Open Letter
Salihu Moh. Lukman
You Can’t Run Away from Yourself
Open Letter to Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Your Excellency, I read a statement credited to you being clarification of your position on your considered defection, which you described as ‘realignment within the African Democratic Congress (ADC) due to the current challenges facing the party.’ Although you call it ‘misleading narratives in the public domain’, the statement basically confirmed that you ‘have commenced wide-ranging consultations – including with leaders from the NDC, PRP and others to explore the best options for protecting our democratic interests.’
Sir, I decided to write this open letter to you to address this issue because it would appear that, perhaps on account of combinations of overconfidence and also assuming that leaders can take any hasty decision and get away with it, the destiny of the country and innocent citizens is being sacrificed. I am pained to have to raise this issue at such a time when we thought that what we have spent more than two years negotiating has been achieved.
Noting that you are not the only leader considering this option, being the one that is closer to me in every respect, I want to use you as a point of contact with all those leaders. Recognising that Mr. Peter Obi is one of those leaders and in the last few months, I have had more contacts with him, without sounding disrespectful, politically, ideologically and even in terms of lineage, if I can use that loosely, you are closer to me.
Coming from Kaduna State, North-West, many of us look up to you for leadership. Somehow, unfortunately, the signals we get is that our expectations don’t matter, what matters is your personal political ambition, whether narrowly defined in terms of becoming President of Nigeria or broadly considered based on claimed commitment to work for the improvement of the welfare of citizens. Having spent all my adult life campaigning for a better society, I am quite troubled that leaders easily become self-absorbed in pursuing their narrow interests. Quite worrisome is the fact that leaders who claimed to be the torchbearers of campaign for better society end up becoming worse. This is at least the case with both late President Muhammadu Buhari and now President Bola Tinubu.
Being a founding member of APC and one fortunate to have served the party and witnessed the betrayal of its founding vision by its leaders, I am traumatised to see leaders with potentials of providing selfless services to Nigerians becoming self-absorbed in their personal ambitions. As a person who is in his 60s, and therefore at the closing period of my life, my ambition and hope are limited to the expectation of witnessing a positive turning point in Nigeria.
Many of you who are entrusted with leadership positions almost throughout your lives are very senior to me in age. Few are younger. The hopeless reality is that most of you with ambitions, both those older and younger relate with us condescendingly and highly disrespectful almost as if we are all foolish. If you want any evidence of condescension and disrespect, your considered defection out of ADC or realignment is it. How can you, in less six weeks of joining ADC, be considering defecting to another party or some realignment? What has changed that wasn’t there before you joined?
I am asking these questions, almost as academic exercise, knowing fully well you have already made up your mind. But for the purpose of clarity, I will highlight that there is nothing in ADC today that is unique to ADC. Having been privileged to be at the centre of the negotiations that produced the coalition, it is important to highlight some of the factors that were considered leading to what we have today. The first issue is that unity of all opposition leaders under one political platform (party) is a critical success factor for electoral victory. APC won the 2023 election marginally because opposition was divided.
The second point was the recognition that the main opposition parties during 2023 elections were destabilised, and they are still destabilised. PDP, LP and NNPP were all factionalised by APC sponsored agents. Our assessment indicated the need to work towards producing an alternative platform. It was based on these assessments that we commenced consultations among opposition leaders in the country as far back as 2024. I will recall that around June 2024, on your initiative, I had the honour of meeting you and discussing this challenge with you. I recall that during our meeting you fully agree with the assessment of the danger facing opposition political parties. I can also recall that although you agree that opposition political leaders must unite, you expressed the need to slow down and wait till 2026, which may have influenced your decision on the timing when you eventually joined the coalition and ADC.
Shortly after meeting you, I had a similar honour of meeting Mr. Peter Obi who also agree that opposition leaders must unite ahead of 2027. In the case of Mr. Obi, he was emphatic on the role of Alh. Atiku Abubakar in achieving such unity. On his insistence, I contacted Alh. Atiku Abubakar and travelled to Morocco to meet him in July 2024. Like Mr. Obi and yourself, Alh. Atiku Abubakar also agreed that opposition political leaders must unite ahead of 2027. Although he (Alh. Atiku) complained of how he was betrayed by many of the opposition political leaders, he affirmed his commitment to be part of such a coalition and requested for a roadmap.
Two options were considered to be central to the roadmap – register a new party or adopt any of the registered parties. Further assessment also indicated the weak potentials of succeeding to get a new party registered. Notwithstanding, however, we agreed to explore the option of registering a new party, which by May 2025, with more than 100 applications before INEC and not much progress was being made to get them registered, it was becoming clear that the option of adopting an existing party may be the only option for opposition leaders.
