By Adesina Soyooye
Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress, has literally dismiss former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal, as a hypocrite.
Atiku accused Lawal, who quit the ADC over Atiku’s victory at the Presidential Primary which was won by him, of “selective outrage”. for rejecting the party’s
Lawal had rejected the result of the presidential primary but embraced the same process which produced his cousin as the party’s Adamawa governorship candidate.
In a response b Phrank Shaibu, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Atiku, dismussed Lawal’s criticism of the ADC primaries as a “lengthy and emotionally charged outburst” with no evidence.
Atiku’s response, issued on Monday, reads in part:
“Mr. Lawal has failed to explain how the very same primary process he now dismisses as fraudulent somehow produced a result he appears perfectly willing to accept in Adamawa State, where his cousin, Omar Suleiman, emerged as the ADC governorship candidate.
“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.”
It is “ironic” the statement further stated, that Lawal who was removed from his high profile office as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation over “grass cutting contract scandal”, would present himself as a champion of transparency.
“That one of the most recognizable faces from that era now seeks to occupy the moral high ground is not merely ironic; it is political satire writing itself.
“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.”
Atiku, also, noted what he called Lawal’s contradiction in condemning alleged electoral manipulation in the ADC presidential primary while “openly admiring” President Bola Tinubu’s “superior rigging machine.
“One cannot denounce electoral malpractice while simultaneously praising its supposed efficiency elsewhere.”
The statement accused Lawal of offering “no documents, no verifiable facts, no credible witnesses, and no proof whatsoever.
“What Mr. Lawal has offered Nigerians is 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.”
Atiku accused Lawal of resorting to “ethnic and religious prejudice” because he failed to secure support for his preferred candidate. Such rhetoric, Atiku said, “creates no jobs, lowers no food prices, secures no communities, and offers no pathway out of the national crisis.
Atiku, in the statement, wished Lawal a good farming season.
He said: “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.”
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