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,...

The new Nigerian Ambassadors are hitting the ground running especially in the US where particularly in Washington DC & New York both Ambassador Kayode Are and Permanent Representative/Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim are off to some impressive start. We shall be saying more about this in the coming weeks, as i continue my current trip to the US.

In My Take during yesterday's edition of @InsideSources01 on @channelstv I noted the importance of ministers engaging effectively with the Nigerian people. In my view that's one of the strengths the new Finance Minister is bringing. I also mentioned federal ministers such as Dr. Alausa, with his bold reforms in education Mr. Wike, despite his many controversies, and a few others. See clip below.

His long time ally, now political opponent B.D. Lawal says President Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself needs to be rescued! A clip from @InsideSources01 on @channelstv last Sunday

That "Amupitan's tweet," which he has denied would have still been an issue of probability but the apparent falsehoods that followed is worse than the original allegation! Below is a clip from My Take during last Friday's @InsideSources01 on @channelstv where i called for character, courage & competence for all those who must lead us politically. We should not reduce the selection process of political leadership to gifts and tokens that the godfathers offer at their whims & caprices. You can watch the show on Fridays 1130am and it's replay on Sunday 8am. And also another edition on Sundays 6pm and it's replay on Mondays 11pm.

El-Rufai's release to bury mother- (this is clip from a portion of My Take on Sunday's edition of @InsideSources01 on @channelstv "First, let us again commiserate with the former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, on the loss of his dearly beloved mother last week. May God grant him and the family the fortitude to bear the loss. And then let us commend those who decided to afford the opportunity to El-Rufai to bury his mother on humanitarian grounds even while still under lawful detention. Now that is a very good thing to allow. But indeed there is need to say the powers that be could have done this through an urgently secured court process since the matter was already before a judge. Yet it’s a net gain both to the Mallam himself and the government. We hope the judiciary won’t take offense too much.

FYI to the @atiku team that is calculating the issue of rotational presidency from 1999. We can't do that. An independent Nigeria started in 1960 and since then we have had presidents, heads of states & prime minister 10 times from the North totaling 46 years. On the other hand, we have had one head of state and three presidents up to date from the South totaling about 20 years since independence. So when we say the South should be in office at the Presidential Villa up until 2031, after 8 straight years of the Buhari Presidency from 2015-2023, we are saying let's keep that consensus as an imperative for nation-building; a sense of mutual belonging for the North & the South. Can we say this enough for the Atiku supporters to get it? It was the insistence of Former VP Atiku to run in 2023 against the grain of rotational presidency that destroyed the PDP. Will that again destroy the ADC? empowerednewswire.org/wp-con…

There is one thing that leadership must deliver without which the leadership amounts to very little at best, if anything. That thing is INSPIRATION. A leader must inspire and that is one of the things that stand @ProfOsinbajo out wherever he is: he inspires with words and in deeds. We pray the good LORD continue to keep him and sustain his lot. Let's celebrate him today as he turns 69! Happy birthday & many happy returns of the day, dear prof! #PYOAt69 #March8

We have come a long way to the point where members of the Federal House of Representatives and the Senate: the two chambers of our National Assembly have agreed that we should adopt a law that straight forward instructs INEC to adopt electronic transmission of election results in real time. THAT ITSELF IS A BIG BREAKTHROUGH! Excerpts from My Take from @InsideSources01 on @channelstv yesterday

*EXCLUSIVE: Inside Story of How Tinubu Kept Wike Waiting at Aso Villa* • "President tired of FCT Minister, but not ready to dismiss him"- Source empowerednewswire.org/exclus…

This below & the next clip after comes by popular demand of our viewers and followers here: you suggested the names of young Nigerians doing some good stuff. It’s in today's edition of @InsideSources01 on @channelstv

E ba mi yin Oluwa logo o! That means "join me to praise the LORD!" It’s testimony time. God saved us, 12 of us including then VP, February 2, 2019. My darling wife said to me yesterday this would have been the 7th anniversary of a remembrance! But the good LORD saved & preserved all of us. PRAISE JESUS! E BA MI YIN JESU L'OGO, AMEN, E BA MI YIN JESU LOGO, AMEN! Seven years ago exactly today, I wrote and posted this tweet, just a few moments after our chopper crash-landed in Kabba, Kogi State. I was on the delegation of then VP Osinbajo @ProfOsinbajo. I wrote the tweet right inside a bus that was meant to take the VP and his delegation to a campaign stop in the State as we were on the hustlings for the 2019 second term Buhari/Osinbajo election. So the bus had to reroute to an hotel where we changed clothes and took a little breather after the harrowing experience. And then within the hour, Osinbajo led us right back to the campaigns. He didn't agree to suggestions that we should abandon the work and go and rest! Such was the courage on display and the determination in our hearts. So to GOD ALMIGHTY we give all the glory for our lives! Please if you can sing with me: E BA MI YIN JESU L'OGO, AMEN, E BA MI YIN JESU LOGO, AMEN! ALAGBAWI EDA.....

As a student of the Ibadan School of History, there is a fascinating detail about how Ibadan generals saved the Yoruba race in 1840. I recalled this on yesterday's edition of @InsideSources01 as we join the government & people of Oyo State to mark 50 years anniversary of the main successor state to the pacesetting Western Region. An historic song is even embedded.

In the Sunday edition of @InsideSources01, we featured my exclusive interview with US Congressman Smith, the Chairman of the Africa Subcommittee of the American House of Representatives. What he said in our chat right after the Congressional hearing late last week is what many of us have been asking: that our President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would act to deal with the despicable killings in the country. Arguing about the motivations behind the killings is important but not an imperative. We all agree on the need to end the killings. So let's line up behind @officialABAT and encourage him to take his position as Commander in Chief and do the needful by destroying the terrorists and their backers regardless of whose ox is gored, just like @PastorEAAdeboye (Daddy G.O said recently.

In My Take on the Friday edition of @InsideSources01, I asked a simple question: so what constitutes religious persecution? It seems clear to the objective eye that there are several examples of religious persecution and discrimination in our country. And it's not just about government & the State. It’s also deeply entrenched in some of what has become accepted norms and practices. See clip below

Here is a clip from My Take in yesterday's edition of @InsideSources01 #InsideSources "...let the truth be told, even if favours the otherwise derided Wike, putting Soldiers out there in the civilian space is illegal inelegance and improper, especially as the space in question is not an ungoverned space nor a barrack."

There is no use denying the fact that there are Christians who are being killed for their faith. In my work in the US, I related with several of them while trying to get the US government to designate Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization then in 2012. But it is also true that Moslems are being killed too. Clip from @InsideSources01 Sunday edition

Is strike the only weapon to deal with governments? In a democracy, NO! Clip from My Take yesterday on #InsideSources @InsideSources01

Why Nnamdi Kanu's case should be sorted out politically & how

Let us all unite on the fact that killings are going on and these are Nigerians whether Christians or Moslems. Then let the President be more decisive and compell security agencies to deliver with timelines. Clip below is from My Take in yesterday's special edition of @InsideSources01