?????
Salihu Moh. Lukman
APC Convention: Caretaker or Undertaker
By Abdul Oroh
Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari
......................
.......................
Your Excellency, every committed leader and member of our great party, All Progressives Congress (APC), is very apprehensive that with less than two weeks to the scheduled February 26, 2022 National Convention, preparations are very low key, to put it very mildly. There is no indication that sub-committees have been setup to drive processes of organising the Convention. Every day, we wake up with different speculation about either Governors will be meeting to decide on zoning or Governors are going to be meeting with Your Excellency, etc. Communication from the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) is very poor and hardly gives confidence that the leadership of the CECPC, especially the Chairman, His Excellency Mai Mala Buni and the Secretary Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe are making any effort to mobilise all leaders, members and Nigerians sympathetic to the party as parts of preparations for the National Conventions.
Based on the schedule of the Convention as issued by the CECPC Secretary, Sen. Akpanudoedehe on January 19, 2022, Sales of Forms to all aspirants is supposed to commence February 14, 2022. As it is, today, February 15, 2022, forms are not available anywhere and the excuse from all available sources is that unless zoning of offices to be contested are decided, forms will not be available. Why has the CECPC not conclude on zoning up to now? When will they conclude on it?
Looking at the schedule of the Convention, the CECPC is expected to publish Convention Sub-Committees on Saturday, February 19, 2022. The question is, has the Sub-Committees been setup and are already working? If they have, what are these Sub-Committees and who are the members? If not, when will they be setup? What are the details of these Committees and their mandates, which is to be implemented within less than one week to the Convention?
Your Excellency, the way the CECPC is approaching the organisation of the National Convention gives enough ground to suspect internal sabotage. Is leadership of the CECPC working to ensure that the Convention doesn’t hold on February 26, 2022? Recall that initially, the Convention was scheduled to hold December 28, 2021. Through consultations, it was moved to February 5, 2022. Unfortunately, we found ourselves, as a party, in the embarrassing situation of having to contend with speculation about alleged ambition of His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni to manipulate his emergence as the substantive National Chairman of the party, which means reluctance to organise the National Convention and handover to an elected leadership. Somehow, here we are, from February 5, 2022, the Convention had to be moved to February 26, 2022.
Even while consultations were going on leading to the decision to move the Convention to February 26, 2022, there were media speculation that the leadership of the CECPC want the Convention moved to either May or June 2022. Some sponsored media campaigns were openly promoted to canvass for these positions. Although the alleged ambition of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni to emerge as the substantive National Chairman is very difficult to believe, however, with the way the leadership of CECPC under his watch is sluggishly handling organisation of the National Convention, it gives strong credibility to the speculation.
As things are, the CECPC leadership is using sophisticated strategies to force the hands of party leaders, including blackmails and wildcat promises of electoral opportunity to emerge as candidates of our party for the 2023 elections. This is very unfortunate and must be redressed urgently. Your Excellency, as the moral leader of our party, and one of the leading initiators of the merger negotiations that produced the APC in 2013, you never demanded automatic ticket to emerge as the Presidential candidate of our party. You contested with other four aspirants in the December 10, 2014, in a keenly contested primary election in Lagos and became our Presidential candidate. That was the orientation you provided. Why should the leadership of the CECPC be setting the stage for destroying a veritable democratic tradition, which was one of the important attractions that guaranteed our party the historic victory of the 2015 general elections?
Your Excellency, we are faced with a very critical situation, as a party. Sadly, we have some leaders in our party, including the leadership of the CECPC who believe that they can manipulate every situation to impose their choices on the party without going through the needed processes as establish in the constitution of the APC. We can’t be a party of change and overlooked situations whereby these very leaders continue to take us and the country back to the dark days when party politics is reduced to the circus of undemocratic practices. This is a very painful reality, which must be urgently redressed.
Your Excellency, beyond manipulating situations in the party to impose their choices on party leaders, members and Nigerians, these few party leaders led by the leadership of the CECPC are very intolerant to criticisms. This is no longer the party, Your Excellency, together with all the founding leaders negotiated to establish. It is quite nostalgic to recall that some of us even opposed Your Excellency’s aspiration to emerge as the Presidential Candidate of our party in 2014. But that did not prevent you from relating with us as loyal members of our party. Now, even if one support the aspirations of some of our leaders but disagreed with them on any issue, such a person risked being declared enemy.
Consequently, debates are hardly taking place in the party. The leadership of the CECPC have also ensured that meetings are hardly taking place. The only meeting now taking place is the meeting of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF). So long as meetings are not taking place, ability of leaders and members of the party to hold the leadership of the CECPC accountable will be weak. Conscious of the fact that party leaders and members are weak in holding them accountable is about the only reason why these leaders have a strong self-belief that they can continue to succeed in manipulating situations in the party to their advantage, including undermining the National Convention of the party.
Many party leaders and members are greatly at pain that, as a party, we are sinking deeper and deeper in more and problems. A Caretaker Committee, which is expected to open a new democratically vibrant life for the party, facilitate internal party contests, is more and more becoming an Undertaker Committee working to end every democratic life existing in the party by blocking every internal party contest. Everything in the party is being reduced to decisions of some party leaders. If the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC was highhanded, intimidating and trampling on the democratic life of party leaders and members, the CECPC led by His Excellency Mai Mala Buni is administering poison, thereby destroying every democratic practice in the party and preparing every stage for the burial rite of APC as a party. This may sound harsh, but it is the sad reality.
Your Excellency, just like you were able to rescue the party from the tightfisted grip of Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC, you will need to also take every urgent step to rescue the party from the reprehensible leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni-led CECPC. The fastest way that can happen is by ensuring that nothing is allowed to prevent the National Convention from holding on February 26, 2022. In addition to ensuring that issues around zoning offices and setting up all the Sub-Committees for the Convention are decided immediately and sales of forms to aspiring candidates also commenced immediately, it may be important to hold a consultative meeting with all critical stakeholders, especially members of the National Caucus of the party.
The opportunity of a consultative meeting with members of National Caucus will provide the opportunity to speed up processes of preparations for the National Convention. Your Excellency, it is important to emphasise the point that APC is a product of sacrifices by leaders and members of our legacy parties. The CECPC under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni must be compelled to provide honest leadership to the party based on sacrifices. As we therefore prepare to elect new leaders for the party, we need to appeal to all leaders to approach the process of party leadership selection based on good assessments of the credentials of those being selected. As is often said, once beaten, twice shy; or is it twice beaten, thrice shy?
The downward spiral in the quality of party leaders at national level must be halted by ensuring that the next leadership to emerge at the February 26, 2022 National Convention are committed leaders with all the democratic credentials and experiences to return the party to its founding vision. I have no doubt that one of the legacies Your Excellency will want to bequeath to this generation of Nigerians, and indeed future generations is a truly progressive and democratic All Progressives Congress (APC). May God almighty guide Your Excellency and all APC leaders to put APC back in the direction of providing the needed political leadership to facilitate politics of change in Nigeria. Amen
February 15, 2022
SMLukman
Sent from my iPhone
Salihu Lukman
Kindly find attached, the first Bi-Weekly Briefing Paper, which is a comparative review of performances of PDP’s sixteen years and APC’s seven years in government. The Bi-Weekly Briefing Papers will seek to promote issue-based campaigns during the 2023 elections. Issue-based campaigns should be about correct and honest assessment of challenges facing Nigeria based on which campaigns of political parties and candidates proposes policy responses by governments they control when elected. Ability of political parties and their candidates to propose policy responses, which meets the expectations of Nigerian should be primarily the determining factor for electoral victory.
As a founding member of APC, committed to supporting APC leaders to facilitate politics of change in Nigeria, all briefing papers will be designed to serve as both resource materials to promote the APC and its candidates, as well as presenting the achievements of APC led government of President Buhari in very clear and unambiguous terms, and as a response to the inaccurate and convenient claims of PDP leaders.
The objective of the Bi-Weekly Briefing Papers is two-fold. The first is to put Nigerian governance reality in proper perspective by recalling all the records under the various governments led by PDP between 1999 and 2015 and compare them with experiences under the APC since 2015. The second is to support Nigerian democracy to develop so that 2023 campaigns begin to shift in the direction of contest for ideas. As much as invariably the contest for ideas will eventually be reduced to contest of candidates represented by personalities, those involved must be political agents of political parties driven with vision of how Nigeria should respond to challenges and develop as a nation.
This Bi-Weekly Briefing Paper #1 present an overview of economic performances of governments under the PDP and APC from 1999 to 2000. With verifiable evidence, allegations that APC led government of Present Buhari is mismanaging the economy is interrogated. The challenge of poverty and insecurity were reviewed. Issues of debt and allegation that APC led government is mortgaging the future of Nigerians are also examined. Claims about the so-called ‘achievements’ of PDP led governments were reviewed based on experiential evidence, which are verifiable.
It is very necessary to appeal to APC leaders to recognise that Nigeria, being a democracy, require that our party, APC, is proactive and take steps to set the tune of the campaigns for 2023 election. Setting the tune for the 2023 campaigns is mainly about correct and honest assessment of challenges and how the APC, being the governing party, is working to resolve the challenges. With all the records of bad governance under the sixteen years of PDP, on the one hand, and the initiatives being implemented by the APC led government of President Buhari, the question of comparative review of performances of both PDP and APC as drivers of the Federal Government shouldn’t be a matter of convenient claims by any politician, especially opposition politician, including PDP leaders.
APC need to put itself on the roadmap for the 2023 electoral contest. The current unhealthy scheming around the APC National Convention by some party leaders, which is creating uncertainty is injurious to electoral prospect the APC. Situation of uncertainty is making PDP to have the advantage of commencing electoral campaigns for 2023 unchallenged. This must be stopped immediately by mobilising APC leaders and members to respond proactively to the challenge of 2023 electoral contests.
While the first Bi-Weekly Briefing Paper is an overview of performances of PDP and APC as managers of Federal Government, subsequent ones to be released every two weeks will undertake specific sectoral analysis, in the hope that they will support the aspiration that 2023 electoral contest in Nigeria will begin to move in the direction of issue-based campaigns.
It is my hope that you find the Bi-Weekly Briefing Papers resourceful.
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Freelance APC Campaigner
Salihu Lukman
APC Convention: Mutiny by Yahoo Yahoo Politicians
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Freelance APC Campaigner
It is no longer questionable that our party, APC, is being held captive by small group of dishonest leaders whose only interest is to impose themselves as either Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidates for 2023 elections. Led by His Excellency Mai Mala Buni, who is entrusted to work with other twelve members of the Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), saddled mainly with the responsibility of organising the APC National Convention to elect new leaders of the party, sadly majority of the CECPC members have been reduced to observers as meetings hardly take place and even when meetings hold, decisions are hardly implemented.
Beyond members of CECPC, even the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) is being disrespected, its decisions and leadership are now being snubbed. His Excellency Mai Mala Buni, in flagrant disregard to every known procedure of managing affairs of the party relate only with His Excellency Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, His Excellency Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and His Excellency Dapo Abiodu of Ogun State based on the plot to retain His Excellency Mai Mala Buni as Chairman of the Party up to the time of conducting the primary that will produce candidates for 2023 elections. The other person who is also active in this political ponzi scheme is the CECPC Secretary, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, who is also aspiring to emerge as the Akwa Ibom Governorship candidate of the APC for 2023 elections.
Interestingly, perhaps except for His Excellency Dapo Abiodun, three of them – His Excellency Mai Mala Buni, His Excellency Yahaya Bello and His Excellency Hope Uzodinma – are all aspiring to become either Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate. Although His Excellency Mai Mala Buni is not open about his ambition, some of the speculation promoted by people very close to him is that once he is the one to organise the primary to produce candidates for 2023 elections, he stands a good chance to emerge as the Vice-Presidential candidate, or even the Presidential candidate, if the North is to produce the Presidential candidate. In the case of His Excellency Hope Uzodinma, he is being alleged to be aspiring to emerge as a Vice-Presidential candidate to a Northern candidate. Already, His Excellency Yahaya Bello has declared his aspiration to emerge as the 2023 Presidential candidate of the party.
As for His Excellency Dapo Abiodun, he is being guaranteed a second term ticket to emerge as the Ogun State Governorship candidate for 2023 election, which is to block any potential contest given the strong opposition he faces from the former Governor of the state, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun. Beyond guaranteeing His Excellency Dapo Abiodun second term ticket, His Excellency Mai Mala Buni has attempted to make similar offers to all first term Governors of APC. Some of these stories flying around are almost like tales by moonlight, but from every indication, they are true scripts being acted by His Excellency Mai Mala Bunu and his associates.
Consequently, there is so much uncertainty created, just to ensure that the party is manipulated to meet the aspirations of these dishonest leaders. Sales of forms to aspiring candidates for party offices to be contested at the National Convention was to commence on Monday, February 14, 2014. The speculation was that forms cannot be sold until zoning of offices are finalised. Following the departure of President Muhammadu Buhari to the EU-AU Summit in Brussels, the argument became that zoning will only be finalised after his return. Then it became that there was disagreement among Governors on zoning. The latest is that some Governors are opposed to some offices of the party coming to their zones because of their Presidential or Vice-Presidential ambitions.
As things are, today being February 21, 2022, the National Convention is just five days away. Sub-Committees to handle specific responsibilities of organising the Convention were expected to have been announced on Saturday, February 19, 2022. No information has been provided by the CECPC. Now that President Buhari has returned from the EU-AU Summit, the old deceptive argument about Governors having meeting with President Buhari to decide on zoning and other matters related to the Convention has started again. Why should the CECPC wait for meeting of Governors and President Buhari before it setup sub-committees to organise the National Convention? If Governors and the President are the ones to organise the National Convention, why do we have CECPC? It is either that the leadership of the CECPC is incompetent or it is deliberately using the meeting of Governors and President Buhari to create uncertainty in the party as part of the plot to achieve its dubious plan of blocking the Convention from holding.
Recall that both His Excellency Hope Uzodinma and His Excellency Yahaya Bello met President Buhari before he departed Abuja for the AU-EU Summit. And His Excellency Hope Uzodinma, while addressing the media hinted at the possibility of shifting the date of the Convention. In recent times, there has been so much speculation about shifting the APC Convention by two weeks. As part of the justification for postponement by another two weeks, issues of INEC bye-elections in some federal constituencies across the country also scheduled for February 26, 2022 are now being brought up. The date for the bye-election is known even before the date of the Convention is fixed. Why should we wait until this late hour before adjusting our calendar? Why should adjusting our calendar because of INEC bye-election require two weeks? How can INEC bye-election explain refusal to constitute sub-committees or even decide on zoning?
It is clear that Mai Mala Buni is opposed to organising the APC National Convention on February 26, 2022 or any time soon. Consequently, he is working with other dishonest leaders, notably, Yahaya Bello, Hope Uzodinma, Dapo Abiodun and some few others. For all that matters, as far as Mai Mala Buni, Yahaya Bello, Hope Uzodinma and Dapo Abiodun are concerned, even if there is decision to postpone the Convention by another two weeks, or any time soon, they will do everything to sabotage it and ensure another postponement. It is a mutiny against the authority of the party and all its designated leaders, especially President Buhari, being carried by very dishonest people who can best be described as Yahoo Yahoo politicians. They are busy recruiting more dishonest and questionable leaders such as Uzor Kalu and they are moving to recruit some state party leaders into their fold. Everything must be done to rescue APC from the hands of these Yahoo Yahoo politicians represented by Mai Mala Buni, Yahaya Bello, Hope Uzodinma, Dapo Abiodun, Uzor Kalu and their associates.
