‘The thief knows who stole the item’, Babachir Lawal insists Obi defeated Tinubu

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal, is insisting that Peter Obi, candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential election, defeated President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Lawal had raised dust when he said the candidate who came third according to the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) won the election.

Felix Morka, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, had asked Lawal to refrain from peddling falsehood.

Morka, who described Lawal as a burden to himself, said the former SGF was in need of counselling.

In a lengthy statement on Wednesday, the former SGF, who at a time was the APC National Vice Chairman, North East, said some key allies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration had reached out to him for peace.

The statement was titled: “Political Discourse: The APC reaction and its castigation of my person”.

While describing APC as a self-centered party, Lawal said, “The thief knows who stole the item”.

“I woke up this morning to a very pathetic social media trending write-up apparently, a response to my article on the current political discourse by one Felix allegedly of the APC. 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).

“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.

“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. 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.”