VIDEO: How Tinubu funded Buhari’s 2015 presidential campaign — Babachir Lawal

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has detailed the extensive financial and strategic roles played by President Bola Tinubu in securing the victory of former President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2015 presidential election.

Speaking during an interview on Symfoni TV released on Saturday, Lawal revealed that Tinubu not only bankrolled key aspects of the historic campaign from his personal wealth but also independently funded the nationwide campaign activities of the then-vice presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

Recounting the inner workings of the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign machinery, the former SGF disclosed that Tinubu single-handedly financed Osinbajo’s outreach to specific demographics, hiring private jets to ease his mobility.

“Through him, we were able to raise sufficient funds to do the campaign,” Lawal stated. “Not only did he do that, Osinbajo’s portion of the campaign; he funded it, hired a chartered plane to fund the trip because Osinbajo’s campaign was a little bit broken away from the main campaign.”

Lawal explained that Osinbajo’s semi-independent campaign was a deliberate strategy to court Christian voters and other ethnic nationalities who harboured reservations about Buhari’s candidacy.

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“Osinbajo on his own was a pastor. His ethnic nationalities and Christians had some doubts about Buhari. He was on that side. He wasn’t in our own area and he was just operating semi-independently of the main campaign. Tinubu was funding it,” he noted.

The former SGF further alleged that Tinubu brought in high-profile American political consultants to overhaul the party’s election strategy, spending billions of naira to secure their services. “I don’t know their names. I just know that they were Obama people, and they came and they transformed our campaign, and I knew that the money he paid them was in excess of two billion naira, equivalent in dollars,” Lawal revealed.

Highlighting Tinubu’s deep pockets and commitment to the alliance that birthed the ruling party, Lawal noted that the current president routinely bypassed the party’s central treasury to settle massive electoral bills. “If there’s a need for an expenditure, no matter how massive, he doesn’t come to the campaign purse; he spends from his own purse,” he added.

Lawal, who served in Buhari’s administration, also recounted how the former president specifically entrusted him with facilitating the initial merger talks between the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) due to his close personal relationship with Tinubu.

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