All committed leaders and members of the APC must initiate the process of disciplinary enquiry against these dishonest leaders. If there was any doubt about the reprehensible conduct of these dishonest leaders and the fact that they are working to destroy the APC because of their selfish interest, by now it should be very clear to all discerning leaders and members. Both PGF, its leadership, President Buhari and all leaders of the party should take every step to reorganise the leadership of the CECPC. Mai Mala Buni and the Secretary, John James Akpanudoedehe should as a matter of urgency and in the overall interest of saving the APC should be replaced and removed as members of the CECPC. The CECPC has very good competent and trustworthy leaders among the other eleven members to pilot the affairs of the party and organise a successful National Convention immediately.
In addition, all collaborators in this Mai Mala Buni led Yahoo Yahoo political fraud, aimed at undermining the party and its leadership, which if not arrested will destroy the APC, involving Mai Mala Buni, Yahaya Bello, Hope Uzodinma, Dapo Abiodun, Uzor Kalu, John James Akpanudoedehe should be sanctioned. Steps should be taken to disqualifying them from all electoral contests, as well as holding any leadership position, both within the party and in governments controlled by the party. APC must have zero tolerance for dishonest politicians.
As a party, APC must come out very strongly against every dishonest conduct by political leaders, no matter the positions they hold. APC must do everything possible to enforce discipline among leaders, which should include sanctioning leaders who betray trust or undermine the capacity of structures and functionaries of the party to implement decisions of organs. If APC is to project its slogan as a party of CHANGE, dishonest and reprehensible conducts such as the ones being exhibited by Mai Mala Buni, Yahaya Bello, Hope Uzodinma, Dapo Abiodu, Uzor Kalu and some few others must be punished!
As a party, APC is now in a state of emergency. Any slip will destroy the party. This is not the period to allow dishonest political leaders gamble with the survival of the party and by extension weaken the nation’s democracy. Everything must be done to restore some minimum standards of conducts by leaders at all levels. Every party leader and member must wake up to the challenge of saving the party. APC is a product of sacrifices by leaders and members. Every sacrifice is required now to save the party.
May Allah (SWT) guide us to rescue APC from the current endless munity by Yahoo Yahoo politicians led by Mai Mala Buni and associate and return the party to its founding vision. Amin!
February 21, 2022
YAHOO ACCOUNT VERIFICATION!!!
--https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/LO0P123MB55361951D1E332102F02D470AE399%40LO0P123MB5536.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit.
Salihu Lukman
APC vs PDP
A Comparative Review of Performances in Government
Infrastructural Development:
Road, Railways & Aviation
Bi-Weekly Briefing Paper #2
March 2, 2022
Background – Theoretical Context
A leading member of the PDP and a former Minister of Aviation during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, Mr. Osita Chidoka, as a Guest Columnist in Thisday Newspaper of Friday, February 25, 2022, in the back page under the title, Minister Fashola and the Difference between APC and PDP, argued that ‘infrastructure projects’ impact on the economy is two-fold, short-term economic boom due to increased spending and hiring until the project is complete. Once over, the temporary hires return to joblessness. The long-term benefit includes facilitating trade, movement, and industry and can support economic growth. However, the infrastructure would not unluck growth and individual prosperity without investment in human beings.’ He tried to rationalise his argument that ‘infrastructure would not unluck growth’ with unsubstantiated reference to ‘a 2016 study published in Oxford Review of Economic Policy vol 32’ where he claimed that the author using evidence from China argued that ‘investing in unproductive projects results initially in a boom, as long as construction is ongoing, followed by a bust, when forecasted benefits fail to materialise and projects, therefore, become a drag on the economy. Where investment are debt-financed, overinvesting in unproductive projects results in the build-up of debt, monetary expansion, inability in financial markets, and economic fragility. While infrastructure is essential for economic growth, it must be in tandem with other determinants of economic growth.’
First, both the language and the opinions in the submission by Mr. Chidoka, which is supposedly a response to presentation made by Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing to Kano Progressive Youth Wing of All Progressives Congress is disappointing and either deliberately designed to misrepresent both theoretical and empirical conceptions in the debate around infrastructural development or complete ignorance of basic economic logic, which should guide decisions and initiatives of political leaders regarding a country’s investment decisions in relation to physical structures and facilities such as transportation, communication, power, water, etc., otherwise known as infrastructure. If a political leader of the status of Mr. Chidoka could generalise investment in infrastructure as ‘unproductive projects’, it may only confirm the gap between knowledge and governance in the Nigerian context, which weakened and disconnect democracy from being strongly committed to national development and reduces political debates to elementary literary arguments.
Second, it is also doubtful if Mr. Chidoka’s submission is representative of the thinking of PDP leaders. To be fair to the PDP and all its governments between 1999 and 2015, they demonstrated good understanding of the importance of public investments in physical structures and facilities, which was why they initiated many roads, railways, and aviation projects during their sixteen-year tenure. What may be an issue was the lack of, or weak commitment to execute these projects, which was why they were unable to commission any of the projects they started after sixteen years of managing the affairs of Federal Government of Nigeria. In fact, there were many instances whereby projects became either abandoned or funds were released but hardly anything done before 2015. Mr Chidoka’s inability to provide any empirical evidence about how during the sixteen-year tenure of PDP infrastructural development initiatives ‘were in tandem with other determinants of economic growth’ may have been responsible for the poor attempt to misrepresent economic arguments with the generalised submission of ‘unproductive projects.’ Given that Mr. Chidoka had nothing on PDP’s record to compare with initiatives of APC under President Buhari, therefore all public expenditure on infrastructure must be either ‘debt-financed’, ‘overinvestment’ or ‘unproductive.’ This is alarmingly untrue and can only be excused if presented by a secondary school social club debater.
The role of infrastructure in economic development is well documented and settled in the development literature. Indeed, if there is anything being debated at the level of intellectual discourse, amongst economists and econometricians, it is not the imperative of infrastructure but the numerical magnitude of its importance or significance. Pioneer and contemporaneous efforts in the field suggest a positive relationship between infrastructure development and economic growth and report robust positive coefficients. For instance, many scholars and a sizable number of studies have responded to the question of whether public expenditure in relation to investment in infrastructural development is productive. As far back as March 1989, the Journal of Monetary Economics, Volume 23, Issue 2, presented a report of investigation as to whether all government expenditures are productive using production function in which output depended on public capital, private capital and employment. The result showed that the elasticity of output with respect to public capital was between 0.34 and 0.39. This result was interpreted to mean that the marginal productivity of public capital is 70 cents to a dollar.
Other studies such as the one by Robert Eisner of Northwestern University, USA, ‘Infrastructure and regional economic performance: comment,’ New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue of September 1991, and Ford and Poret, ‘Infrastructure and private-sector productivity,’ OECD, 1991, using macro time series approach all found evidence that marginal product of government capital is higher than the marginal products of private capital. Many studies have demonstrated empirical results showing the positive indirect effect, crowding-in effect, as well as the direct effect as an input factor, and showing a strong linkage between public infrastructure and the private sector, particularly after economic crises. In other words, investment in infrastructure stimulate growth of economic activities.
The generalisation by Mr. Chidoka suggesting that investment in infrastructure is unproductive is simply dishonest. In fact, such generalisation contradicts the policy direction of all PDP governments between 1999 and 2015, which was for instance well-articulated in Chapter Seven of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) document of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, which had as one of its targets ‘Mobilisation of national resources to facilitate the development of strategic economic infrastructure that improves the general effectiveness of Nigeria as a preferred investment destination.’ This is a clear demonstration that even PDP governments, since 1999, recognise the importance of public investment in developing Nigeria’s infrastructure to stimulate economic activities in the country. Could Mr. Chidoka have served PDP government without understanding the theoretical orientation and commitments of PDP governments on matters such as infrastructural development? Could his (Mr. Chidoka’s) unfamiliarity with the commitments of PDP government account for why he was unable to make any attempt to highlight achievements of PDP governments?
Empirical Context – Road, Railways & Aviation
Without any doubt, one of the areas APC Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari departs radically from all PDP administrations is the drive to develop road, railways and aviation infrastructure across every part of the country. APC led Federal Government has boldly pursued reforms aimed at laying a solid and sustainable foundation for the greatness of Nigeria in these areas. More roads and railways infrastructure are being built and/or completed since 2015, than in the sixteen years under PDP between 1999 and 2015. Several landmark infrastructure initiatives are being implemented.
Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF), Infrastructure Company (InfraCo), Highway Development Maintenance Initiative (HDMI), Sovereign Sukuk Bonds, and the Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme have been initiated to mobilise and coordinate application of national resources to execute specific projects. These are unprecedented initiatives in developing and upgrading national infrastructure. Equally unparalleled is President Buhari’s commitment to completing abandoned and unfinished projects inherited from previous PDP administrations.
For instance, the 327km Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail was completed by APC led administration of President Buhari 33 years after construction began. The 168 km Abuja-Kaduna Rail project, and the 42.5 km Abuja Light Rail project, both inherited from previous PDP administrations, were completed in 2016 and 2018 respectively. The second Niger Bridge, originally conceived decades ago, is now more than 50 percent completed, and scheduled for commissioning this year (2022). Similarly, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which has defied every administration since 1999 is scheduled to be completed also this year (2022).
In the area of roads and bridges, work has since resumed on several stalled, abandoned or solution-defying road projects that were inherited from PDP administrations, like the Loko-Oweto Bridge, Sagamu-Benin Expressway, the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway, Onitsha-Enugu Expressway, Kano-Maiduguri Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway, Obajana-Kabba Road, Ilorin-Jebba Road, Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Road, and several others are in progress, with some already close to completion. A brand new bridge in Ikom, Cross River State, has just been completed, which replaced the dilapidated steel truss bridge originally built five decades ago.
Construction work on the Second Niger Bridge, a contract awarded multiple times between 2002 and 2015, during the sixteen-year tenure of PDP governments, but constantly stalled for lack of funding, finally kicked off in 2018, with guaranteed funding, for the first time in the history of the project. In 2017, construction finally commenced on the Bodo-Bonny Bridges and Road (linking Bonny Island to the Rivers Mainland), a project first mooted decades ago, and awarded a number of times without success under PDP administration.
Although it can be acknowledged that all PDP governments between 1999 and 2015 recognise the importance of public investment to develop the nation’s infrastructure, one of the evidences that best highlight lack of commitment is how much goes into the federal government’s annual budget. For instance, in 2015, the total budget for Federal Roads by the outgoing PDP government of former President Goodluck Jonathan was 18 billion Naira. This kind of abysmally low funding translated to abandoned or slow-moving road projects across the country. The APC administration of President Buhari increased the funding in 2016 to 260 billion Naira.
Through increased budgetary provisions, combined with funding initiative under the PIDF, InfraCo, HDMI, Sukuk Bond and Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme, APC led administration of President Buhari is, according to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, executing around 900 active road contracts, covering the construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of more than 13,000 km of Federal roads and highways across the country, out of a total of 35,000 km of Federal roads in existence. The financing jinx for large-scale infrastructure projects was resolved with all the landmark and innovative methods. Specifically, PIDF, in 2018, provided $650m seed funding and Sukuk bond has mobilised over one billion dollars. Under the HDMI, the Federal Government is expecting capital investment of N1.13 trillion. Twelve (12) roads are being considered for Value-Added Concessions in the first phase with employment potential estimated at about 50,000 direct jobs and 200,000 indirect jobs.
Accordingly, APC administration of President Buhari has commissioned the 156 km Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail, the first double-track Standard Gauge Rail project in West Africa (and the first Standard Gauge Rail project in Nigeria to be started and completed by the same administration). Other landmark projects being completed include the Bodo-Bonny Road in Rivers State, Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Expressway, Loko-Oweto Bridge connecting Benue and Nasarawa States across the River Benue, Port Harcourt-Enugu Expressway, East-West Road (across Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States), the new Ikom Bridge in Cross River, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway, Keffi-Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi Road, and many more.
In Aviation sector, New International Airport Terminals have been completed and commissioned in Abuja and Port Harcourt, while those in Lagos and Kano are being completed. In addition, brand new Runways have been constructed in Abuja and Enugu, in 2017 and 2020 respectively. In May 2016, the APC led administration of President Buhari launched its Aviation Roadmap, with the aim of transforming the sector, in terms of safety, infrastructure and economic viability. Major highlights of the Roadmap include the Establishment of a National Carrier, Development of Agro-Allied/Cargo Terminals, Concessioning of the Major International Airports, Establishment of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Center, Establishment of an Aviation Leasing Company, Development of Aerotropolis (Airport Cities), Establishment of an Aerospace University, Designation of 4 International Airports as Special Economic Zones, Upgrade of Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT).
Since the launching of the Aviation Roadmap, the Ministry of Aviation has focused on implemention. In terms of infrastructure, the new Terminals of the Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano International Airports, inherited from the previous PDP administration, have been completed, while the new Lagos Terminal is very close to completion. Brand new Runways have been constructed at the Abuja and Enugu International Airports, in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
More than a dozen airports around the country have had Low Level Windshear Alert Systems (LLWAS) installed, to improve flight safety. Investigations revealed that the Sosoliso and ADC plane crashes of 2005 and 2006 respectively were caused by the absence of LLWAS in the airports. The Lagos and Abuja Airports have had the Category 3 Instrument Landing System (ILS) installed - which provides the capability for landing safely and accurately in conditions of near-zero visibility.
The Concession process for the Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt International Airports - the four main International Airports in the country - is ongoing, with completion of the process scheduled for this year (2022). A significant portion of the investment into the Aviation Sector has been focused on resolving issues and bridging gaps inherited from previous PDP Administrations. One example is the payment of pensions owed to staff of the defunct Nigeria Airways. President Buhari approved that the backlog of almost twenty years be cleared, and has released the funds. The reconstruction of the Runways in Abuja and Enugu were also long overdue, but neglected by previous PDP governments. Investments that should have been made over the decades are now finally being made.
Under the APC led government of President Buhari, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) has acquired several new training aircraft, and has been recognised globally by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Among other things the NCAT now has a brand new Boeing 737 Full Flight Simulator, as well as a fully-automated Fire and Smoke Aircraft Training Simulator, which now means that Nigerian personnel no longer have to be sent to Cameroon for training on tackling aircraft fires and smoke, which was the case throughout the sixteen years of PDP tenure between 1999 and 2015.
The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) now has a world-class Flight Safety Laboratory, which means that Airplane Recorders, popularly known as “Black Box”, no longer have to be sent abroad for analysis. Furthermore, the AIB is now actively providing technical support and services to other African countries, including assisting Sierra Leone to set up its own Accident Investigation Agency, in 2021.
On the matter of the new private-sector-led National Carrier, the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, has assured that the establishment process is still on course, with a target commencement date for operations in Q3 2022. In May 2021, President Buhari approved the designation of the 4 major International Airports in the country as Special Economic Zones. The procurement processes for the establishment of an Aviation Leasing Company, a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Center, and an Aerospace University are also all ongoing.
In the railway sector, in addition to Lagos-Ibadan, Itakpe-Warri Standard Gauge Rail lines and the Abuja Light Rail, APC led government has also initiated the Kano-Maiduguri Standard Gauge Rail, and the revamping of Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri Narrow Gauge Rail. Financing negotiations is also ongoing for Ibadan-Kano Standard Gauge Rail Project. There is of course the Kano-Maradi 387 km Standard Gauge Rail, for which construction work commenced in February 2021.
Conclusion
Debate about what differentiate APC government from all previous PDP government in relation infrastructural development should not be reduced to literary debates. It is about looking at all the evidences. It will be imprudent to seek to develop or conjecture some theories to nullify concrete evidences of APC’s achievement. In fact, failure to recognise evidences by PDP leaders such as Mr. Chidoka demonstrate unwillingness to learn from their past mistakes, which could mean if they come back to power, they will make the same old mistakes of running government based on weak or lack of commitment to prioritise investment in infrastructural development.
