Inside Sources

A RESPONSE TO MR. BABACHIR LAWAL'S FALSEHOODS AGAINST PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON I have watched the video in which former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, made a string of allegations against former Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN. Ordinarily, such fabrications would not deserve a response. But I served as the Vice President's spokesperson. I was in the room where many of these decisions were taken. And the allegations touch directly on the staff of the Office of the Vice President — of which I was a part. For the sake of the record, facts only must be stated. 1. On the claim that President Buhari considered Osinbajo's 2022 aspiration "immoral": This is false. On at least four separate occasions, President Buhari personally offered to support the Vice President, telling him plainly: "If I don't support you, who will I support?" He was consistent. During the APC presidential primaries in 2022, while campaigns were underway, President Buhari openly commended Vice President Osinbajo at a Federal Executive Council meeting for the dignified, issues-based manner in which he was conducting his campaign across the country. He spoke in a laudatory tone. The entire Council witnessed it. That is not a President who found Osinbajo's ambition distasteful. That is a President who broached it , encouraged and applauded it. 2. On the so-called memo of 20+ staff names: Mr. Lawal's claim that Osinbajo wrote a memo containing over 20 staff names, which was sat on by the President's Chief of Staff, and which he, Mr. Lawal, then took to President Buhari, is a complete fabrication. There was no such memo. Anyone who knew President Buhari knows he does not engage in the kind of snide ethnic profiling Mr. Lawal attributed to him — "BD, these are all Yorubas." That language and that conduct are alien to President Buhari. The procedure was simple and verifiable: Prof. Osinbajo always had direct access to the President. He took his memos directly to the President, obtained approval, and passed the approved memo to (his own Chief of Staff), Mr. Ade Ipaye, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President who then communicated it to the relevant agencies for action. At no stage did this require the SGF, except for the subsequent issuance of appointment letters for staff. Mr. Lawal's timeline also collapses. He claimed the memo was delayed for three months. I resumed in the Office of the Vice President in June 2015, alongside several other colleagues. So did many of those whose names he now invents. There was no three-month delay. To those of us who were there, this story is pure fiction. What actually happened in 2015 is that Osinbajo took different batches of memos to the President at different times for different categories of staff as the office was being set up and as government policies evolved. That is standard practice. There was never a single, bloated, religiously and ethnically-charged list. It is quite simply incredible that Mr Lawal would create such falsehood. It is also noteworthy that by the time a good number of the appointments were made Mr Lawal had been sacked by President Buhari ( not Osinbajo) for corrupt practices. 3. On the composition of Osinbajo's staff — the church claim: The claim that Osinbajo appointed people because they were church members is false and is easily disproved by the staff list itself. The Office was one of the most inclusive, pan-Nigerian offices in that government — North, South, East, West, Christian and Muslim. To suggest a narrow church agenda is not only to ignore the facts , but to pursue a curious and worrying vendetta. Let the facts speak: The most senior official in the Office — the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President — was Mr. Ade Ipaye, a Muslim and a distinguished lawyer. Three of his four Special Advisers were Muslims, including two Northerners: Mrs. Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser on Social Investment, and Dr. Ahmad Zakari,...