The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Atiku Abubakar has called out former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, saying the former SGF was divisive and engaging ethnically charged rhetoric in recent times.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, on Sunday, Atiku accused Babachir of “abandoning facts and reason in favour of ethnic profiling, prejudice, and conspiracy theories in his desperate attempt to discredit a political opponent.”
According to Atiku, Lawal did not advance a single piece of evidence in his lengthy attack, saying the former SGF instead invited Nigerians to substitute suspicion for proof and emotion for facts.
The former Vice President said the most worrisome aspect of Babachir’s latest intervention is not his criticism, but his continuous attempt to paint an entire ethnic group as criminals.
He said such acts were both dangerous and irresponsible to suggest that any Nigerian should be judged, condemned, or held accountable for crimes committed by individuals simply because they share a common ancestry.
Atiku said with such flawed reasoning, all ethnic groups in Nigeria can as well be blamed for the actions of a few criminal elements within their communities, a mindset that has historically fuelled division and undermined national unity.
He said it was ironical Lawal now demonises the very ethnic group from which former President Muhammadu Buhari emerged, recalling that it was Buhari who appointed Babachir as Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
The former Vice President said “at no point did Mr. Lawal object to receiving such trust and elevation from a Fulani President. He accepted the office, the privileges, and the prestige that came with it. It is therefore difficult to understand why he now seeks to stigmatise an entire ethnic group merely because another Fulani man seeks the presidency through democratic means.”
“What makes Mr. Lawal’s latest outburst even more baffling is that on the very same day he issued his lengthy attack on Atiku Abubakar, he was granting media interviews boasting about his political relevance and claiming that no fewer than five governors wanted him back in the APC.
“Nigerians are entitled to ask a simple question: which Babachir should they believe? The Babachir who claims to be a victim of political conspiracies and ethnic domination, or the Babachir who boasts that governors are scrambling for his services?
“One moment, he presents himself as a lonely patriot standing against an imagined threat to Nigeria. The next moment, he portrays himself as a prized political asset being courted by powerful governors. Such contradictions expose a man struggling to reconcile personal disappointment with political reality.
“If Mr. Lawal truly believes that his political future lies in the APC, he is perfectly free to return. What he cannot do is cloak personal political calculations in the language of patriotism while expecting Nigerians not to notice the inconsistency. It is difficult to take lectures on principle from a man who spent the morning marketing his political value to one party and the afternoon accusing another party’s presidential candidate of representing an ethnic conspiracy.”
