A former leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and an advocate for internal party democracy, Dr. Salihu Lukman has berated President Tinubu media chat, saying “it projected a leader who is not listening.”
He said that the government of President Tinubu has been in denial of the fact that their so-called economic reform policies have failed.
The former APC leader said that the presidential media chat had not changed anything, insisting, “if anything it projected a leader who is not listening.”
Dr. Lukman who spoke as a guest of the Morning Show on Arise TV, wrote off the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saying, “I don’t see the magic that this govt can produce.”
The former National Vice Chairman of the ruling APC based his low rating of the Tinubu Presidency on the state of affairs in the APC. He said the party cannot offer the country what it dose not have. “APC is currently practically dead,” he says.
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He said there are no meetings at the level of the organs of the party. No platform to ventilate and aggregate opinions or ideas to enrich the governance system. He likened President Tinubu to an emperor and argued that emperors do not operate democracies.
“Our democracy is not working,” he says. “No meetings, just nothing,” he added.
According to him, the party members only come together when there is an election, as he put it, to select a candidate. He said such candidates do not usually emerge from the internal arrangement of the party.
He added that such candidates are not usually the most eligible and what the party does is to mobilise men and resources to rig them in.
Pressed to know if he was not being so critical because he did not get a plum appointment from President Tinubu. Dr. Lukman says, he is always in favour of internal party democracy, adherence to party ideology and programs, positing, “All that are currently lacking.”
He said he and others of like minds are working to birth qualitative political parties that can produce the right leadership.
He calls on all progressive minded individuals to do their bit by offering ideas, in whatever sector they find themselves, that will aid the good governance of the country.
He advised against pessimism, saying, those wondering if Nigeria had the quality individuals to transform the country “will stagnate in one place.”
Dr. Salihu Lukman was a former National Vice-Chairman, North West of the APC who resigned his membership of the party on June 12, 2024 because, his membership of the party had been rendered useless because of the absence of internal party democracy.
As he looks up to 2027, Dr. Lukman says negotiations are taking place and, “There is a groundswell of recognition by leaders of the opposition to come together.”
He is optimistic that before the middle of 2025 things will become clearer and, “Even the choice of party is being negotiated and very soon things will come to the open.”
“We’ve to build the confidence of Nigerians that things will have to be done differently,” he insisted.