Comparative debate about what differentiate APC from PDP require some measure of honesty not denial. It is not about grandstanding but recognising how far Nigeria’s democracy has evolved and the extent to which it is facilitating national development. When politicians of the status of a former Minister of the Federal Republic such as Mr. Osita Chidoka reduces debate about initiatives of government to the level of literary debate, only demonstrates high contempt for national development. Mr. Chidoka and PDP leaders need to grow out of their prebendal politics of sharing government revenue, which ends up in private accounts of public officials. Government revenue should be invested in tangible projects that would facilitate and support the growth of economic activities. Nigerian politics and democracy must prioritise the execution of these tangible projects across every part of the country, which is the focus of the APC led government of President Buhari.
Salihu Lukman
Rescuing the APC: A task for all Party Leaders
The sensational but mischievously planted news in some media is that President Buhari has sacked His Excellency Mai Mala Buni as APC CECPC Chairman and replaced him with His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello as Sole Administrator. This is a clear misrepresentation of all the internal contest in APC aimed at rescuing the party from the mutinous leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe and their few collaborators. The truth is that President Buhari, like most party leaders and members is highly disappointed at the serial cases of deliberate efforts by His Excellency Mai Mala Buni and his associates to block the APC Convention from holding based on alleged personal ambitions. Between November 2021 and January 2022, the APC Convention had to be postponed three times because of deliberate refusal to initiate most the processes required, such as booking the venue for the Convention and serving the statutory three weeks’ notice to INEC.
In addition, there were other serious allegations against the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala, which include the discovery that his group, since November 2022, had obtained a Court injunction against the Convention and are waiting until three or two days to the Convention before serving it on the party to succeed in blocking the March 26 APC Convention from holding. The plot is that His Excellency Mai Mala want to continue to run the affairs of the party and conduct the party’s primary where candidates for 2023 elections would emerge. Based on that there are specific allegations of His Excellency Mai Mala striking some deals with some Presidential aspirants to ensure their emergence as the Presidential Candidate of APC for the 2023 elections.
Some of the allegations suggests extorting monies from these aspirants, including someone who is yet to join the party. It is being alleged that campaign offices for the aspirant are already being opened even before such a person joined the party. All these highlight problems of trust, which the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala represented. A good confirmation of why it will be difficult for party leaders and members to continue to invest any trust on the His Excellency Mai Mala leadership of the Caretaker Committee is the attempt to constitute another zoning Committee after there is decision between President Buhari and Progressive Governors on zoning, based on which stakeholders of the party at zonal levels are to finalise negotiations on positions to go states.
As far as His Excellency Mai Mala is concerned, his interest is supreme and together with the Secretary of the CECPC, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe and their collaborators outside the CECPC, they must block the APC Convention from holding on March 26. As part of the plot, once they heard that President Buhari has agreed with some party leaders that necessary to save the party should be taken, which require change of the CECPC leadership, they decided to present it in the media that the President has sacked His Excellency Mai Mala Buni as the Chairman of the CECPC and appointed His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello as Sole Administrator.
This is mischievously designed to present both the party and President Buhari as being undemocratic. To the contrary, internal organs of the party with all the statutory powers to effect all the necessary changes will be used to give effect to all the aspirations of President Buhari, party leaders and members to rescue the APC from the decidedly depraved leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala. Anybody that will emerge as a replacement of His Excellency Mai Mala and the Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe as Chairman Secretary and Secretary will have all the requisite mandate of the organs vested with such responsibility as provided by the Constitution of the party.
This is the time when His Excellency Mai Mala and Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe and all their collaborators are required to demonstrate their loyalty to the party and President Buhari. Attempts to delimitimise the process of changing the leadership will only confirm their undertaker mission rather than serving as leaders of the CECPC. All party leaders and members should support other members of the CECPC to rise to this occasion by ensuring that they effectively enforce collective leadership in the CECPC at this critical point in the life of the APC. Similarly, all leaders and members of the party must be vigilant to ensure that the new leadership of the party to emerge from all the internal contest currently going on are leaders that will faithfully implement all decisions, especially the scheduled March 26, 2022 APC Convention.
If anything, what is going on in APC today proves that it is the only party where internal contest is taking place. It is the only party that acknowledges its challenges and confront them without any pretense. Thanks to the leadership of President Buhari, APC is going through a very tedious and difficult process of rebirth. Part of the challenge facing the party has to do with internal betrayals by trusted leaders. However, with the courageously unbiased leadership of President Buhari, in the last two years, the party is able to confront its leadership challenges. Nigerians must be reminded that the leadership challenge facing the country, however defined, cannot be remedied without a democratically functional political party with a leadership that is honest and trustworthy. This will not be achieved through denials. In other words, any party whose leadership is corrupt and dishonest can only produce corrupt and dishonest leaders in government. Since 2020, APC has been going through processes of internal leadership cleansing as part conscious of efforts to ensure the emergence of honest and trustworthy candidates for 2023 elections.
As party loyalists, we must remain vigilant, confident and courageous to continue to support and engage all our party leaders to take all the painful decisions, which are needed to ensure that the March 26 APC Convention restore all the democratic structures of the APC and put the APC back on the path to electoral victory in 2023. APC is a party, which in its short period of existence has proven that leadership is about trust. Once a leader betrays the trust invested in him, the needed democratic process and structures will be activated to reorganise and produce new leaders who will honestly serve the party. May Allah (SWT) continue to guide all our APC leaders to put APC back in the direction of providing the needed political leadership to facilitate politics of change in Nigeria. Amin!
March 7, 2022
Salihu Lukman
APC and Surrogate Politics of Timid Leaders
Events in APC require constant vigilance by all committed party members and leaders. Without doubt, the days ahead, leading to the March 26, 2022 National Convention, will define both the survival, the democratic orientation and the quality of leaders of the party. Whether APC will produce both party leaders and candidates for the 2023 elections who can justify the trust invested in them, depends a lot on how all the current leadership challenges facing the party is resolved. Beyond electing new leaders and setting the stage for the 2023 electoral contests, how APC navigate through attempts by some of its leaders, including His Excellency Mai Mala Buni and his collaborators, to block the Convention from either holding as scheduled or electing new leaders who support and respect decisions taken by broad section of leaders and members of the party will be the main test.
Since Monday, March 7, 2022, when His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello and the other ten members of the 13-member APC Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) announced their resolve to ensure that the March 26 APC National Convention hold, there have been deliberate attempts to question the legitimacy of decisions taken by the APC. Media reports are deliberately planted to suggest so-called confusion in the party. Some party leaders and members have declared opposition to His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello and the CECPC and are mobilising Nigerians to only recognise His Excellency Mai Mala as the only person who should preside over the affairs of the party. While some can disclose their identity in declaring their opposition, some timid leaders who are not so courageous, do so using surrogates.
Perhaps, it is important to recall that the decision to setup the CECPC with His Excellency Mai Mala as Chairman was taken by the APC NEC of June 25, 2020. With the initial tenure of six months, the NEC of December 8, 2022, extended it expectedly another six months. From six months, it became one year, and as it turned out to be, it is now endless, with the risk of eventually terminating the political life of the party. All these happened because both President Muhammadu Buhari, other party leaders and members trusted that His Excellency Mai Mala will provide honest leadership and implement every decision taken, leading to the emergence of new leaders for the APC. Had His Excellency Mai Mala lived up to the trust invested in his leadership of the party, at the minimum APC Convention would have been history and there wouldn’t have been any debate questioning the legitimacy of any serving Chairman of the party.
The fact that His Excellency Mai Mala has consciously and deliberately led APC to the present embarrassing situation, is most unfortunate. One would have expected that both His Excellency Mai Mala, his associates of surrogate supporters and timid leaders will be more concerned about what should be done to resolve all the leadership challenges facing the APC. In fact, anyone who love His Excellency Mai Mala should be more worried in protecting his honor as a political leader by ensuring that he doesn’t become a letdown who stand opposed to majority decisions of party leaders and members. Ideally, if His Excellency Mai Mala share the vision of all the founding leaders of the party of making the APC truly democratic and progressive, it will be expected that he will be willing to make every personal sacrifice to demonstrate his support for the decisions of the party. That was the legacy demonstrated by Chief Bisi Akande, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Chief Tony Momoh of blessed memory and many founding leaders of the APC.
Remarkably, that was also the legacy left by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. With all our grievances against Comrade Oshiomhole’s leadership, APC members and leaders must acknowledge that once the mood in the party tilted against his leadership, he accepted the decision of the party and made the personal sacrifice to recognise the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala. Faced with similar rising opposition to his leadership, His Excellency Mai Mala and his associates of surrogate supporters and timid leaders are now using all manner of campaigns in the media to undermine the capacity and effectiveness of the party to initiate processes of leadership change. Although no words have been heard directly from His Excellency Mai Mala, many so-called close associates, including Sen. James John Akpanuduedehe have declared their opposition to decisions and actions taken by the APC since Monday, March 7 when His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello and all the other ten members of the CECPC resolved to provide collective leadership to organise the March 26 APC National Convention.
Painfully, APC has found itself in a situation whereby people who are once trusted with leadership are now using surrogate supporters to undermine decisions taken by, if not destroy, the party. Those of them who are leaders are timid and lacks the courage to speak openly. Instead of speaking openly, they prefer to sponsor others to do the dirty jobs for them. Part of the most important lessons which the party must learn out of all the unfolding reality are two. The first is that every trust invested in any leader must be qualified. Specific to the leadership of the party, every leader must be accountable to organs of the party. What happened to APC under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala was that the decision to dissolve all the organs of the party at all levels created the unfortunate gap, which was exploited by His Excellency Mai Mala and his associates to derail the process of rebuilding the party. Related to that was also the fact that members of the CECPC were not able to assert themselves early enough to ensure that both His Excellency Mai Mala and Sen. James John Akpanuduedehe are accountable to the CECPC. Combination of all these made it possible for His Excellency Mai Mala to imagine that he has the power of prerogative over decisions taken in consultation with party leaders, including President Buhari.
The second lesson borders on issues of political leadership recruitment. The assumption that what is required to endorse, sponsor or nominate any person to emerge as a leader is being innocuous. Although, being innocuous may not have been the reason why His Excellency Mai Mala was chosen as the Chairman of the APC CECPC, it may have also been a strong consideration. Certainly, his experience as the National Secretary of the APC between 2014 and 2019 would have been the most important recommendation. In addition, his good relationship with all party leaders and President Buhari must have been the most important recommendation. Combinations of all of these must have convinced all those who nominated him that APC will be safe in his hands. No one would have ever thought that this is where his leadership will take the party to. With His Excellency Mai Mala, if anything, being innocuous is proved to be much more dangerous.
This highlight the need for thorough background checks before people are invested with leadership responsibilities. The whole essence of screening is supposed to facilitate processes of background checks. Unfortunately, this has been reduced to some lousy checks of educational qualifications of aspirants for political offices, often reduced to verifying certificates obtained. This shoddy approach to leadership screening is responsible for why there are many people occupying leadership positions who are not qualified to hold those positions expect with reference to so-called educational qualification. Experiences in managing responsibilities in previous assignments should be the reference point in terms of how much trust can be invested in any person. Perhaps, had a thorough background check been done on His Excellency Mai Mala before emerging as National Secretary of APC in 2014, the party may have been saved from its current travail long ago.
Be that as it may, however, one would have expected a humble Mai Mala to have made some efforts to measure up to the challenge of providing selfless leadership to the party. Instead, what keeps coming out is that His Excellency Mai Mala together with his associates of surrogate supporters and timid timid leaders turned the party into their personal estate. From Anambra to Ekiti, Osun and all the bye-elections whereby the party presented candidates for elections, there are endless allegations of extortion of money directly from aspirants. Similarly, there are already allegations of deals with some Presidential aspirants, including someone who is yet to join the party. Part of the deal also alleged that His Excellency Mai Mala is negotiating to emerge as a running mate to the so-called would-be candidates. Other allegations, include attempt to arm-twist first term Governors with offers of automatic tickets for second term. Innocent Senators and members of the House of Representatives are also being offered automatic tickets for 2023 electoral contests.
Through all these dishonest methods, His Excellency Mai Mala was able to recruit the audacious surrogates and timid party leaders working to undermine decisions to hold the APC March 26 National Convention. As part of the plot, they are now circulating a letter from INEC, signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary to the Commission, in which the legality of both the March 26 APC National Convention and the March 17 APC National Executive Committee (NEC) are being questioned. From all available information, the APC CECPC led by His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello has effectively already responded to this letter from INEC through which they are able to affirm both the sanctity and legality of both the March 17 and 26 APC NEC and National Convention respectively. Both INEC, and by extension, all Nigerians must be reminded that both the 1999 Nigerian Constitution and the Electoral Act recognises the authority of all the relevant organs of the party to manage its affairs. This was affirmed by the Supreme Court judgement with respect to Ondo State election, which further affirmed the authority of the APC CECPC to manage and direct the affairs of the party.
Therefore, INEC and all Nigerians committed to the democratic development of the country must not play into the self-serving scheming of His Excellency Mai Mala and his associates of surrogate supporters and timid leaders working to undermine decisions taken by the APC. All APC leaders and members must rise to the challenge of bringing His Excellency Mai Mala, his surrogate supporters and associated timid leaders to account for the bad name they are giving the APC today. His Excellency Mai Mala and Sen James John Akpanuduedehe should explain why they failed to initiate implementation of decisions to hold the APC National Convention. Related to this, they should explain why they failed to bring to the notice of leaders of the party the Court injunction served on the party since November 18, 2021 restraining the party from organising the National Convention.
There are known collaborators of His Excellency Mai Mala who have colluded with him to ensure that all attempts to organise the APC National Convention are blocked. Three Governors who are known and must also be called upon to account for their roles in undermining decisions to organise the APC National Convention are His Excellency Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, His Excellency Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and His Excellency Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State. There are other party leaders, including Sen Uzo Kalu who have actively supported His Excellency Mai Mala to undermine the decision to organise the National Convention of the party. The March 17, 2022 APC NEC should initiate processes of disciplinary hearing in line with provisions of the APC Constitution to sanction all these leaders if found guilty.
Every step must be taken to ensure that APC emerge stronger, and no future leader of the party can attempt to undermine the decisions of the party. Unlike other parties, especially the PDP, who allowed individual leaders of their parties to undermine collective decisions, APC is working to strengthen its structures to ensure that internal democracy translate to collective leadership. All past National Chairmen of the party, notably, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Comrade Adams Oshiohmole have demonstrated capacity to make personal sacrifices to support the vision of the party to emerge as a distinctively democratic and progressive party. His Excellency Mai Mala and all his surrogate supporters and timid leaders must therefore be called to order if APC is to return to its founding vision. May Allah (SWT) guide the March 17 APC NEC to initiate all actions that will guarantee a successful March 26 APC National Convention. Amin!
March 11, 2022
Salihu Lukman
Political Leadership Recruitment: Appeal to APC Leaders
The emergence of APC in 2013 presented new ray of hope and opportunity to address problems of political leadership recruitment in Nigeria, especially the big issue of producing successors to President and Governors. Experiences during the sixteen years of PDP were cases of last minute and impulsive decisions influenced by considerations of factors of loyalties to current leaders. Arbitrary decisions influenced choices of leaders, often creating big gaps leading to the emergence of leaders who have little or no capacity to meet public expectations. This reality further entrenches problems of accountability, with many leaders flagrantly converting public resources to personal wealth. Mainly because leadership recruitment based mainly on consideration of loyalty is not a function of commitment to principles or values, even where so-called loyalists succeed current leaders, problems of political disagreements between past and current leaders continue. Consequentially, this has negatively impacted on governance through policy reversals, with successor leaders behaving worse than leaders from the opposition.
