My job is a very difficult one, says Osinbajo

Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has admitted that his job as the nation’s Vice-President is a very difficult one.

He said the job of the President or Vice-President was so difficult that one could not do it for a lifetime.

According to a statement on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, the Osinbajo spoke while answering questions from pupils of the LEA Government Primary School, Life Camp, Abuja as part of activities to mark the 2018 International Book and Copyright Day on Monday.

Akande made the transcript of the question and answer segment of the event available to journalists on Tuesday.

When a pupil asked how Osinbajo creates time for his wife and children despite his tight schedule, the Vice-President said, “We live in Aguda House, where we see each other practically all the time.

“But I must say that it is very difficult because I travel a lot to different parts of the country, and so, I am not usually at home, I am not usually in Abuja.

“That’s one of the reasons why there are tenures for the President or Vice-President – four years, eight years maximum.

“So, you can’t do this kind of work for the rest of your life because it’s very difficult.”

When asked what his duties were as the Vice-President, Osinbajo said he assisted the President in carrying out his big responsibilities.

“As the Vice-President of Nigeria, I assist the President of Nigeria in carrying out his responsibilities, and those responsibilities are very big indeed.

“So, I assist him in carrying out those responsibilities.  I’m here, for example, talking to you children in LEA School, as part of my responsibilities of encouraging and working with young people to make them aspire to achieve great things, so that they also get the chance to be good Nigerians,  to be as active and contribute to the country. So, that is what I do as Vice-President,” he explained.

Osinbajo said that he was sometimes naughty when he was a child.

This, he said, earned him punishment from his mother.

He also recalled the process that led to his emergence as the Vice-President.

“My party, which is the All Progressives Congress, nominated the President, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the presidential candidate in 2014, and the President, in consultation with the party, then decided to appoint me as a running mate.  So, I was appointed as the running mate.

“Now, the running mate means if the party wins, I become the Vice-President.

“Before then, I was teaching law at the University of Lagos and practising law in the courts all over Nigeria.

“So, I was a lawyer and a law teacher before I was appointed as the running mate to President Buhari. On March 28, the election was held and on the 31st, the result of the election was announced. We won the election. That’s how I became the Vice-President.”

Osinbajo told the pupils the danger inherent in corruption.

He said that was the reason why the government would ensure prosecution and conviction of corrupt persons.

“Corruption is stealing the money that belongs to all of us; that belongs to young children and adults.  This is the money that was supposed to be used to build roads, to build schools, to build hospitals, to build airports and if some people steal that money, we should arrest them and put them on trial, send them to jail so that everybody else will learn a lesson,” he said.