
Former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have been accused of taking the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the early grave through their undemocratic credentials....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE➤
The former National Vice Chairman, North-West of APC, Dr. Salihu Lukman, who stated this on Sunday, noted that the culture of imposition has destroyed both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the APC.
Lukman, in his statement entitled, “Re: Early Outline of the Permutations for 2027,” explained that the only way a new political party can succeed in this country is to shift from the old narrative of grabbing power at the expense of building the nation.
He said, “It is quite troubling that politics in Nigeria is being reduced to discussing personalities at the expense of critical political institutions that should regulate the conducts of elected leaders. Even when assumed popular leaders such as former President Buhari and President Tinubu shortchanged citizens and the nation, we overlooked the fundamental issues that undermined the capacity of these leaders to meet the expectations of Nigerians, which is about building a veritable and functional political party, whose absence is responsible for why we ended up with leaders who are emperors.
“Once that remains the case, it should be clear to all that even when opposition and displaced politicians unite to defeat APC and President Tinubu in 2027, the country may end up with another bad, if not worse, leader. Given that in terms of guaranteeing political competition, the situation we are confronting as a nation today is worse than what we had in 2015, we must summon the courage to go beyond the sentiment of just defeating APC and President Tinubu in 2027.
“In many respects, I am in full agreement with Mr. Peter Obi when he addressed the press after the opening session of the conference that he will not support any coalition of opposition to APC if it is just for power grab.
“Any analysis of permutations for 2027 must therefore address the big challenge of what must be done to ensure that anybody who succeeds President Tinubu in 2027 must work to meet the expectations of citizens. Even in the context of power shift, of what use is power shift to any region if in the end citizens of the same region where the President comes from are shortchanged?
“What has South-West got to show for the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo? What has South-South got to show for the tenure former President Jonathan? The same could be asked in relation to the North and the tenure of both former Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Buhari.”
He further noted that “some of the restless opposition and displaced leaders can only emerge as candidates through imposition because they are incapable of developing strong relations.”
He pointed out that many of them are not interested in developing the needed relationship with their peers on account of which they can win primary elections, adding, “so long as the emergence of candidates for 2027 in the new opposition party is based on imposition, then the potential of producing a President who will be different from former President Buhari and President Tinubu will be weak and therefore the prospect of producing a worse President will be very high.”
Lukman further said, “It is not by accident that neither former President Buhari nor President Tinubu consider it important to lead the APC in 2015 and subordinated the party to only serving their ambitions to become Presidents of the Federal Republic. Now that they have achieved their ambitions, they have exhibited their true undemocratic credentials and have taken the APC to its political grave. The big challenge is whether the funeral rites of APC in 2027 will be reduced to celebration of new leaders with similar credentials.”
The former APC chieftain was, however, confident that “just like Nigerians are able to stand up to the military and win the struggle for democracy, we can stand up to politicians and win the struggle for competitive political contest in the country and defeat the culture of imposition, which has destroyed both the PDP and APC.”. ...CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE➤