As a party envisioned to facilitate the process of changing Nigerian politics, APC leaders and members must be reminded that the most important determinant for political change at this crucial point in the nation’s political development is initiatives to change the orientation of political leadership recruitment. The reality is that leadership recruitment in APC, as it is today, is not fundamentally different from what exists in PDP. Partly because it is not different, we have produced leaders, both in government and in the party, APC, who at best, are typical PDP leaders. These are leaders who only succeed in reducing government and party management to a Bureau De Change.
However, unlike PDP, in our case in APC, internal contest in the party is effectively mobilising opposition against such leaders. The current contest going on in APC is a typical example. Although the contest is partly to ensure that the March 26, 2022 APC National Convention hold and produce new leaders, it must be stressed that the quality of the new leaders of the party being expected to emerge from the Convention should begin to change, if APC is to meet public expectations. For instance, the internal opposition against His Excellency Mai Mala Buni’s leadership of APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) is largely because of all the numerous cases of allegations of corruption against him. How different from His Excellency Mai Mala will the new leaders of the APC after the March 26 National Convention be? Will the new leaders continue the business of extorting aspirants for elective positions and to that extent continue to run party management as a Bureau De Change?
How the party treat allegations of corruption against the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala will substantially determine the nature of new leaders to emerge. Many of the allegations against His Excellency Mai Mala are already public knowledge in the media. From Anambra to Ekiti and Osun primary, there are allegations against about extorting money from aspiring party leaders for Governorship. Part of the media report alleged that the discovery of how much money could be made from conducting primary is responsible for why His Excellency Mai Mala is doing everything necessary to ensure that APC National Convention is delayed and merged with the process of party primary to produce candidates for the 2023 elections. The speculated expectation is that the opportunity to organise APC primary to produce candidates for 2023 election will provide the opening to make ‘good business.’ There are already allegations against His Excellency Mai Mala that he has started extorting money from some of the emerging Presidential aspirants. Although no details are available, there are speculations that one of the aspirants who is alleged to have made some payment is yet to join the party. Yet, party campaign offices are being speculated to begin to spring up for the would-be aspirant expected to join the APC, as part of the deal.
There was also specific allegation against His Excellency Mai Mala bordering on extorting money from party leaders, including serving Governors, involved in disputes arising from the party Congresses. First term APC Governors are being alleged to have been offered automatic tickets. Similar automatic tickets are also being alleged to have been offered to APC Senators and House of Representatives members. If Anambra State 2021 Governorship primary is to be the yardstick, automatic tickets would mean that highest bidders will emerge as the APC’s candidates at different levels. Serving Governors, Senators, House of Representatives members, etc. will be required to match the amount given by aspiring highest bidders. Based on that, dishonest party leaders will be given the responsibility of returning highest bidders, just like His Excellency Dapo Abiodun was the returning officer of the APC Primary election in Anambra State, which declared Sen. Andy Uba as the winner with more than two hundred thousand votes. Yet, in the main election, APC could barely poll fifty thousand votes.
Beyond the new APC leaders to emerge from the March 26 National Convention, how is the APC going to take steps to block bad leaders such as His Excellency Yahaya Bello from emerging as standard bearers of the party for 2023 elections. The case of His Excellency Yahaya Bello requires some bold decisions by the APC as a party, which should include acknowledging that his actions as Kogi Governor contradicts the commitment of the party for good governance as represented by the provisions of the APC constitution and manifesto. Take the case of N19.3 billion salary bail out given to Kogi State by the Federal Government, which was deposited in an unlawful bank account domiciled with Sterling Bank Plc. The money was recovered in November 2021 by the EFCC and returned to the CBN.
Interestingly, while the controversy of the seizure of the N19.3 billion salary bail out is yet to be resolved, in February 2022, Kogi State announced the commencement of payment of N30,000 minimum wage. By the end of February 2022, media reports emerged that Kogi State workers, instead of receiving the new minimum wage of N30,000, received only percentages of their old salaries, some as low as only 25%. Part of the media reports suggest that there are workers who have received as low as N2,000 as salary for February 2022. Amid all these, His Excellency Yahaya Bello is going round the country shamelessly campaigning for his so-called emergence as the Presidential candidate of the APC for 2023. With such records of anti-people and anti-workers policies, APC must take steps to disclaim the government of Kogi State under Governor Yahaya Bello. In addition, he is one of the few APC leaders collaborating with His Excellency Mai Mala to undermine the decision to organise the Convention of the APC, perhaps in expectation that His Excellency Mai Mala, as APC Chairman, will manipulate the process of electing the APC’s Presidential candidate in his (Yahaya Bello) favour.
We must appeal to all APC leaders, especially Governors, to recognise that the weight of political responsibility of producing new leaders for the APC is in fact a very strong test of whether the party can continue to justifiably earn the confidence of Nigerians. Will leaders, especially Governors, undertake the crucial task of performing background checks for aspiring candidates and dispassionately, even if painfully, select both party leaders and party candidates for elections, beyond issues of loyalty? The crucial task before APC leaders is to ensure that leadership selection process produce trustworthy leaders both as party leaders and as candidates for elections.
In fact, the quality of party leaders will substantially determine the quality of candidates the party will present for elections. Once party leaders make the mistake of producing Bureau De Change managers as APC leaders during the March 26, 2022 National Convention, the probability will be very high that there will be many bad eggs emerging as standard bearers of the party for the 2023 elections. Already PDP leaders have dug their political grave when for instance they elected people who shared $2.1 billion meant for arms procurement to fight insecurity as National leaders of the PDP. Till today, PDP leaders continue to arrogantly and contemptuously ignore this foundational reality of public trust in politics. This is among many other factors why the PDP is still very unpopular among Nigerians. APC must fundamentally take every step necessary to produce new orientation for political leadership recruitment in the country as we approach the 2023 elections.
Therefore, starting with the March 26, 2022 APC National Convention, APC leaders, especially Governors should demonstrate stronger commitment towards recruiting tested and trustworthy leaders. As much as possible, situations whereby good leaders only emerge ‘accidentally’ must begin to be reversed in Nigeria based on carefully planned initiatives under the APC. As part of the process of planning for the emergence of trustworthy leaders’ issues of getting current leaders to account for their actions or inactions will be necessary. For instance, His Excellency Mai Mala should be made to account for all the allegations of extorting money from aspiring candidates and party leaders. It is only when His Excellency Mai Mala is made to account for such charges that successor leaders would avoid toying such path. Similarly, there should be investigation into the conduct of party primary in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun to determine the truth or otherwise of the allegation of corruption against His Excellency Mai Mala.
APC, as a party, need to also take a special interest in what is going on in Kogi State. It is embarrassing that a government produced by the party will demonstrate that level of rascality. If PDP can tolerate such public rascality as was the case under for instance the inglorious era of Ayodele Fayose in Ekiti and many other PDP state governments across the country, APC must decisively disown what is coming out of Kogi State under Governor Yahaya Bello. If necessary, APC should declare opposition to what is emerging as the governance credentials of Governor Yahaya Bello, including taking every necessary step to save the people of Kogi State from the influence of Yahaya Bello in determining who succeeds him.
Every step must be taken to ensure that APC emerges as a distinctively different party from PDP and other parties especially on the question of leadership recruitment. While in the case of PDP and other parties, issues of leadership recruitment are considered as given based on the received wisdoms of political leaders, in APC these issues are being debated and contested, which explains all the dynamics around the March 26, 2022 APC National Convention. If anything, the contest for the emergence of trustworthy political leaders in APC is a contest for the unfettered development of Nigerian democracy. Nigerian democracy cannot develop unless the right conditions within parties are created for the emergence of trustworthy leaders both as party leaders and candidates for election. May Allah (SWT) continue to guide both leaders and members of APC to strengthen internal contest for the emergence of trustworthy leaders. May He also give victory to only trustworthy people to emerge both as leaders of APC and candidates. May He also save the party and all the structures of government at all levels from falling into the hands of Bureau De Change leaders. Amin!
March 14, 2022
Salihu Lukman
Consensus Vs Open Contest in APC
Electing Party Leaders through Consensus
Since the commencement of negotiation for new leadership in APC, starting with Ward Congresses, the decision of the APC CECPC is that new leaders will be elected through consensus. This imply that stakeholders will reach agreement on specific individuals who will emerge as party leaders. So far, the process has achieved some degree of success as the new leaders of the party from wards to local governments and states have emerged through consensus. There were instances of disagreements, which the party’s reconciliation committee under the leaders of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu has succeeded in resolving many of the cases.
With the National Convention scheduled to hold March 26, 2022, the process of achieving consensus is similarly expected to produce new national leaders. Already, following meetings of the CECPC, Progressive Governors and other party leaders with President Buhari, some initiatives aimed at achieving consensus leading to the emergence of new national leaders have commenced. A zoning formula has been reported to be agreed and the President is reported to have expressed his support for the emergence of Sen. Adamu as the consensus National Chairman of the party around whom the negotiation to achieve consensus for other positions is expected to be achieved. Progressive Governors were reported to have been mandated by the President to work with the CECPC and achieve agreed consensus on all party positions.
Party Activities and attempts to Undermine Consensus
Incidences within the last few days appear to be almost questioning whether any negotiation is taking place within the party to achieve consensus. From uncertainty about whether the party’s National Convention will hold, circumstances have been created whereby directives of President Buhari, who is unquestionably the leader of the party, to negotiate consensus leading the emergence of new leaders seems to be discarded. Conflicting directives to party leaders allegedly from the President are allowed to appear in the public. Every time new directive appears, party leaders and members complied, and new realities also emerges in the party.
For instance, when on Sunday, March 6, 2022, on the day President Buhari went to London, the information emerged that President Buhari instructed Progressive Governors to initiate processes of leadership change in the party given the reluctance of His Excellency Mai Mala, the APC CECPC Chairman to implement decisions to hold the party’s National Convention, party leaders and members welcome the decision, which accounts for the legitimacy enjoyed by all the eleven members of the CECPC who immediately rallied themselves around His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello who was vested with the responsibility of acting as APC CECPC Chairman in the absence of His Excellency Mai Mala who was out of the country for medical treatment.
Immediately, activities of the party around preparations for the March 26, 2022 National Convention were strengthened. The CECPC under His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello began meetings almost on daily basis. Decisions taken were implemented immediately and communication with party members and the public regarding preparations for the National Convention was very regular, unlike under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala. Newly elected States’ leadership of the party were inaugurated, an action which should have been carried out long ago but deliberately stalled as part of the plans to sabotage the National Convention. With the inauguration of States’ leadership of the party, the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) was scheduled for Thursday, March 17, 2022. The scheduled NEC meeting was also designed to begin to return the APC back to normal operations as provided by the party’s Constitution.
The NEC being the second highest organ of the party has the powers to take decisions, which should guide party operations in between National Conventions. Under the APC constitution, the NEC is required to meet every three months. The last time the NEC met was December 8, 2020, when in view of the challenges facing the party, and trusting that the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala will faithfully and honestly implement decisions taken leading to the emergence of new leaders, transferred its powers to the CECPC. As of December 8, 2020, the expectation was that the tenure of the CECPC would not go beyond six months, implying that by June 2021, the APC National Convention would have taken place and new party leaders would have emerged. Sadly, His Excellency Mai Mala began endless postponement of the National Convention, and it became clear to everyone, including President Buhari that the CECPC leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala has abused all the trust of party leaders and members, with allegations of corruption against the Chairman and Secretary, His Excellency Mai Mala and Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe respectively.
Changes in CECPC and Syndicated Media Campaigns
With the emergence of His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello as Acting CECPC Chairman on March 7, 2022, and all the actions taken to implement decisions leading to the Convention, confidence of party members and leaders began to be restored. Some few party leaders who collaborated with His Excellency Mai Mala to sabotage the decision to organise the National Convention, however, began media campaigns aimed at undermining the legitimacy of actions taken by the CECPC under His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello. Mostly done through surrogates, the campaigns include planting syndicated report of a coup against His Excellency Mai Mala, leading to the emergence of His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello as Acting Chairman of the CECPC.
The CECPC Secretary, Sen. Akpanuduodehe, on Monday, March 7, 2022, walked out of the meeting of the CECPC chaired by His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello. Then news of his resignation and subsequent rebuttal by him emerged. As it turned out, the CECPC actually passed a vote of no confidence on the Secretary in with provision of Article 21(vi) of the APC, which affirms the power of organs of the party to take such actions based on two-third votes by members of the organ. The resolution for vote of no confidence against Sen. Akpanuduodehe was passed by ten out of thirteen members of the CECPC. Thereafter, the CECPC announced that Prof. Tahir Mamman is the Acting Secretary and Barr. Ismail Ahmed is the spokesperson. Throughout the week of March 7 – 14, Sen. Akpanudoedehe was conspicuously absent from the APC National Secretariat and didn’t attend meetings of the CECPC, although on Friday, March 11, 2022, he was reported to have visited the APC National Secretariat but did not attend the CEPCP meeting, which ongoing at the time of his visit.
As part of the syndicated news reports aimed at undermining decisions and actions taken by the CECPC under the leadership of His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello, there was the false report that thirteen APC Governors were threatening to leave the party if the decision to change His Excellency Mai Mala as Chairman of CECPC is achieved. Some party leaders, including Governors Nasir El-Rufai and Rotimi Akeredolu SAN of Kaduna and Ondo States respectively responded with the information that only three Governors, not thirteen, are supportive of His Excellency Mai Mala. The three Governors are Yahaya Bello of Kogi, Hope Uzodinma of Imo and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun States. The remaining eighteen Governors and the Deputy Governor of Anambra State are supportive of initiatives being taken by the CECPC under the leadership of His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello.
Conflicting Presidential Directives and London Lobbies by Party Leaders
Around the same period, during the weekend of March 11 – 13, there were reports about President Buhari returning His Excellency Mai Mala as the Chairman of the CECPC. Then on Sunday, March 13, there was the statement by Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special to the President on Media and Publicity, informing APC leaders about President Buhari’s warning drawing attention to the electoral consequences of the open leadership contestation in the party and calling for order. By Monday, March 14, the report was that party leaders including His Excellency Mai Mala, His Excellency Kayode Fayemi and His Excellency Nasir El-Rufai have traveled to London to meet with President Buhari. No details of the meetings emerged. The feeler, however, was that President Buhari met Governors Fayemi and El-Rufai and endorsed preparations for the March 26 National Convention initiated by the CECPC under the leadership of His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello and accordingly confirmed that he will be attending the scheduled March 17 NEC meeting of the party.
Before the weekend of March 11 – 13, there were media reports about some party leaders, including Sen. Hadi Sirika, Minister of Aviation, Mallam Abubakar Malami, Minister of Justice, Mallam Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education and Hon. Farouk Adamu Aliyu, meeting the President in London. This report of the visit by Sen. Sirika, Mallam Malami, Mallam Adamu and Hon. Aliyu was remotely associated with all the lobby to influence decisions of the President regarding the need to achieve consensus leading to the emergence of new leadership for the APC. Interestingly, the presence of these longtime political associates of President Buhari in London may have been responsible for many of the reversals of decisions taken by President Buhari regarding the party’s leadership contestation.
