Politics

Osinbajo Slams APC Defectors, Say Party Politics Is Beyond Political Appointments

Published

14 September 2018

1:41 PM

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has revealed how he remained a loyalist to his political party even when he did not get any board appointment for seven years.

VP Osinbajo received tonight, at the Presidential Villa, a number of APC young aspirants from across the country. The future is here, he told them during an interactive session with the up and coming politicians pic.twitter.com/2XSFFjHosz

— Laolu Akande (@akandeoj) September 13, 2018

Naija News understands that the Vice President made the remark in reaction to the several defections by some aggrieved APC members who among other things, accused the president Muhammadu Buhari of lopsided appointments.

Osinbajo said he was without any other appointment after serving as the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice in Lagos State in 2003.

“I believe that, in party politics, we must go beyond positions, whether elective or appointed, but we must be committed to something, the principles and beliefs of those who are the forebears of that party,” he said.

He said, “I strongly believe that the future of our party depends on people who are committed to seeing that we build a party that is based on ideals that you and I think are important. “As a young person, I belonged to several pressure groups. I graduated at the age of 21. And when I graduated, I began to participate in various pressure groups, human rights organisations, and anti-corruption, civil society groups of every kind.

“When political parties started forming, we could not aspire, but we remained involved. My first involvement in government was when I was appointed as Attorney General in Lagos State.

I shared this with young aspirants I met yesterday.

I absolutely like the idea of young people getting a quota in the party structure to run for office. pic.twitter.com/SuzhHhzSs8

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) September 13, 2018

“For seven years — after serving as Lagos Attorney-General — I was part of the party, I did not have a board appointment or anything, but I kept working for the party.“I kept working for the party as a lawyer. Most of those cases we were not paid a dime. But we went from place to place. Sometimes, we didn’t even have a place to stay when we went to court the next morning.

“So, there is a measure of paying the price, it depends on how serious or committed we are to some of the things we say we are committed to.”