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.
The statement said, “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.
“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 statement stressed that the 2027 election would not be decided by tantrums, ethnic dog whistles, recycled grievances, or revisionist history but by the Nigerian people, saying that “No amount of post-primary bitterness can alter that reality.”
The statement, titled ‘From Grass-Cutting Fields to Rigging Fantasies: Babachir’s Long Walk from Accountability’, read, “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….
“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….
“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.”