Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, has condemned Bola Tinubu’s choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket under the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, has condemned Bola Tinubu’s choice of a fellow Muslim as his running mate under the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
He described the choice of the former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, as a disastrous error.
Lawal in a statement issued on Tuesday described Tinubu as a good man who has been influenced by sycophants and lapdogs.
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He said: “I thought I will be able to avoid commenting on the disastrous error by my very good friend, Sen Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his choice of a running mate. I will be the very last person to stand in the way of my very good friend, Tinubu’s path to the presidency. This is because since 2011 my consuming passion has been for him to succeed Buhari as President of Nigeria.
“It will not be true if I say that I did not see it coming. I have often read his body language, picked up snippets from several discussions with his lapdogs (some of whom, sadly are Christians but most of whom are Muslims) and I have conveyed my reservations to them against the pitfalls of a Muslim-Muslim ticket towards which I sensed they were drifting.
“As part of my obligation to him, a close friend, I had on many occasions argued the merits and demerits of both ticket permutations to him. I have done so in both verbal and written form and I have likewise, done so with some of his close respectable associates and friends.
“In all instances I had left him with the sole responsibility for his final decision, arguing that in the end the consequences of the outcome of any bad decision will be his to bear. There might be some collateral damages though.“I have also on several occasions passed on to him counsels and messages from some well-meaning Nigerians intended to alert him on the possible outcomes of the presidential ticket permutations. Tinubu is a very good man. He is a great listener.
“He has a very humble and friendly disposition to every one. He is very generous in both cash and kind, especially where it could advance his political interests. But I have realised that it is in the nature of power that sycophants and lapdogs have the most influence on leaders with such character traits.
“They will lie to him, malign and disparage others and generally do any thing to curry his favor and to also put well-meaning associates in bad light. I suspect this is what has happened to my friend.
“He has been cornered by self-serving, hero-worshiping, lapdogs. It never used to be like this. While in his hay-days in Lagos, he surrounded himself with smart, street-wise guys that could tell truth to power. He had Rauf Aregbesola, Yemi Osinbajo, Babatunde Fashola, Dele Alake, Muiz Banire, etc.
“The Lagos days were the days of think-tanks, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, principles and ideologies. But these people have since grown-up and moved up to establish their own systems living my friend stranded. Nature they say abhors vacuum.
Source: Vanguard