The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), has paid a visit to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2023 elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The visit on Wednesday in Abuja was the first time Osinbajo would visit Tinubu after the APC primaries on June 8.
The Vice President lost the primaries to the former two-term Lagos State Governor, under whom he served as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice for eight years between 1999 and 2007.
After the primaries, Tinubu visited Osinbajo in his official residence at Aguda House, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Since then, the duo have only met at public functions.
The Vice President has also not taken part in the campaigns of Tinubu.
However, on Wednesday, Osinbajo visited Tinubu at the APC Presidential Campaign Council office, with the vice presidential candidate of the party, Senator Kashim Shettima, present.
The News Agency of Nigeria is reporting that APC officials who witnessed the meeting said expectations in some quarters might suggest something different, but it was a courtesy call based on the duo’s longstanding relationship.
It said though Osinbajo’s stand on the APC’s Muslim-Muslim Ticket has been clear and has pitched him against some party stalwarts, the sources believe that his relationship with Tinubu remains cordial.
Citing previous meetings between the two after the presidential primaries earlier in June, they noted that Osinbajo’s latest visit to Tinubu was in response to an earlier visit from Tinubu to the Vice President after the primaries.
It would be recalled that shortly after the APC presidential primaries in June, Tinubu paid Osinbaj a visit at his Aguda House residence in the Presidential Villa.
They both met later at the Ministerial Retreat in the Presidential Villa in October.
The source told the NAN: “The fact that both leaders contested against each other at the primaries does not make them enemies because I know the vice president is an ‘omoluabi’.
“He has high regards for BAT, who I also know to be very close to the vice president, and this he has demonstrated at different times.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Osinbajo’s visit to Tinubu was merely in the spirit of the Christmas season.
“Besides, such a visit can be best termed as reciprocal after Tinubu paid the vice-president a similar visit in the past.”
More so, a political analyst who pleaded anonymity told the NAN that it was only customary, in the spirit of Christmas, for leaders to exchange visits and nothing less.
Observers believe the meeting was a personal regard between both leaders and also showed that there was no grudge between them.
They said it was only some supporters who were making a big deal out of nothing.