Shortly after meeting you, Mr. Obi, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, without mentioning names, other leaders were similarly consulted, and a core of drivers emerged and began to hold weekly meetings. Those weekly meeting developed the framework for negotiating the coalition and implementing decisions. A major outcome of those weekly meetings was the establishment of a committee to undertake due diligence on existing parties under the leadership of Sen. Liyel Imoke. The objective is to identify potential parties among the existing registered parties to be adopted.
Part of the terms of reference of the committee is that parties considered for adoption should not be in danger of deregistration by INEC. In other words, they must have won an election conducted by INEC in compliance with Section 78(7) of the Electoral Act 2022. In addition, such a party should not have internal crisis or intractable litigation. In addition, the leadership of the party should subscribe to complete rebranding, which may include change of name, change of constitution, change of flag, logo, slogan and change of leadership. By August 2024, the committee was able to identify Accord, Action Alliance, African Democratic Congress, Action Democratic Party and Youth Party as candidates for negotiation. Social Democratic Party, although without internal crisis or intractable litigation, preliminary discussions with their leaders showed resistance to complete rebranding on account of which it was not considered.
To activate negotiation with the candidate parties, a small technical subcommittee was setup under the leadership of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. The subcommittee engaged leaders of the candidate parties. Supported by the work of another legal subcommittee, which reviewed the constitution of the parties, negotiation commenced. Eventually, the negotiations were narrowed to Accord and African Democratic Congress. Two issues guided the negotiations, which were the need to resolve subsisting leadership problems, including court cases and what to do to achieve complete rebranding.
We were able to make progress with ADC largely because the parties in the leadership dispute agreed to go through alternative dispute resolution facilitated by INEC. INEC undertook to facilitate the ADR on account of the fact that one of the reasons given by the State Chairmen of the party (about 10 of them) who went to court challenging the leadership of Chief Ralph Nwosu argued that INEC did not attend the October 2022 Convention which returned Chief Nwosu as the National Chairman. INEC acknowledged that they were duly invited by the party to the Convention but for some reasons they were unable to attend.
We monitored the ADR facilitated by INEC, which took about two months to reach agreement. Eventually, after signing agreement, the State Chairmen who had a case in Supreme Court requested their lawyer, Chief Mike Ozokhome, to present the agreement to the Court. Interestingly, Chief Ozokhome declined to do so on account that Chief Dumebi Kachikwu who gave him the brief has not approved it. All efforts to win the support of Chief Kachikwu was not achieved. In the end, the State Chairmen who went to court had to disengage Chief Ozokhome and hire a new lawyer before the terms of agreement was filed in the Supreme Court, which ended the leadership dispute in ADC.
Once that is done, we proceeded to the next level of negotiating leadership change. The legal subcommittee was able to do a thorough evaluation of the party’s constitution. Some of the restrictive provisions were identified. One of them is that for anybody to assume leadership position in the party, the person should be at least a member of the party for two years. The second restrictive provision is that in the event of vacancy in leadership position, the person to fill the vacant position should come from the same state. The National Executive Committee (NEC) under the constitution was given the power to waive these provisions. At least two NEC meetings, which were observed by INEC held and passed resolutions that waived these provisions.
By the third week of May 2025, agreement was reached with ADC. However, at the point of adopting the ADC as the coalition party, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, who was the last person among political opposition leaders to fully subscribe to the coalition, argued that SDP was not given the same consideration with ADC and that he believed SDP will be a better party for the coalition. Extension was given to the Sen. Liyel Imoke Committee to engage the SDP and report back. Three meetings were held with SDP, and the terms of the coalition was presented to them. They requested for short adjournment to go back and consult their organs. About two days after, a major leadership crisis that swept away the National Chairman of the party, Alh. Shehu Gaban erupted. That ended our negotiation with SDP.
The rest, as is often said, is history. ADC was adopted and unveiled on July 2, 2025 as the coalition party. Processes of leadership change at national level in line with the agreement reached with the Chief Ralph Nwosu leadership was consummated. Chief Kachiku who wanted to block the ADC from being adopted by the coalition continue to explore other means of triggering another leadership crisis. He was able to find allies in people like Hon. Leke Abejide, Nafiu Bala Gombe and subsequently some of the state chairmen who want to remain in office beyond their tenure. What has so far played out is that decisions of organs of the party can be undermined by individual ambitions. With respect to all the cases in court, whether by Nafiu Bala or some of the State Chairmen, the issues in disputes are decisions of organs of the party.
