Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Wednesday night confirmed that he was nominated for his present position in last year’s presidential election.
Prof. John Paden claims in a book on the President, titled: “Muhammadu Buhari: Challenges of Leadership in Nigeria,” that Osinbajo emerged as vice president despite pressure against it by All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
But many Nigerians had faulted the claim as they insisted that Osinbajo was nominated for the position by Tinubu.
Osinbajo, at a dinner organised in honour of outstanding ex-militants of Presidential Amnesty Programme at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, confirmed that he was actually nominated for the position.
He said: “I was with a group of young men and women and one of them asked the question how I became vice president; I was never a politician or anything like that.
“So, I tried to explain: it is quite simple that someone somewhere has to recommend you; somebody somewhere has to give you a helping hand. Whether to be a vice president or to be an aircraft pilot or to be an engineer, somebody somewhere has to give you an opportunity. I think that all of you that are here today are the beneficiaries of the opportunities that you have somehow received.
“And this is why this event is so important. I think that it is one way we have to remind ourselves that we are bound as individuals to give opportunities to everyone.”
He maintained that the people of the Niger Delta region would be at the end the losers of pipelines bombings and vandalism.
According to him, there was no reason to continue the vandalism in the area.
He said: “It is like a case of biting your nose to spite your face.”
Osinbajo congratulated the ex-militants, who were trained as pilots, automobile and electric transformer technicians among other skills locally and in foreign universities.
He urged them to keep away from blowing up oil pipelines, stressing that it had large negative effect on them, their region, the country and even the generations yet unborn.