A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has spoken of how a former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, raised money for Muhammadu Buhari to win the 2015 presidential election.
Mr Lawal disclosed this in an interview with Punch Newspaper on Sunday.
He stated that it was Mr Tinubu who raised funds for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to defeat the then President, Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in 2015.
Mr Lawal argued that Mr Buhari and his supporters had no money to win an election except “ideas, zeal and fanaticism”.
“Tinubu, who had his tentacles spread across the corporate world, was the only man who knew where and how to raise the funds needed. He was the one that reached out to all the ‘big men’ who were at the time scared of the then President Goodluck Jonathan. These were all rich men that depended on the government’s patronage. But somehow, Tinubu was able to persuade some of them to support Buhari. We had so many experiences, Timipre Sylva and I thought we could do it but found out we couldn’t until Tinubu came in and we won the election,” he said.
Mr Lawal said Mr Tinubu spent enormous money “out of his pocket” to finance the party’s campaign. He said Mr Tinubu was responsible for the lobby of a U. S. consultant who handled President Barrack Obama’s campaign and they did the same for Nigeria’s current president.
“That was when you started seeing Buhari wearing a suit, and in Igbo, Yoruba and Kanuri attire. It was then people started to see Buhari as a family man with his beautiful daughters. The strategy was to transform his image and show a humane, loving and trustworthy person. It helped us. At some point during our strategy sessions, the consultants asked us: why why don’t you allow Buhari’s wife to come out so that she can be contrasted with Dame Patience Jonathan? When you do that, you would have won the election, Babachir added.
Culled from Premium Times
