“If I  were VP Shettima, I Would Have Resigned” – Fmr. SGF Babachir Lawal

By Gideon Njoku

“The VP position is that of a spare tyre. In Shettima’s case, it is a flat spare tyre. There is n Northerner in Tinubu’s Government”

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has said that in the position of Vice President Kashim Shettima, he would have resigned from office. “If I were him (Shettima) I would have graciously and honourably left the job” Lawal said in an interview with The Punch published in  its Tuesday edition.

Lawal said this while painting a dreary picture of what he called the sad situation in  the North, and why a good number of them are determined to remove President Bola Tinubu from office in 2027. He said the North has become a huge refugee camp, and that atimes, for days, people go without food. He said no Northerner occupies a lucrative office in President Tinubu’s Government. He does not consider the office of the Vice President  or that of the Ministers for Defence occupied by two Northerners, or that of Health and Foreign Affairs. According to him, all Vice President Shettima does is attend weddings or pay condolence visits. As for the Ministers? Lawal says they just wear babaringa and pose like they are busy.

For the above,  therefore, Lawal said the North will be deliberate in its choice of who the next President will be. It has to be one who will take care of the North, he submitted.

His words: “As Northerners, we must be deliberate and determined to get the next President who will get us out of the woods. This is because the North has now become a massive refuge camp. Sometimes, for two and half days, you have not eaten. Nobody is paying school fees. Nobody is traveling or going to the farm. Tell me, if you don’t go to the farm, how do you eat? So, the North is a massive refugee camp, and we must be deliberate in choosing who the next President is.

“He must be somebody who has the interest of the North at heart and who will address these issues so that we live as free citizens of the country. Now, we are practically second class citizens with nobody in Government.

“The Ministers, all they do is to put on babaringa and pose as if they are doing something. When their budgets are not funded, they are not doing anything. The parastatals that have money are not being held by the Northerners. There is no help you can render to anybody in this Government if you are a Northerner.”

Asked about the Vice President; if he is not a Northerner and if his office is not important, Lawal retorted: “Which VP? Even in our time, during (Muhammadu) Buhari’s regime, the VP was representing the President in many things. Tinubu’s VP is just busy attending weddings and probably, condolence visits. I’ve not seen him do anything different from that. He doesn’t do anything. I’ve not heard him representing the President at big conferences or occasions.

“If I were him, I would have graciously and honourably left the job. That position is a spare tyre. But in this case, it’s a flat spare tyre.”

Babachir Lawal and President Tinubu were great friends and political allies. But they were torn apart by Tinubu’s choice of his Vice Presidential Candidate. Tinubu, being of the Muslim faith, Lawal was against the choice of another Muslim as his running mate. He said it was an insult to the Christian North. Since then, he turned a bitter critic of Tinubu and his Government.