The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal has come under intense fire for a statement he made at a Thanksgiving Service that held in Abuja on Saturday.
The SGF, in the service also attended by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said that, “Tinubu and Akande were the ones that made it possible because if it had been left to northerners, it is doubtful if they will take a Christian man to make Secretary to the Government of the Federation.”
Expressing their displeasure with the statement, a delegation of Northern leaders and elites led by a Northern Governor reportedly visited President Muhammadu Buhari, requesting that he disciplined his SGF for making a statement they regarded as unbefitting of a man of his position.
The governor who is said to be a close associate of the president was said to have told the president that the statement by the SGF seemed to suggest that they did not like their Christian brothers and sisters, an insinuation that was capable of escalating religious tension in the country.
President Buhari was reportedly unhappy with the SGF’s statement, summoning him after the meeting with the Northern leaders to explain what he meant by the statement, Vanguard reported.
The President’s grouse with the SGF’s statement, a credible source noted, was that the President did not consult the two mentioned individuals before appointing Lawal, according to Vanguard.