Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said allegations by a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, that the outcome of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primaries was rigged in his favour lack evidence, describing them as a product of disappointment.
In a statement released on Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the ADC presidential candidate said it was necessary to set the record straight because Lawal had chosen to malign a democratic process, insult thousands of ADC members nationwide, and make grave allegations without presenting a shred of evidence.
The statement from the media office of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said Lawal, who is not remembered for any celebrated crusade for accountability, remains one of the most prominent public officials ever removed from office under the cloud of the infamous grass-cutting contract scandal.
The statement pointed out that it was remarkable that a man whose public service career became synonymous with questions of conflict of interest and abuse of office now wished to lecture Nigerians on electoral integrity.
It said the ADC presidential primaries were conducted across thousands of wards and produced a clear and decisive outcome, stressing that “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.”
The statement said Lawal failed to explain how the very same primary process he now dismissed as fraudulent somehow produced a result he appeared perfectly willing to accept in Adamawa State, where his cousin, Omar Suleiman, emerged as the ADC governorship candidate, stating that Nigerians were 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.”
The statement said the most troubling aspect of his outburst was his resort to ethnic and religious prejudice, having failed to persuade ADC members to embrace his preferred candidate and sought refuge in the divisive politics of identity.
The media office said such rhetoric neither united Nigeria nor addressed the hardship confronting ordinary citizens but merely exposed the desperation of a politician struggling to reconcile himself with political reality.
The media office described his attack on Atiku Abubakar’s family as equally unfortunate and entirely irrelevant, noting that Nigerians understood the difference between family and public office.
