Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has claimed that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar did little to secure the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential ticket before emerging as the party’s candidate for the 2027 election.
Lawal made the remarks on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, days after resigning from the ADC over the controversial primary election that produced Atiku as the party’s flag bearer.
The former SGF said he and other party members had expected a keen contest among the leading aspirants and were particularly impressed by the efforts of former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
“Someone like Rotimi Amaechi was very confident that if we go to primaries he would win. Everybody around him was extremely confident that Amaechi would win,” Lawal said.
“And for me, who has been in this process, I was watching the indices to see where his confidence was coming from. Among the three candidates, he was the one moving around, working hard to see that he got the ticket.”
Lawal contrasted Amaechi’s activities with what he described as Atiku’s low-profile approach to the contest.
“Then, we have Atiku Abubakar. That time we used to wonder what is he going to do to win the primary because he was practically not doing much. He was not talking, he was not campaigning, he wasn’t going out,” he said.
“We were wondering how was he going to do it? So, we were watching how it was going to be done.”
Lawal recently resigned from the ADC following the party’s presidential primary, alleging irregularities in the process and accusing Atiku of manipulating the exercise in his favour.
The former SGF has remained one of the strongest critics of the outcome of the primary and has repeatedly argued that the process did not reflect the wishes of party members.