The African Democratic Congress (ADC) National Youth Wing has launched a blistering counterattack against former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, describing him as “an empty political shell” and “a fantastically corrupt politician” just one day after he dramatically quit the party over allegations of a rigged presidential primary.
In a rejoinder signed by Balarabe Rufai, the party’s National Youth Leader, dated June 2, 2026, the youth wing left nothing to the imagination, accusing Lawal of religious bigotry, ethnic demagoguery, and monumental ingratitude toward the very political class that built his career.
The Fallout
The war of words follows Lawal’s resignation from the ADC on Monday, June 1, 2026, in which the 71-year-old former official condemned the party’s presidential primaries as “massively rigged” in favour of former Vice President Atiku Abubaka, a man Lawal has openly vowed to oppose in the lead-up to the 2027 general elections.
The ADC presidential primary was held on May 25, 2026, at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, where Atiku polled 1,846,370 votes to defeat former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who secured 504,117 votes, and businessman Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, who received 177,120 votes, with 2,527,977 registered party members participating in the exercise.
Lawal alleged that results were altered to favour Atiku and his supporters, and that even in areas where voting was conducted, declared winners were reportedly replaced. He also predicted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political structure would outperform Atiku’s in future electoral battles.
**The Youth Wing Strikes Back**
The ADC youth wing was having none of it. In their rejoinder, they trained their sights on what they called the two “pathology-driven factors” behind Lawal’s outburst, his alleged anti-Muslim and anti-Fulani bias, and what they described as rank hypocrisy.
On the first count, the youth wing accused Lawal of breathtaking ingratitude, arguing that his entire political career was built on the patronage of the very Fulani leaders he now demonizes. The statement pointedly reminded Lawal that it was President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani man, who first elevated him through the PTF’s Afri-Project Consortium and later appointed him as SGF. “Your public life stands as a monument to absolute ingratitude,” the statement declared.
On the second count, the youth wing drove home a sharp contradiction: if the ADC’s primary structures were so thoroughly compromised, why did Lawal remain silent when his own biological cousin, Omar Suleiman, emerged as the ADC governorship candidate for Adamawa State under those same guidelines?
The Grass-Cutter Scandal, Revisited
The rejoinder also dredged up the scandal that ended Lawal’s tenure in government. The statement reminded Nigerians that Lawal was dismissed from office in 2017 over the N544 million Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) scandal, in which his firm, Rholavision Engineering, was accused of funnelling funds from a humanitarian relief contract while internally displaced persons in the Northeast reportedly received only a fraction of the funds meant for their welfare. The statement mocked him as “the face of the infamous grass-cutting scandal,” a label that has followed Lawal since his suspension and eventual sacking.
For its part, an ADC stalwart had earlier framed Lawal’s exit as inevitable, saying his opposition to Atiku stemmed from what she called “envy and inferiority complex,” and noting that “across the country, Atiku enjoyed broad acceptance, deep grassroots support, and unmatched political goodwill”, an assessment the primary results appeared to confirm.
A Pattern of Party-Hopping
The youth wing also painted Lawal as a serial defector with no fixed ideology, noting that he had moved from the ANPP to the CPC, then to the APC, before joining the Labour Party which he left after failing to secure a vice-presidential slot before landing in the ADC. Lawal had spent only 10 months in the ADC before his latest exit.
What Comes Next
Lawal said he would spend time consulting with political associates on his next steps, while continuing to oppose Atiku’s presidential ambition. His next political home remains unknown.
The ADC Youth Wing, however, appeared unmoved. Closing their statement with a rallying cry to Nigeria’s youth to reject “the toxic, archaic politics of religious bigotry, ethnic manipulation, and sectional division,” they declared Lawal’s political era firmly over, and his legacy, in their words, permanently assigned “to the dustbin of history.”