The four leaders – Sen. Sirika, Mallam Malami, Mallam Adamu and Hon. Aliyu were political associates of President Buhari since 2003 when he first contested for President under the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP). Part of what has emerged suggest that their mission to London was to get President Buhari to alter the decisions reached with Progressive Governors and other party leaders on zoning party positions. Particularly, they wanted the President to unilaterally change the decision to get the Deputy National Chairman North moved from North-East to North-West so that Hon. Aliyu can become the President’s anointed candidate. Recall that there was a discredited zoning list purportedly signed by the President, dated February 25, 2022 with Hon. Aliyu, who is from North-West as the agreed candidate for Deputy National Chairman North, instead of allowing it for the emergence of someone from the North-East as agreed. In that discredited zoning list, the position of National Secretary was given to South-East and not South-West as was later announced by the CECPC.
Consequently, by the evening of Wednesday, March 16, 2022, news about the President reversing his earlier directive to Progressive Governors and party leaders to the effect of changing the leadership of the CECPC emerged. Conveyed in a letter to His Excellency Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Chairman Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) directing a ‘return to status quo ante’ on the leadership of the CEPCP, with photo images of President Buhari together with His Excellency Mai Mala in the company of Mallam Adamu, the President effectively reversed his earlier instructions. By the morning of Thursday, March 17, 2022, Sen. Akpanuduedehe announced the cancellation of the scheduled March 17 NEC and attempted to alter the composition of Convention Committees announced by the CECPC under the leadership of His Excellency Sani Bello. Members of the CECPC had to immediately to enforce the vote of no confidence on Sen. Akpanuduodehe to stop further attempts to reverse decisions taken on the March 26 National Convention. His Excellency Mai Mala who returned to the country on Thursday, March 17 had to issue a statement affirming the sanctity of all decisions taken by the CECPC under the leadership of His Excellency Sani Bello.
Return of Old attempts to Impose Party Leaders and Candidates
Part of the sentiment being used by the London lobby team of Sen. Sirika, Mallam Malami, Mallam Adamu and Hon. Aliyu was to ensure that the old Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) leaders are not ‘marginalised’ in the new APC leadership to emerge from the March 26 National Convention. These are old opportunistic argument, which were self-serving used by some few vested interests around the President to impose themselves as party leaders and candidates. There were many instances leading to imposition of candidates during elections, which undermined the electoral viabilities of parties associated with the President. From the ANPP in 2003 and 2007 to CPC in 2011, this has been the reality. Often, individual politicians with these self-serving agenda have used it to impose themselves on party members as candidates for elections. Although there are many instances whereby imposed candidates win elections, there are also many instances when acts of imposition destroyed the electoral advantages of the parties leading to the loss of elections. This was partly the reason for the large-scale defeat of CPC in 2011 election in Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Katsina and many states.
Perhaps, it needs to be highlighted that while the team of ‘CPC London lobbyists’ used the CPC sentiment to push for the anointment of Hon. Aliyu as Deputy National Chairman North, they were not interested in the reversal of the speculated anointment of Sen. Adamu as the President’s choice for the National Chairman in favour of Sen. Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, who is by far the most qualified former CPC leader aspiring for the position of National Chairman. Noting that Sen. Adamu was never a member of CPC, unlike Sen. Al-Makura who was the only elected CPC Governor in the country between 2011 and 2013 when CPC was dissolved into the current APC, why shouldn’t any CPC lobbyist prioritise the case of National Chairman over and above a Deputy National Chairman? This partly highlights the limitations of all the scheming influencing many of the President’s decisions to reverse decisions he took around all the leadership contestation in the party. Why should the President endorse Sen. Adamu over Sen. Al-Makura as the National Chairman of the APC? Didn’t Sen. Al-Makura defeat Sen. Adamu, which made the CPC to have the only State, Nasarawa, it won in 2011?
Sen. Al-Makura has led the APC to victory in all elections in Nasarawa State since 2015. In fact, it could be argued without any fear of contradiction that Sen. Adamu was compelled to leave the PDP because of the domineering electoral influence of the APC in Nasarawa State under the leadership of Sen. Al-Makura. Every rational consideration would expect President Buhari to choose Sen. Al-Makura ahead of Sen. Adamu. But the same old irrational and illogical decisions leading to imposition of candidates in ANPP and CPC have found their wat to APC and may have influenced President Buhari’s decision for Sen. Adamu over Sen. Al-Makura. These irrational and illogical decisions are driven by people who are opposed to political contests because they must impose themselves at all costs using their close relationship with President Buhari. Largely because they hardly have much electoral significance, meaning that on their own they can hardly win elections, instead, they just want to ride on decisions of the President to anoint them as candidates based on which they may succeed in bulldozing their way to emerge as elected leaders and candidates.
Partly because the so-called CPC lobby around President Buhari wasn’t about getting trustworthy people to emerge as APC leaders during the March 26 National Convention, the objective may have been to bring in people who can do the hatched jobs of imposing some so-called CPC old leaders as candidates for 2023 elections. Noting that, for instance, both Mallam Malami and Sen. Sirika are aspiring to emerge as APC Governorship candidates for Kebbi and Katsina States respectively, this may be the major consideration for the lobby around Hon. Aliyu to become the Deputy National Chairman North. Also noting that both Mallam Malami and Sen. Sirika are facing strong opposition within the party in their respective states, Kebbi and Katsina, the suspicion that they want Hon. Aliyu as Deputy National Chairman North so that he can do the hatched job of producing them as candidates by whatever means cannot be dismissed.
Recall that Hon. Aliyu was alleged to be at the centre of most of the allegations of corruption against the leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole during the 2019 elections, the probability that he will collaborate with aspirants for elective positions to impose candidates cannot also be wished away. There were specific allegations against Hon. Aliyu of extorting huge amounts of money as Chief of Staff to Comrade Oshiomhole from some aspirants for the 2019 elections. Part of the information was that Hon. Aliyu parted ways with Comrade Oshiomhole on account of these allegations. Although these are allegations, however, to the extent that Hon. Aliyu is yet to put up any public defence to clear himself should discourage anyone from promoting him for any party leadership position in the APC.
Unilateral Reversal of Decisions Create Open Contest
By some default, therefore, while desperately pushing the President to anoint people like Hon. Aliyu as consensus candidates, these ‘CPC lobbyists’ have inadvertently created situations whereby there is the strong likelihood for an open contest in APC during the March 26 National Convention. Instead of working to support the President to win the cooperation of all party leaders, including the speculated choice of Sen. Adamu as the consensus National Chairman, an unregulated situation has emerged ahead of the APC March 26, 2022 National Convention whereby everybody is free to join the contest for the position of National Chairman. One of the mistakes of the so-called old CPC members, including the ‘CPC London lobbyists’, is to elevate the respect of party leaders for the President to the level of compelling obedience without recognising that it is a mutually reciprocal respect. Unlike what obtained under the CPC, whereby President Buhari was largely the singular electoral asset of the party, in the case of the APC, President Buhari, although the dominant electoral asset, other party leaders are also electoral assets in varying degrees, which was the added factor responsible for the electoral victory of 2015 and 2019.
Once President Buhari is made to unilateral change party decisions, and to that extend therefore create unregulated conditions for leadership contest, he is made to effectively undermine the respect he enjoys among APC leaders. Beyond creating an unregulated situation, an unhealthy condition has also been created whereby the President being a moral leader is being projected to be directing party leaders based on his presidential powers. With or without presidential powers, President Buhari has earned his position as the leader of APC. His unique personality as someone who is truly loved by very ordinary citizens remarkably earned the APC its electoral victory of 2015 and 2019. Party leaders and members will always respect instructions coming from President Buhari. Therefore, party leaders and members, by extension all supporters of President Buhari must appeal to so-called ‘CPC lobbyists’ to stop undermining the President’s authority through the attempt to impose party leaders and candidates for election.
Expanded Democratic Space in APC
The good thing, however, arising from the actions of the ‘CPC London lobbyists’ by getting the President to issue conflicting directives to Progressive Governors and party leaders, thereby disrupting negotiations for the emergence of consensus leaders is that it has in some ways mobilise internal rebellion within the APC, which will lead to open contests for all positions in the party in the March 26, 2022 National Convention. Given open contests, it is doubtful if any attempt by the President to influence the emergence of any leader, including the speculated anointment of Sen. Adamu for the position of the National Chairman can succeed. Thanks to the ‘CPC London lobbyists’, the democratic space in APC has been expanded beyond what it would ordinarily have been. For the first time, since 1999, internal party contest in a major Nigerian political party, APC, which is also the governing party, will most likely experience full blown contests for all leadership positions whereby winners may emerge irrespective of speculated choices of the President, and by extension, possibly all other party leaders.
Unintended, the ‘CPC London lobbyists’ have also helped to inadvertently expand the democratic space for internal party contest for the emergence of candidates for 2023 elections. In other words, by their actions, they have weakened the high possibility that the party’s candidates for 2023 elections will emerge through consensus. This new reality is very much needed to challenge Nigerian political parties to comply with basic democratic tenets of free and fair internal contests for the emergence of party leaders and candidates for elections. This is perhaps very much needed to return the APC to its founding vision such that it can recover all its electoral advantages.
Acknowledgement and Appeal
The unfolding dynamics in APC, which by some default is expanding the democratic space within the party is made possible due to the liberal leadership of the President. Associates of the President should also respect decisions the President take jointly with other party leaders instead of undermining his liberal disposition by seeking to get him to reverse decisions he jointly take with other party leaders. It was the liberal disposition of the President that allows him to respect positions of party leaders, based on which he subscribes to decisions and delegate implementation to competent structures of the party. If the President can respect other party leaders, why should other associates of the President exude any form of disrespect or contempt for other party leaders in whatever way?
Accordingly, APC leaders and members should appeal to both President Buhari and his old political associates in the old CPC to refrain from acts that will undermine the authority of the President as the leader of the party. The President needs to recognise that being the leader of the party, imposes on him some level of propriety, which requires that once decisions are taken through meetings, it will require at least another meeting to change decisions taken. In every respect, the decisions of the President as conveyed in the letter to His Excellency Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, PGF Chairman of March 16, 2022 directing a ‘return to status quo ante’ could have been achieved from the London meeting with Governors Fayemi and El-Rufai. The letter to the PGF Chairman was avoidable and unnecessary.
So-called old CPC leaders should stop projecting the President as a leader of only a section of party members. The President is the leader of all members of the APC and all Nigerians. Some of the so-called old CPC members, should also be reminded that, in their own rights, they have what it takes to successfully negotiate their emergence as leaders and candidates of the party without resorting to the undemocratic practices of imposition. Many of them are highly respected leaders of the APC and therefore, given free and fair environment for electoral contests within the APC, they can win elections to emerge as party leaders and candidates for elective offices. APC leaders and members should therefore appeal to these old CPC leaders to properly integrate themselves in the structures of the APC and develop the needed confidence to freely negotiate for leadership positions in the party based on ability to mobilise support to win majority votes. May Allah (SWT) bless the new democratic space in APC and support the emergence of new APC leaders based on majority votes at the March 26 APC National Convention. Amin!
March 18, 2022
Salihu Lukman
Succession and 2023 APC Presidential Candidate
Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
40 Blantyre Crescent
Wuse 2, Abuja
During the consultative meeting with Progressive Governors, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, Your Excellency unambiguously conveyed the resolve to provide every needed leadership for our great party, APC, to remain strong and united to improve our electoral fortunes. Highlighting some of the internal policies, which allowed ‘first term Governors who have served credibly well …to stand for re-election’ and ‘second term Governors …accorded the privilege of promoting successors that are capable of driving their visions’, Your Excellency solicited for ‘reciprocity and support of Governors and other stakeholders in picking’ your successor, ‘who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.’
This simply means that you want to exercise the same privilege, which is being exercised by Governors in determining who succeeds you as the standard bearer of our party, APC, for the 2023 Presidential election. Ordinarily, this should not be a problem. Both party members and leaders will always trust Your Excellency’s judgement. However, the big worry is whether loyal party leaders and members should just reduce themselves to being ordinary observers when very sensitive issues with very high potential to diminish and damage Your Excellency’s revered status in the country is being considered. Noting that the current phenomena of poor relations between predecessors and successor governors are largely a product of poorly instituted political succession arrangement in the country, which is impulsive and imposing, it will be highly risky to adopt the same succession framework as it can erode all your lifelong achievements as someone who contribute a lot to strengthen Nigerian democracy.
Perhaps, it is important to emphasise that your contribution towards strengthening Nigerian democracy should not be reduced to your emergence as the elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015. Your most important contribution has to do with the leadership role you played in facilitating the merger negotiations of opposition parties, which produced the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013 and eventually also providing the highly inspirationally measured leadership, which defeated the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015. As President of the Federal Republic and leader of APC, you have continued to provide that measured leadership, which has been largely responsible for our electoral victories since 2015. More than anytime, at this point, when you will not be on the ballot in 2023, your measured leadership will be much more required to guarantee us sustained electoral victory.
Recalling the unfortunate third term agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and how that eventually eroded all his achievements as a leader, it is necessary to caution against any transition initiative that risked being unpopular. Any initiative that potentially took away the rights of party members to elect candidates would potentially mobilise Nigerians against the party and rubbish Mr. President. This was the case in 2007, which eventually pushed the PDP into wholescale rigging mode such that elections results were announced even before counting processes were concluded. It was so bad that even late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who was the main beneficiary had to acknowledge that it was a bad case.
Noting that today the PDP is more desperate now to return to power, our party must do everything possible to take the upper moral standing. Already, the PDP has oriented its 2023 campaigns based on lies and deceits. For instance, although it is very convenient for them to complain about the sharp divisions that exists in the country today and heap the blame on APC, by the way they went about nominating their Presidential candidate, they took Nigerians for granted and ignore every reality facing the country. Outside weeping every sentiment against the APC, they completely fail to outline any proposal in terms of how they want to unite Nigerians.
As a party, APC must be able to demonstrate much more sensitivity to the challenges of national unity by ensuring that the eventual standard bearer for the 2023 Presidential election embodies commitment to equity and justice as the underlying principles sustaining the corporate existence of Nigeria as a united country. This is not just about representation in terms of where the candidate comes from but mainly about the negotiation framework leading to the eventual selection of the candidate. In the case of the PDP, negotiation was limited to monetary transactions with the less than 1000 delegates who eventually elected Alh. Atiku Abubakar as the Presidential candidate of the PDP. With all the limitation imposed by the current Electoral Act, the delegates at the APC Convention who will be electing our Presidential candidate will not be less than 4000. For a party with more than 40 million members, this is a far cry and will be weak in terms of being democratically accountable in terms of decisions of delegates reflecting expectations party members. Once the choice of delegates correlates with expectations of over 40 million party members, invariably, it will most likely equate with the expectations of majority of Nigerians.
It is important therefore to caution our party that we must keep faith with basic tenets of democracy as our major campaign message to Nigerians for the 2023 elections. This was eloquently highlighted in Your Excellency’s message to our Progressive Governors when you stated that ‘the key to electoral successes is the ability to hold consultations and for members to put the nation above other interests.’ The temptation for leaders to choose their successors is democratically risky and very costly. If in 2013/2014, Your Excellency, could submit yourself to internal democratic process, it is important that your successor also follow the same process.
It may also be necessary to highlight that a major disadvantage with succession arrangement whereby Governors chose their successors is that it negatively affects relationship between the successor and the predecessor, which undermine capacity to influence actions or inactions of successors by their predecessors. Your Excellency, since the period of negotiating the merger that produce our party APC, I have been a proponent of ensuring that our party take every step to preserve our leaders who could exercise moral authority. This means that leaders who are highly respected on account of their standing in society should not hold elective or appointive positions. It was for that reason that I openly campaigned against your aspiration to emerge as the Presidential candidate of our party for 2015 election.
