Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has responded to a recent criticism of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) primary election which made him a presidential candidate by Babachir Lawal, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

Mr Abubakar said the same political party’s primary election process which the former SGF described as fraudulent, also produced his cousin, Omar Suleiman, as the ADC governorship candidate in Adamawa State, a result which he hasn’t criticised. 

Mr Lawal, had on Monday, resigned his membership of the ADC over alleged rigging of the presidential primary election in favour of Mr Abubakar. 

In a statement on Monday, Phrank Shaibu, senior special assistant to Mr Abubakar on public communication, said the ADC presidential candidate took note of the “lengthy and emotionally charged outburst” by Mr Lawal following the outcome of the ADC presidential primaries.

Mr Shaibu said, “The truth is straightforward. The ADC presidential primaries were conducted across thousands of wards and produced a clear and decisive outcome. What Mr. Lawal has offered Nigerians is not evidence. He has produced no documents, no verifiable facts, no credible witnesses, and no proof whatsoever to support his sensational allegations. Instead, he has served up 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.

“Even more revealing is the contradiction at the heart of his statement. In one breath, he condemns what he calls electoral manipulation. In the next, he openly admires and celebrates what he describes as President Tinubu’s “superior rigging machine.” Nigerians are therefore entitled to ask a simple question: if rigging is indeed an unforgivable crime, why does Mr. Lawal appear almost fascinated by it when he imagines it might serve his preferred political outcome?”

He added that a person cannot denounce electoral malpractice while simultaneously praising its supposed efficiency elsewhere.

“The inconsistency does not end there. Mr. Lawal has also 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. Nigerians are entitled to ask whether the process was only credible when it favoured his family and only rigged when it produced a presidential candidate he did not support,” Mr Shaibu added.

He noted that if the ADC primaries were truly the sham which Mr Lawal now portrays them to be, 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. Such behaviour is not driven by principle. It is driven by disappointment. It is precisely this kind of opportunism that has eroded public confidence in politics and exposed the weakness of his present arguments,” he said.

He further claimed that Mr Lawal’s criticism of Mr Abubakar were driven more by dissatisfaction with the outcome of the primary than by genuine concerns about electoral integrity.