Professor Yemi Osinbajo Is Buhari’s Running Mate

Can Nigerian political system ever be religiously mixed and ethnically balanced?

Abuja, Nigeria – Nigerian presidential aspirant Muhammadu Buhari has picked a Christian law professor, Yemi Osinbajo, to be his running mate in the February pre

sidential election.

Buhari’s choice follows a pattern of religious and regional balance on Nigerian presidential tickets. Buhari is a Muslim from northern Nigeria, while his running mate is a Christian from the south.

The Buhari/Osinbajo ticket will run against a similarly balanced pair of the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, and his running mate and current vice president Namadi Sambo, a Muslim northerner.

Nigeria’s 180 million population is evenly split between the two religions, hence it is essential to “have a political system that is religiously mixed and ethnically balanced” said Shehu Kangiwa from the Northern state of Borno.
Osinbajo is a former law professor and the pastor of a church. He is a former attorney general of Lagos state and a senior partner in a law firm.

Buhari, a retired officer in the Nigerian army, was president of Nigeria from 1983 to 1985. He ran in the 2011 presidential election, but lost to President Jonathan.

That result set off violence in the Muslim-majority north that killed some 800 people.

Yemi Osinbajo

Here is a profile of the former Lagos State Attorney General and a Snr. Pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).

Yemi Osinbajo, 55, is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Senior Partner in the Law firm of Simmons Cooper Partners.

Educated at the University of Lagos and the London School of Economics where he obtained the LLB and LLM degrees respectively.

He was appointed the Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in 1999 and reappointed for a second term in 2003. During the period of his public service, he commenced the Lagos State justice reform project. A prominent feature of that project was the establishment of the Directorate for Citizens’ Rights (DCR) which provides free legal services and legal representation to indigent citizens of the state. This initiative gave a voice to many who would otherwise not have a way to access their rights.

Prior to that appointment, Osinbajo, a Professor of Law, was the Head of Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos.

Between 1988 and 1992, he was the Special Adviser to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He also served as a staff member of the United Nations and Member of the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Committee of Experts on Conduct and Discipline of UN Peace keeping personnel around the globe.
He is currently an Ethics Advisor to the Ethics Committee of the African Development Bank and is a non-executive Director of Citibank.

Prof. Osinbajo is Co-founder & Board Member Convention on Business Integrity and the Justice Research Institute Ltd. He has also authored several law books.

In 2007, Prof. and his wife Oludolapo founded “The Orderly Society Trust”, a non- governmental organisation that is dedicated to the promotion of Christian ethics and orderliness.

He is a resident pastor at the Olive Tree House of Prayer for All Nations, Banana Island, a parish of the RCCG.

He lives in Lagos with his wife, Dolapo Osinbajo, who is a grandchild of Obafemi Awolowo with three children.

Pastor Adeboye

Before making a public declaration of the identity of his running mate, the pesidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), General Muhammad Buhari called the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye to seek his blessings.

An aide to the retired general said Adeboye gave his blessing over the phone and wished Buhari and Osinbajo a successful election campaign.

Osinbajo is one of Pastor Adeboye’s close confidants at the RCCG, where Osinbajo is a pastor, and also a church compere for major events.