Osinbajo: I learnt I was Buhari’s running mate in 2014 through Aregbesola

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says he was surprised when he was picked as the running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari in the build-up to the 2015 elections.

Speaking when he hosted members of the state house press corps to Iftar on Wednesday at his official residence, Osinbajo said he was working on a case in Abuja as a lawyer when he received the news that he had been picked.

The vice-president said Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, was the one who informed him of the party’s decision around 1:00 am on December 18, 2014.

Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor, is said to have played a role in picking Osinbajo as Buhari’s running mate.

Aregbesola was an ally of Tinubu at the time. The relationship between both men have since gone cold.

“I was working on the case at Peniel Apartments in Abuja on December 18, 2014, when at about 1:00 am in the morning, I received a call from Rauf Aregbesola that they were coming to Lagos to pick me,” Premium Times quoted the number two citizen as saying.

“I said I was in Abuja. He said ‘good because you have been nominated as the vice-presidential candidate’ and I said that’s how you nominate people?”

He said Aregbesola and Ibikunle Amosun, former governor of Ogun state, took him to meet with Buhari who was APC’s candidate at the time.

According to him, very few people have the kind of experience he has to be president of the country, adding that his decision to run is to make Nigeria a better place.

Osinbajo will battle for the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the likes of Tinubu, Rotimi Amaechi, transportation minister; Ibikunle Amosun, a serving senator, and Chris Ngige, labour minister.