Wednesday, April 29, 2026 - Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has shared the reason he stopped drinking alcohol a long time ago.
Osinbajo said that meeting a former United Nations (UN)
colleague at a restaurant in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, made him decide
to stop drinking alcohol.
The former Vice President recalled how he drank alcohol even
though he was a born-again Christian and a pastor.
He said that his UN co-worker, who referred to him as a
priest during a meal at the restaurant, made him reconsider drinking alcohol.
Osinbajo said, “One of the other things I learned in
Mogadishu is why I shouldn’t drink alcohol. You know, I was really sure that
Jesus turned water into wine, so why shouldn’t I drink?
“Of course, some people might say that the wine wasn’t
really alcoholic, but as far as I’m concerned, Jesus turned water into wine.
There are a lot of people who drink wine, so I figured maybe I should try my
own wine now and then, like red wine, and I also enjoy beer.
“While I was going through this, I decided that I would keep
drinking my beer even though I had been born again. In fact, on that specific
Sunday, I was heading back from the fellowship meeting where I had given a
sermon.
“I guess somehow I ended up becoming the pastor of that
group. The people there thought I was a good fit for the role, so they just
made me their pastor without any official process.
“So I was coming back from the fellowship and wanted to buy
two cans of Heineken and then go to my room to read my Bible. So there I was,
coming back from that fellowship, and there were lots of restaurants in the UN
compound in Mogadishu.
“So I went to this particular restaurant and as I walked in,
I saw a lot of my colleagues from different countries drinking beer. As soon as
I came in, they all started hiding their drinks.
“I went over to one of the guys from my office, a guy from
Denmark, and asked him why he was hiding his whiskey. He told me, ‘You know,
you’re the priest, we mustn’t be drinking where the priest is.’ It immediately
occurred to me that there was no way I could be drinking there.
“How does the priest drink? It was very clear to me that God
was definitely telling me that yes, all things may be lawful, but not all
things are helpful, and all things may be lawful, but not all things build up.
“From that moment on, it was very clear to me, and ever
since that day, I haven’t touched alcohol. That was a long time ago.”
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