Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said he remained a loyalist to his political party even when he did not get any board appointment for seven years.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice-President, Laolu Akande, stated that Osinbajo said this Wednesday night during a meeting with young aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Osinbajo, who served as commissioner for justice and attorney-general in Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, said he was without any other appointment after he left office.
“I believe that, in party politics, we must go beyond positions, whether elective or appointed, but we must be committed to something, the principles and beliefs of those who are the forebears of that party,” he said.
Osinbajo’s loyalty to former Governor Bola Tinubu, under whom he served as attorney general, was instrumental to his emergence as vice president on the APC platform in 2015.
“I strongly believe that the future of our party depends on people who are committed to seeing that we build a party that is based on ideals that you and I think are important.
“As a young person, I belonged to several pressure groups. I graduated at the age of 21. And when I graduated, I began to participate in various pressure groups, human rights organisations, and anti-corruption, civil society groups of every kind.
“When political parties started forming, we could not aspire, but we remained involved. My first involvement in government was when I was appointed as Attorney General in Lagos State.
“For seven years — after serving as Lagos Attorney-General — I was part of the party, I did not have a board appointment or anything, but I kept working for the party.
“I kept working for the party as a lawyer. Most of those cases we were not paid a dime. But we went from place to place. Sometimes, we didn’t even have a place to stay when we went to court the next morning.
“So, there is a measure of paying the price, it depends on how serious or committed we are to some of the things we say we are committed to,” Osinbajo said.
