By Gideon Njoku
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has literally been called a liar and a fabricator of stories by Laolu Akande, former spokesman to former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
In a strongly-worded response to Lawal’s claims about, especially, the relationship between former late President Muhammadu Buhari and Osinbajo, Akande said Lawal’s claims in the interview he granted Symfoni TV last Thursday were nothing but fiction of the worst order.
Akande who was Osinbajo’s Special Assistant, Media and Publicity for the eight years the Administration was in office put a lie, especially, to Lawal’s claim that President Buhari was not only in support of Osinbajo’s bid for the Presidential seat against Bola Tinubu in 2022 but thought it was “highly immoral” and “distasteful.”
On the contrary, Akande disclosed made that Buhari offered, personally, to support Osinbajo’s presidential aspiration, not once, but, at least, on four occasions.
According to Akande, Buhari had told his Deputy: “If I don’t support you, who will I support?”
Even though Lawal said Buhari did not discuss the issue of who his successor would be with him, the then President’s body language more than sufficed.
For instance, Lawal alleged, Buhari was not comfortable with Osinbajo’s appointments, especially, his habit of bringing up for appointment including only people of his ethnic Yoruba people who are members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). The former Vice President is a pastor in the Church.
However, Akande, in a lengthy statement tore into shreds Babachir Lawal’s narrative and emphasising that it was a misrepresentation of events which he personally witnessed as Osinbajo’s spokesperson.
Akande: “I have watched the video in which former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, made a strong of allegations against former Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN. Ordinarily, such fabrications would not deserve a response.
“But I served as the Vice President’s spokesperson. I was in the room where many of these decisions were taken.
“And the allegations touch directly on the staff of the Office of the Vice President — of which I was a part. For the sake of the record, facts only must be stated.”
On Lawal’s claim that Buhari thought that Osinbajo’s bid for the Presidency against Tinubu was immoral Akande stated that it was completely false.
On the contrary, he noted, Buhari repeatedly expressed his willingness to support his Vice President for the Presidential seat 2023.
Akande: “On at least four separate occasions, President Buhari personally offered to support the Vice President, telling him plainly: ‘If I don’t support you, who will I support?’ He was consistent.”
Proof? Akande recalled that during the period of presidential campaigns, Buhari, usually, publicly commended Osinbajo during a Federal Executive Council meeting for conducting what he considered a dignified and issues-based campaign across the country. members of the Council, he said can bear witness to this, he said.
Akande: “He spoke in a laudatory tone. The entire Council witnessed it. That is not a President who found Osinbajo’s ambition distasteful. That is a President who broached it, encouraged and applauded it.”
But Lawal said that given the role Tinubu played in bringing Osinbajo into national politics, Buhari, who appreciated loyalty, abhorred Osinbajo’s bid for the Presidential seat against Tinubu.
On the memo which Lawal said contained 28 names for appointment, out of which 26 were of Yoruba stock and RCCG members, Akande also challenged Lawal’s narration of events.
Lawal had said that late Abba Kyari who was Buhari’s Chief of Staff, had ignored forwarding Osinbajo’s memo to Buhari for approval, until he, Lawal, took a photocopy of it to Buhari. He said Buhari went through the list with a green biro but pointed out that 26 of the 28 nominees were Yoruba and RCCG members.
But Akande dismissed it with a wave of the hand.
Akande,: “Mr. Lawal’s claim that Osinbajo wrote a memo containing over 20 staff names, which was sat on by the President’s Chief of Staff, and which he, Mr. Lawal, then took to President Buhari, is a complete fabrication. There was no such memo.
“Anyone who knew President Buhari knows he does not engage in the kind of snide ethnic profiling Mr. Lawal attributed to him — ‘BD, these are all Yorubas’ . That language and that conduct are alien to President Buhari.”
Giving an account of how appointments were made at the time he said Vice President Osinbajo enjoyed direct access to Buhari and so, Lawal could not have been an intermediary.
Akande: “The procedure was simple and verifiable: Prof. Osinbajo always had direct access to the President. He took his memos directly to the President, obtained approval, and passed the approved memo to his own Chief of Staff, Mr. Ade Ipaye, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, who then communicated it to the relevant agencies for action. At no stage did this require the SGF, except for the subsequent issuance of appointment letters for staff.” he said.
Using himself as an example, Akande said he resumed work in the Office of the Vice President in June 2015 alongside several colleagues, contrary to the suggestion that the appointment process was stalled in the office of the Chief of Staff for three months.
