Former Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has advised the leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress to be prepared for tough campaigns in the next general elections.
Lukman, in a statement, alerted the stakeholders in the party that their counterparts in the main opposition party were fully prepared to put the ruling party on the defensive.
The former DG, PGF who was reacting to an opinion article written by the Africa Editor of US Financial Times, David Pilling, in the January 31, 2022 edition, hinted that PDP leaders and their international sympathisers such as Pilling will continue to set the tone for the 2023 campaigns, which will continue to present APC and its government under the leadership of President Buhari as a failure. He cautioned that APC leaders must not take it for granted that it would regain its grip on the central government and the states under its control.
He said: “We must appeal to APC leaders, especially the leadership of the APC Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni to free the party from the current high level of uncertainty surrounding the February 26, 2022 APC National Convention. It is important that the Convention is allowed to produce the needed excitement around all the contests at the Convention. Being the National Convention, it should be the highest opportunity to celebrate the party and begin to mobilise every party member to recommit himself/herself ahead of the 2023 electoral contests.
“Without doubt, preparing for 2023 electoral contests for APC, being the governing party, come with a lot of challenges. As a party, APC must not put itself in a difficult position of campaigning based on propaganda, which in the end will seek to dismiss challenges facing the country and rationalise every action of governments controlled by the party.
“APC leaders must recognise challenges and objectively assess initiatives taken by governments. Where there are manifest weaknesses recognise and accept shortcomings as a reflection of the commitment to remedy the situation. It is only when there is such commitment that party leaders will be able to win the confidence of Nigerians and to that extent win their support. Winning the support of Nigerians should be the orientation of the APC campaign for 2023.
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“APC leaders must remove every illusion that being governing party will guarantee electoral victory. In fact, being governing party come with a high disadvantage because power is always unpopular.
“Part of what we need to remind APC leaders, ordinary members and by extension Nigerians, is that as a democracy that is gradually stabilising with more than twenty years experience, the question of issue-based campaigning should no longer be hypothetical.
“When PDP and their sympathizers such as Pilling are broadcasting that APC and its government under President Buhari have failed, we must as loyal party members and patriotic Nigerians be able to prove that, to the contrary, we have succeeded with empirical evidence.
“For instance, what has been the size of federal budget during the sixteen years when PDP rule this country as compared to the $30 billion today? Has it stagnated, shrunk or expanded? What is the ratio of capital to recurrent budgets under PDP as compared to today? What is the success rate of budget implementation?”
While identifying some disconnect between politics and the need to unite Nigerians to work together to address the nation’s security challenges, Lukman said “opposition politicians and their supporters are unreceptive to efforts to mobilise Nigerians to forge strong unity towards ending insecurity in the country.
“Therefore, as part of the preparations for 2023 campaigns, based on strategic initiatives to win the confidence of Nigerians, APC leaders must be very proactive in providing information to citizens about progress being made and challenges.
“It is our responsibility as the governing party to take every necessary step to depoliticise the campaign against insecurity in the country. How can a party and its leadership, which diverted $2.1 billion meant for procurement of arms to fight insecurity to their private pocket even have a voice about who has succeeded or failed? Such a party and its leadership should be hiding in shame.
“Given all that is happening to our democracy, there must be independent initiatives to engage the debate about the comparative review of Nigeria’s experiences under sixteen years of PDP and seven years of APC.
“There is the need to engage this review based on sectoral consideration to support the leadership of APC to develop the needed capacity to mobilise Nigerians to see beyond the opportunist strategy of PDP leaders and their sympathisers, which is to exploit the frustration of Nigerians to win their votes in the 2023 general elections.
“The review of achievements under sixteen years of PDP and seven years of APC is also to compel the PDP to go beyond propaganda in its campaign to win the 2023 elections. If PDP is to develop any capacity of defeating the APC in 2023 elections, it must be compelled to accept its failings, recognise the successes of APC and to that extent commit itself to propose concrete initiatives beyond hypothetically false rendition of its successes before 2015.”