Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has dismissed the recent endorsement of President Bola Tinubu for a second term by governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as irrelevant. Speaking in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, May 25, Lawal described the move as “immaterial” and said the coalition of opposition leaders he belongs to is focused solely on the Nigerian electorate, not political officeholders.
On May 22, all 22 APC governors publicly backed President Tinubu as the party’s sole presidential candidate for the 2027 election. However, Lawal, a prominent figure in the opposition coalition aiming to unseat the APC, downplayed the significance of the endorsement. “Let the governors continue to defect, we don’t care,” he said. “If we wake up one morning and heard that all the 36 states governors and the FCT are in APC, we don’t care. It is immaterial. They have only 37 votes; maybe we can add their families. Maybe you get 1,000 votes. The voter is what we are targeting, and the voter is the victim of the system we are against.”
Lawal emphasized that the coalition’s strategy is to appeal directly to the Nigerian people, particularly those who have suffered under the current administration. He stated that efforts are ongoing to build a credible alternative to the ruling party and that the coalition is operating with intentional discretion to protect its plans. “We don’t take photographs. We don’t take minutes of meetings. We take time to make sure that information on strategies doesn’t leak,” he said.
The former SGF added that his continued presence in Abuja rather than on his farm despite it being planting season, is evidence of his commitment. “I must be an idiot if I leave my most important vocation to take coffee and snacks,” he quipped. “Whoever says we aren’t serious doesn’t know who the people are, because they don’t know who they are.”
Recent reports suggest that the coalition is considering adopting the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as its platform to challenge the APC in 2027. However, this plan appears to face obstacles following Peter Obi’s announcement on Saturday, May 24, that he will contest the next presidential election under the Labour Party, which he represented in 2023. Lawal did not directly address Obi’s decision but insisted that the coalition remains confident and purposeful. “At the appropriate time, we will go public with what we are doing,” he said.
