Babachir Lawal: Tinubu Was Key in Forming APC and Funded Buhari's 2015 Campaign

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

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

He explained how he helped connect Buhari and Tinubu to merge opposition parties into the APC. The main goal was to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party.

Lawal said Buhari gave him the job of managing the merger because of his close ties with Tinubu. At first, he turned down the offer due to fears of backlash from some northern politicians. But after Buhari insisted, he accepted the role.

"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 a conversation with the late former president.

The former SGF talked about how he moved between the parties and spoke with co-chairmen to ensure the merger worked.

He mentioned that Tinubu put aside his own presidential dreams to focus on removing the PDP from power. Lawal shared Tinubu’s words: "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 helping Buhari get the support he needed to be the party's candidate.

After studying the delegate strengths late at night, he went to Tinubu with data showing Buhari's strong northern support 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 said that Tinubu raised a lot of money for the campaign. He separately financed former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s campaign activities because they were not fully part of 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."

Lawal explained that Osinbajo, being a pastor, had some doubts from his ethnic group and Christian community about Buhari. He was working somewhat separately from the main campaign. "Tinubu was funding it," Lawal said.

The former SGF also claimed that Tinubu hired political consultants from the United States, who he said were linked to former US President Barack Obama, to strengthen the APC’s campaign.

"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 added that Tinubu paid for major campaign costs himself instead of using the campaign funds. "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."

He said some people do not know this, but he witnessed it all. "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 leadership now. He called the Tinubu administration after three years in office a failure, saying it puts self-interest above the country’s needs.

"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."