace.
“We therefore call on you and our entire Yoruba leaders not to “siddon look” by watching while some South West politicians take wrong steps in the on-going political calculations; we must not allow a drift that will only take us all to a chaotic spot, only to then begin seeking desperate solutions.
“We believe strongly that Prof. Yemi Osinbajo is our sure bet for 2023 in the entire South West and we need Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the principal game changer to support this bid.
“For the sustenance of the South West’s political relevance in the Nigerian federation and in the larger interest of all Nigerians, it stands to reason that we stand firmly behind Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s candidature for President come 2023.
“As the number two to President Mohammad Buhari, he has demonstrated obvious capacity and capability to re-invent the wheel of progress for national growth and development.
“He has won the confidence of Nigerians across various divides by the way and manner he has conducted himself as the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We therefore plead earnestly that our leaders and elders in the South Western Zone must not allow the conflicting interest of a few to destroy the very bright political chances of our entire region in the 2023 Presidential Elections.”
