Fresh Details Reveal How Tinubu Helped Buhari Fund Campaign, Hire Obama’s Consultants

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has claimed that President Bola Tinubu played a prominent role in the All Progressives Congress (APC) victory in the 2015 presidential election.

According to Lawal, Tinubu personally mobilised campaign funds, financed the vice-presidential campaign of Yemi Osinbajo and spent more than ₦2 billion to hire political consultants linked to former United States President Barack Obama.

Lawal made the revelations during an interview with Symfoni TV released on Saturday while recounting Tinubu’s contributions to the APC campaign that brought late former President Muhammadu Buhari to power.

According to him, Buhari entered the 2015 election with a huge support base in northern Nigeria but lacked the financial resources, nationwide political structure and campaign machinery needed to defeat the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said Tinubu bridged those gaps by deploying his political influence, financial resources and extensive network to strengthen the APC’s chances of victory.

Lawal said Tinubu was instrumental in raising sufficient funds for Buhari’s presidential campaign and also personally financed the campaign activities of then vice-presidential candidate Yemi Osinbajo because his campaign operated somewhat independently from Buhari’s.

He explained that Osinbajo, being a pastor, focused much of his campaign on Christians and ethnic groups who still had reservations about Buhari, while the main presidential campaign concentrated on other parts of the country.

“Through him (Tinubu), we were able to raise sufficient funds to do the campaign.

“Not only did he do that, Osibanjo’s portion of the campaign, he funded it, hired a chair to funded the trip because our Osibanjo’s campaign was a little bit broken away from the main campaign.

“Osibanjo on his own was a pastor, his ethnic nationalities and Christians had some doubts about Buhari. He was on that side.

“He wasn’t on our own area, and he was just doing sort of semi-independent of the main campaign. Tinubu was funding it,” Lawal said.

The former SGF further alleged that Tinubu hired political consultants from the United States, whom he described as associates of former President Barack Obama, to reshape the APC’s campaign strategy and improve Buhari’s public image.

“Then I know of another place when he hired some consultants for us from the US, who were doing quite a lot of professional work.

“I don’t know their names. I just know that they were Obama people, and they came and they transformed our campaign, and I knew that the money he paid them was in excess of two billion naira equivalent of dollars,” he said.

Lawal also claimed Tinubu personally shouldered major campaign expenses instead of relying on funds from the APC’s campaign purse.

“And there’s another thing about Bola Tinubu: if there’s a need for an expenditure, no matter how massive, he doesn’t come to the campaign purse; he spends from his own purse.

“All these things I told you. Some people don’t know this, but I was there, and I knew this. And he did all these things,” he added.

Tinubu played a key role in helping Buhari become president. He was one of the principal architects of the merger that brought together the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and members of the breakaway new Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) to form the APC.

The coalition united Buhari’s strong northern support base with Tinubu’s political structure in the South-West, giving the opposition party a formidable national platform. Tinubu was also widely credited with backing Buhari during the APC presidential primary, helping him secure the party’s ticket and delivering the crucial South-West votes and constitutional spread required to defeat then-President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election.

Instead of accepting the vice-presidential slot himself, Tinubu backed the nomination of Osinbajo, a move that many political observers believed broadened its appeal across regional and religious lines.

Buhari eventually left office in May 2023 after completing two terms as president, handing over to Tinubu. He died in London on July 13, 2025, following a prolonged illness and was buried two days later at his residence in Daura, Katsina State.