Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo who formally declared to run for the office of the Presidency has taken his campaign international with the promotion of an extra-large billboard in Accra, Ghana.
This was disclosed in a social media post on Thursday morning by a local named Kofi Darlington with the Twitter handle(@Darlington1Gh) as he posted a photo of the billboard. The billboard shows an image of the vice president with the caption, “His Excellency, Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo for President, 2023”.
It is not clear how many more of these billboards are present in the West African country, but one can understand the ingenuity of Osinbajo’s campaign team, given the large population of Nigerians living in Ghana.
What eyewitness is saying
Darlington said, “My Nigerians, take a moment away from Yul Edochie and Regina Daniels and come see this, this man’s so serious about your presidency that he puts a billboard in ACCRA”
My Nigerians, take a moment away from Yul Edochie and Regina Daniels and come see this, this man’s so serious about your presidency that he puts a billboard in ACCRA 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Gfj9TxebaL
— Kofi Darlington🔫 (@Darlington1Gh) April 28, 2022
Darlington also gave the location of the billboard as no. 37 Achimota road, Kaukudi, in the country’s capital city, Accra.
Yes, at Kaukudi, on the 37/Achimota road😂
— Kofi Darlington🔫 (@Darlington1Gh) April 28, 2022
Osinbajo’s motive for contesting
The Vice President this week claimed that several years of being the Vice President and acting President at some point have trained him for the position of the president.
He said the experience he has gained so far, will be used to serve Nigeria with all sincerity and transparency.
- “I have served for the past seven years as the Vice President of Nigeria, and I have also acted within that period when the President was away. I think that I am fortunate, and we are fortunate to have been given tremendous opportunities to serve, also even when I acted (as President).
- “In that capacity, I am probably the only person trained to be (in that duration), because if you have been a Vice President and also as Acting President, then you have been trained, and I must say with utmost humility that is exactly how I feel,” Professor Osinbajo said.
What you should know
- According to Statista, as of 2021, nearly 77,000 Nigerians lived in Ghana. The majority of them were men, accounting for approximately 50,300 people. On the other hand, Nigerian women residing in Ghana reached around 26,600.
- Under his tenure as Vice President, Nigeria’s unemployment rate as of the end of 2020 rose to 33.3% from 27.1% recorded as of Q2 2020, indicating that about 23,187,389 (23.2 million) Nigerians remain unemployed.
- His government also recently directed the reopening of four land borders shut in August 2019, which caused a reef between Nigeria’s government and the Ghanaian Government.
- Nairametrics reported at the time that Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey claimed that Nigeria’s border closure in 2019 hurt Ghanaians and nearly bankrupted many Ghanaian export businesses after their goods were stuck at the Seme Border for months.