Lack of internal democracy threatens APC survival — Lukman

Immediate past National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of promoting a culture of imposition in the ruling party.

Lukman made the allegation in a statement, “APC: The Inconvenient Reality,” which he personally signed and released to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday.

Lukman noted that the emergence of the former Kano State Governor and incumbent national chairman of the party, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, breached provisions of the APC Constitution on the zoning of party offices.

Lukman recalled that the former national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, is from Nasarawa State in the North Central State, and his replacement should have been from the same region.

The former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum also noted that certain statutory organs of the party, the Advisory Council and the National Executive Committee, have been sidelined in clear breach of the Party Constitution.

“Sadly, experiences since the emergence of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the new moral leader of the APC produce a new reality whereby potential infractions may be created by initiatives directly coming from the President himself.

A typical example is the case of altering the APC’s zoning formula by arbitrarily moving the position of the National Chairman from North Central to North West.

Even when, for instance, the North-Central remained shut out of consideration for any of the key positions in the leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly, the position of National Chairman is being occupied by Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from Kano State, the North-West, with the North-Central completely marginalised both in the party and in the APC-controlled Federal Government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu.

Intriguingly, APC leaders are calm; not even leaders from North Central seem to be disturbed by this new reality. What has really taken over President Asiwaju Tinubu?

“Arguably, the situation in the APC after ten years of existence as a party and eight years as a ruling party is gradually catching up with the low standards set by the PDP during its sixteen years. It is quite alarming that a party envisioned as progressive will be associated with such arbitrary conduct.

All these could be explained with reference to ensuring that the structures of the APC are allowed to operate as provided in the APC Constitution.

If the structures of the party are allowed to operate, the decisions of party organs would be binding on all leaders, including the National Chairman and the President. Why should leaders who claim to be progressive be opposed to meetings of party organs?

If APC leaders are not disposed to allowing party organs to meet based on which they subordinate themselves and therefore become accountable to party members, to what extent would Nigerians expect that elected leaders produced by the APC, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, would be accountable to Nigerians?

“If care is not taken, at the rate we are indulging our leaders in the APC, tolerating and accommodating undemocratic conduct and, perhaps, illegality, we would end up betraying all the goodwill of Nigerians and, with it, also erode all the electoral viability of the APC.

As things are, with President Asiwaju Tinubu successfully having his way to producing Dr Ganduje and Sen. Ajibola Basiru as the successors to Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore, they have returned the APC to business as usual, whereby all structures of the APC remained frozen.

Otherwise, what is the explanation that, after almost three months since the emergence of Dr Ganduje and Sen. Basiru as National Chairman and National Secretary, respectively, the National Advisory Council is yet to be convened and there is no indication that the National Executive Committee and National Caucus will be meeting any time soon?

If part of the wrongdoing of Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore is immobilising the structures of the party for more than two years, are we about to start witnessing another era of immobilisation of party structures under Dr Ganduje and Sen. Basiru?”

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