Buhari offered to support Osinbajo’s presidential bid four times — Akande counters Babachir Lawal

A former spokesperson to ex-Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Laolu Akande has dismissed claims by Babachir Lawal that former President Muhammadu Buhari considered Osinbajo’s 2023 presidential ambition “highly immoral and distasteful”.

Akande, who served as Osinbajo’s spokesperson from 2015 to 2023, described the allegation as false in a statement on Saturday, saying Buhari had personally offered to support the former vice-president’s ambition on at least four occasions.

Osinbajo contested the All Progressives Congress presidential primary in 2022 but lost to Bola Tinubu, who went on to win the 2023 presidential election.

Lawal, a chieftain of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, ADC, and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, had alleged in a recent interview that Buhari would have found it difficult to support Osinbajo’s ambition because of his longstanding relationship with Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor.

Reacting, Akande said he had watched the interview in which Lawal made allegations against Osinbajo and chose to respond because he was present when decisions concerning the former vice-president’s office were taken.

He said Buhari had, on at least four separate occasions, personally offered to support Osinbajo, asking him, “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,” Akande added.

Osinbajo contested the APC presidential primary in June 2022, finishing third with 235 votes, behind now president Bola Tinubu, who won with 1,271 votes, and Rotimi Amaechi, who scored 316.