Former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) and a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has lamented that “party leaders who were boisterously opposed to the Presidential ambition of President Asiwaju Tinubu are today appointees in the Federal Government.”
The APC chieftain specifically decried the emergence of Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma as the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, accessing Uzodinma financing the attempt to manipulate the emergence of Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the consensus Presidential candidate of APC against Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In a statement the APC chieftain released, Wednesday in Abuja, titled “Agonising Experience of Being APC Member; Message to APC Leaders” Lukman said President President Bola Tinubu has not shown enough commitment towards reforming the ruling party and political.
“I am not making any claim and I am not demanding anything extraordinary. My expectation is that President Asiwaju Tinubu and all his appointees, especially those saddled with the responsibility of managing his relationship with party leaders and members, should do so with humility and respect to other party leaders and members.
“As things are, it would have been more rewarding if one had been antagonistic, or opportunistic to the person of President Asiwaju Tinubu. When, for instance, party leaders who were boisterously opposed to the Presidential ambition of President Asiwaju Tinubu are today appointees in the Federal Government, and in the case of Governors such as Sen. Hope Uzodinma, who financed the attempt to manipulate the emergence of Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the consensus Presidential candidate of APC, emerging as the Chairman of Progressive Governors beat the imagination of every founding leader of APC, and in every respect heartbreaking.
“I have attempted to reach out to many people who are adjudged to be close to President Asiwaju Tinubu, in the hope that one can make recommendations that can convince President Asiwaju Tinubu to prioritise reforming the APC.
“At the minimum, it should not be too much to have the expectation that returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party should be the priority of President Asiwaju Tinubu. I am only able to succeed in meeting Dr. Ganduje, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Dr. Ganduje is the current National Chairman, and the three others were all former National Chairmen.
“Apart from explaining circumstances leading to my decision to resign as APC National Vice Chairman North-West, I presented to them my perspectives both in terms of recollections of the internal struggles within the APC leading to the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, as well as what needs to be done to reform the APC. These are documented and contained in my forthcoming publication, APC and Transition Politics.
“I have shared the manuscript to these party leaders and was hoping that eventually President Asiwaju Tinubu will agree to write the Foreword to the publication. In fact, Dr. Ganduje agree to assist to convince President Asiwaju Tinubu to write the Foreword. With the hope that both editing the manuscript and negotiation to get the Foreword from President Asiwaju Tinubu will be concluded in about two months, I projected that the public presentation of the publication can take place around the end of November 2023.”
According to Lukman, the idea of the public presentation was more about facilitating some forms of public engagement around the future of our party, APC, and by extension, the future of democracy in Nigeria. As an active member of the party, and someone who has been in the forefront of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria since 1980s, one could see that gradually and systemically, we are crashing to the point where PDP was before 2015. Disappointingly, we are getting to a point whereby, once you are marked as someone whose views are not in agreement with the priorities of elected leaders, access is blocked.
“Therefore, let it be known, blocking access to President Asiwaju Tinubu, or refusal of President Asiwaju Tinubu to be accessible will not end the struggle for the reform of APC. Both President Asiwaju Tinubu and all his appointees must recognise that, indeed, reforming the APC is an integral part of the struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy.
“APC emerged in 2013 with the historical mission of changing Nigerian politics such that our parties are internally democratic. Incontestably, both former President Buhari and current President Asiwaju gave us the needed leadership to inspire Nigerians into believing and committing their votes to the APC.
“Eight years after, we are still on the starting line. APC is becoming more and more a replica of PDP with all the negative attributes. We have spent eight years under former President Buhari motionless, in terms developing the needed initiatives for party building. Are we also going to experience another era of zero initiative for party building under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu? Where is then the claim of being progressives? Where then is the justification or any link to being an awoist?”
He warned against allowing a situation that could be interpreted to mean consolidating the old political paradigm that promote lack of accountability and imposition of leadership.
“We can deceive ourselves to imagine that we can continue to succeed in emerging victorious in elections and successful leaders surround themselves with sycophants who only tell them what they want to hear, it will not change the reality of betrayal and it will not protect leaders.
“As loyal party members, we will continue to campaign for the reform of APC and the reform of party politics generally in the country. Having access to leaders is an advantage. But it is never the sole determinant for a victory. For more than four decades we have been in this struggle. We will remain in the struggle for as long as we are alive. May Allah (SWT) guide President Asiwaju Tinubu, touch his heart to make him appreciate and commit himself to reform the APC based on enlighten self-interest! Amin!”