According to Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the federal government, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) would lose the 2027 Adamawa state governorship race because Atiku Abubakar disdains the rule of law and due process.
Lawal has publicly stated his intention to sue the ADC and Atiku over what he claims is the illegal substitution of Engr. Umar Suleiman, the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the state.
The former SGF made his remarks on Monday after it was confirmed that the Adamawa ADC candidate for governor in 2027 will be succeeded.
He told reporters that after Suleiman was nominated for governor in the ADC’s primary election, Atiku and the party’s leadership illegally pulled him from the race and replaced him with Tukur Moddibo.
The illegal deed will fail miserably, without a doubt. The ADC would not be able to win the 2027 Adamawa governorship election because Atiku does not respect the rule of law.
However, the rumour that Atiku had a personal preference for a Fulani Muslim from Fufore Local Government named Tukur Moddibo as the ADC candidate for governor based solely on their shared ethnic background has now materialised.”
It was Tukur Moddibo’s name that was uploaded, hence the rumour is now true. After unusual pressure from Atiku and others, the ADC’s national leadership replaced Engr. Umar Suleiman with Tukur Moddibo, an action that lacks logic and justice, despite common sense, equity, and justice.
Despite our collective amazement at this flagrant display of unfairness, which has disproportionately affected Adamawa State’s indigenous population, we are not without viable alternatives.
The restoration of the Chiefdoms and Emirates of the state’s aboriginal tribes and ethnic nationalities by the government of Alhaji Umar Fintiri has shattered the Emirate Council, which we know is already bitter over Atiku’s support for the APC’s Alhaji Ahmed Tijjani Galadima—a prince of the Adamawa Emirate—and a more amenable governor. This is something we’ve suspected all along.
Because they see the new Emirates and Chiefdoms as a threat to the once-powerful and tyrannical Adamawa Emirate Council—of which Atiku and one of his sons are senior members—, we are well aware that certain prominent Fulani elites and Emirate title holders have vowed to thwart or, worse, completely abolish them.
To the exclusion of the state’s indigenous population, the objective is to merge the state government with the Adamawa Emirate Council into one repressive authority.
I still don’t understand how this ADC presidential candidate, who has lost every election he has run, managed to manipulate the party’s national leadership into helping him win a governorship in Adamawa State—an election the party was poised to win—so that he could appease his own hegemonic, tribal, and religious ego.