Babachir Lawal disputes Osinbajo appointments as Buhari support claims rejected

Mr Lawal had alleged, among other things, that Mr Buhari considered Mr Osinbajo’s decision to seek the presidency in 2022 “immoral,” and that the former vice president had submitted a memo containing more than 20 names of proposed staff which was allegedly delayed by the president’s chief of staff. The post Osinbajo’s spokesperson rejects ex-SGF Babachir Lawal’s claims about ex-VP appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.

 Laolu Akande, ex-spokesperson of former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, has denied remarks by Babachir Lawal, a chieftain of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (ADC), concerning events that preceded the 2023 presidential election.   Lawal served as secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) from 2015 to 2017, when former President Muhammadu Buhari sacked him over alleged corruption.   In a recent interview, Lawal alleged that Buhari considered it “highly immoral and distasteful” for Osinbajo to contest against President Bola Tinubu in 2023.   The former SGF said Buhari would have found it difficult to support Osinbajo’s presidential bid because of his longstanding relationship with Tinubu, a former Lagos governor.     ‘BUHARI OPENLY COMMENDED OSINBAJO’ In a statement on Saturday, Akande, who served as Osinbajo’s spokesperson from 2015 to 2023, described Lawal’s claim as false.   He said he was privy to several decisions taken in the Presidential Villa, particularly those concerning the relationship between the former vice-president and Buhari.     “On the claim that President Buhari considered Osinbajo’s 2022 aspiration ‘immoral’, this is false,” Akande said.   “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?’”   Akande said Buhari also publicly commended Osinbajo’s campaign during the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries in 2022.   “Buhari openly commended Osinbajo at a Federal Executive Council meeting for the dignified, issues-based manner in which he was conducting his campaign across the country,” he said.     According to Akande, the former president praised Osinbajo in front of the entire council.   “That is not a President who found Osinbajo’s ambition distasteful. That is a President who broached it, encouraged and applauded it,” he said.   Akande also dismissed Lawal’s claim that Osinbajo wrote a memo containing more than 20 staff names, which was allegedly withheld by the president’s chief of staff before Lawal took it to Buhari.   “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,” he said.     He also rejected Lawal’s account of Buhari allegedly referring to the staff members by their ethnicity.   “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,” Akande said.     He said Osinbajo had direct access to Buhari and submitted memos to the former president for approval before passing them to Ade Ipaye, his chief of staff, for onward communication to the relevant agencies.   “At no stage did this require the SGF, except for the subsequent issuance of appointment letters for staff,” he said.     ‘HE HAD BEEN SACKED BEFORE THE APPOINTMENTS WERE MADE’ Akande disputed Lawal’s claim that the alleged memo was delayed for three months.   “Mr. Lawal’s timeline also collapses. He claimed the memo was delayed for three months. I resumed in the Office of the Vice President in June 2015, alongside several other colleagues. So did many of those whose names he now invents. There was no three-month delay,” Akande said.   “To those of us who were there, this story is pure fiction.”   He said Osinbajo submitted various memos to Buhari at different times and “there was never a single, bloated, religiously and ethnically-charged list. It is quite simply incredible that Mr Lawal would create such falsehood”.   He added that Buhari had sacked Lawal before several of the appointments were made.   “It is also noteworthy that by the time a good number of the appointments were made, Mr Lawal had been sacked by President Buhari (not Osinbajo) for corrupt practices,” he said.   ALLEGED PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT FOR CHURCH MEMBERS Akande also rejected Lawal’s claim that Osinbajo appointed staff because they belonged to his church, arguing that the composition of the vice-president’s office reflected religious and regional diversity.   “The claim that Osinbajo appointed people because they were church members is false and is easily disproved by the staff list itself. The Office was one of the most inclusive, pan-Nigerian offices in that government — North, South, East, West, Christian and Muslim,” he said.   “To suggest a narrow church agenda is not only to ignore the facts, but to pursue a curious and worrying vendetta.”   He said Ade Ipaye, a Muslim and lawyer, was the deputy chief of staff to the president and the most senior official in Osinbajo’s office.   Akande added that three of Osinbajo’s four special advisers were Muslims, including two northerners.   He also dismissed Lawal’s claim that Okey Enelamah, former minister of industry, trade and investment, was appointed because he was the pastor who took over Osinbajo’s parish at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).   He said Enelamah was recommended by two people in the financial services industry, adding that the late Abba Kyari, Buhari’s chief of staff, informed Osinbajo of the president’s decision to appoint him.   The former presidential spokesman added that while Lawal may still be reeling from the pains of his removal as SGF, “personal grievance cannot justify the manufacture of falsehoods against a man who served with integrity”.

Former SGF Babachir Lawal claims Buhari delayed Osinbajo's appointment memo for three months and questioned the nominees' Yoruba identity and RCCG affiliation.

