‘NO AMOUNT OF BITTERNESS CAN ALTER REALITY’; ATIKU BLASTS BABACHIR LAWAL OVER ADC PRIMARY ELECTION CLAIMS
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed allegations of rigging in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primary, insisting that the exercise was transparent and reflected the will of party members.
Atiku’s camp reacted sharply to comments made by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, who recently resigned from the ADC and accused the party’s presidential primary of being manipulated in favour of the former Vice President.
In a statement issued by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former Vice President rejected the claims, describing them as unsubstantiated and lacking evidence.
The statement maintained that the ADC presidential primary was conducted across thousands of wards nationwide and produced a clear outcome based on party members’ participation.
It further challenged Babachir Lawal to provide verifiable proof of his allegations, insisting that no documents, witnesses, or credible evidence had been presented to support claims of electoral manipulation.
Atiku’s camp also questioned what it described as inconsistencies in Lawal’s position, alleging that he only accepted outcomes that favoured his personal interests while rejecting others.
The statement referenced past political controversies involving Babachir Lawal, including his removal from office in 2017 over allegations linked to the Presidential Initiative on the North-East, which he has denied.
It further accused Lawal of resorting to divisive rhetoric after failing to influence the outcome of the primary election.
According to Atiku’s camp, internal party democracy must be respected, adding that political competition does not guarantee victory for every participant.
The statement concluded that the outcome of the ADC primary remains valid and will not be altered by post-election grievances or political disputes.
Frank Shaibu’s statement is published in full below:
PRESS STATEMENT
From Grass-Cutting Fields to Rigging Fantasies: Babachir’s Long Walk from Accountability
The Media Office of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has taken note of the lengthy and emotionally charged outburst by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, following the outcome of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primaries.
Ordinarily, Mr. Lawal’s latest excursion into political fiction would not merit a response. However, having chosen to malign a democratic process, insult thousands of ADC members nationwide, and make grave allegations without presenting a shred of evidence, it has become necessary to set the record straight.
It is perhaps the greatest irony of this entire episode that Mr. Babachir Lawal now seeks to reinvent himself as Nigeria’s newest apostle of integrity, transparency, and democratic virtue. Nigerians may forgive many things, but they seldom forget history. Mr. Lawal is not remembered for any celebrated crusade for accountability. Rather, he remains one of the most prominent public officials ever removed from office under the cloud of the infamous grass-cutting contract scandal.
It is therefore remarkable that a man whose public service career became synonymous with questions of conflict of interest and abuse of office now wishes to lecture Nigerians on electoral integrity.
That one of the most recognizable faces from that era now seeks to occupy the moral high ground is not merely ironic; it is political satire writing itself. Before accusing others of operating a “rigging machine,” Mr. Lawal should first explain why Nigerians should suddenly erase from their memory one of the most embarrassing chapters in the history of public accountability and accept him as the nation’s new custodian of democratic morality.
The truth is straightforward. The ADC presidential primaries were conducted across thousands of wards and produced a clear and decisive outcome. What Mr. Lawal has offered Nigerians is not evidence. He has produced no documents, no verifiable facts, no credible witnesses, and no proof whatsoever to support his sensational allegations. Instead, he has served up a familiar cocktail of disappointment, bitterness, conspiracy theories, and personal attacks against a political leader whose national appeal continues to transcend the narrow confines of factional politics.
Even more revealing is the contradiction at the heart of his statement. In one breath, he condemns what he calls electoral manipulation. In the next, he openly admires and celebrates what he describes as President Tinubu’s “superior rigging machine.” Nigerians are therefore entitled to ask a simple question: if rigging is indeed an unforgivable crime, why does Mr. Lawal appear almost fascinated by it when he imagines it might serve his preferred political outcome?
One cannot denounce electoral malpractice while simultaneously praising its supposed efficiency elsewhere.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of his outburst is his resort to ethnic and religious prejudice. Having failed to persuade ADC members to embrace his preferred candidate, he now seeks refuge in the divisive politics of identity. Such rhetoric neither unites Nigeria nor addresses the hardship confronting ordinary citizens. It creates no jobs, lowers no food prices, secures no communities, and offers no pathway out of the national crisis. It merely exposes the desperation of a politician struggling to reconcile himself with political reality.
The inconsistency does not end there. Mr. Lawal has also failed to explain how the very same primary process he now dismisses as fraudulent somehow produced a result he appears perfectly willing to accept in Adamawa State, where his cousin, Omar Suleiman, emerged as the ADC governorship candidate. Nigerians are entitled to ask whether the process was only credible when it favoured his family and only rigged when it produced a presidential candidate he did not support.
If the ADC primaries were truly the sham Mr. Lawal now portrays them to be, intellectual honesty would require him to reject every outcome arising from that exercise, including the emergence of his cousin. Instead, he has chosen the path of selective outrage—embracing results that suit his interests while condemning those that do not. Such behaviour is not driven by principle. It is driven by disappointment. It is precisely this kind of opportunism that has eroded public confidence in politics and exposed the weakness of his present arguments.
