Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday called on African leaders to refrains from politics of division, saying that it could divide the continent.
Such politics, he said, was capable of causing more problems for Africa than it could solve.
Osinbajo made the call in Kenya while speaking with journalists on the occasion of the swearing in of President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.
According to a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity in the office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo said of great interest should be the need to reconcile and come together as one.
His words: “The first issue, which I think is very important, is that of reconciliation and coming together, and somehow being able to avoid this politics of identity which is just divisive and it’s used to create more problems than we would ever solve.
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“I think that President Kenyatta was quite on the point when he said that we cannot continue to perpetrate this politics of identity and division.
“It is time to come together as partners to make progress in the interest of the nation. I think that is particularly important.”
Osinbajo also spoke on the lessons from the Kenyan elections.
“I think the most important thing is what he said about tolerance for the views of others and a desire to accept defeat, or the desire to accept if you do not win, or for that matter, a desire to go through due process or the legal process.
“I think what has happened here is that, by and large, the constitutional procedure was followed to the letter. It involved the Judiciary; the judiciary at some point nullified the elections, they went back and conducted another round of elections and this is the result.
“Kenya has shown that it has a robust enough constitutional structure, legal system and political process that work.
“This, I think, is a good thing. In some sense, Africa has learnt a great deal, we’ve been through many constitutional challenges like this.
“I think there are one or two points to learn, like the whole idea of ensuring that we allow the constitutional and legal processes, and ensure that we see it to the end and abide by what the courts say. I think it is very important,” he said.
