God Wants to Destroy Tinubu, APC With Muslim-Muslim Ticket, Says Ex-SGF Lawal

Adedayo Akinwale

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal has called on  President Muhammadu Buhari to exercise his powers as the Commander-in-Chief and as the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to revoke the nomination of the former Governor of Borno state, Senator Kashim Shettima as the running-mate to the presidential candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. 

Lawal, a staunch supporter of Tinubu’s presidential bid, in a statement issued Tuesday, said Tinubu should be compelled  by whoever can do so to rescind this decision.

 He said he would love Tinubu to be the next President of the country, but warned that Muslim-Muslim ticket was  dead on arrival.

Lawal warned that Muslim-Muslim ticket would drag down the whole APC members to the pit and it soukd be rejected by all. 

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 2015  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.”

Lawal noted that as part of his obligation to him, he  had on many occasions argued the merits and demerits of both ticket permutations to him.

He noted that he had done so in both verbal and written form and  likewise, done so with some of Tinubu’s close respectable associates and friends. 

According to him, 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. 

Lawal stressed that there might be some collateral damages though, saying he had  on several occasions passed on to Tinubu counsels and messages from some well meaning Nigerians intended to alert him on the possible outcomes of the Presidential ticket permutations. 

He noted: “Tinubu is a very good man. He is a great listener. He has a very humble and friendly disposition to everyone. He is very generous in both cash and kind, especially where it could advance his political interests. But I have realized 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 anything to curry his favour 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, lap-dogs.”

The former SGF noted that during Tinubu’ hay-days in Lagos, he surrounded himself with smart, street-wise guys that could tell truth to power.

He said  he had Rauf Aregbesola, Yemi Osinbajo, Babatunde Fashola, Dele Alake, Muiz Banire, among others, stressing that the Lagos days were the days of think-tanks, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, principles and ideologies.

Lawal said  these people have since grown-up and moved up to establish their own systems, leaving  Tinubu stranded. 

He stressed: “Welcome the Abuja equivalent. But the Abuja equivalent are people inflicted with the modern Nigerian diseases – religious bigotry, sycophancy and morbid tribalism. They are mostly political jobbers who are most times not averse to the application of diabolical means. 

“Gone are the days of think-tanks, and strategic planning. Gone are the days of principles and ideologies. Try and call a meeting; they will not attend. Try and make a plan; they will sabotage it. Everything is ad-hoc, everything is chaotic because they excel in such environments. The result is that they have played on his long-term ambition to be President and have built it into a sort of desperation and a crescendo that easily justifies this satanic resort to a Muslim-Muslim ticket. This is the calamity that has befallen my friend.

“And why Kashim Shettima? He is an overambitious man who has a Machiavellian bent and has lots of money with which to procure a preferred-candidate status among Tinubu’s lapdogs. And as we are beginning to see, to also procure bogus supporters especially from among the Christian community to help launder his no-so-good image. 

“But as  a popular proverb goes: “Those whom the gods want to destroy they first make mad”. It appears that the gods want to destroy  the APC and its Presidential Candidate and have chosen the instrumentality of the northern Moslem governors and their super ambitious tool and Kashim Ibrahim for this purpose. Alhaji Kashim Shetima is a Greek gift from the Northern governors to Tinubu. I advise Bola to make sure Kashima’s two hands are always in his plain sight and empty. 

“True, based on the advise of his new friends, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made his choice. And I am sure he thinks he is ready for the outcome of that choice. He has chosen to bring religion to the front burner of Nigerian politics. And being a Muslim he has chosen to take sides with his own religion. For all he cares, Christians can go to blazes with their votes.”

Lawal said  Tinubu must also be told  that there would be consequences for this choice, warning  that Christians all over the country would revolt against the APC to put the chances of Tinubu’s election in serious jeopardy. 

He stressed, “It will also put the election of all Christians standing for elections in Christian dominated areas in jeopardy. This could result in APC being a minority party in both the National and State Houses of Assembly. 

“Now tell me which Christian will vote for APC with the following contraption: Presidential Candidate (Lagos), Muslim Vice Presidential Candidate (Borno), Muslim National Chairman (Nasarawa), Moslem Deputy National Chairman (Borno), Muslim President (Katsina); Muslim Senate President (Yobe); Muslim Speaker (Lagos); Muslim Deputy Speaker (Plateau) e.t.c. APC the great! Wu na de try woh!”

Lawal pointed out that if Tinubu in a desperate bid to become President, allows himself to be made into  a religious bigot or even a  mujahideen, he is welcome, but warned that it was a risk that would not play out positively for his presidential bid.

 He said expecting Nigerians  to ignore this crass insensitivity to the country’s diversity amounts to acceding to the perpetration of very grave injustice and discrimination against a huge segment of the society.

Lawal added that  no one who seeks to be president of Nigeria should ever deploy the tool of religious extremism and exclusivism as a tool to win elections, saying this is very dangerous and sad. 

He stressed: “But, baring any last minute change of mind, Bola has made his choice. He should be bluntly told that in this choice Nigerian Christians clearly see  a pending Islamic Republic of Nigeria in its infancy and are right to be severely anxious. 

“There is gloom among the Christian community all over the country since Tinubu announced Kashim Shetima as his running mate. Are the generality of the moslem ummah happy with this? The answer is a resounding no.

“How then do we respond? The decision as to how to respond to this deliberately senseless act of provocation is both corporate to each religious group and also personal to each voter  that love peace, and hate injustice. Christians want to continue to live peacefully with their Muslims neighbours at home, at school, at the work place, in the markets and on the streets as we have always done or desired to do. And I am sure Moslems share this view too. No one person’s ambition to rule over us should be allowed to set us apart and at war with one another. 

“Bola Ahmed Tinubu, should be compelled upon by whoever can do so to rescind this decision. President Mohammed Buhari should exercise his powers as the Commander-in-Chief and as the APC Leader to revoke this nomination of a VP by Tinubu. 

“The APC National Chairman should refuse to sign the nomination forms if not rescinded.I will love for Bola to be our next President. But I am afraid a Muslim-Muslim ticket will be “Dead on Arrival”. And the arrival date according to INEC’s election time table is 25th February, 2023. This ticket will drag down the whole APC members to the pit. We all should reject it.”