Eshioromeh Sebastian
With less than a year until the 2027 general election, Nigeria’s opposition remains in disarray as former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal and the camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar exchanged explosive accusations over the conduct of the African Democratic Congress presidential primaries.
The eruption of hostilities came just days after Atiku was declared winner of the primaries, which were conducted across the country.
Lawal resigned from the African Democratic Congress in a statement released Monday afternoon, alleging that the party’s just-concluded presidential primaries were massively rigged to favour Atiku.
“I am exiting the ADC because its just-concluded primaries were at all levels massively rigged in favour of Kachalla Abubakar Atiku,” Lawal said.
He further alleged that results were manipulated to suit the former vice president.
“Results were just written or rewritten to favour him and his coven. Even where they allowed some semblance of election to hold, the winners were simply replaced with members of his syndicate”, Lawal stated.
The former SGF did not stop at accusing Atiku. In an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today later on Monday, Lawal turned his attention to President Bola Tinubu.
He declared that if rigging becomes the parameter for winning elections in Nigeria, nobody can match the President.
“If the parameter for winning elections in Nigeria is rigging, nobody can face Bola Tinubu in this country,” Lawal said.
He then issued a direct warning to Atiku and other opposition candidates.
“If Atiku’s strength is in manipulating results, I wish him luck; he will meet the master rigger in front,” he added.
Lawal also dismissed the presidential ambition of Atiku, arguing that an Atiku presidency would be worse than Tinubu’s.
“I know Atiku. I have studied his antecedents and realised that his presidency will be worse than Bola Tinubu’s,” Lawal said. “I do not want to enter a situation in which I will regret my decision.”
He further accused Atiku of failing to speak out against worsening insecurity in the country, including kidnappings and killings.
Lawal also disclosed that he is not backing any presidential hopeful at the moment, including Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Party.
“I am supporting nobody,” he stated. “I don’t want to be part of anything for now.”
On his political future following his resignation from the ADC, Lawal said he had yet to decide on his next move, adding that he would focus on farming and church activities while observing political developments ahead of the 2027 elections.
Atiku’s Camp Responds
The Media Office of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar issued a lengthy statement on Monday responding to Lawal’s allegations.
The statement, signed by Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku, dismissed Lawal’s outburst as baseless and emotionally charged.
It noted that Lawal had presented no evidence to support his claims of rigging.
“What Mr. Lawal has offered Nigerians is not evidence,” the statement read. “He has produced no documents, no verifiable facts, no credible witnesses, and no proof whatsoever to support his sensational allegations.”
The statement then took a sharp personal turn, reviving the infamous grass-cutting scandal that led to Lawal’s removal as SGF under former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017.
“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,” the statement said.
The camp reminded Nigerians that Lawal remains one of the most prominent public officials ever removed from office under the cloud of the 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,” the statement added.
Atiku’s camp also pointed to a contradiction in Lawal’s position.
It noted that while Lawal rejected the presidential primary result as fraudulent, he has reportedly accepted the outcome of the same process 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,” the statement said.
The camp further accused Lawal of resorting to ethnic and religious prejudice after failing to persuade ADC members to embrace his preferred candidate.
“Such rhetoric neither unites Nigeria nor addresses the hardship confronting ordinary citizens,” the statement said. “It creates no jobs, lowers no food prices, secures no communities, and offers no pathway out of the national crisis.”
Atiku’s camp also dismissed Lawal’s attack on the former vice president’s family as irrelevant.
“What concerns ordinary citizens today is not how many children a politician has, but how many children are going to bed hungry,” the statement said. “Parents are struggling to pay school fees. Businesses are collapsing. Entire communities are living under the shadow of insecurity.”
The statement concluded with a sarcastic jab at Lawal’s announced plan to retreat to farming.
“As for Mr. Lawal’s decision to retreat to his village farm, we sincerely wish him well,” the statement said. “Given his enduring association with the grass-cutting scandal that defined his exit from public office, the farm may indeed be a fitting destination.”
“While tending those fields, he may occasionally encounter a few snakes slithering through the grass — a fitting reminder of that extraordinary era when Nigerians were asked to believe that reptiles had developed an appetite for public funds.”
Additional Allegations Against Lawal
Atiku’s camp also released separate allegations accusing Lawal of causing multiple crises within the ADC.
They alleged that Lawal led the defection of Aisha Binani, the party’s former governorship candidate in Adamawa, from the ADC.
They also accused him of causing the defection of former Senator Ishaku Abbo.
Lawal was further accused of denying former Governor Bindow the ADC ticket.
“Babachir Lawal caused the main crisis of ADC in Nigeria, not only in Adamawa,” the allegations read.
“Babachir Lawal left the party today to continue working for Tinubu. Babachir Lawal is a shame to the nation.”
Lawal’s resignation and accusations come just days after Atiku was declared winner of the ADC presidential primary.
Atiku polled 1,846,370 votes to defeat former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi and businessman Mohammed Hayatu-Deen.
The ADC leadership has maintained that the primary election was free and fair.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu recently secured the presidential ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress for the 2027 election.
In the 2023 general election, Tinubu was declared elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission after polling 8,794,726 votes.
Atiku secured 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party got 6,101,533 votes.
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