![The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal. [TheCable]](https://image.api.sportal365.com/process/smp-images-production/pulse.ng/27072024/1c03651f-d9cc-4ab5-bb66-734ae7ac2863?operations=autocrop(1042:580))
)
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has sharply criticised President Bola Tinubu’s recent visit to the Vatican, describing it as a “non-issue” and an “insult to Christianity.”
Speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Wednesday, May 21, Lawal condemned the President’s presence at Pope Leo's inauguration in Rome.
He argued that the trip does little to ease concerns over the controversial Muslim-Muslim ticket that brought Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima to power.
“You know that going to see the Pope is just a matter of how well you can lobby, or how many friends you have there in the Vatican.
)
)
)
“It can be arranged in advance by lobbyists with the correct inducement,” Lawal said.
President Tinubu shakes hands with Pope Leo XIV after the inauguration mass at the Vatican.
Lawal, a long-time critic of the APC’s religious pairing, insisted that a Christian vice president would have been better positioned to represent the Nigerian government at such an event.
“If we had a Christian as Vice President, it is all expected that he would be the one to represent the government,” he noted.
He further stated, “Tinubu going to visit the Pope is a non-issue. In fact, it reinforces my earlier belief that the Muslim-Muslim ticket is an insult to Christianity.”
Lawal has consistently argued that the Tinubu-Shettima ticket is unfair to Nigeria’s Christian population, maintaining that balanced religious representation is key to national unity.