Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has offered insights into why he believes former President Muhammadu Buhari was reluctant to support his former deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, in the race to succeed him in the 2023 presidential election.
Lawal attributed the perceived reluctance to a combination of factors, including Buhari’s personal values, his longstanding relationship with President Bola Tinubu, and concerns over some decisions Osinbajo allegedly made while serving as acting president during Buhari’s absences.
Speaking in an interview with Symfoni TV, Lawal claimed that Buhari’s reservations about Osinbajo were partly rooted in disagreements over appointments, particularly allegations that the former vice-president favoured people associated with his church when filling public positions.
He also alleged that Osinbajo reversed some appointments Buhari had approved while the former president was away receiving medical treatment, a development Lawal believed may have further strained the relationship between the two men.
According to Lawal, these incidents, alongside Buhari’s perception of the relationship between Osinbajo and Tinubu, may have influenced the former president’s attitude towards the vice-president’s presidential ambition.
Tinubu’s Relationship With Buhari a Factor
Lawal argued that if Buhari had been primarily concerned with ensuring the continuity of his administration’s policies and programmes after leaving office, Osinbajo would have been a natural successor, having served as vice-president throughout his eight-year tenure.
However, he suggested that Buhari’s personal convictions and relationship with Tinubu may have complicated the prospect of supporting Osinbajo, who contested against Tinubu for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket ahead of the 2023 general election.
According to Lawal, Buhari placed considerable importance on loyalty and moral considerations and might have viewed Osinbajo’s decision to challenge Tinubu as inappropriate, given Tinubu’s role in Buhari’s emergence as president.
He maintained that Buhari could have regarded the contest as distasteful, regardless of his personal assessment of Osinbajo’s capacity to govern.
Lawal said: “Buhari, by nature, will find it very distasteful, even if he believes that Osinbajo will be a better president or whatever, whatever.”
He added that his assessment was informed by his closeness to the former president and his interpretation of Buhari’s conduct and body language.
“People don’t believe me if I say this, because I’m very close to Buhari. It was like at one time, my father, I know him very well. He’s somebody that believes in loyalty. He’s somebody that does issues from the point of view of morality, high morality,” Lawal said.
He stressed that Buhari and Osinbajo did not necessarily have to disagree publicly for their relationship to be affected, arguing that the former president’s personal principles and perceptions could have influenced his position.
Lawal further claimed that Buhari was unhappy with what he described as Osinbajo’s preference for appointing people connected to his church.
Osinbajo, an ordained senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), served as vice-president under Buhari from 2015 to 2023.
According to Lawal, Buhari was aware of the alleged pattern of appointments and had concerns about the implications for the composition of public offices.
“Buhari is aware that most of the appointments that Osinbajo would do were people from his church. Buhari was aware of this and he was not happy,” he said.
Lawal recalled an incident from the early days of the Buhari administration involving a memo Osinbajo reportedly submitted to the president seeking approval for members of his staff.
He said the memo contained approximately 28 names but allegedly remained unforwarded to Buhari for about three months, despite discussions about the proposed appointments within the presidency.
Lawal, who served as SGF during the administration’s early years, said he eventually obtained a photocopy of the document from Buhari’s then Chief of Staff, the late Abba Kyari, and took it to the president.
According to his account, Buhari examined the list and questioned the ethnic composition of the nominees.
Lawal recalled the former president saying: “Bidi, these are all Yorubas.”
He said he subsequently appealed to Buhari to approve the appointments, explaining that Osinbajo was new to government and needed to assemble a team to support his work.
“I appealed and said, ‘Sosa, can you approve this thing for me? I’ll talk to him. You know, he’s new.’ He said, ‘Approved,’” Lawal recounted.
He maintained that although Buhari had heard about the proposed appointments before seeing the memo, the document had not reached him through the official channels he expected.
Lawal presented the episode as an early indication of the concerns he believed Buhari had about the composition of Osinbajo’s team.
The former SGF also alleged that Osinbajo reversed certain appointments Buhari had approved while the president was away receiving medical treatment.
According to Lawal, some of the appointments were subsequently replaced with other nominees, whom he alleged were largely associated with Osinbajo’s church.
“There are many instances, for example, Buhari had approved to me some appointments, and when he left, he went to hospital, Osinbajo reversed it and brought his other appointees, mostly, of course, from his church,” he said.
Lawal claimed Buhari was informed about the alleged reversals and wanted the decisions overturned.
However, he said the former president eventually refrained from pursuing the matter after returning to office.
“I understand he even wrote that it should be reversed, demanded they reverse it, and Buhari came back and kept quiet,” Lawal said.
He suggested that Buhari’s decision not to press the issue may have been motivated by a desire to avoid a public disagreement or cause embarrassment to his deputy.
According to Lawal, the alleged incidents contributed to his belief that Buhari had reservations about Osinbajo’s approach to appointments and the direction he might take if elected president.
The allegations were presented as Lawal’s account of events within the Buhari administration. The interview excerpts do not independently establish the circumstances surrounding the appointments or the extent to which they influenced Buhari’s political calculations.
Lawal also recounted what he described as complaints from some traditional church leaders in northern Nigeria over their alleged exclusion from appointments.
He claimed that the leaders approached Buhari to express dissatisfaction, arguing that they were Christians who had supported the president but were not receiving adequate consideration for public positions.
“At one time, some of the traditional church leaders in the north actually went to Buhari and complained about appointments, that they too, they are Christians, they too, they voted for him,” he said.
According to Lawal, Osinbajo later approached him for assistance in identifying someone from northern Nigeria’s traditional Christian community for a church administrative position.
Lawal said he recommended a former seminary lecturer for the role but alleged that the individual was subsequently sidelined.
He cited the episode as another example of what he considered an imbalance in the distribution of appointments and opportunities.
Lawal did not establish in the interview excerpts how Buhari personally assessed each of the alleged complaints, but he maintained that the issues contributed to his understanding of the former president’s concerns about Osinbajo.
Lawal said he believed Buhari’s concerns extended beyond individual appointments to the broader question of how Osinbajo might exercise presidential power if he succeeded his former principal.
He alleged that Buhari was worried Osinbajo could adopt an appointment style similar to the one Lawal attributed to Tinubu.
The former SGF said his interpretation was based on Buhari’s reactions to the alleged appointments and what he perceived as the former president’s body language.
“I suspect that this excessive preference for his church members would affect Buhari,” Lawal said.
He added: “From his actions and his body language, I could see that he was scared that if Osinbajo became president, what Bola is doing, he will do.”
