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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has lambasted former Secretary to the Government of the Federation ( SGF), Babachir Lawal, over alleged divisive and ethnically charged rhetorics in his public commentary.
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Sunday, said the former SGF has repeatedly attempted to portray any
an entire ethnic group as inherently linked to criminality.
According to him, Lawal in his commentary allegedly failed to present a “single evidence to support his grave allegations, choosing instead to invite Nigerians to substitute suspicion for proof and emotion for facts.”
The former SGF had, in a social media post, last week alleged that the African Democratic Congress ( ADC) presidential primary was manipulated in favour of the Atiku. In another post at the weekend, he implored the opposition party to substitute the former Vice President as its candidate in the 2027 presidential contest.
However, Atiku noted that “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?
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“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.”
The former Vice President also dismissed claims that he had been indifferent to victims of violence across the country, describing such assertions as demonstrably false.
According to him, over the years, he has consistently condemned acts of terrorism, banditry, kidnappings, communal violence, attacks on Christian communities, attacks on Muslim communities, and other forms of insecurity across the country.
He noted that Nigeria’s future must not be built on fear, ethnic suspicion, religious division, or inherited prejudice, stating that rather the country must focus on finding practical solutions to worsening insecurity, economic hardship, unemployment, educational decline, and the growing despair confronting millions of Nigerians under the current administration.