Once they are disputed in the way the courts are being invited to reverse, it simply means complete erosion of internal democracy within parties. Being the democrat you are, and you don’t need to remind us, appreciating the need to protect this basic democratic sanctity of political parties should be given. To argue that ‘ADC has now been forced into’ ‘externally influenced legal problems that made our stay perilous’ is to attempt to run away from the problem. Yes, there are ‘externally influenced legal problems’, which can follow you wherever you go. You mentioned NDC and PRP. Those ‘externally influenced legal problems’ are already rearing their heads or to put it more correctly, these parties are also highly vulnerable.
By the way, NDC is registered by INEC as a result of court order. Someone has already threatened legal action against INEC regarding this. In the case of PRP, prior to adopting ADC, we have had series of meetings with leaders of the party. A major threat is that the party has not met the electoral threshold, on account of which it risks being deregistered. Already, following a courtesy visit by the new PRP leadership, led by its National Chairman, Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, to the ADC National Chairman, Sen. David Mark, a so-called faction has emerged threatening to go to court. It is very predictable what will follow.
Perhaps, it is important at this point to raise the worrisome issue of political leaders aspiring to hold elective positions without going through the rudiment of elections. What is the value of democracy if people can hold elective positions without going through elections? I will return to this question shortly. The point must be emphasised that the major obstacle to Nigeria’s democracy is the corresponding absence of strong electoral framework within political parties. This reality is progressively getting worse. From a situation of imposition in PDP to a new alarmingly inelastically repressive conditions in the name of consensus within parties, especially APC. The situation is worsened by the fact that the Electoral Act 2026 is limiting the powers of political parties to determine and set their internal rules to guide the process of producing candidates for elections.
As a Nigerian who was actively involved in advocacy for the merger negotiations that produced the APC and the coalition that negotiated the adoption of ADC, I am highly frustrated by the fact that all that matters to political leaders is their personal ambition. I am quite agitated that almost all the promises made to Nigerians during the merger negotiations and the 2015 campaigns have been betrayed. Somehow, here we are in the coalition with ADC being presented as the potential party to rescue Nigerian democracy, the same leaders who are being looked upon to build the ADC into a modelled democratic party, coalition leaders are already undermining it from within.
I am one of those who was excited when you joined the coalition and ADC. I was hoping that your coming will enable and capacitate us to redress some the leadership challenges in the ADC, especially in North-West. Problems of leadership has slowed the process of party building so much that some of our state leaders in some states in North-West are behaving almost as if they are working for APC. For instance, in some cases, conscious efforts are made to block all-inclusive meetings of coalition leaders. In my own Kaduna State, we are being subjected to a paralysing situation of no leadership with the arrest of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Mal. Bashir Saidu. Prior to the arrest of Mal. Bashir Saidu, party Congresses were manipulated to produce leaders who are dominantly skewed in favour only a section of the coalition leadership in the state. And with some of the leaders loyal to Mal. El-Rufai been forced to go underground, ADC in Kaduna State is practically leaderless. Sadly, supporters of Mal. Bashir Saidu are bent on controlling the structures of the party and through that exercise monopoly in producing candidates for 2027 elections to the exclusion of others.
Given your leadership role, many of us were expecting that you will help us resolve the challenges of leadership in the states such that we can be enabled to produce popular candidates for the 2027 elections. Unity of opposition leaders in Kaduna State is a fundamental requirement for electoral victory. Out of all the states in the North-West, with the exception of Sokoto, unity of opposition leaders is in jeopardy, and the expectation of party members is that you will help us to achieve unity. When therefore what you call ‘misleading narratives’ or defecting to another party began to filter out, it was quite shocking. Many of us believe that you are by far more politically sophisticated.
At a time, when a new constitution and manifesto was just adopted by the April 14 National Convention of the ADC, one would have expected that coalition leaders like you will be more concern about giving life to both the new constitution and manifesto of the ADC. Many of us believe that the distractions of the last few weeks are responsible for why both the new constitution and the manifesto of the party are yet to be unveiled to the public. In addition to the constitution and manifesto, the party also now has a Governance Principles and Code of Ethics, otherwise known as the The Orange Book.
All these need to be mainstreamed within the party and appropriate steps taken to ensure that they guide the conduct of members, leaders and elected representatives. Having witnessed how excellently well negotiated documents were reduced to archival materials in APC, I am quite nervous and strongly believe that we must do everything possible to compel political leaders to implement agreed positions contained in all adopted documents. A situation where leaders relate to agreed positions with contempt as was the case with the APC manifesto and the report of APC True Federalism Committee must not be allowed to find roots in ADC.
Just about a week ago, while appearing in Arise Television Morning Show, I talked confidently about the new model of Collegiate Leadership, which I advocated that ADC leaders will use to consummate negotiation to produce 2027 Presidential candidate. Least did I know that you and Mr. Peter Obi are already considering leaving the party. Somehow the issue of ‘externally influenced legal problems’ are only being used as smokescreen. The real issue would appear to be a determination to emerge as either Presidential candidate or running mate. Already, there are speculations that you believe you must be on the ballot in order to win back Kano State. My attitude is pushing to dismiss that this as more of blackmail against you. Your ambition at this stage is not limited to Kano State.
