Former national Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman, has raised the alarm over what he termed the growing culture of impunity in the ruling APC.
Lukman raised the concern in a statement entitled, “The Cancer Destroying Nigerian Democracy,” which he made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.
Lukman acknowledged that the process that threw up the incumbent President, Bola Tinubu as the APC standard bearer was a transparent process, however, faulted the emergence of former Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, as national chairman of the APC.
He maintained that with the stifling of the statutory organs of the ruling party, it would be difficult to restore internal democracy, and abort the culture of imposition of candidates and vote buying.
“President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as the APC Presidential candidate for the 2023 Presidential election after a strong internal contest, including opposition to attempts by people loyal to former President Muhammadu Buhari to impose a so-called consensus Presidential candidate.
“Strong internal contest within the APC ahead of the 2023 general elections rekindled some belief among Nigerians that there is still some hope that APC can be transformed to emerge as a truly progressive party, based on which problems of manipulation of political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. can be resolved. Many APC leaders were confident that under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the potential transformation of the party into a truly progressive party would be achieved.
“About six months since the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, such confidence can hardly be sustained. If anything, what is very clear is that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s commitment to the development of the APC as a political party may only be guaranteed to the extent that the party will give him what he wants. It is almost a return to the old PDP model of party organisation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the requirement of 100% loyalty.
“Without any attempt to reopen old wounds, the requirement for 100% loyalty was responsible for the graveyard silence internally within the APC when Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was proposed by President Asiwaju Tinubu as National Chairman. After Dr. Ganduje’s successful emergence, there is also graveyard silence even when Dr. Ganduje continues with the practice of freezing the structures of the party. No meetings of organs are taking place almost four months after the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as the APC National Chairman.
“Given such ugly reality, it should only be expected that the culture of manipulating political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. would become entrenched in APC. Like the case in PDP in 2007, it may grow to the point whereby almost all APC candidates for the 2027 elections may be produced through imposition. Unless we want to lie to ourselves, as things are, the culture of manipulating political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. in APC has reached the point where PDP was in 2007.”
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