In November 2005, the Zamfara ANPP suspended Shuaibiu citing anti-party activities and gross violation of the ANPP constitution. In February 2006, the ANPP National Executive Committee ratified this decision. Shuaibiu was governorship candidate of the breakaway
Democratic People's Party in Zamfara State in the 2007 elections.
Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi of the ANPP won with 415,455 votes and
Yahaya Abdulkarim of the PDP won 122,351, while Shuaibu came third with 73,652 votes. In February 2009, President
Umaru Yar'Adua appointed him a member of the
National Universities Commission. President
Goodluck Jonathan appointed Senator Lawal Shuaibu as a member of a Task Force to accelerate the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill in the National Assembly but he declined the offer. He explained he was busy with Party work at the time and he did not believe in the integrity of Government in the proposed assignment. In January 2010, as a member of the opposition coalition the National Democratic Movement (NDM), he was part of a delegation that visited Senate President
David Mark to propose forming a 15-man team to visit the ailing President Yar'Adua in Saudi Arabia. He was one of the leaders of the NDM involved in the debate over whether it should form a new "mega party" to present a consolidated opposition to the PDP. On 30 January 2013, Shuaibu was appointed a member of the Merger Committee in which ACN along with other Parties like ANPP and
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) agreed to merge their Parties to become one mega Party; and he was subsequently appointed by the National Executive Committee of ACN as the Chairman of the ACN Special Convention Committee at which event on 18 April 2013 in Lagos, the Action Congress of Nigeria formally resolved to merge with the major opposition parties in Nigeria for the purpose of confronting the ruling Party in Nigeria and take power in
2015 General Elections. He delivered a welcome address in which he gave a background of the event. on 13 June 2014 Shuaibu was elected the APC Deputy National Chairman, North at the first National Convention of the Party. Senator Shuaibu as the APC Party Leader in the North, convened a meeting of all Stakeholders from Northern Nigeria in Kaduna on 18 October 2014, with former Head of State General
Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar and the Northern Governors and Senators in attendance. He warned them to unite if they are serious on their aspirations to win the 2015 Presidential elections. ==References==