Sir, recall that one of my arguments was that as President, the capacity of party leaders to influence your decisions will be weak. Without going into details, Your Excellency, this has come to pass. The big fear is that combining both legal and moral authority, being our President, if you are to nominate your successor to what extent can other party leaders influence your decision? If party leaders are unable to influence your decision with respect to the choice of successor, what will be the guarantee that your choice can aggregate the expectations of Nigerians?
Your Excellency, I ask these questions without prejudice to the unflinching confidence of party members in terms of your personal disposition to make all sacrifices necessary and make the best decision for our party and our nation. Notwithstanding, however, there is the overriding requirement to appeal to you to kindly resist the temptation. I would have wished we have enough time for open debate within our party. Unfortunately, as things are, we have less than one week to settle this matter. Sadly also, combination of inherited reality, and perhaps vested interests of some party leaders, processes of internal debates around this matter are being impeded. Even meetings of NWC are not exploring these issues. Even logistical issues of organising the National Convention are being handled informally. And as far as our National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu is concerned, relating with you and probably directly communicating positions of members of NWC, is his exclusive jurisdiction, which limits you to selective perspective that may only be self-serving to some party leaders.
Being a party, which came with the promise of change, how our leader can directly access the views of party members is important. At the risk of again being projected to be against some party leaders, I want to appeal to all party leaders to unite in showing restraint at this point of transition. I want to strongly appeal to Your Excellency to kindly continue to make every sacrifice necessary to provide measured leadership to our party and our nation. Your revered status was earned not by following so-called conventions, which have narrowed our democracy. You have always summoned the courage to initiate leadership responses that are selfless based on commitment to principles of justice and equity.
I am confident that Allah (SWT) will guide you into taking the right decisions that would broaden the democratic scope in APC, continue to endear our great party to Nigerians and facilitate our electoral victory in 2023. Like in the case of December 10, 2014 APC National Convention, everything will be done at the June 6, 2022 APC National Convention to guarantee level playing field for all aspiring Presidential candidates of our party. Any recommendation to the contrary will be inimical and injurious to the electoral fortunes of our great party, APC.
May God protect our democracy and bless our nation, Nigeria. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Issues for APC 2023 Presidential Campaign
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
40 Blantyre Crescent
Wuse 2, Abuja
In his acceptance speech, on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, having won the Presidential primary election of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emphasised that we ‘must work to ensure PDP does not return to power after 16 years of colossal failure.’ Given the way the contest for the Presidential primary went, the challenge of uniting APC leaders to work for the victory of the party in the 2023 general elections and defeat all opposition parties, including PDP is certainly an important precondition for winning the 2023 elections. Without doubt, the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the APC, once more prove that APC is a party that is commitment to addressing all the political challenges of the country. Given the cheap and reactionary campaign in APC aimed at pushing delegates at the National Convention to copy the PDP by electing a Presidential candidate from among Northern leaders, emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu demonstrated the superiority of the APC to other parties in the country in terms of providing level playing field to party members to compete and win internal party contests.
Against very strong sentiments and dominant ethnic and religious politics, which weigh heavily against Asiwaju, both within the APC, but perhaps more promoted by a very sectarian and conservative strategy of winning cheap votes of Nigerians by the PDP and their sympathisers, which led to the emergence of Alh. Atiku Abubakar as the PDP Presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, Asiwaju Tinubu emerged as the Presidential candidate of the APC. Being a Muslim from the Southern part of the country, the belief among many Nigerians, is that he may not attract the votes of citizens from the dominant Christian Southern parts of the country. And given contemporary challenges of producing a Presidential ticket, which should balance both ethnic and religious factors in the country, an Asiwaju Tinubu candidature is more likely to be lopsided to win the votes of dominant Muslim North.
This perception dominated internal debates in APC leading to the National Convention for the Presidential primary. Some party leaders attempted to manipulate the Convention in favour of the Senate President, Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the so-called consensus candidate. The process of producing the consensus was reduced to some manipulative strategy of invoking the name of President Buhari as the singular source of decision. Thanks to the commitment of President Buhari to ensure that all party leaders are consulted, the undemocratic approach of imposing a consensus candidate was defeated, and the primary election involving 23 aspirants held on June 7, 2022. Eventually, fourteen (14) aspirants contested the primary election as nine aspirants withdrew.
Asiwaju Tinubu won the contest indisputably. With his victory, the debate has now shifted to the choice of running mate. As usual, conservative and reactionary ethno-religious consideration are colouring the debate. Question of Muslim – Muslim ticket, implying that another Muslim from the North will most likely be Asiwaju’s running mate. Leading party members are already becoming strong advocates for or against a so-called Muslim – Muslim ticket. This debate is reproducing the old pre-convention reactionary and conservative campaign. If choices of leaders are dictated by ethno-religious factors, Nigerian politics will continue to be disadvantageous to many sections of the country. For instance, only Christian Southerners and Muslim Northerners will continue to have advantages. Most of those trying to use religious arguments to influence the choice of running mate for Asiwaju Tinubu are impliedly arguing that a Christian Northerner can only win Presidential election if his/her running mate is a Muslim from Southern Nigeria. In the same way, this will be politically disadvantageous, if not impossible for any Christian from the North or Muslim from the South to win Presidential election. Such a backward national mindset must be changed.
The challenge facing Nigerian politics is about opening the democratic space. It is not going to be easy, but Nigerians must be challenged to make hard choices. Important as ethnic and religious identities are, addressing challenges facing the country, require that political leaders are not allowed to ride on cheap sentiments of religion and ethnicity to opportunistically win elections. If Nigeria is to move forward, 2023 Presidential campaigns must not reduce important debates of moving Nigeria forward to sentimental considerations of ethnicity and religion. If the truth is to be told, both Islam and Christianity, as well as all our ethnic factors have been used in equal measure to hold Nigeria at a standstill. Many so-called religious and ethnic leaders have used and are still using religion and ethnicity to pollute the minds of Nigerians against one another. If Nigerian politics is to overcome the adversities of these so-called religious and ethnic leaders, religious and ethnic backgrounds of leaders must be subordinated to experiential attributes of persons being considered for leadership.
Perhaps, it is important to stress the point that whatever is the final choice of Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders with respect to who emerges as the running mate, the 2023 Presidential election will be keenly contested, irrespective of religious and ethnic identity of both Asiwaju Tinubu and whoever the running mate may be. APC leaders must acknowledge the fact that the 2023 elections present another golden opportunity for the APC to re-invent itself. With the landmark initiatives of President Buhari’s government in the last seven years, challenges of insecurity are being used by opposition parties, especially PDP, to falsely alleged that APC has failed. The claim is that APC government has mismanaged the economy, divided Nigerians and created insecurity. Part of the arguments is that Nigeria is now the ‘poverty capital of the world’, alleging also that the so-called poor performance of APC led government of President Buhari contrasts with so-called ‘achievements’ of sixteen years of PDP between 1999 and 2015. Many PDP leaders and their supporters have even claimed that if PDP failed to win the 2023 election, Nigeria will collapse.
APC must, as a party, use the 2023 Presidential campaign to effectively counter all these false narratives. Part of what must be done to achieve that is about developing effective communication strategy, which has been one of the strong weaknesses of both the APC as a party and as a governing party at Federal level. APC’s 2023 Presidential campaign must effectively correct all these false narratives and convincingly confirm to Nigerians that, President Buhari’s APC government has put Nigeria back on the roadmap to national development. APC’s 2023 Presidential campaign must use evidence-based politics to showcase the initiatives of President Buhari-led Federal Government.
A major objective of APC 2023 Presidential campaign should be to correct all the false narratives being propagated by opposition parties that APC government has failed. The campaign should instead focus more on showcasing the achievements of APC-led Federal Government, which is about rebuilding the country. For instance, achievements in the areas of social investment, infrastructure and agriculture can effectively provide APC’s contrasting scorecard. Since emerging as the governing party in 2015, APC Federal Government has implemented National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), which is far more than what any government in the past has done. Founded on four pillars of N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Home Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), millions of poor Nigerians are benefiting from these initiatives. For instance, GEEP has disbursed N36.9 billion in interest-free loans of between N50,000 to N350,000 to more than 2.3 million Nigerians. Under the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, 9.9 million primary 1 – 3 pupils in 54,952 public primary schools in 35 states are benefiting. Additional 107,000 cooks have been engaged. In the case of Conditional Cash Transfer, more than 3 million poor and vulnerable households have been registered on the National Social Register, out of which more than one million families are currently being paid N5,000 monthly.
In the area of infrastructure, when President Buhari’s administration assumed office in 2015, the total budget for Federal Roads by the outgoing PDP government of former President Goodluck Jonathan was 18 billion Naira, which is only about 25% of the Lagos State roads budget for that year. The persistent skeletal funding translated to abandoned or slow-moving road projects across the country. APC administration increased allocation to the roads budget to more than 200 billion Naira per annum. In addition, more resources were devoted to construction of road and transport infrastructure than any other administration since 1999, and the results are roads, bridges, highways, rail lines and stations, and air and seaport upgrades. Currently, there are around 900 active road contracts covering the construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation of more than 13,000km of Federal roads and highways across the country, out of a total of 35,000km of Federal roads in existence.
In the area of agriculture, APC led government of President Buhari established National Food Security Council (NFSC), Agriculture for Food and Jobs Plan (AFJP), National Livestock Transformation Plan, Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) and Creation of an Enabling Environment. Specifically, ABP for instance, implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2015, provided more than 300 billion Naira to more than 3.1 million smallholder farmers of 21 different commodities (including Rice, Wheat, Maize, Cotton, Cassava, Poultry, Soy Beans, Groundnut, Fish), across Nigeria, successfully cultivating over 3.8 million hectares of farmland. PFI has produced and delivered to the Nigerian market over 30 million 50kg bags equivalent of fertilizer, at reduced prices; and resulted in the revival or construction of no fewer than 40 moribund fertilizer blending plants across the country. Nigeria today has 44 functioning blending plants, with more on the way as a result of the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI).
Apart from achievements in the areas of social investment, infrastructure and agriculture, there are other initiatives in other sectors. Initiatives in these three sectors substantiate the point that based on records of performance in government, APC remarkably moved Nigeria forward from the era of waste and large-scale diversion of public resources under sixteen years of PDP government between 1999 and 2015. For instance, recall the numerous cases of diversions of huge sums of financial resources in the guise of petroleum subsidy contained in many reports of investigation panels under PDP governments. There was also the case of corruption under the Police Pension Task Force. The case of $180 million Halliburton; $1.1 billion Malabo Oil; Princess Stella Oduah N255 million Aviation Ministry bulletproof cars; N10 billion jet scam involving the petroleum minister (2011 – 2015) Mrs. Diezani Alison Madueke; and House of Representatives Capital Market probe; and N360 billion service-wide scam are also there. There was also the case of $2.1 billion arms deal involving retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser under President Jonathan’s PDP administration.
APC must use the opportunity of the 2023 Presidential campaigns to remind Nigerians about these hard facts. Nigerians must be guided to make choices based on evidence and not just sentiment. In many respects, when Asiwaju Tinubu, in his acceptance speech enjoined fellow APC leaders to ‘ensure PDP does not return to power after 16 years of colossal failure’, he certainly must be referring to these issues. Notwithstanding all the achievements of APC-led government of President Buhari, it is however important to recognise the issues of insecurity, which has remained a major national challenge. It is important that assessment of performance of APC government is not reduced to opinions of opposition politicians. The reality is that both President Buhari and all APC leaders acknowledged the enormity of the challenges of insecurity in the country.
Noting that APC administration is taking steps to equip the security agencies and build morale, promote community-led solutions, develop new security infrastructure and operations across land and maritime environments, and address the underlying drivers of insecurity (poverty and youth unemployment), the need to rebuild the confidence of Nigerians that post 2023 APC Federal government can effectively respond to all our national challenges, with Asiwaju Tinubu as the President is very necessary. For instance, the need to mobilise large-scale funding to undertake massive recruitment of security personnel – police, military, airforce, naval, etc. must be given priority. Recognising that although serious challenges still exist, and there is still a long way to go in restoring a robust sense of security in the country, it is also very important that APC’s 2023 Presidential campaign is able to develop a far reaching proposals of re-organising and strengthening Nigerian security services to restore peace across every part of the country. The next APC government, under Asiwaju Tinubu should begin to orient itself to outline specific governance reforms that should end dastardly activity of terrorists and criminal elements in every part of the country, in whatever forms.
As it is today, all opposition to APC are more interested in using challenges facing the country to further divide Nigerians. APC’s 2023 Presidential campaign must be about uniting citizens to move Nigeria forward. It must be about issues and proposals for nation building. It must be about pushing Nigerians to take all the hard decisions based on respect, equity and fair representation. This is what the Presidential candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu should represent. APC should win the 2023 Presidential Election based on a convincing promise for national unity!
kabiru danladi
--
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
Salihu Lukman
Fallacious Politics of 2023
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
A close friend and comrade recently asked me if I am Obedient, suggesting that I am supporting Mr. Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party. To say the least, I was very dismayed that anyone could imagine I will support any candidate other than Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I may excuse any person if he/she is meeting me for the first time. Having come a long way both as activist and learner of politics since my student days in the 1980s, our commitment to politics and the development of Nigeria was informed by a clear vision to build a society founded on equality and justice. Our politics of support or opposition to leaders normally take bearing from our assessment of commitment of individual leaders to issues of equality and justice, which is more a function of producing accountable leaders who will work to meet the expectations of citizens.
Somehow, our contemporary reality is that political choices are largely informed by sentiments often based on perceptions without any evidential objective indicator of probable commitment to deliver services and meet the expectations of citizens. It is more a case of blind expectations, which can only lead us to more frustrations and anger with our leaders. Partly because scholarship is very poor today in Nigeria, there are many so-called Obidient supporters who promote outright falsehood and politics hate against other candidates and their supporters. This is unfortunately self-defeatist.
As a member of APC, I want to campaign for all our candidates while at the same time respecting our opposition. People are free to make their choices and we should respect that. Once the element of respect is removed from politics of choices of candidates, then democracy risks being downgraded to the level of anarchy. The temptation to indulge in politics of disrespect could be linked to the apparent lack of confidence of winning the election. It is almost a case of if I lose it means the bad people have impose themselves again. Everything is reduced to a contest between the good and the bad. What makes any candidate good or bad, is left to some intuitive presentations by individuals who often reduced political contests to bullying conditions.
With reference to the so-called Obidient, as much as we respect their choice, we also must appeal to them to honestly recognise the shortcomings of Mr. Peter Obi as a politician and Labour Party (LP) as a political party. Recognising these shortcomings will be important in convincing Nigerians that they are engaging the contest also as a strategy to reform both the person of Mr. Peter Obi and the organisation of LP as a political party. In terms of the person of Mr. Peter Obi, so far, his characteristics is that of a typical Nigerian politician who is more of an election merchant presenting himself every four years for election, even if it means changing political party.
Being an election merchant connote obvious lack of commitment and discipline to be loyal to any political party. This partly explains why Mr. Obi moved from All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now LP between 2015 and now. What is the guarantee that his candidature of LP also bears a commitment to develop the LP and get it to overcome all its challenges. Noting that it is a public knowledge that LP has been embroiled in leadership crisis, how is Mr. Obi using his campaign to negotiate the resolution of LP crisis. From a distant point of view, Mr. Obi is in fact indifferent to the crisis facing LP.
Beyond being indifferent, Mr. Obi is clearly alien to any ideological standpoint that can bring him close to the working class, which is the primary constituency of LP. Some of us are privileged to have been intellectually and organically connected to that constituency. In fact, I am privileged to have managed the project which conceived and facilitated the initial negotiation between Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its partners, notably civil society, which produced the LP in 2003. Part of the reality facing LP had to do with the close shop mentality of labour leaders, which blocked the party from being open to other Nigerians outside the mainstream labour movement. This reality blew open in the face of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for instance when in 2007 after serving his eight years term as President of NLC and wanted to win the 2007 Governorship election in Edo State, he had to syndicate alliance with Action Congress (AC). Interestingly, once he wins the 2007 election, that was the end of the alliance as he moved to AC, while his LP membership became history.
