Buhari offered to support Osinbajo’s presidential bid four times — Akande counters Babachir Lawal
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?” The post Buhari offered to support Osinbajo’s presidential bid…
The exchange is the latest chapter in long-running disputes over what really happened inside the Buhari presidency ahead of the 2023 election, particularly whether Buhari truly backed his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, to succeed him or quietly favoured other contenders within the APC. Osinbajo's camp has previously pushed back on narratives suggesting he was sidelined, while former aides and officials close to Buhari, including ex-SGF Babachir Lawal, have at various times offered competing accounts of the former president's true preference among the party's 2023 aspirants.
Laolu Akande, who served as Osinbajo's spokesman throughout his time as vice-president, is positioning himself as a direct witness to private conversations between Buhari and Osinbajo, directly contradicting Babachir Lawal's version of events. Both Vanguard and Leadership report Akande's central claim — that Buhari personally offered to support Osinbajo's presidential ambition on four separate occasions — but neither outlet's excerpt specifies what Babachir Lawal originally alleged, when these claims were made, or whether Buhari's camp or Lawal himself has responded to Akande's rebuttal.