Tinubu’s choice of Muslim running mate a disastrous error – ex-SGF Babachir Lawal

The selection of a Muslim running mate by All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu has been criticised as a “disastrous error” by a former secretary to the government of the federation by the name of Babachir Lawal on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Kashim Shettima, a former governor of Borno State, was chosen by Tinubu as his running mate.
The choice has angered Nigeria’s Christian population, and several influential APC members in Rivers and other regions of the nation have expressed disagreement to the ruling party’s endorsement of the Muslim-Muslim ticket.

The former SGF expressed sadness that the former governor of Lagos State allowed himself to be influenced by sycophants and political jobbers in a statement in response to the incident.

He, however, added that Tinubu remained a very good man, great listener, humble, and very generous in both cash and kind, especially where it could advance his political interests.

The statement read: “I thought I would be able to avoid commenting on the disastrous error by my very good friend, Senator 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 Moslems) and I have conveyed my reservations to them against the pitfalls of a Moslem-Moslem 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 everyone. 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 anything to curry his favour and also put well-meaning associates in a 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 the 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, leaving my friend stranded. Nature, they say, abhors a vacuum. Welcome to 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.”