As someone who is eminently qualified and has what it takes to emerge as Presidential candidate, why will you have to go outside ADC to emerge as Presidential candidate? The same question applies to Mr. Obi. The argument that is more associated with Mr. Obi is that in the event of a primary election in ADC it will be impossible to defeat Alh. Atiku Abubakar. Some of the assumptions, which is more associated with indirect primary is that Alh. Atiku Abubakar will bribe his way to win the primary, which is quite unfair. It is on record that twice Alh. Atiku Abubakar has contested primary in 2011 in PDP and in 2015 in APC and lost. In 2015 he came third and, in that primary, you came second ahead of him.
The idea that you defecting is almost a confirmation that political leaders at the highest level want to hold elective position without going through the rudiment of election. Although difficult to associate it with you, it cannot be dismissed. The big question if those of you aspiring to become Presidential candidates don’t want to go through elections, having emerged as Presidential candidates, wouldn’t you face the general election? In the specific cases of Mr. Obi and yourself, may be your defeat in 2023 could have been the result of poor preparations on account of not going through internal electoral process before emerging as candidates. Perhaps, poor preparations might have been responsible for the week relationship between you and leaders of your old parties, which could have weaken your capacity to manage ‘externally influenced legal problems’.
Since July 2025, following the adoption of ADC as the coalition party, it’s distraction after distraction. Many of us and most Nigerians have remained very hopeful that the party will overcome its challenges and at the minimum present a united front of opposition political leaders. As expected, one of the identified obstacles to the unity of opposition political leaders is individual ambitions. A major demand made by some of the aspiring Presidential candidates is the issue of zoning the Presidency to the Southern parts of the country. Partly to ensure inclusivity and more to facilitate internal unity within the coalition, discussion on this matter has been suspended.
With the Supreme Court judgement of last Thursday, April 30, the expectation of many party members is that the process of internal negotiations leading to the emergence of candidates will be accelerated. Coming shortly after the Ibadan declaration of April 25, no one expected the shocking news of ‘wide-ranging consultations … to explore the best options for protecting our democratic interests.’ Without sounding disrespectful and dismissive, the ‘best options’ you may be considering may only demonstrate how absorbed you may have been to achieve your personal political ambition. Ordinarily, there should be no problem with that. The big question will be at what expense?
Given that you are 69 years and by October, you will be 70, one will expect that your preoccupation at this point is to ensure that you leave a positive political legacy beyond achieving your personal ambition to rule Nigeria. One of such legacy will be how those of you with leadership responsibility can facilitate a new political orientation of collective leadership in the country. When I had the privilege of meeting Alh. Atiku Abubakar in July 2024, I had cause to pose the question to him, does he want to be counted as one of those of ruled Nigeria, or will he want to be among those who history will record as one of those who rescue the country? The tragedy is that in our recent political history as a nation, we have produced more leaders who only add to the statistics of those who ruled the country. The last two – late President Buhari of blessed memory and President Tinubu, although they have achieved their ambitions, the problems of the country have defied them.
At this point therefore, rather than ‘exploring best options’, Nigerians will be more excited to see political leaders like you demonstrating the kind of selfless disposition to ensure unity and producing the needed collective leadership that will give all leaders and all parts of the country a sense of belonging. Without attempting to claim any credit, as some who was at the centre of the advocacy leading to the emergence of the coalition and the adoption of ADC as the political party for 2027, I must caution that the approach of defecting to another party, which you are about to take together with Mr. Obi will simply diminish you as someone who is self-centred and to that extent inconsiderate of the stark harsh realities facing citizens in the country. At your late age, I will appeal for moderation. Both of you have good records and you will not want to be on the wrong side of history.
I am confident that good conscience driven by the desire for produce a better, prosperous and truly democratic Nigeria will prevail. I also have faith that eventually Allah (SWT) will direct the political affairs of Nigeria and ensure that we conduct ourselves properly in a way that enable us to earn the confidence of Nigerians to win the 2027 elections. Beyond winning the 2027 elections, it is our prayer that ADC governments at all levels will produce a new governance reality based on which the expectations, wishes and aspirations of citizens will be met. May 2027 be a watershed in the democratic life of Nigeria such that the era of unaccountable leaders driven by crudely raw personal ambitions will be consign to the dustbin of history. Amin!
Dr. Oohay
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/F7887E2C-8CE0-4DED-A127-17C2AC0325FC%40gmail.com.