Nigerians Must Come Together in A New Party to Push APC Out in 2027- Ex APC National Vice Chairman, Muh’ed Lukman

By Moses Idika On Jun 9, 2024 2 0

Alhaji Salihu Mohammed Lukman, the immediate past National Vice Chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on Nigerians to close ranks and mobilise to defeat the government of President Bola Tinubu, just like the military was pushed out in 1999.

Lukman who was also a former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) in a statement he issued on Saturday in Kaduna stated that the APC has abandoned the ideals behind its formation in 2014 and have rather resorted to inflicting pains and mis-governance on Nigerians.

The former APC leader who resigned his position in July 2023 posited that “Just like we succeeded in pushing the military back to the barracks and defeating the PDP in 2015, it is possible to create a politically viable and truly popular democratically alternative platform that can put the APC in its rightful place and overcome the current extreme right-wing adventurously unplanned leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu.

“Nigerians must be mobilised to rise above dishonest politicians who only manipulate their way to power and reduce to citizens to the status of conquered people. Democracy will be worthless if the result is only to elect civilian overlords.”

He noted that right from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to the current leadership of President Tinubu, it has become glaringly clear that the current APC leadership was merely interested in power-grabbing as they have no plans to better the lot of majority of Nigerians.

Recall that in 2023 when he resigned as the National Vice Chairman of the APC, Lukman noted that the happenings in the party at that time were at variance with his convictions. He had stated, “I hereby kindly resign my position as National Vice Chairman, North-West of our great party, All Progressives Congress (APC). My resignation is with immediate effect, which become necessary given my conviction that the atmosphere in the party is completely at variance with the founding vision of forming a progressive party.

“Rather than remaining in the leadership of the party and become a source of distraction for leaders and especially for the young government of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it is better to excuse myself and take time off from politics.”

Speaking on the need for Nigerians to unite and form a political party that will be ideology-driven, the top politician noted that Nigerians must consciously create political parties that will be able to rein in errant leaders and ensure that party manifestoes are adhered to.

His full statement reads:

“Patriotic Nigerians and democrats must resume the business of national mobilisation to produce an alternative democratic platform to APC and all the charades of registered political parties. We must summon the courage and believe in the power of possibility.

“Just like we succeeded in pushing the military back to the barracks and defeating the PDP in 2015, it is possible to create a politically viable and truly popular democratically alternative platform that can put the APC in its rightful place and overcome the current extreme right-wing adventurously unplanned leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu.

“With such reality, it behooves on patriotic Nigerians to return to the trenches of the campaign for democracy and pick up the debris from APC’s failure in the last nine years. In doing so, those of us who have been privileged to rise at different levels of APC’s leadership must do so with absolute humility and recognition of all the factors that have destroyed the APC.

“Perhaps, we need to accept the correctness of the campaign against the APC that many leaders of the party, including former President Buhari and now President Asiwaju Tinubu, only agreed to come together to grab power, which was not associated with the needed commitment to deliver services to address national challenges. Sadly, with the mission to grab power, they ‘promise (everything) and did nothing.

“This challenge begs the question, how do we create a political organising strategy that goes beyond just winning elections or grabbing power? How can we have a party, which if it wins the Presidency, the President, whoever he will be, will be subordinated to the party? How can we create a party in which there will be multiple power blocs and leaders of the party will have the needed capacity to facilitate negotiations and agreements, which will be binding on all members and leaders of the party? How can we have a party that will have the capacity to mobilise all the funds it needs to run the affairs of the party, including funding the elections of all the candidates of the party at all levels? How can organise a party whose leadership at all levels can have the same conditions of service correspondingly with public officers at that level?

“We can go on asking all the valid questions. It will be defeatist to expect anyone to provide the answers. Only those patriotic Nigerians who are ready to return to the trenches of democratic struggles to resume mobilisation and negotiations to move Nigerian democracy beyond the current lethargic state can begin to provide answers to these practical questions.

“The negotiations to produce an alternative political platform, which can move Nigerian democracy forward must prioritise the development of a functional political party structure based on ability to answer some of these practical questions should be the consideration. Part of what must be guarded against to avoid the pitfalls that destroyed the APC is to shun the old opportunistic political warriors who have been serial contestants and aspirants in every election since 1999.