Former SGF Babachir Lawal reveals why Buhari reportedly viewed Osinbajo's 2023 presidential ambition as disloyal to Tinubu and raises concerns over appointments.

 Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), says the late former President Muhammadu Buhari considered it “highly immoral and distasteful” for Yemi Osinbajo, his former vice-president, to contest against Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election.   Speaking in an interview with Symfoni TV published on YouTube on Thursday, Lawal said Buhari would have found it difficult to support Osinbajo against Tinubu because of his longstanding relationship with the former governor of Lagos.   Lawal said Buhari’s position was influenced by his loyalty to Tinubu, whom he described as the person who recommended Buhari for the presidency and later sought to succeed him.   “I’m very close to Buhari; I know him very well. He’s somebody that believes in royalty. He’s somebody that does issues from the point of view of high morality,” the former SGF said of the late former president.   According to Lawal, Buhari would have considered it inappropriate for Osinbajo to challenge Tinubu for the presidency, regardless of his assessment of the former vice-president’s potential as a president.   “Buhari would find it highly immoral for Osinbajo to contest the same position with Bola Tinubu,” he said.   “In his type of character, he will find it distasteful because he knew the relationship before; he is the man who recommended him for president, and Bola wants it.”     Lawal added that Buhari would have found Osinbajo’s decision distasteful “even if he believes that Osinbajo will be a better president or whatever”.   Osinbajo, who served as acting president during Buhari’s medical trips abroad, took some decisions while in charge of the presidency, including the dismissal of Lawal Daura, then director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), in August 2018.   The dismissal came after DSS operatives laid siege to the national assembly complex in Abuja, preventing lawmakers and other persons from accessing the legislative chambers.   Daura hails from Daura in Katsina state, Buhari’s hometown.     ‘BUHARI WAS UNHAPPY WITH OSINBAJO’S APPOINTMENTS’ Lawal’s account of Buhari’s reservations about Osinbajo also centred on what he described as the former vice-president’s preference for appointing members of his church.   The former SGF said Buhari was aware that many of the people Osinbajo sought to appoint to his office were members of his church.   Osinbajo, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is also a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG).   Lawal recalled an incident in which a memo seeking approval for Osinbajo’s take-off staff allegedly remained unapproved for about three months because it had not been forwarded to Buhari.   According to Lawal, the memo contained about 28 names, most of whom Buhari believed were Yoruba and members of Osinbajo’s church.     He said the memo was being discussed within the presidential villa, while the late Abba Kyari, then chief of staff to the president, had allegedly refused to forward it to Buhari.   Lawal said he eventually obtained a photocopy of the memo and took it directly to the president himself.   “I said, ‘Oga, see the date my Oga sent a memo. You have not approved. What is the problem?’” Lawal recalled.   He said Buhari read the document and used a green biro to tick almost all the names in the list.   “Out of 28, I think he ticked 26 with the green biro,” Lawal said, adding that Buhari stated: ‘BD, these are all Yorubas.’”   Lawal said he explained to Buhari that Osinbajo was new to the position and asked the former president to approve the appointments, promising to speak with the vice-president about the concerns.   “I said, ‘Oga, this is his first memo. I will talk to him. You know, he’s just from Lagos,’” Lawal said.   The former SGF said Buhari approved the memo, after which he took it to the chief of staff and informed him that the president had authorised the appointments.   Lawal said the episode was one of several instances in which Buhari took note of Osinbajo’s appointments.   ‘OSINBAJO’S CHURCH APPOINTMENTS RAISED CONCERNS’ The former SGF alleged that Buhari was particularly concerned about appointments involving people associated with Osinbajo’s church.   He recalled that the head of the church where Osinbajo had served as pastor received an appointment after Osinbajo became vice-president.   According to him, the person’s successor and the individual who subsequently took over the position also received appointments.   Lawal alleged that some appointees had limited experience for the positions they received.   He cited a person appointed to a position at the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) who, he said, had previously been a level 12 officer at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) before receiving an appointment.   He said Buhari was aware of such appointments and that some traditional Christian leaders in northern Nigeria had complained to the former president that they were also Christians who had voted for him but were not being considered for appointments.   “At one time, some of the traditional church leaders in the north actually went to Buhari and complained about the appointments. That they too, they are Christians, they too, they voted for him, and so on and so forth,” he said.   Lawal said Buhari did not explicitly tell him that the appointments would affect his support for Osinbajo, but he believed the former president’s reactions indicated his concerns.   “So, I suspect that this excessive preference for his church members would affect Buhari,” he said.   “From his actions and body language, I could see that he was scared that if Osinbajo became president, what Bola is doing, Osinbajo will do. But again, he didn’t think it was decent for Osinbajo to contest with Bola Tinubu,” Lawal added.