I find it extremely necessary to write to some few selected leaders of our party, APC, and try to clarify my position regarding the situation both in the party and in the country. First, it is a shared concern of most leaders of the party that the situation in the country has deteriorated in the last one year since the assumption of office of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Unfortunately, all organs of the APC have been frozen and there is hardly any functional channel of internal communication. The leadership of the party under Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje have hopelessly devalue relationship between the party and President Asiwaju Tinubu. In fact, the reality is that we don’t a party. All that exist now is a legal entity that has poor relationship with party leaders and hardly any relationship with Nigerians.
This is quite depressing. As it is, the sad reality is that President Asiwaju Tinubu is inaccessible to many party leaders. The policies of his government are clearly anti-people and completely contradictory to even his campaign document Renewed Hope. Sadly, the way things are, there is a prevailing atmosphere of being intolerant to criticism. Even unlike under former President Muhammadu Buhari, party leaders are being treated in a manner that threaten anyone who could disagree with the President. And from all indications, even high-ranking members of his cabinet have limited access to him. Consequently, here we are with a government, which is supposedly ours but treating us as recluses, if not enemies. We are anything but stakeholders.
Since my resignation from the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC, I have made every effort to see the President. Clearly, he doesn’t want to see me. Understandably, like most party leaders, he is angry with my decision to resign, and he has passed judgement without even given me the benefit of hearing. He has exercised his power to take decision as leader of the party against some of us but as members of the party we have lost every right to disagree with him even when he takes the most irrational and unjust decisions. Typical example is his decision to outrightly marginalise the North-Central in the political leadership of the country. And frequently he takes irrational and sometimes very senseless decisions, which as party members we are expected to own.
Sincerely, the last one year is one of the most traumatic periods in my political life. Everyday, I nursed the hope that God Almighty will touch the President and get him to recover his democratic credentials. Instead, things just progressively continue to get worse. And the few people around him who I thought I had relationship with continue to avoid or ignore my requests to meet with them. These are Vice President Kashim Shettima, Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila and NSA Nuhu Ribadu. Before my resignation from the NWC, I thought I had good relationship with them. Certainly, my relationship with them goes some years way back. Understandably, they have every right to be angry with me for my decision to resign from the NWC. But the minimum I expect is that I should be given some respect, based on which at least I am given the right to hearing.
As people who claimed to be progressives, the minimum is that the tolerance levels of our leaders for criticism should be high. I must admit, it is painful to lose relationship with people you value simply because you disagree with them. I have however accepted my circumstance and will have to move on. I have frozen my life in the last one year in the hope that things are going to get better in terms of my personal relationship with both President Asiwaju Tinubu and people around him. Some party leaders have told me in unmistaken language that I can’t access any opportunity in this government so long as I continue to criticise the President, the party and our government. I am told, the APC National Chairman, Dr. Ganduje has instructed that money that I spent running the North-West Zonal office between September 2022 and July 2023 should not be paid to me. Even the N10 million he pledged for my book launch I am told can’t be paid to me because of my writings.
I have survived the last one year on my personal savings, the goodwill of family members, friends and few party leaders. I am most grateful and will forever be indebted to them. The good thing is that I have been able to plan my life such that my expenses are very limited. My experience in life, having spent all my adult life without a biological father is that all that is required to survive personal challenges is to remain positive and relate with everyone with the best of intention. Which is why, notwithstanding the reality of being isolated by President Asiwaju Tinubu and those around him, I still wish him and his government every success. It is in our interest as Nigerians that he succeeds. I hope he will overcome the current adventurously unplanned reality he has imposed on the nation. So far, there is no plan, and no one can predict what the next action of the President will be.
Given a reality that the party structures have been demobilised and the government is implementing policies that have eroded value of incomes of citizens, conditions of living is rapidly getting worse by the day. With that both the APC and the governments it controls are getting more and more unpopular. It doesn’t require any investigation, at this rate, there is no way we can win election except through rigging. The popular saying in the country now is that President Asiwaju Tinubu is a one-term President. The hard truth is that the country will be lucky to get to 2027 without witnessing upheavals.
The pain of admitting this is beyond description. How can President Asiwaju Tinubu reduce us to this despicable reality. It is far more painful given that party leaders have been cowed to silence. No one want to take the risk of being on the wrong side of President Asiwaju Tinubu. I have spent the last one year advocating for internal reform. It is unfortunate that people who have fought President Asiwaju Tinubu and our party are being given glorified access and those of us who have made our modest contributions towards the growth and development of APC are now the enemies for the simple reason of expressing our disagreement with President Asiwaju Tinubu.
I have therefore concluded that there is nothing I can do to win the attention of President of President Asiwaju Tinubu and people around him, not talk of earning their respect. The only thing that qualifies anyone in the party to be respected is if you hold position in the party or government, which is why many highly placed party leaders who have occupied very high positions in the past in the past are not being consulted for anything and are being treated as strangers. This certainly, wasn’t the kind of thing envisioned when the party was being negotiated. How can President Asiwaju Tinubu pay Nigerians and party leaders this way.
Although, I pray that God Almighty will touch the heart of President Asiwaju Tinubu to make him recover whatever is left of his democratic credentials, I have lost hope that after one-year of planless leadership, not much can be achieved during his tenure. It therefore behooves on all patriots, democrats and progressives in the country to take up the responsibility of organising and mobilising Nigerians towards rescuing Nigerian democracy. As it is, APC and the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu has been lost to the whirlwind. Just like we campaigned against military rule and the PDP, we must rise to the task of campaigning against the President Asiwaju whirlwind.
However, given our experience with both former President Buhari and now President Asiwaju Tinubu, we must learn the appropriate lesson by ensuring that moving forward we must prioritise the development of a strong party organisation, which can subordinate the President and all elected representatives under the control of organs of the party. The National Chairman must command the same respect and authority as the President. Under no circumstance must we reduce the campaign for political reform in the country to the Presidential ambition of anybody. We must appeal to our political leaders to respect the larger interest of the country and stop holding the country back based on their narrow ambitions.
Given all this, it is possible to remain in APC if at all President Asiwaju Tinubu will allow internal reform in the party to return it to its founding vision, which as it is, is very remote. But my reality now in the party is that my membership has been rendered useless and there is no need for me to continue to impose myself. I have therefore gone back to the trenches and will try to work with all committed Nigerians who agree and subscribe to the goal of actively campaigning for the survival and development of democracy in Nigeria. We must grow our democracy to the point whereby elected representatives at all levels are accountable to the party and it is possible for Nigerians represented by various interests to develop strong relationship with political parties and elected governments based on which policies of governments can be made to reflect wider interests of Nigerians.
I am confident that a strong democracy with functional political parties is possible in Nigeria. I am also confident that in our lifetime we can produce governments that are truly capable of making the lives of Nigerians better. I don’t expect party leaders will agree with my decision. I believe that eventually, we will be united will all party leaders and other Nigerians who are committed to developing Nigerian democracy. May God Almighty bless us with the needed wisdom to take the right initiative that will be beneficial to Nigerians. Amin!
