The immediate-past National Vice Chairman, Northwest of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Salihu Lukman, has called for concerted efforts to establish a viable alternative platform to put the party in its rightful place.
Lukman made the call in a statement issued on Saturday, saying the APC would overcome the current extreme right-wing adventurously unplanned leadership of President Bola Tinubu.
He said Tinubu had no doubt challenged Nigerians to think outside the conventional political box.
He stressed that the APC members and leaders as well as all patriotic Nigerians committed to the democratic development of the country, are being challenged daily to ask the question of the value of being associated with a political party if all that it does is only to field candidates for elections.
According to him, the way and manner both former President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu have managed affairs of the country without consulting party leadership and structures in the last nine years made a mockery of democracy.
The APC chieftain said the survival and further development of Nigeria’s democracy must not be allowed to be limited to the discretion of individual leaders, no matter how powerful they are, adding that patriotic Nigerians and democrats must resume the business of national mobilisation to produce an alternative democratic platform to the 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 democratic alternative platform that can put the APC in its rightful place and overcome the current extreme right-wing adventurously unplanned leadership of President Tinubu,” he said.
According to him, the beauty of democracy is the freedom it offers to engage in political contest, stressing that patriotic Nigerians must practically and loudly convey the right message to Tinubu, the APC leadership and Nigerian politicians that the nation’s democracy must be transformed beyond the current ugly state of ceremonial elections, which ends up producing leaders who continue to act like emperors and dictators who rule the country worse that military governments.
He said, “Nigerians must be mobilized to rise above dishonest politicians who only manipulate their way to power and reduce citizens to the status of conquered people.
“Democracy will be worthless if the result is only to elect civilian overlords. That can only be checked if we produce a functional political party, with committed leaders who submit themselves to processes of negotiations in all its ramifications, and agreements contracted that are binding and capable of regulating the conducts of elected representatives and governments produced at all levels. Nigerians are not conquered people.”
He further stated that the crisis of corruption connected to with the Social Investments Programme and clear lack of commitment to anything close to social democracy by APC governments at all levels represent one of the failings of the party.
According to him, with hardly any exception since 2015, governments at all levels controlled by the APC operate based on the practice of business-as-usual.
Lukman lamented that the nation is on the edge of social outbursts, noting that the problems of corruption, insecurity and economic crisis have gotten worse.
Cautioning against any further increase in the pump price of fuel, Lukman accused the President of living in denial, with regards to the reintroduction of full subsidy through the back door.
Buhari, Tinubu made a mess of democracy – Ex-APC NWC member, Lukman
