Yemi Osinbajo, the former vice president, has talked about the time that made him stop drinking.
In a viral video, the pastor talked about how a chance meeting while he was working in Somalia changed the way he lived. He said that even as a pastor, he would sometimes drink beer and red wine.
The ex-vice president said that the turning point came when he was on a UN mission in Mogadishu. He decided to buy some beer and go back to his room after preaching on a Sunday.
He says that he went into a restaurant in the UN camp and met some coworkers from other countries who were already drinking. They quickly tried to hide their drinks when they saw him.
He said that after that, he went up to a Danish coworker and asked him why he was hiding his drink. The coworker said they couldn’t drink around him because they thought he was a priest.
Osinbajo was very moved by the response and started to think about his role and how other people saw him. He said that moment helped him realize that just because something is okay doesn’t mean it’s always the right thing to do.
He decided to stop drinking alcohol completely after that meeting.
“I like my red wine every now and then, and then I like my beer,” he said. On this Sunday, I was coming back from the Fellowship where I had preached. All I wanted to do was buy two cans of Heineken and go to my room to read my Bible.
“There were a lot of restaurants in the UN compound in Mogadishu. So I went to this restaurant, and when I walked in, I saw a lot of my coworkers from other countries. They were having drinks. We can’t drink around you because you are the priest. “I can do anything, but not everything is good for me.”
