Tinubu Alone Didn’t Make Buhari President, Says Ex-SGF

Gboyega Akinsanmi

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Babachir Lawal, has described the claim by the National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) and frontline presidential aspirant, Senator Bola Tinubu, that he made Muhammadu Buhari president in 2015 as an arrogant assumption.

Lawal said Tinubu was not the only person that helped President Buhari to win the 2015 presidential election.
He made this clarification during an interview on ARISE NEWS Channel last night.

Lawal is who also a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and staunch Tinubu supporter, noted that Buhari had over 11 million votes before he considered forging a merger with Tinubu and other political parties.
He said: “I know Tinubu because I have been part of the process. In 2011, Tinubu should be a candidate for the election. We put efforts and resources together. He contributed to that resource.

“No individual can make someone a president of Nigeria. Before we went for Tinubu, Buhari had consistently scored more than 11 million votes at the polls. The claim that he made Buhari president is an arrogant assumption,” Lawal explained.

Speaking on Tinubu’s outburst in Abeokuta on Thursday, Lawal said he believed Tinubu was stressed at the time he commented how he helped Buhari to win the 2015 presidential election.
The former SGF blamed Tinubu’s outburst purely on the widespread conspiracy theory, which was prevalent in the political space.

He said: “The conspiracy theory went around the country so much. I think he is very stressed. You know APC has gone through all manners of needless crises in recent times. First of all, there was an issue of why did they extend the sale of forms or why did they extend the date for submission of forms.

“All these issues gave rise to conspiracy theory. The issue of Goodluck Jonathan was coming to contest. All sorts of things put a lot of pressure on the candidate. Nigerians, being who we are, like conspiracy theories,” he added.