Tinubu funded Buhari’s 2015 campaign with billions of naira, says Babachir Lawal

Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), says President Bola Tinubu played a pivotal role in financing the 2015 presidential campaign of late former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking in an interview with Symfoni TV, Lawal recounted his involvement in Buhari’s campaign, describing Tinubu as the financier who stepped in when the campaign council struggled to secure funding.

He said the late former president was uncomfortable discussing financial matters and rarely participated in conversations about campaign funding.

“After Buhari won the ticket, there was an issue of campaign funding. Buhari was not a money person. Anytime you discuss money, Buhari will be looking at the ceiling,” Lawal said.

“Anytime they said leaders should contribute something, Buhari developed a deaf ear. Money was not his comfort zone at all.”

Lawal said he and Timipre Sylva, former Bayelsa governor, approached a wealthy businessman believed to be sympathetic to Buhari’s candidacy in an attempt to raise campaign funds.

He said the meeting took place aboard the businessman’s yacht after the businessman declined to meet them publicly because they had become identified as prominent members of Buhari’s campaign.

Lawal said the businessman agreed to support the campaign, but Sylva later became worried after a police officer greeted him in the Ijaw language following the meeting, fearing it would be reported to then President Goodluck Jonathan.

The former secretary to the government of the federation added that Sylva’s fears proved valid.

“He (Sylva) said that sergeant is from Bayelsa and is Goodluck’s cousin. Anytime Goodluck wants to get something on you, that guy is the one they post to you. So, this meeting (with the businessman) would have reached the president’s ears by now. And it did,” Lawal said.

Lawal claimed that by the time they returned to Abuja, the businessman had already been contacted, making it virtually impossible for the campaign to obtain financial support from him.

“From that day, nobody who is rich would pick our phone,” he said.

Faced with mounting financial challenges, Lawal said he turned to Tinubu for help.

“So, I went to Bola. I said, ‘Oga, can you help us in this matter?’ And he did. Through him, we were able to raise sufficient funds to do the campaign,” Lawal said.

Lawal said Tinubu personally financed several critical aspects of the APC campaign, including the vice-presidential campaign of Yemi Osinbajo, who later served as Buhari’s deputy for eight years.

He claimed Tinubu provided a private jet for campaign activities and paid for the services of American political consultants who conducted surveys and other professional campaign operations.

“They came and transformed our campaign. I knew that the money he paid them was in excess of N2 billion equivalent in dollars,” Lawal said.

He also said Tinubu personally settled major campaign expenses without routing the payments through the official campaign structure.

“If there was a need for an expenditure, no matter how massive, he didn’t come to the campaign office. He spent from his own purse,” he said.

He added that the consultants hired by Tinubu reshaped Buhari’s public image during the campaign.

“You noticed how suddenly Buhari was wearing suits. Suddenly Buhari was wearing Yoruba attire. Those people Bola brought changed the trajectory of the campaign.”

, the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015, was widely regarded as one of the principal architects of the coalition that defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 presidential election, ending the party’s 16-year hold on power.

Buhari defeated Jonathan in 2015 in what remains Nigeria’s first presidential election in which an opposition candidate unseated an incumbent president.

Lawal served as secretary to the government of the federation under the Buhari administration from 2015 until his dismissal in 2017.