His attack on Atiku Abubakar’s family is equally unfortunate and entirely irrelevant. Nigerians understand the difference between family and public office. What concerns ordinary citizens today is not how many children a politician has, but how many children are going to bed hungry. What concerns them is not family size but the crushing economic burden imposed by failed policies. Parents are struggling to pay school fees. Businesses are collapsing. Entire communities are living under the shadow of insecurity. In many parts of Nigeria today, families now budget for ransom payments with the same seriousness once reserved for school fees. These are the issues that truly matter.
The Nigerian people know Atiku Abubakar. They know his record in public service. They know his achievements in business. They know his commitment to national unity and economic reform. They know he remains one of the few political leaders whose appeal cuts across ethnicity, religion, geography, and social class. That reality explains why his opponents devote so much energy to attacking his person rather than confronting his ideas or challenging his vision for Nigeria.
What appears to have truly unsettled Mr. Lawal is not the conduct of the primaries but the outcome. Democracy guarantees participation, not victory. One cannot celebrate democracy when it produces a preferred result and suddenly condemn it as rigged when it does not.
As for Mr. Lawal’s decision to retreat to his village farm, we sincerely wish him well. Given his enduring association with the grass-cutting scandal that defined his exit from public office, the farm may indeed be a fitting destination. There, surrounded by fields in need of trimming, he may finally find the grass-cutting assignment that has become inseparable from his political legacy.
And while tending those fields, he may occasionally encounter a few snakes slithering through the grass — a fitting reminder of that extraordinary era in our national life when Nigerians were asked to believe that reptiles had developed an appetite for public funds. It was a time when accountability seemed to disappear into thin air and absurd explanations competed with reality.
Perhaps the peace and quiet of rural life will offer Mr. Lawal the opportunity for reflection.
Reflection on how a generation of public officials associated with grass-cutting scandals, snake tales, and vanishing accountability now seeks to present itself as the guardian of democratic virtue. While he revisits those memories, millions of Nigerians will remain focused on identifying leaders capable of confronting economic hardship, insecurity, unemployment, and national decline with serious solutions rather than sensational allegations.
While others manufacture conspiracies, Atiku Abubakar remains focused on solutions. While others traffic in bitterness, he remains committed to national unity. While others dwell on personal grievances and political disappointments, he remains focused on restoring prosperity, security, and opportunity to millions of Nigerians.
The 2027 election will not be decided by tantrums, ethnic dog whistles, recycled grievances, or revisionist history. It will be decided by the Nigerian people. And no amount of post-primary bitterness can alter that reality.
Phrank Shaibu
Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar, Vice President of Nigeria (1999–2007) and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
In a similar vein, the Atiku media office also issued another scathing press release lampooning Babachir Lawal and thrashing his comments on Atiku Abubakar and ADC direct primary elections for the party’s presidential ticket comprehensively.
The press release reads in full below:
PRESS RELEASE
Babachir Lawal and his substance-induced fabrication of lies
The attention of the Atiku Media Office has been drawn to the needless and senseless attack on the person and character of the former Vice President of Nigeria and the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2027 election, Atiku Abubakar.
Ordinarily, the verbal vituperation and the utter rubbish churned out by Babachir Lawal would have been better ignored as the ranting of a man high on substance, but for the overriding need to put the records straight.
A statement by the Media office in Abuja, explained that, while former SGF Babachir Lawal has the right to resign from ADC and is free to do so because political parties are voluntary associations of people, he is not entitled to cast aspersions on Atiku based entirely on fabricated and brazen lies.
According to the statement, accusing Atiku of religious bigotry or nepotism is one of the laziest and most ridiculous lies anyone can spread against the former Vice President.
The statement explained that Atiku Abubakar is one of the most liberal politicians in Nigeria and his record in this regard is there for anyone to verify.
“As far as we are concerned, Babachir was perfectly describing his own character rather than Atiku’s. The former SGF seeks power on the altar of dividing the people based on primordial sentiments. All his altercations with people are caused by his selfishness. He opportunistically panders to sentiments to achieve his ambition. None of his struggles are influenced by the larger interests of his people or Nigeria,” the statement added.
The statement noted further that a man who is a notorious conflict entrepreneur like Babachir Lawal is not qualified to speak about what is good for Nigeria.”
“When Babachir said he resigned from ADC because of the so-called rigging or manipulations during the primaries, he didn’t offer any proof of his allegations.
“And instead of offering evidence of his allegations, he went further to drag Atiku’s family into the issue which was irrelevant to the issue of primaries. It’s evident from the load of garbage published by the former SGF that he holds personal animosity against Atiku Abubakar.”
The statement advised Lawal to search his conscience and stop feeding the cauldron of division and bigotry among Nigerians for his own selfish interests.
“There is no such thing as a Muslim and Christian party in Nigeria. When the outcome of a competition doesn’t favour you, you should petition the party to show proof of manipulations or rigging. It’s however most irresponsible for a former SGF to turn himself into an agent of division.
Signed:
Atiku Media Office
Abuja
1 June, 2026.
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