Former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman, has said it is in the enlightened self-interest of the All Progressives Congress (APC) power brokers that it experienced internal reforms under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Lukman, former national Vice Chairman, North West in a statement, “Why Political Parties in Nigeria should be Reformed,” noted that Tinubu being a former pro-democracy activist, has the requisite credentials to initiate reforms and drive the process to ultimately, save the APC from self destruct.
Lukman whose book, “APC and Transition Politics, wil soon be unveiled, denied insinuations of animosity towards Tinubu’s administration and the national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
“Part of the motivation is also to clarify many of the allegations against me that I am against the leadership of President Tinubu. I must say very clearly, I disagreed with President Tinubu’s decision to nominate Dr Ganduje as the national chairman of APC, but I respect and accept the fact that Dr Ganduje is today the National Chairman.
“I also have strong concerns about the direction taken by the Federal Government under the leadership of President Tinubu. Under the leadership of Asiwaju Tinubu, we have sadly produced an irritating political reality whereby the North-Central region is marginalised. My fear is that at the rate we are going, with all the lowly rating of former President Buhari, if care is not taken, he may turn out to be more progressive.”
The former member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) maintained that he would not abandon his self-imposed responsibility of critique of the Tinubu administration and the management of the party’s national secretariat.
He said: “We are not and we will never abandon the campaign for democracy in Nigeria. Whatever is responsible for the current orientation can be surmounted and should be conquered. We will not degrade ourselves to becoming antagonists of our party and President Tinubu.
“We are confident that our party is blessed with leaders, who are capable of initiating processes of reform to return our party to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. We are also confident that President Tinubu is a committed democrat and truly a progressive politician. We were never wrong in our estimation that out of all the 23 leaders, who aspired to become our presidential candidate for the 2023 general election, he was best qualified.
“Therefore, as party members and leaders we must continue to engage him to live up to all the promises we made to Nigerians since 2015. We must work hard and make all the necessary sacrifices to ensure that both President Tinubu and the APC succeed in moving Nigerian democracy forward. Moving Nigerian democracy forward is about promoting political competition in the country.
“A situation whereby few people have taken over our party, APC, and are doing everything possible to block internal competition within the party is unacceptable and should not be allowed to continue. This was, and still is, the problem of PDP. It was one of the fundamental issues APC promised to change in 2015, which won the support of Nigerians.”
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