Atiku to Babachir: You can’t reject ADC presidential primary, accept cousin’s guber win with same party  

By Ishaya Ibrahim 

Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has fired back at former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal, accusing him of “selective outrage” for rejecting the party’s presidential primary while embracing the same process that produced his cousin as the party’s Adamawa governorship candidate.

Through Phrank Shaibu, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Atiku, described Lawal’s criticism of the ADC primaries as a “lengthy and emotionally charged outburst” lacking evidence.

“Mr. Lawal has 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,” the statement issued Monday read.

“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,” he said. 

The statement said it was “ironic” that Lawal would present himself as a champion of transparency, citing the former SGF’s 2017 removal from office over the “grass-cutting contract scandal.”

“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,” the statement said. “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.”

 Atiku further faulted Lawal for what it called a contradiction: condemning alleged electoral manipulation in the ADC presidential primary while “openly admiring” what he described as President Bola Tinubu’s “superior rigging machine.”

“One cannot denounce electoral malpractice while simultaneously praising its supposed efficiency elsewhere,” Shaibu said.

The statement maintained that the ADC presidential primaries were conducted across thousands of wards and produced “a clear and decisive outcome.” It accused Lawal of offering “no documents, no verifiable facts, no credible witnesses, and no proof whatsoever” to back his allegations.

“What Mr. Lawal has offered Nigerians is 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 read. 

Atiku also criticized Lawal’s resort to “ethnic and religious prejudice” after failing to secure support for his preferred candidate, saying such rhetoric “creates no jobs, lowers no food prices, secures no communities, and offers no pathway out of the national crisis.”

The statement wished Lawal well on his stated retreat to his village farm. “Given his enduring association with the grass-cutting scandal that defined his exit from public office, the farm may indeed be a fitting destination,” Shaibu said. “There, surrounded by fields in need of trimming, he may finally find the grass-cutting assignment that has become inseparable from his political legacy.”