by Mohammed Bello Doka
2 June, 2026.
There is an old saying in Nigerian politics that when a man announces he is retiring to his farm, you should check whether he has secretly been harvesting crops there all along. Babachir Lawal, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation who was famously fired for the grass-cutting scandal that earned him his enduring nickname, has done exactly that. He has left the African Democratic Congress. He has declared that he cannot partner with the evil that Atiku Abubakar and his people represent. He has announced that he is retiring to his village farm from where he will watch events unfold. And then, without a trace of irony, he has confidently predicted that Tinubu will win the 2027 election. The Grasscutter is going back to its natural habitat. But the natural habitat of Babachir Lawal, it now appears, has always been the All Progressives Congress.
Let us be clear about what is happening here. Babachir left the ADC for one simple reason. He could not stop Atiku. He tried. He failed. And rather than accept defeat within the party, he chose to burn the house down on his way out. The moment he posted his resignation on Facebook, the Presidency could not contain its joy. Bayo Onanuga rushed to amplify the post. The APC data boys celebrated across every platform. The Lagos-Ibadan evangelical Christian media, those outlets that have perfected the art of publishing sponsored posts disguised as journalism, embraced Babachir as their newest prophet. They saw in him a mirror image of themselves. They heard in his accusations against Atiku the exact language they have been using for years.
The insinuation that Babachir has been working for Tinubu all along is no longer an insinuation. It is a confession. Read his own words carefully. He says that working for Atiku means giving Tinubu an automatic ticket to a second term. He says that Tinubu might comparatively end up a better president than Atiku. He says that Atiku will be mercilessly out-rigged by Tinubu’s superior rigging machine. This is not the language of a man who has retired from politics. This is the language of a campaign surrogate. Babachir is not going to the farm. He is going to the war room. And the war room is located inside the APC presidential campaign headquarters.
What makes this particularly delicious is the company Babachir now keeps. The same APC that celebrated his defection is the same party that perfected the art of forgiving sins. Adams Oshiomhole, former APC National Chairman and now a senator, famously told decamping politicians that when you join the APC, your sins are forgiven. Consider Yahaya Bello, the former Kogi State governor facing multiple corruption charges involving over N190 billion, who joined the APC and was promptly cleared to contest for Senate. Consider Ifeanyi Okowa, the former Delta State governor on trial for alleged diversion of N1.3 trillion, who defected to the APC and immediately became a senatorial candidate. Their sins were forgiven the moment they crossed the carpet.
Now consider the fate of those who refused to join the APC. Nasir El-Rufai, the former Kaduna State governor who insisted on his own ambition rather than bending to the party's will, has become a hunted man. His passport has been seized. He is being investigated by the EFCC, the ICPC, and the DSS. Abubakar Malami, the former Attorney General who left the APC for the African Democratic Congress, was promptly arraigned on 16 counts of money laundering. His wife and son were also charged. The message is unmistakable. The APC forgives those who join it. The APC devours those who leave it. Babachir Lawal has read this message loud and clear.
So here we have the Grasscutter, a man whose political obituary was written when he was fired for stealing N272 million meant for starving IDPs, suddenly reborn as the darling of the APC. The very qualities that disqualified him from public service have become his qualifications for political rehabilitation. In any sane political system, a man who awarded a contract to his own company while serving as Secretary to the Government of the Federation would be permanently barred from public office. In the APC, that man is celebrated. He is amplified. He is treated as though his words carry moral weight. The Grasscutter has not gone back to its natural habitat. The Grasscutter has found a feeding ground where his peculiar appetite for corruption is not only tolerated but rewarded.
And what of his promise to retire to his village farm? Nigerians have heard that promise before. Every politician who has ever lost a primary has threatened to retire to their farm. They never do. The farm, in Nigerian political vocabulary, is a metaphor for a tactical withdrawal. It is a place where politicians go to regroup, to strategize, to sharpen their knives for the next battle. Babachir’s farm will be the most politically active farm in Nigeria between now and 2027. There will be no farming done there. The only thing growing on that farm will be conspiracy theories and the seeds of a campaign to destroy Atiku Abubakar.
The Grasscutter is going back to its natural habitat. And its natural habitat, it turns out, is not a farm at all. It is the warm, forgiving, morally bankrupt embrace of the All Progressives Congress, where even a man who stole from starving IDPs can find redemption as long as he promises to vote for Tinubu in 2027. That is not a retirement. That is a reward. And Nigerians should be deeply ashamed of anyone who celebrates it.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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