‘You’re worse than Tinubu,’ ex-SGF Lawal bombs Atiku, quits ADC

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, has resigned from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), launching a blistering attack on the party’s presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, whom he described as worse than President Bola Tinubu and unfit to lead Nigeria.

Lawal announced his departure from the opposition party in a lengthy statement titled “The Kachalla Series Part 1,” in which he accused the ADC of rigging its recently concluded primary elections in favour of Atiku and alleged that the former vice president represents ethnic and religious hegemony.

The former SGF claimed that the primaries were manipulated at all levels to guarantee Atiku’s emergence and alleged that party members had remained silent despite what he described as obvious irregularities.

“I am exiting the ADC because its just concluded primaries were at all levels massively rigged in favour of Kachalla Abubakar Atiku,” Lawal said.

“I sense a conspiracy of silence of which I want no part of. Most members of the party are behaving as if this is the normal thing to do. Results were just written or rewritten to favour him and his coven.”

According to Lawal, even where voting was allowed to take place, the eventual winners were allegedly replaced with loyalists of the former vice president.

“Even where they allowed some semblance of election to hold, the winners were simply replaced with members of his syndicate. In the real sense, it was a disgraceful charade,” he stated.

The former SGF said he could not remain in a party that, in his view, was already laying the groundwork for manipulating the 2027 general election.

“I do not intend to be part of Kachalla Atiku’s rigging machine in the 2027 general elections and I cannot avoid doing so if I remain in the party,” he said.

Lawal’s criticism of Atiku went beyond the conduct of the primaries, as he accused the former vice president and his supporters of pursuing ethnic and religious domination.

“The man and his cabal are just irredentist Fulani and religious hegemonists,” Lawal alleged.

He argued that Atiku’s emergence as the ADC presidential candidate had effectively weakened the opposition’s chances of unseating President Tinubu in 2027.

“For me, working for Kachalla Atiku means giving Tinubu an automatic ticket to a second term, which gives me nightmares,” he said.

In perhaps the most remarkable part of his statement, Lawal suggested that despite his reservations about the current administration, Tinubu would still make a better president than Atiku.

“I believe Tinubu might, comparatively speaking, end up a better Nigerian president than Kachalla Atiku could ever be, as bad as Tinubu currently is and possibly could ever be,” he declared.

“The choice in 2027, it seems, will be a Morton’s fork.”

Lawal said he joined the ADC in the hope of contributing to a better future for Nigeria but could no longer remain in a party whose presidential candidate, he claimed, would worsen the country’s challenges.

“I did not join the ADC to make Nigeria progressively worse, so my beliefs and conscience won’t allow me partner with the evil that Atiku and his people represent,” he said.

The former SGF also raised concerns about what he described as the implications of an Atiku presidency, drawing comparisons with criticisms often levelled against President Tinubu over family influence in government.

“With close to 25 adult children, six wives, past and present, some offshore, and a heavily shrunk decapitated business empire, I foresee 25 Seyi Tinubus and six Remi Tinubus,” he wrote.

“And who knows which Chagouris might be lurking around the corner waiting for an Atiku bazaar?”

Lawal also directed criticism at northern political leaders who backed Atiku’s emergence, expressing surprise that they would support someone he described as incapable of addressing the region’s worsening poverty and insecurity.

“I would have thought that the Northerners who helped rig the primaries for a near-senile octogenarian they all know to be an incompetent, tribal and religious bigot would be the ones that should crave the most a good post-2027 governance, seeing as Tinubu has driven its people to total destitution,” he stated.

“I would have thought that when Northerners insist on a northern president, they would be thinking of one that will stop the downward spiral into poverty and insecurity, not an ineptocrat like Kachalla Atiku.”

He lamented what he described as the North’s decision to back a “religious hegemonist” rather than a more competent alternative.

“Alas, a leopard cannot change its spots. The North, it seems, is perpetually doomed to self-harm,” he said.

“It will be bye-bye to the North for preferring a religious hegemonist over a competent world-renowned economist and corporate guru.”

Lawal disclosed that he would spend the coming months consulting with political associates on ways to stop Atiku from emerging president in 2027.

“While I will be tweaking my plans for the future and consulting with like-minded colleagues on how to stop this incompetent octogenarian from coming close to the presidential office, I will in the meantime retire to my village farm,” he stated.

From there, he said, he would watch the unfolding political battle between the ruling APC and the ADC.

“I will be watching Kachalla Atiku and his band of wicked vote riggers and result manipulators mercilessly out-rigged and beaten to pulp by Tinubu’s ruthless and superior rigging machine,” he added.