A former national vice chairman (North-west) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has written an open letter to the founding leaders who championed the merger negotiation to produce the party in 2013. He urged them to call President Bola Tinubu to order for running a ‘closed government’. Prominent among the leaders that led the APC merger negotiation in 2013 include Chief Bisi Akande, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, Chief Rochas Okorocha, and several others.
Lukman insisted that both the APC and Nigerians have a responsibility to make all the necessary sacrifices to win Tinubu’s administration back and put it on the path of emerging as an inclusive government managed by an envisioned progressive party, APC. The party’s chieftain stated that the party leaders and President Asiwaju Tinubu must resist the temptation of toying the path of self-destruction by continuing to operate as a closed government.
“Our leaders who led the merger negotiation to produce APC in 2013 owe it to Nigerians to call President Asiwaju Tinubu to order and get him to recover whatever is left of his democratic and progressive credentials. Both as APC and Nigerians, we all have a responsibility to make all the needed sacrifices to win President Asiwaju Tinubu administration back and put it on the path of emerging as an inclusive government managed by an envisioned progressive party, APC.
“APC leaders and President Asiwaju Tinubu must resist the temptation of toying the path of self-destruction by continuing to operate as a closed government. Achieving that will require readiness on the part of all APC leaders to make all the sacrifices to regain their respect back based on which they emerge as leaders and not bosses,” he said.
The former Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) expressed concern that it is currently difficult to dispute the allegation that APC is nothing more than an electoral vehicle to grab power. “Even with that, the objective of grabbing power is limited to supporting former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu to achieve their ambitions of becoming Presidents. All the sacrifices made by leaders of legacy parties that merged to produce the APC have been jettisoned.
“It is very disappointing that we have successfully created a party that has won three elections consecutively with hardly anything to show for it other than leaders who continue to manage the affairs of the government exclusively in the mode of dictatorship.
“As leaders in APC, we must accept responsibility for the present unfortunate reality whereby for the first time, we have produced an elected government that is practically scornful to other political leaders. Since the time of former President Buhari, we have succeeded in producing elected governments that audaciously imagine that they can manage the affairs of this country exclusively without allowing permissible consultations as provided in the APC Constitution.
“Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with all his military background, never indulged in such grave undemocratic practice. If, for any reason, during the tenure of former President Buhari, this was the case, why should President Asiwaju, being an Awoist, a democrat, and supposedly progressive politician condone and adopt such undemocratic conduct?
“Why should President Asiwaju Tinubu adopt the current unfortunate reality of practically winding up the APC? Is his leadership of the party assuming the form of serving as the Receiver-Manager for the APC?
“If our leaders truly want to earn the respect of Nigerians, having succeeded in getting President Asiwaju Tinubu elected, why should they limit the scope of their relationship with President Asiwaju Tinubu’s administration to only issues of being appointed into positions in his government?”
Lukman also said the current political leaders are behaving more as overlords. Instead of taking steps to initiate engagements and avert looming danger, they are all becoming onlookers, watching from their comfort zones. “The bigger threat is the looming danger of rebellion against the harsh living conditions facing citizens, which may come with an expression of wildcat anger against political leaders in the country. Potentially, this may be spontaneous without any leadership.
“Already, some of the flashes of protests, including the looting of warehouses and trucks conveying food items by angry citizens protesting hunger, are bearing some of these spontaneous leaderless characteristics.
“We must caution our leaders. As things are, they are on the verge of self-destruction. It is clear that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s respect for political leaders in the country is weak largely because of the failure to act as leaders. Virtually all APC leaders are behaving more like bosses,” he said.