Why Tinubu should be given a chance in 2023 – Babachir Lawal

Former Secretary to the Federal Government, Babachir Lawal, has said the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be given a chance in 2023 because he was instrumental to President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015.

Lawal who was relieved of his position in 2017 following a scandal also expressed his support for Tinubu’s presidency, describing him as a pillar and factor in the APC.

“One of our specific goals was to make Buhari the president. Tinubu was a colossus of south-west politics. If he had said there would be no merger, there wouldn’t have been any merger.

“So if Tinubu had not conceded at that point, I think probably Kwakwanso would have won the presidential nomination of the APC. For that reason alone, you can see Tinubu’s contributions to the emergence of Buhari as president and his role in building the party.

Lawal said Tinubu rallied funding for the campaign when Buhari had no money to fund his election and brought in an agency from the United States that branded Buhari’s image.

“Everybody knows Buhari has no money and he doesn’t play money politics. So he won his presidential primary election without spending money. Also, Buharists didn’t have money; they only had ideas, zeal and fanaticism. And politics requires money,” he said.

“Tinubu, who had his tentacles spread across the corporate world, was the only man who knew where and how to raise the funds needed. He was the one that reached out to all the ‘big men’ who were at the time scared of the then President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Tinubu doesn’t like to take credit for what he does; he lives for politics, gets his money from politics and spends it on politics. He has no other interest except politics. The monies he spent out of his pocket that is unaccounted for outside of the party’s campaign finances are quite enormous. I know this because he’s my friend and because I am also involved in the Buhari government.”

“Therefore, except we want to bring the wrath of God on our heads, which we don’t want, the party must create an environment that is free and fair for anybody who wants to contest, including Tinubu, to do so,” he added.