Ahead of 2027 general elections, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Immidiate-past National Vice Chairman of the party, Malam Salihu Moh Lukman, has called on Nigerians and political leaders across board to create another viable alternative against the ruling APC.
Lukman said the country needs such truly popular democratically alternative platform that can put the APC in its rightful place and overcome the current extreme right-wing adventurously unplanned leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
In a statement released Saturday in Abuja, Lukman said the way and manner both former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu have managed affairs of the country without consulting party leadership and structures in the last nine years made a mockery of democracy.
According to him, APC members and leaders, and indeed all patriotic Nigerians committed to democratic development of the country, are being challenged daily to ask the question what is the value of being associated with a political party if all that it does is only to field candidates for elections.
He said President Asiwaju Tinubu has challenged Nigerians to think outside the conventional political box.
“The survival and further development of Nigerian democracy must not be allowed to be limited to the discretion of individual leaders, no matter how powerful they are. Patriotic Nigerians and democrats must resume the business of national mobilisation to produce an alternative democratic platform to APC and all the charades of registered political parties. We must summon the courage and believe in the power of possibility.
“Just like we succeeded in pushing the military back to the barracks and defeating the PDP in 2015, it is possible to create a politically viable and truly popular democratically alternative platform that can put the APC in its rightful place and overcome the current extreme right-wing adventurously unplanned leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
“The beauty of being a democracy is the freedom it offers to engage in political contest. Patriotic Nigerians must practically and loudly convey the right message to President Asiwaju Tinubu, the APC leadership and Nigerian politicians that our democracy must be transformed beyond the current ugly state of ceremonial elections, which ends up producing leaders who continue to act like emperors and dictators who rule the country worse that military governments.
“Nigerians must be mobilised to rise above dishonest politicians who only manipulate their way to power and reduce to citizens to the status of conquered people. Democracy will be worthless if the result is only to elect civilian overlords. That can only be checked if we produce a functional political party, with committed leaders who submit themselves to processes of negotiations in all its ramifications, and agreements contracted that are binding and capable of regulating the conducts of elected representatives and governments produced at all levels. Nigerians are not conquered people!”
While emphasising on the failures of the APC and its government, the former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) said: “With such reality, it behooves on patriotic Nigerians to return to the trenches of the campaign for democracy and pick the debris from APC’s failure in the last nine years. In doing so, those of us who have been privileged to rise at different levels of APC’s leadership must do so with absolute humility and recognition of all the factors that have destroyed the APC.
“Perhaps, we need to accept the correctness of the campaign against the APC that many leaders of the party, including former President Buhari and now President Asiwaju Tinubu, only agreed to come together for the purpose of grabbing power, which was not associated with the needed commitment to deliver services to address national challenges. Sadly, with the mission to grab power, they ‘promise (everything) and did nothing.’
“This challenge begs the questions, how do we create a political organising strategy that goes beyond just winning elections or grabbing power? How can we have a party, which if it wins the Presidency, the President, whoever he will be, will be subordinated to the party? How can we create a party in which there will be multiple power blocs and leaders of the party will have the needed capacity to facilitate negotiations and agreements, which will be binding on all members and leaders of the party? How can we have a party that will have the capacity to mobilise all the funds it needs to run the affairs of the party, including funding the elections of all the candidates of the party at all levels? How can organise a party whose leadership at all levels can have the same conditions of service correspondingly with public officers at that level?
“We can go on asking all the valid questions. It will be defeatist to expect anyone to provide the answers. Only those patriotic Nigerians who are ready to return to the trenches of democratic struggles to resume mobilisation and negotiations to move Nigerian democracy beyond the current lethargic state, can begin to provide answers to these practical questions.
“The negotiations to produce an alternative political platform, which can move Nigerian democracy forward must prioritise the development of a functional political party structure based on ability to answer some of these practical questions should be the consideration. Part of what must be guarded against to avoid the pitfalls that destroyed the APC is to shun the old opportunistic political warriors who are serial contestants and aspirants to every election since 1999.
“The arrogance about having access to financial resources must be redressed based on skillful fund-raising strategy. In any event, how much money did former President Buhari had for APC to defeat the PDP in 2015.”
The APC chieftain said the worse case is also taking citizens for granted, which is responsible for the current foot-dragging over minimum wage negotiations.
“For a government whose leader, President Asiwaju Tinubu, who is on daily, if not hourly, appearing on national TV stations to declare commitment for “living wage”, it is simply unbecoming to allow any stalemate in minimum wage negotiations with organised labour.
“Quite worrisome is the fact that the government recklessly allowed a strike action without being able to pre-empt it.
“The government should have taken every necessary step to win an agreement with organised labour before the expiration of the ultimatum. Given worsening condition of living in the country, the last general strike must have been the easiest strike organised by labour in the country.
“In fact, the government should thank its stars that organised labour was able to limit the strike to only work stoppages. Had it been escalated to street protests; the story would have been different.”
