APC chieftain, Lawal fires back at party, insists Obi won 2023 election

Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, has restated his earlier claims that the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi won the February 25 poll.

This is also as the APC chieftain carpeted his party over alleged injustice in administration of affairs of the ruling political platform in the country.

Responding to a reply by the APC over his earlier position that Mr Obi won the February 25 election, Mr Babachir, in a statement, Wednesday, titled; ‘Political Discourse: The APC Reaction and Its Castigation of My Person,’ described the ruling party’s reaction to his earlier claim as ‘pathetic.’

It would be recalled that Babachir had on Monday claimed that Obi of the Labour Party won the February 25 election, with the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar finishing second, while the APC’s flagbearer, Bola Tinubu coming in distant third.

Babachir who accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of rigging the February 2023 election in favour of Bola Tinubu, said, Obi clearly won the election.

However, in a response, the APC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Felix Morka, Tuesday, replied Babachir, by dismissing his claims and challenging him to provide evidence substantiating his claims that Obi actually won the 2023 Presidential Elections.

Morka described deemed Lawal’s criticisms as ‘baseless and unwarranted,’ just as he emphasized that his (Lawal) actions were potentially detrimental to Obi’s case before the Presidential Elections Petitions Court.

The APC further urged Lawal to ‘divert his attention to personal endeavours, specifically managing his farm, and refrain from causing unnecessary disruptions.’

Meanwhile, in a swift response, Wednesday, Babachir Lawal called the APC ‘Islamic party’ which makes decisions during ‘prayers’ where Morka is not present, even as he described the ruling party’s spokes person as ‘doing the job of a slave.’

“I suspect he was assigned this role because it is in the nature of sycophants and people consigned to second class status to be assigned roles that their masters are wary of taking on.

“Usually, the dirty, unsavoury jobs are contracted out to such. In the bible, a certain Felix ( after which this Felix was probably named) was a freed slave who had a reputation of cruelty as the ruler of Judea in order to please his master, the emperor Claudius (of whose mother Felix was a slave).

“I really do sympathize with a Christian (or is he not?) who finds himself in an Islamic party and is desperate to please his masters and probably to be noticed when the next round of political appointments come.

“When we founded APC way back in 2013/2014, we envisaged it will be a national party that will carry along all the different socio-political and religious tendencies of the nation. In those days, we were careful not to side-line any of the religions or tribes of the country in the composition of the membership and leadership of the party. We wanted a party that will embrace all Nigerians. It was this that informed the principle that both the National Chairman and Secretary will not be of the same religion, tribe or region.

“Sadly, APC has now transited in to an Islamic Party of Nigeria. All the members of the NWC from the North and some from the South are Muslims. They campaigned on an Islamization platform and are striving hard to run the government as such but for the resistance of the other religions.

“All that is now left for the party is a change of name, but even this may not take long since it already has the Kadmul Islam as its National Chairman, and a Muslim as National Secretary. The Deputy National Chairman North (who acts in the absence of the Chairman), National Organizing Secretary, National Legal Adviser, and three National Vice Chairmen and more, are Muslims. Good for them.

“And talking of electoral value, both the National Chairman and the National Secretary just dramatically lost in the May election. I suspect Mallam Felix didn’t do well in his own constituency either. It is based on these considerations that I pity a Christian who finds himself in the position of a spokesperson of an Islamic party. Mark my words, all critical decisions will be taken behind his back during the afternoon prayers sessions which he will be unable to attend.

“As to the substance of the response itself, I find it deliberately obtuse, skirting around the real issues raised in my press statement. It was empty of substance and logic; a true product of a sycophantic mind that has no capacity to understand the subtle nuances underlying a message delivered to a discerning audience.

“Mallam Felix, your masters got the message loud and clear because some of them have reached out to me for dialogue on the issues raised. But in line with your lower status in the scheme of things you are not aware that all the issues I raised were designed in a manner to deliver a message to a discomfited government that is populated by longstanding friends of mine who appear to have abandoned common sense and patriotism for unbridled personal goals and filthy lucre. And they got the message; which you cannot. In this discourse, you are a remote outsider, so shut up.

“We want a Nigeria that works for all. We want a Nigeria that even sycophants can relate to and in which everyone is free to pursue their ambitions in peace in pursuit of prosperity and the good life. We want a Nigeria that guarantees freedom of speech for its citizens just as you and I are doing right now. If as Bola Tinubu claims he fought Abacha on the side of democracy and free speech, it is unbecoming and unacceptable that the NBC should threaten journalists under his watch; so is it indefensible to keep the EFCC Chairman and the CBN governor under arrest for extended periods of time without or before trial, just as it is also unacceptable that political parties are used to intimidate and harass citizens exercising their opinions in the public domain.

“I am sure even you and the APC can relate to this. I am also sure that but for their blind hatred of other Nigerians not of their tribes or religion, even the Islamists that you serve and desperately seek to please can relate to this. I am sure that no Nigerian is enjoying the national shame and embarrassment we are going through as a result of these unending revelations as who or what our ‘president’ actually is; or that most Nigerians cannot be sure of at least one meal a day anymore; or that we can no more attend wedding ceremonies in Imo or Zamfara States due to insecurity. Know what you may, say what you may; I hold firmly to my assertion that Peter Obi had the majority votes in the May 23 presidential election. That was why both INEC and APC had to go rogue in the election; and they know this fact even if they will not admit it. After all the thief knows who stole the item.

‘The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.’…Wole Soyinka

“You have my sympathy,” Lawal concluded.