“But For Tinubu, Who Knew Babachir Lawal?” –  Fmr. Minister Shittu

By Adesina Soyooye

“In his State, Babachir Lawal is a minority. In the North, generally, he is, also, a minority. He wanted to be Tinubu’s running mate. How many votes could he have delivered?”

Adebayo Shittu, former Minister of Communications under President Muhammadu Buhari has, literally, dismissed former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal as a nobody until President Bola Tinubu made him somebody. “Before Tinubu recommended him to Buhari as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who knew Babachir”, Shittu asked.

The former Minister, who is now the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of  Dave Umahi  Federal University of Health Sciences, Ebonyi  State, said this in an interview with the Punch Newspaper of Friday.

Lawal and the President were very close friends. In the heat of a corruption allegation against him when he was the SGF, Lawal had said he didn’t need money from anybody; that Tinubu gives him money until he would almost beg him to stop. But the once enviable, solid, relationship has broken down irretrievably.

Things fell apart between them when after Tinubu won the Presidential ticket of their party, the All Progressives Congress in 2023, against Lawal’s advice, he picked Senator Kashim Shettima as his running mate.

Lawal, a Christian from the North, hit the roof. He considered Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim running mate as an insult to Christians in the North. He was strongly against a Muslim-Muslim ticked. Lawal turned against Tinubu, and fought him every inch of the way so he would  lose the Presidential Election.

The fight has not stopped.

After failing to stop Tinubu in 2023, Lawal is one of the arrow heads in the North fighting against a second term for Tinubu in 2027. Shittu, however, dismisses all that and gives Tinubu a 75 per cent chance of winning a second term in office.

Tackling Lawal, Shittu said he felt sorry for him, and asked who he was before Tinubu picked him for the position of the SGF. He disclosed that Lawal is bitter because Tinubu refused to pick him as his running mate in preference to Shettima. According to Shittu, Lawal does not have any clout either in his State or in the North generally to attract voters. He described Lawal as one who bites  the fingers that feed him.

Shittu: “Babachir Lawal, I feel so sad about him. We were in the same Cabinet together. He told me it was Tinubu who recommended him for appointment as Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Before that appointment, who knew Babachir Lawal? You don’t bite the fingers that feed you. So, his fight against Tinubu because of the Muslim-Muslim ticket  was unnecessary.

“If they had picked him instead of  Kashim Shettima, could he have delivered the votes Shettima delivered? In his State, he is a minority. In the North generally, he is also  a minority. This is an advantage that Shettima had over him.

“Babachir was expecting that because of the friendship he had built over the years with Tinubu, automatically, he would pick him as a Christian candidate. But Tinubu was strategic in picking the people who could deliver votes. That was what was important at that stage, not religion.

“So, Shettima, number one was a Borno person. He was, also, a former Governor and had influence in the North- east area of Nigeria. Again, the majority Northern North would still prefer a Muslim who could represent their interests, I mean, perceptibly.

“So, what would it have paid either Tinubu or even Babachir if they had picked him and he lost the election?

“Recall that the Presidential Candidate of the PDP is a Muslim from the North. So, if you bare not having a Presidential Candidate from the North and all that you could get from the North is a Vice Presidential Candidate, should you not go to the majority force in the North to pick a candidate who could be seen as representing  their interest in the North? It’s bullsh*t.”

In 2023, Babachir Lawal worked for the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi. Now, against 2027, he is one of the Leaders of the Coalition against President Tinubu’s re-election.