Part of what must be recognised in all these debates is that the fallacious politics of 2023 is more about the disappointments of Nigerians with our leaders and the state of the nation. While it is important to recognise the legitimate disappointment of Nigerians with our leaders and the state of the nation, it will remain a fallacy to imagine that a simple choice of a typical election merchant can resolve Nigeria’s challenges. Not just Peter Obi, any other politician with the characteristics of changing political parties for the purpose of contesting elections, such a person is not what Nigeria need today. Without prejudice to my respect for Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, they are both in the same category with Mr. Obi. Alh. Atiku has been either a Presidential candidate or aspirant in every election in different parties since 2007. Sen. Kwankwaso has moved from PDP to APC, back to PDP between 2015 and 2019, before finally forming New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in 2022 and present himself as the Presidential candidate of the party for 2023 election.
Out of all the leading candidates, the only one that has never left his party to any party is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is the only one that although he has been a national political leader since he left office as Governor of Lagos State in 2007 that is presenting himself for the first time as a Presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. In addition, he is the only contestant who together with other leaders of APC envisioned the political roadmap for the defeat of PDP. Together with President Muhammadu Buhari they provided the inspirational leadership that successfully negotiated the emergence of APC in 2013. The formation of APC was the first successful merger negotiation of opposition parties in Nigeria. It was also the first opposition to defeat a ruling party in 2015.
Without doubt, Nigerians had a lot of expectations. One of the expectations of Nigerians and indeed many of us in APC is that the management of the APC will broaden internal democracy and minimise, if not eliminate politics of imposition of candidates, which is the main characteristics of PDP. Broadening internal democracy is correlated to facilitate the emergence of good accountable leaders. Internal management of political parties and the process of candidates’ selection within a political party are strongly entwined such that once leaders of a political party are weakly accountable to members and interest groups within the party, it will be highly probable that internal process of candidate selection will hardly be representative of the diverse interests of members. Once emergence of candidates is not representative of interests of members of political parties, elected representatives produced by such party are more likely to be unaccountable to electorates.
Before highlighting our reality in APC, it is interesting how activist with some clear ideological orientation can suggest that a Mr. Obi who within a week of his exit out of PDP and joining LP can inspire any hope of emerging as an accountable President. In the case of Alh. Atiku, the level of intolerance and mismanagement of internal leadership dispute should frighten every patriotic Nigerian about entrusting the leadership of the country to such a person. Sen. Kwankwoso’s politics present him as philosopher king which only revolves around his person and any opposition will not be allowed.
The reality in APC is that party management is weakly accountable to members and interest groups within the party. Party organs are not meeting as provided in the party constitution, which undermine issues of accountability by party leaders. There are internal opposition to this reality, which often contest discretionary decisions by party leaders. For instance, during the last process that produced candidates for the 2023 election within the APC, there were instances of attempts to impose discretionary decisions, which would have led to imposition of Presidential candidate. Thanks to the personal disposition of President Muhammadu Buhari who refused to adopt any discretionary decision to impose a so-called consensus candidate, internal opposition to the attempt by some party leaders to impose a so-called consensus candidate, which led to the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of our party.
The emergence of Asiwaju as the Presidential candidate of APC was the product of open internal contest in APC. Unlike most of the Presidential candidates of the other opposition parties, Asiwaju was not a product of imposition. It can also be argued that Alh. Atiku also won PDP primary. However, the difference between Asiwaju and Alh. Atiku is the ability to successful negotiate and win the support of other party leaders who contested against him. Today, all those who contested against Asiwaju in APC are working for his victory.
One of the crimes of Asiwaju as propagated by the opposition is the so-called failure of APC government at federal level. No doubt, like any other nation, Nigeria is faced with challenges. Do these challenges represent failure? No. Both Asiwaju and the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) have recognise the progress recorded by APC administration of President Buhari and the challenges facing the country. Both Asiwaju and all leaders of APC are never in denial of all the challenges facing the country. In addition, both Asiwaju and all APC leaders have evaluated our performance in government at federal level.
The disposition of Asiwaju and all our leaders is to develop the needed strategy on what needs to be done to build on all the successes of President Buhari’s administration. As part of that disposition is the question of further deepening accountability both within the party and between elected leaders and Nigerians. This is a fundamental issue and is at the heart of all the challenges facing the country. For Nigeria to be a truly democratic nation, both political parties and elected representatives must be accountable. Unlike all the other candidates, it is only Asiwaju who is a product of internal struggle within the party for accountability. The candidature of Asiwaju therefore represent the hope for the emergence of accountable leaders. To have accountable leaders require the presence of political parties with accountable management as provided in their rules.
There are other subsidiary issues that unfortunately are being used by political opposition to rationalise political choices of individuals. This includes the whole challenge of brain drain, for instance. While it is important to recognise the desire of every human being to access better opportunities, we must, as a nation, avoid generalisations. Nigerians who moved of out of the country in search of greener pastures are in different categories. There are those who legitimately want to excel in their chosen field of endevour international. There are those who just believe that they can only excel outside Nigeria because, for them, Nigeria represents everything that is bad. There is the third category who are simply just adventurous and just want to go into the world and have a feel of the good life that is out there.
Somehow, many so-called Obidients have politicise discussions around the issue of brain drain and they use it buttress issues of failure of government. Brain drain is certainly a challenge and if Nigeria is to develop, we must address any condition that makes us unable as a nation to keep our skilled labour force. At the same time, we must also be able to attract our children back home to contribute to the development of the country after studies abroad. The debate about managing these challenges should be separated from that of managing the challenge of some Nigerians who left the country without the requisite skills to enable them access opportunities outside Nigeria. Therefore, while recognising the legitimate voices of Nigerian diaspora professionals about the desire to produce good leaders in the country, we must also be wary about the desperate voices of some diaspora Nigerians whose anger is not limited to our situation in Nigeria, but more a reflection of personal frustration because of being unable to develop needed skills to access the opportunities that took them out of the country in the first place.
Be that as it may however, as a nation, our political leaders must be prepared to engage this reality. Addressing this reality is more a function of recognising our diversity and how it manifests in our national challenges. This what Asiwaju, in the foreword to Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan for a Better Nigeria, eloquently highlighted that “Nigeria is a unique nation, impressive in its diverse character and composition, resounding and hopeful in unity and collective fate. Home to over 200 million vibrant people, Nigeria stands as the most populous nation on the African continent and the largest concentration of Black people on earth. It is beyond debate that we owe the duty of national progress to our progeny and to ourselves.”
This is more about our vision to make our leaders accountable and not simple choices of individual candidates. Many of us in APC are supporting Asiwaju as part of our ongoing campaign to continue to build the APC as a progressive party, capable of producing accountable elected representatives at all levels. We do so with full confidence that Asiwaju will build on the legacy of President Buhari, which also include respecting internal debate and contestation within the APC. APC is the only party today in Nigeria that permit internal debate and contestations.
Abdul Oroh
--
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
Leonard Ugbajah
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
Salihu Lukman
Electoral Contests and Public Expectations: Matching Hopes with Realities
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
As Nigerians move closer to February 25, 2023, which is the day when the nation will go to polls to elect President and National Assembly members, the public debate is all about possible winners and losers. Understandably, most Nigerians are obsessed with the issue of proving that their preferred candidates will win the elections. Unfortunately, too, the dominant approach in the debate is the old antagonistic disposition, which reduces electoral contests to a competition between the good and the bad. Consequently, Nigerians blindfold themselves into a game of wit, which overlooked the obvious limitations and shortcomings of chosen candidates. Candidates that are not chosen are damaged, if not criminalised. In the process, respect is completely lost.
Perhaps, it can be argued, this is the global reality. However, there is the need to elevate electoral contests beyond the game of wit. Once electoral contests are reduced to game of wit, prospects for democratic development risks being inhibited. I say this with all sense of responsibility and as a Nigerian who is passionate in the political progress of the country as a democratic nation. One of the problematic issues of reducing electoral contests to game of wit is that, by commission or omission, Nigerians tend to take for granted the hard earn successes that have been recorded over the years and throw up some fantasies around candidates who’s only commitment to democracy and political development of the country is limited to the extent that they are on the ballot for election.
The emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as APC’s Presidential candidate is a product internal party contest. One of our prides today in APC is that after the Convention that produced Asiwaju Tinubu as our Presidential Candidate, none of the Aspirants who contested against him left the party. Instead, all of them are united behind him and are working for his victory. It may also be important to note that the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as APC’s Presidential candidate was the product of strong internal contest. There may be temptation to narrow the contest to the dynamics around the question of whether there will be an anointed aspirant who would have been crowned as the consensus candidate, which wouldn’t have been Asiwaju Tinubu.
The reality was that the contest for the choice of APC Presidential candidate started way back during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman of the party. At that time, the issues confronting the party was that of broadening the internal democratic space within the party. Issues of accountability of party leaders under the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) to members were the challenges. Meetings of organs of the party such as National Executive Committee (NEC), National Caucus and Board of Trustees were the key challenge. At that time in 2019, there were attempts to suggest that many of us raising these issues were doing so because we were opposed to the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the party.
Thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari’s unbiased disposition, eventually, Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC was dissolved and a Caretaker Committee under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala was appointed, with a short mandate of six months. At the time of the appointment of His Excellency Mai Mala-led Caretaker Committee on June 25, 2020, the expectation was that a new NWC for the party would emerged early in 2021 long before the contest for the emergence of candidates for 2023 elections commences. Interestingly, His Excellency Mai Mala-led Caretaker Committee manipulated its mandate and began to sit-tight into the leadership of the party. It took strong internal contest against His Excellency Mai Mala-led Caretaker Committee to get it to organise the March 28, 2022 National Convention that elected the current Sen. Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC.
Of course, by the time of the March 28, 2022 National Convention, already Presidential Aspirants have emerged. Many of them had their preferred candidates for the position of National Chairman. Some of the Presidential Aspirants were able to expand their lobbies to some of the influential people around the President and perhaps succeeded to convince President Buhari to nominate Sen. Abdullahi Adamu for the position of National Chairman. And shortly after the election of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu as the National Chairman of the APC, negotiation for the emergence of a so-called consensus presidential candidate was activated.
It may also be important to remind Nigerians that the scheming around emergence of a so-called consensus candidate was ridiculously stretched beyond the APC to include people like former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria. These were never members of the APC. But with the active collaboration of some influential people outside the APC such as Chief Nduka Ogbaigbena, publisher and owner of Thisday Newspaper and Arise Television, some sophisticated mobilisation of so-called ‘hundred eminent businessmen, political, media and civil society leaders, including 14 current governors, 13 former governors as well as three former senate presidents’ commenced around April 2022. Gradually, this scheming shifted and was entrenched within APC. By May 2023, when the party began to sell its nomination forms to aspiring candidates, forms were purchased by some APC leaders for former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
Eventually, when these schemers couldn’t succeed in popularising both former President Jonathan and Mr. Emefiele as possible contenders to emerge as consensus Presidential candidates for APC, the Senate President, Sen. Ahmed Lawan was recruited and promoted. It is on record that Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, on the eve of the Convention that elected Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the party, announced to NWC members that Sen. Ahmed Lawan was the consensus presidential candidate of the party. Members of the NWC together with Progressive Governors rose against that move and again thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari, the contest for the Presidential candidate of APC was thrown open and Asiwaju won with a wide merging.
Part of the dummy that was promoted within the APC to attempt to popularise the choice of a Northerner, Sen. Ahmed Lawan as a consensus candidate was that since PDP had elected Alh. Atiku Abubakar, a Northerner as its Presidential Candidate, we needed to also elect a Northern so that we can win the votes of Northerners. This is completely inconsiderate of the popular agitation for power shift in the country. It is also insensitive of the potential instability that the choice of another Northerner emerging as President of the country could cause. Ahead of the APC National Convention, APC Governors from the North had already declared their opposition against a Northerner emerging as APC Presidential candidate.
Combinations of all of these in so many ways contributed towards tilting support of many APC leaders towards Asiwaju Tinubu. Certainly, Asiwaju Tinubu’s personal quality given his track records both as a businessman, politician, and elected Governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 were also there. He has over the years proven himself as a fighter for democracy. This is one characteristic that has defined him and perhaps strengthen him to survive many personal attacks on his person and his integrity. The administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo investigated him on many of the issues that are being used to smear his name such drugs. Renown radical lawyer and human rights activists, late Chief Gani Fawehinmi challenged his academic credentials unsuccessfully in courts. Many journalists and activists questioned his integrity but were not able to establish any proof.
Asiwaju Tinubu’s battles didn’t start in 1999 when he became Governor of Lagos State. Although both Asiwaju Tinubu and Alh. Atiku Abubakar could make claims to being members of late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua’s Popular Front and part of leaders of Social Democratic Party (SDP), which produced Chief M. K. O. Abiola as the 1993 Presidential Candidate, but Alh. Atiku vacate the political space for the military in 1993 when they annulled the election, which Chief Abiola won. On the other hand, Asiwaju Tinubu took the risk of joining the vanguard of the struggle against military rule. Both Mr. Peter Obi and Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso were never in the vanguard for the struggle against military rule.
As a fighter, Asiwaju Tinubu would appear to be a person with unshaken confidence and capacity to defend himself. Unlike many Nigerian politicians with short term agenda of winning elections, Asiwaju would seem to be looking beyond elections, which may be responsible for why he was not in a hurry to put himself on the ballot since 2007 when he left office as a Governor of Lagos State. Arguably, he is about the only politician that has consistently invested in politicians without being a candidate. His contribution to the merger negotiations that produced the APC as a political party was significant. His passion and commitment to the growth of APC as a progressive party and development of Nigerian democracy is very clear.
This has certainly earned him some strong opposition both within and outside APC. Both the PDP and all the other opposition parties including the Labour Party and NNPP knows that Asiwaju Tinubu is the main Presidential candidate to beat. Of course, there are forces within the APC that are also not comfortable with the possibility that Asiwaju Tinubu will be the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Schemers that failed to produce neither Mr. Emefiele or former President Jonathan or Sen. Ahmed Lawan as consensus candidate of APC have unleashed Mr. Emefiele’s so-called cashless policy to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu. But like they failed in the case of consensus presidential candidate, they are also failing in their intrigues to damage the APC and the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu. Like Asiwaju Tinubu emerged as the Presidential candidate of APC despite their machinations, Asiwaju Tinubu will also become elected as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, God willing.
As members of APC, we must remain resolute and focused on our commitment to develop our party and our democracy. We must remain focused to return our party APC to its founding vision. We must remind Nigerians that the back born of every democracy is the existence of strong political parties. So far, Nigerian democracy be strengthened to produces accountable political leaders. Sadly, Nigerians, in their frustrations tend to want to submit themselves to power greedy political leaders whose main value is only limited to contesting elections with hardly any commitment to party that present them as candidates. This is responsible for why most of these politically greedy politicians contest on different political parties every election. In fact, they are serial aspirants and contestants for elective positions.
Those of us who have been in the vanguard for struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy must seek to shift the debate to the business of building political parties to emerge as truly democratic and accountable institutions. In addition to all the current initiatives to review progress and challenges facing the APC, for instance, we need to also highlight the issue of re-organising the APC immediately after elections. We must regulate the approach whereby immediately after elections, attention shift to the lobby of who gets appointed into government. Fundamental as that would appear to be, if not managed very well, it may also lead to the further weakening of the party.
