Babachir Lawal says Tinubu was key to APC's formation and funded Buhari's 2015 campaign

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has said that President Bola Tinubu played a major role in creating the All Progressives Congress. He also claimed Tinubu funded important parts of the 2015 presidential campaign that helped former President Muhammadu Buhari win.

Lawal, who was SGF under Buhari, shared these points in an interview on Symfoni TV released on Saturday.

He spoke about how he connected Buhari and Tinubu to help merge opposition parties into the APC. The goal was to kick out the Peoples Democratic Party.

According to Lawal, Buhari asked him to handle the merger because of his good relationship with Tinubu. He initially said no because he feared backlash from some northern politicians. But he eventually agreed when Buhari insisted.

“I was in Dubai when you called me that I should come out because we want to do a merger with the ACN. And I told you, sir, this role you want me to play, I cannot play it… So Buhari said, you are the only one that can help us do this merger because Bola is your friend,” Lawal recalled from his conversation with the late president.

Lawal explained how he moved between the parties and consulted the co-chairmen to make sure the merger worked.

He revealed that Tinubu put his own presidential dreams on hold to focus on removing the PDP from power.

Lawal said, “BD, you know my ambition to be president. But the way the country is going, the primary goal is to get rid of PDP. I will defer my ambition, put it aside until we achieve this goal.”

At the APC presidential convention, Lawal said Tinubu was key in getting the support Buhari needed to become the party’s candidate.

After reviewing delegate strengths late into the night, he spoke to Tinubu with data that showed Buhari’s strong support from the north needed backing from the South-West.

“I said, sir, look at it. I have this data… This man (Buhari), whether he is on the ballot or not, he normally gets 12 million votes from the north. So it required three more million votes… Sir, why not support your winning ticket?” Lawal remembered telling Tinubu.

He added, “He (Tinubu) saw the logic, persuaded them with the argument. And coming from Tinubu, of course… So at the last minute, around 4 a.m., they agreed that they were going to support Buhari.”

Lawal also claimed that Tinubu raised a lot of money for the campaign and funded former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s campaign activities separately because they ran a bit independently from the main Buhari campaign.

“Through him (Tinubu), we were able to raise sufficient funds to do the campaign.

“Not only did he do that, Osinbajo’s portion of the campaign, he funded it, hired a chartered plane to fund the trip because Osinbajo’s campaign was a little bit broken away from the main campaign.

“Osinbajo on his own was a pastor. His ethnic nationalities and Christians had some doubts about Buhari. He was on that side.

“He wasn’t in our own area and he was just operating semi-independently of the main campaign. Tinubu was funding it,” Lawal explained.

The former SGF also alleged that Tinubu hired political consultants from the United States. He said these consultants were linked to former US President Barack Obama and improved the APC’s campaign strategy.

“Then I know of another place when he hired some consultants for us from the US, who were doing quite a lot of professional work.

“I don’t know their names. I just know that they were Obama people, and they came and they transformed our campaign, and I knew that the money he paid them was in excess of two billion naira equivalent in dollars,” he said.

Lawal also claimed that Tinubu personally covered major campaign costs instead of using the campaign’s central funds.

“And there’s another thing about Bola Tinubu: if there’s a need for an expenditure, no matter how massive, he doesn’t come to the campaign purse; he spends from his own purse.

“All these things I told you. Some people don’t know this, but I was there, and I knew this. And he did all these things,” he added.

He described the President as very generous before taking office.

“Bola has given some people a stupendous amount of money to help them out of crisis that I know first-hand, without expecting anything,” Lawal said.

“He has a gift… He can see in you a future return for himself in advance.”

But Lawal sharply criticized Tinubu’s current leadership.

He called the Tinubu administration after three years in office “a failure,” saying it puts self-interest above the national interest.

“The people running the government don’t seem to be people who love the country. They are people who love themselves,” he said. “Everybody is bitter that life is tough.”

On Tinubu personally, Lawal said: “Suddenly, I don’t know what has happened, he has lost his soul… Having come to this government, he has lost his soul.”