Mounting security, economic challenges eroding APC electoral viability, DG APC Governors’ forum raises the alarm

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman, has expressed concern that the mounting security and economic challenges facing the nation could erode the electoral viability of the ruling party in the eyes of Nigerians.

Lukman raises the alarm in a paper he presented at the annual conference of the APC Press Corps, held at the weekend in Abuja.

The Director General of the Forum of governors on the platform of the APC noted that the lack of fidelity to the party manifesto by those holding elective offices could erode the political fortunes  of the party.

In apparent reference to spokepersons of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration,  Lukman maintained that distortion of facts and failure to admit before Nigerians its own inadequacies would rather erode the credibility of government rather than court the sympathy of the electorate.

He said: “The strong test of whether we are growing our party such that our leaders remain faithful to the commitment to service is whether we are taking all the necessary steps to respond to the demands of citizens.

“Inability to respond to the demands of citizens alienate leaders and erode electoral viability.

Most times, we imagine that resort to propaganda can resolve our societal and national challenges.

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This is very wrong. We can do all the propaganda and take over all the media spaces in our constituencies and in the country, it will not change the reality facing citizens.

This is mainly because propaganda that is not founded on strategic and concrete responses to our societal and national problems, will not improve the lives of citizens. 

“Thus, beyond propaganda, both as citizens and party members, we have a responsibility to get our leaders to apply themselves very effectively and honestly to resolve our societal and national challenges. Achieving this entail that our leaders should recognise they don’t have all the solutions.

This is where as politicians, most times, we fail because we engage citizens with the false claim that we have all the answers and anyone with contrary position is an opponent, if not enemy. Once this is the case, ab initio, political contestation is blocked.

“We should always remember that leadership come with some baseline capacity and competence to be able to organise responses to challenges. Capacity to access proposals and translate them into initiatives is integral part of leadership capacity and competence.”

The DG of the PGF who carpeted successive national working committees of the ruling party for lack of capacity to ensure that governors, state and federal lawmakers who rose to power on APC ticket meet up public expectations called on the Caretaker Committee led by Yobe State governor, Mai Mala Buni to set up a tripartite Committee that would commit governors, lawmakers to the party manifesto and ultimately, regain public confidence.

“As part of the introspection required to strengthen the capacity of our party, our leaders and governments controlled by APC, we need to engage the debate based on assessment of what we must do to rebuild confidence of Nigerians and regained their trust.

In doing that, we need to restrategise and more effectively present the comprehensive scorecards of our APC governments at all levels since 2015 in ways that can truly demonstrate to Nigerians what has been achieved, and why despite what has been achieved we are having the challenges facing us as a nation?

“As a party, we invested a lot to develop our manifesto. The gap that emerged since 2015 whereby elected and appointed leaders of governments controlled by our party took our manifesto for granted should be corrected. The Caretaker Committee should circulate the manifesto to all functionaries of governments at all levels.

Perhaps through the APC tripartite consultative committee, chaired by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo with both the party Chairman, HE Mai Mala Buni; Senate President, HE Ahmed Lawan; Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiala and PGF Chairman, HE Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, serving as members, as a party we can begin the process of restrategising so as to strengthen the capacity of our governments to effectively resolve all our challenges as a nation and win back public trust and confidence.

“For political contestation to meet the expectations of citizens, it must go beyond the electoral contest.

In fact, for electoral contest to provide choices to citizens in terms of responding to societal and national problems, it must be issue-based with manifestos of political parties as the benchmark.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE