“I Don’t Hate Tinubu, But I Have No Use For Him” – Babachir Lawal

By Gideon Njoku

A former close friend, political ally, and confidant of President Bola Tinubu has said that he habours no shred of hatred for him, but has no use for the President.

Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation during the President Muhammadu Buhari Government, said this in an interview with The Punch.

Lawal, who suddenly became one of President Tinubu’s most bitter critic was asked why suddenly hates the President and if he had tried to reach out to him (President Tinubu) to  express his concerns about the state of the North which Lawal said has been abandoned by the President. His answer was in the negative. He then added that he had no reasons  to reach out to Tinubu in order to discuss anything because the President knows what he is doing and is deliberately “Yorubanising” the Federal Government. He said it remained for Tinubu’s Government to write memos in Yoruba and added that he would not be surprised if that was already the case.

His answer when  asked if he had reached out to the President: “And do what? Are you saying that he doesn’t notice that every appointment or employment recommendation that reaches his desk favours a Yoruba man? Are you saying that he doesn’t see that the CBN Governor, FIRS Chairman, Finance Minister and others are all Yoruba? The only thing they probably don’t do in this Government- though I’m not even sure – is write memos in Yoruba. How would I know? I don’t read their memos.  But it’s possible. This is their Government. They have appropriated and commandeered it. Everyone else is just a serf.”

Lawal, also ruled out he would change if the President reaches out to him to pacify him.

Lawal: “Pacify who? It is not about all this. You see, the problem with Nigeria is that we think everything revolves around money and power.

“There are just some people God created who are not motivated by money or power but by a sense of justice and equity. So, no matter how much you pump into them, they will not collect. No matter which power you give them, they will not collect. By the grace of God, I’m happy. I’ve never gone to bed hungry. Since childhood, I developed a liking for farming and started building my cattle business. Cows are like our bank. You get more money, you buy a cow and add. Since my childhood, aside from the land I inherited from my parents and grandparents, I continued to purchase, and I now have close to 4,000 or 5,000 hectares of land. So, what am I doing if it is  money I want? What am I going to do in a Government where I’m going to  be treated as a secular citizen? So, why do I need to come and stay in Abuja here sitting on a chair, attending meetings and developing a backache?”

Recall though that when Lawal was in Government, and was accused of alleged corruption, he replied that he didn’t need to touch Government’s money; that if he wanted money, there was Tinubu to give him anytime and that Tinubu had given him so much that atimes, he had to beg Tinubu to stop giving him.

It has been said in different quarters that Lawal was Tinubu’s nominee to Buhari for the office of the SGF. That’s how close they were before they fell apart.