The Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has said the pervasive ethnic and religious prejudices that characterised the 2023 election are dangerous precedent for Nigeria.
He warned leaders including those in public offices against all forms of prejudice, noting that leaders don’t have the luxury of toying with prejudice.
Osinbajo made the assertion as part of his first comments about the 2023 general elections as quoted by his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Laolu Akande.
Akande in a statement on Monday said the Vice President made the submission while speaking at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), in Kuru, Plateau State.
The aide quoted Osinbajo to have said weaponization of ethnic, religious and sectional prejudices were witnessed in the 2023 election which ought not to be so.
He wrote: “In his first comments on 2023 general elections, VP Osinbajo says leaders dont “have the luxury of toying with prejudice. The leadership elite have a duty to conduct themselves with a high sense of responsibility even as they prosecute the contest for power.
“He spoke @NIPSS in a speech titled “Creating a Homeland for All: Nation-Building in a Diverse Democracy,” the Prof. Osinbajo says “any attempts to deny people the right to vote in any locality on the basis that they do not belong in that place is condemnable in the strongest possible terms.
“In the NIPSS maiden Policy Making & Good Governance lecture VP said “one of the unsavoury tendencies that was witnessed in this election cycle was the weaponization of ethnic, religious §ional prejudices in ways that are damaging to social cohesion. Religion.. .made an issue”
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