Atiku Labels Babachir’s Allegations ‘Bitterness, Not Facts
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has dismissed allegations by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, over the conduct of the African Democratic Congress presidential primary, describing them as a cocktail of bitterness, conjecture, and political revisionism dressed up as public interest.
The rebuttal, contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said Nigerians who watched Lawal’s recent television interview were confronted with “a curious spectacle: a man armed with outrage but bereft of evidence; rich in allegations but poor in facts.” Shaibu declared the response Atiku’s final word on the matter.
The exchange marks the latest escalation in a feud that erupted after Lawal announced his resignation from the ADC, alleging that the party’s presidential primary, won by Atiku, was rigged. In a television interview, Lawal claimed that everybody in the ADC knew the primary was manipulated and that the result was doctored.
According to the statement, Lawal spent nearly an hour levelling grave accusations yet failed to produce verifiable proof. “No document. No petition. No result sheet. No witness statement. No recording. Nothing,” Shaibu said, quoting Atiku. “For a man who repeatedly insisted that proof was ‘everywhere,’ his performance was a masterclass in making extraordinary allegations without meeting the elementary obligation of substantiating them.” He added, “He arrived with accusations. He left with accusations. In between, the evidence never arrived.”
Atiku said the interview revealed not a genuine whistleblower but “a disappointed political actor struggling to come to terms with the failure of his preferred candidate.” By Lawal’s own admission, the statement noted, the former SGF had openly aligned with another aspirant before the conclusion of the primary, campaigned for that candidate, and publicly backed his victory.
The statement flagged what it called a glaring internal contradiction in Lawal’s argument, namely that Atiku was portrayed as both politically irrelevant and politically all-powerful. “According to his own account, Atiku was inactive, unpopular, and absent from the field. Yet Nigerians are simultaneously expected to believe that this same supposedly dormant politician somehow orchestrated a nationwide conspiracy across 8,809 wards,” Shaibu said. He described such arguments as “insulting to the intelligence of party members whose democratic choices he now seeks to invalidate.”
The Atiku camp further accused Lawal of operating as “a political mercenary,” retailing narratives designed to undermine the former Vice President’s standing among Christian communities in the Middle Belt and other constituencies where he retains goodwill.
Responding to Lawal’s claim that he had “absolutely nothing,” Atiku said the remark could only come from a man blinded by animosity, pointing to his role in liberalising Nigeria’s telecommunications sector alongside contributions to economic reforms, private sector development, education, and national growth.
“As far as we are concerned, this is the final response to Mr. Lawal’s increasingly desperate attempts to remain politically relevant through sensationalism and character assassination,” Shaibu said. “The facts remain unchanged. The truth remains intact. And no amount of bitterness can alter either.”