Akande: “There was no three-month delay. To those of us who were there, this story is pure fiction.
“What happened was that Osinbajo presented different batches of memos to Buhari at different periods for various categories of officials as his office was established and the administration developed new programmes.
“That is standard practice. There was never a single, bloated, religiously and ethnically-charged list.
“The allegation is false and the composition of Osinbajo’s office was enough to disprove it.
“The Office was one of the most inclusive, pan-Nigerian offices in that government — North, South, East, West, Christian and Muslim. To suggest a narrow Church agenda is not only to ignore the facts, but to pursue a curious and worrying vendetta.
“Ade Ipaye, then Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, the most senior official in Osinbajo’s office, is Muslim. Three of Osinbajo’s four Special Advisers – Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser on Social Investment, Ahmad Zakari, Special Adviser on Infrastructure, and Senator Babafemi Ojudu were Muslims. Ambassador Adeyemi Dipeolu was also among the senior advisers.”
Akande made public a long list of officials who worked under Osinbajo.
They included Balkisu Saidu, Abdullahi Gwary, Emmanuel Bright, Edobor Iyamu, Ismaeel Ahmed, Olayinka Oyeneyin, Fadi Rose Audu, Imeh Patience Okon, Lillian Idiaghe, Arukaino Umukoro, Daniel Ikuenobe, Folarin Alayande, Effiong Essien and Olaolu Beckley.
Others included Abdulrahman Baffa, Rotimi Akinnadeju, Novo Isioro, Feyishayo Aina, Gambo Manzo, Hafiz Ibrahim, Nonye Ojekwe, Nicholas Audifferen, Ayoleke Adu, Ajuri Ngelale, Louis Odion, Foluso Idumu, Edewede Akhidenor, Lanre Osibona, Tolani Alli and Tola Asekun.
There were, also, Damilola Ogunbiyi, Mariam Masha, Chiedu Ugbo, Jumoke Oduwole, Muktar Tijani, Tochi Nwachukwu, Mohammed Brimah, Yahaya Maibe, Jibola Ajayi, Ife Adebayo, Myani Bukar, Nkoli Anyaoku, Phil Obin and Lillian Chukwueke.
“This was a truly national team. It was never a Church list.”
Akande also dismissed as bunkum, Lawal’s claims that former Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment,
Dr Okey Enelamah, got the office because of his relationship with Osinbajo and the RCCG.
Enelamah, he said, was heading one of Africa’s major private equity firms at the time and had been proposed by two individuals in the financial services sector.
It was Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, Akande explained, who informed Osinbajo that Buhari wanted to appoint Enelamah.
Akande: “I had assumed, like many others, that because Enelamah was close to Osinbajo, he must have nominated him. He did not. Ask the former Minister. He is alive.”
He, also, tackled Lawal on his allegations on Osinbajo’s decisions when he served as Acting President during Buhari’s absences.
According to Lawal, “some decisions and appointments made while Buhari was away contributed to tensions and Buhari’s reservations about his deputy.”
But Akande noted that Lawal’s comment is a distortion of what happened at the time.
Akande: “Osinbajo, while Acting as President, was constitutionally required to review lists of nominees before they were forwarded for confirmation.
Where changes were made, they resulted from compliance issues involving federal character, age, qualifications or professional requirements.
“President Buhari was fully briefed upon his return and had no issue with those corrections. Due process, not personal preference, guided those decisions,”
In a direct attack on Lawal, Akande connected Lawal’s bitterness to his sack as SGF.
He said: “I understand that Mr. Lawal may still be reeling from the pains of his removal as SGF.”
As SGF, Lawal was suspended from office in April 2017 following allegations arising from contracts connected with the Presidential Initiative on the North East.
A three-member investigative committee chaired by Osinbajo was constituted by Buhari to investigate the allegations against Lawal. Lawal was removed removed as SGF in October 2017.
According to Akande, allegations against Lawal were already the subject of scrutiny before Buhari directed Osinbajo to head the presidential investigation.
“Both the Senate and an Attorney-General’s report had already implicated the former SGF in the allegations. Lawal inadvertently provided the evidence used by the presidential panel in reaching its findings against him.
“Lawal’s latest intervention is potentially rooted in personal grievance. But personal grievance cannot justify the manufacture of falsehoods against a man who served with integrity.
“Prof. Osinbajo served President Buhari loyally for eight years, without blemish, with an inclusive team that reflected the best of Nigeria. The records are there for anyone who cares to check.”
Lawal has since quit the APC. He is currently of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC.
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
