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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has said former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, is embittered over the African Democratic Congress ( ADC) presidential primary and cannot differentiate evidence from speculation.
In a statement by his media aide, Atiku dismissed the latest allegations by Lawal on the ADC presidential primary.
The former SGF, who until recently was ADC National Vice Chairman, North East, had faulted the opposition party’s presidential primary, stating it was allegedly rigged in favour of the former Vice President.
Lawal, while featuring on a television programme on Monday, reiterated his position on the ADC presidential nomination.
However, Atiku dismissed the former SGF allegations as “an unfortunate cocktail of bitterness, conjecture and political revisionism masquerading as public interest.”
The former vice president, who alleged that Lawal is embittered that his preferred presidential aspirant lost the ADC primary, said what the former SGF presented as a serious political intervention collapsed into an extended exercise in speculation and unsubstantiated claims.
“Mr. Lawal spent nearly an hour making grave accusations about the conduct of the ADC presidential primary. Yet he failed to produce a single piece of verifiable evidence. No document. No petition. No result sheet. No witness statement. No recording. Nothing. 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 arrived with accusations. He left with accusations. In between, the evidence never arrived. Ordinarily, one would expect a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and former National Vice Chairman of a political party to understand the elementary distinction between evidence and suspicion.
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“Instead, Nigerians were treated to stories about unnamed callers, unnamed officials, unnamed witnesses, and unnamed conspirators. By the time the interview ended, the only thing in abundance was speculation.
“One would have expected a higher regard for evidence from a man who once vigorously resisted being judged by mere allegations. Having demanded fairness for himself, Mr. Lawal should understand that accusations without proof are nothing more than prejudice dressed up as argument
“What the interview ultimately revealed was not a whistleblower exposing wrongdoing but a disappointed political actor struggling to come to terms with the failure of his preferred candidate. By his own admission, Mr. Lawal openly aligned himself with another aspirant long before the conclusion of the process.
“He campaigned for that candidate, promoted that candidate, and publicly believed that candidate should emerge victorious.
Having failed in that objective, he now seeks to dress personal disappointment in the borrowed robes of moral outrage.
“Perhaps the most laughable contradiction in Mr. Lawal’s performance was his attempt to portray Atiku Abubakar as both politically irrelevant and politically omnipotent at the same time. 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.”
Atiku added that “the tragedy of Mr. Lawal’s intervention is that he appears to have become so consumed by bitterness that he no longer recognises the difference between evidence and speculation. Every outcome he dislikes is rigging. Every defeat is a conspiracy. Every disagreement becomes proof of manipulation. This is not the language of reason. It is the language of grievance.
“More unfortunate was his descent into reckless personal abuse. Unable to defend his allegations with facts, he resorted to insults. Yet history teaches us that insults are often the last refuge of those who have run out of arguments.”