Part of the first issue that should be immediately corrected is the restoration of life to all party organs. A situation whereby key decisions of the party are taken without recourse to formal organs should be corrected. The challenge of accountability also requires that structures of the party meet, and both elected and appointed representatives of the party should be answerable to the structures of the party. This is what party supremacy is about.
Democracy is beyond periodic elections; it is a daily affair. Since the formation of APC in 2013, the struggle to build the APC as a democratic, progressive and accountable institution has been a priority agenda. As it is often said, Rome is not built in a day. Certainly, a lot of work is required to develop APC to the level of being the envisioned democratic, progressive and accountable party. Looking at the Nigerian political landscape and compared to all the other parties and candidates for the 2023 Presidential elections, APC’s and Asiwaju Tinubu’s record of commitment to Nigerian democracy, party building and capacity is unparalleled. As APC members, our support for Asiwaju is not just about electing a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but also about electing a committed leader who will guide the APC to return to its founding vision.
Guiding the APC to return to its founding vision is a catalysig factor for party development and the growth of our democracy. Producing good accountable leaders can hardly be achieved without producing accountable political party institutions. Politicians with hardly any record of commitment and capacity to make sacrifices in defence of democracy outside participating in elections may not be capable of meeting any public expectation. Meeting public expectation is about being accountable, which is beyond elections. The candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu therefore is beyond the 2023 elections; it is about matching the hopes of Nigerians to develop our country and the reality of being faced with the challenge of building the foundational institution of every democracy, which is the political party. That is the founding vision of APC, it remains the pillar of every electoral contest in APC since 2015, and it shall remain so!
Salihu Lukman
Cashless Economy and Presidential Cabal
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Nigerians are today faced with the most uncertain of times. With national elections few days away and deliberate cash squeeze enforced by a deliberate policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). First announced on October 26, 2022, new N200, N500 and N1,000 were introduced and the old ones were to seize as legal tender by January 31, 2023. Later extended to February 10, with the new policy, Nigerians were directed to deposit old notes in exchange for the new notes. Part of the objective of the policy was also to reduce the amount of money outside the banking system as highlighted by Mr. Godwin Emefiele while announcing the policy that ‘N2.7 trillion out of the N3.3 trillion currency in circulation was outside the vault of commercial banks across the country and supposedly held by members of the public.’
To mop up the N2.7 trillion, the CBN imposed some conditions, which required citizens to deposit money in their bank accounts. This assumes that citizens have bank accounts and that bank branches exist in every part of the country. The reality however is that only about 39% of Nigerians have bank accounts. More than 300 out of the 774 Local Governments in the country have no bank branches or cash centres. Where they exist, the bank branches and cash centres are mostly located in the headquarters. Specifically, in terms of cash centres, total number of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in the country is less than 20,000.
These records suggest the needs to take more extra steps to strengthen the banking system in the country to meet up of the new demands that will be occasioned by the new policy. It will clearly require contingency measures to expand the banking system, such that citizens could exchange the old notes in locations that don’t have bank branches or cash centres such as ATMs. Given that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in November 2021 reported that Nigeria’s banks closed 234 branches and 649, ATMs, should have given a strong warning that the principles of ceteris paribus (all conditions remaining the same) would translate to failure for the new policy.
Unfortunately, all these were overlooked. And for whatever reasons, the CBN and the Federal Government continue to delude themselves that the new policy can succeed with a very weak banking reality. In the circumstances, both the old and the new notes have disappeared across every part of the country. Even people with bank accounts can’t access their money. Somehow, because we are approaching election period, the gullibility of Nigerians is being exploited. There are stories around how the new policy is going to block vote buying. There are also other strong narratives about internal sabotage within APC based on how some powerful forces around President Muhammadu Buhari are opposed to the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC Presidential candidate as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
There are also strong concerns about how combination of cash squeeze and fuel scarcity being experienced in every part of the country can lead to unrest and possible postponement of the election. Some have even speculated that all these are aimed at creating a situation that would lead to the enthronement of a so-called government of national unity, whatever that means. All these in some ways remind one of Dr. Reuben Abati’s article of November 14, 2016, The Spiritual Side of Aso Villa. In that article, Dr. Abati lamented how ‘People tend to be alarmed when the Nigerian Presidency takes certain decisions. They don’t think the decision makes sense. Sometimes, they wonder if something has not gone wrong with the thinking process at that highest level of the country.’
Nothing best explains what we are experiencing today. How an excellently desirable policy such that would lead to a cashless economy could be designed to fail beat the imagination of everyone. As a member of APC, I can say with every confidence, this wouldn’t have been the objective. It is however worrisome how our party leaders are unable to convince Mr. President to have a rethink about the implementation of this policy. This has created all manner of frustrations both with the APC, across the country and across all segments of society. The only person that possibly is not frustrated with the policy is Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of the PDP who is supporting the policy, which is why many people argue that the ‘cabal’ around the President want Alh. Atiku Abubakar to win the election.
Partly on account of the frustration by APC, governments of Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara states have taken the matter directly to Supreme Court and have today, Wednesday, February 8, 2023 obtained judgement that has canceled the CBN’s February 10 deadline to end the validity of the old Naira notes. With this judgement, it means that even after February 10, the old notes would still serve as legal tender. The big question is, will this end the current Naira (old or new) scarcity? It may not. If, however, the speculated objective of any so-called cabal is to frustrate the February 25, 2023 elections by either creating conditions that could mobilise electorates to vote against the APC and its candidates, especially Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, God willing it shall not succeed.
In all of these, it needs to be clearly stated that throughout the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari, nothing tests his credential as a converted democrat more than the need to demonstrate more listening ears and compassion at the plight of Nigerians. As a converted democrat, which I believe he is, President Muhammadu Buhari needs to demonstrate that by respecting the Supreme Court judgement and direct the CBN to end the current madness that imposes Naira scarcity in the country and untold hardship for millions of Nigerians.
For both APC, as a party, and Nigeria, as a nation, one of the lessons that the current reality imposes is the need to develop our political parties and make them capable of regulating the conduct of elected functionaries. This is not only the case with APC, but also the case with all our parties. Why should we have a challenge with grave consequences on the electoral fortunes of political parties, yet none of the parties contesting the 2023 elections have convened any emergency meeting of their National Executive Committee (NEC)? Yet, we want elections to produce accountable leaders. Once party organs have seized to be decision making platforms, the domineering control of government institutions by so-called cabals will remain strong.
Moving Nigerian democracy forward require all of us as Nigerians to be much more honest beyond some partisan permutations about winning elections. As members of APC, we are working hard to win the 2023 elections, but we also will work even more harder to ensure that our next government to be led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will come with more listening ears to Nigerians and fellow party leaders. God willing Asiwaju Tinubu’s APC government must be a remarkable improvement on President Buhari’s government whereby party leaders will through all our organs as provided in our constitution effectively and efficiently take all necessary decisions, which would be respected by Asiwaju Tinubu as President of the Federal Republic, God willing, and all elected representatives.
Salihu Lukman
2023 Nigerian Presidential Election and Matters Arising
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Presidential Candidate of our party, All Progressives Congress (APC) has been declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the President-Elect of the Federal Government of Nigeria in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Polling Eight Million, Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty-Six (8,794,726) votes, he defeated his closest rivals, candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi who respectively won Six Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty-Four Thousand, Five Hundred and Twenty (6,984,520) and Six Million, One Hundred and One Thousand, Five Hundred and Thirty-Three Thousand (6,101,533) votes.
By every standard, the result of the 2023 Nigerian elections is very close. And however considered, it has produced surprises, which are good indicators that the Nigerian electoral process produces the choices of Nigerians. For instance, the President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been defeated by Mr. Peter Obi, LP Presidential Candidate for the first time. Also, President Muhammadu Buhari was defeated by Alh. Atiku Abubakar, PDP candidate. If anything, at least the 2023 Presidential elections should give more confidence to Nigerians that the Nigerian electoral process has matured. INEC should be commended for the management of the 2023 elections. Credit should also be given to President Muhammadu Buhari for providing the enabling political environment for INEC to do its work professionally without political interference by the executives.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Nigerian democracy. This is because a matured democracy should command the respect of actors in the electoral process. Rather than commanding respect, what characterises the 2023 Presidential elections is utter contempt from fellow contestants and so long as the results doesn’t support the aspirations of some of the fellow leading candidates, it is disputed. As a result, from the beginning of collation of results for the 2023 Presidential elections, there were calls for cancellation of the results by both the leading candidates who have lost the elections and some of their supporters, including a former President of the Federal Republic whose records of interference and manipulation of the Nigerian electoral process is anything but civil or democratic.
Perhaps, it should be recognised that foul cries by candidates who lost the elections is also a reflection of the internal dynamics of party politics in the country. The truth must be told that while, as Nigerians, across all interests, we have invested a lot of resources in engaging INEC to reform the electoral process, the same could not be said about political parties and the management of internal party contests. Part of that reality is reflected in the poor management of the process of candidates’ emergence for the 2023 elections. In many respects, LP’s rise to electoral prominence in the 2023 elections is largely through harvesting the grievances of politicians from both the PDP and APC. For instance, Mr. Peter Obi was up to early 2022 a member of the PDP and many LP Governorship candidates were defectors from both the PDP and APC after losing their bids in either the PDP or APC to emerge as Gubernatorial candidates.
Unhealthy state of internal party contest therefore, leading to imposition of candidates could be attributed as the source for legitimacy for the disrespectful conducts of candidates and politicians who lost the elections. It is also perhaps the source of challenges leading to some of the avoidable outcomes of the 2023 elections in many states. What distinguishes the APC and its Presidential candidate who is today declared President-Elect is the fact that he represents hope by resisting attempts to impose so-called consensus Presidential candidate within the APC. His emergence as the candidate of our party in June 2022 embodies that narrative. And again, his election as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a true reflection of that reality too. Without reopening all the dynamics that played out, it is public knowledge that some people at the highest level in APC were opposed to the emergence of Asiwaju Tunibu both as the candidate of the APC and the President-Elect.
Part of also what must be acknowledged is that APC had to manage its Presidential campaign almost as if its Presidential candidate is an opposition candidate. For instance, our leaders had to dissociate themselves from a crudely managed cashless policy of the APC Federal Government, which had the attributes of facilitating the defeat of APC in the Presidential elections. That Nigerians, across every part of the country elected Asiwaju Tinubu as the next President of the Federal Republic reflects the trust being invested both in APC as a party and Asiwaju as the President-elect. Without doubt, this is well earned trust.
Asiwaju, as a politician has over the years demonstrated strong commitment to building Nigerian democracy. He was, together with many patriotic Nigerians, in the trenches in the 1990s struggling against military rule. From the beginning of the Fourth Republic, first as elected Governor of Lagos State, he was part of the struggle against the culture of executive lawlessness that characterises the tenure of PDP between 1999 and 2015. He was instrumental in the evolution of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as an opposition party winning six states between 2007 and 2013. Being a visionary leader of the ACN, he was together with other leaders, notably Chief Bisi Akande able to negotiate a pan Nigerian political alliance, leading to the successful merger negotiations of opposition parties in the country in 2013 producing the APC as a registered political party.
Against all predictions, not only that the merger of opposition parties in the country was successful, but also for the first time an opposition party successfully defeated a ruling party in 2015. That was made possible by the twin leadership and partnership between Asiwaju Tinubu and President Muhammadu Buhari. Having therefore emerged successfully as the President-Elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023 Presidential election, Asiwaju Tinubu certainly earned this victory. Both as members of APC and as Nigerians, we should be both proud and inspired by this victory to further commit ourselves to the struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy. We should be grateful to Nigerians for investing their trust in both Asiwaju Tinubu as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in the APC as the ruling party for another four years.
At this point, we must, as leaders and associates of the President-elect accept this trust with high measure of humility. We must acknowledge and thank President Muhammadu Buhari for his leadership. In doing so, we should appeal to Asiwaju Tinubu being the new leader of our party to consider this golden opportunity as a call to action to continue the struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy. This will require considerable attention and focus on the development of our party, which will require some internal reform measures to guarantee internal competition within the party. Some of the things that should be immediately done is to ensure that the National Working Committee (NWC) is accountable and respect the constitution of the party.
A situation whereby the NWC will operate for almost a year without rendering financial report to any organ of the party is unacceptable. Similarly unacceptable is a situation whereby the NWC will continue to refuse to convene meetings of the National Executive Committee (NEC) as provided in the constitution of the party. Being the leader of the party, Asiwaju Tinubu should avoid replicating the mistake whereby as President of the Federal Republic produced by the APC he will limit his relationship with other leaders of the party to only the National Chairman and some few leaders of the party. He must broaden his relationship with all leaders of the party and mainstream it to nurture the institutional development of party organs. Over the years, we have witnesses how limiting relationship between the President, on the one hand, and National Chairman and few leaders, on the other, that was abused and should be corrected immediately.
In all these, we need to also acknowledge that development of political parties in Nigeria today is being encumbered by funding challenges. As things are, all our political parties lack independent sources of funding. As a result, party leaders have been reduced to being surrogates of elected representatives in government, yet we expect parties to regulate the conduct of these elected representatives. In the circumstance, it amounts to sheer mockery to talk of party supremacy. There is no way any surrogate can regulate the conduct of his or her master. Part of the confirmation that party leaders are surrogates will be reflected in the ways and manners personal lobbies for appointments into government will be activated by the same people who would be expected to facilitate internal party negotiations for appointment in the next government to be led by Asiwaju Tinubu.
Poor management of negotiations into the Federal Government in 2015 produced the reality of weak influence by the party and its leadership on governments it produced, especially Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari. Consequently, loyal party members who worked hard to produce the victory of the party in 2015 and 2019 had to live with the trauma of producing a government that doesn’t reward the efforts of party members. Strangers and in some instances antagonists to APC became the main players. This must change if our party is to develop democratically.
Another point that must be highlighted at this point of victory is the need to be faithful to our electoral promises. One of the shortcomings of parties managing governments since 1999 is that everything is left to the discretion of elected representatives. Requirements to give life to provisions of party manifesto is absent. In fact, many elected representatives are ignorant of provisions of the party manifesto. This needs to change. All party leaders aspiring to be appointed into government must familiarise themselves with provisions of the party manifesto as well as envision how to produce desired outcomes.
Related with that is that leaders of the party must have the humility to subordinate themselves to party decisions. A situation where the party will invest time and resources to produce recommendations such as the one produced by the Mal. Nasir El-Rufai Committee on True Federalism and ignored by government is not only unacceptable but should be regarded as anti-party activity. The commitment of leaders to democracy must be reflected in their willingness to implement decisions of party organs.
The next era of APC government under His Excellency Asiwaju Tinubu must produce the rebirth of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. It must signal the era of renewed hope for the development of democracy in Nigeria. It should above all be the era for the institutional development of APC as a political party. Coming from the trenches, Asiwaju Tinubu has no excuse but to chatalyse the development of Nigerian democracy to meet the expectations of Nigerians. Both as Nigerians and as APC members, we will hold Asiwaju Tinubu accountable on these scores. Congratulations Asiwaju Tinubu, Congratulations APC leaders and members, and congratulations Nigerians!
Salihu Lukman
APC Internal Dynamics and the Future of Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
This is dedicated to Sir F. N. Nwosu, APC National Welfare Secretary who died in the morning of Thursday, March 9, 2023. May his gentle soul rest in peace and may God Almighty grant the family and all of us his associates the fortitude to bear this heavy loss. In the hope that the piece will contribute to the development of APC as a progressive party under the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which Sir Nwosu actively campaigned for, but unfortunately will not be alive to witness.
The emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections present another opportunity to respond to the challenges of uniting Nigerians across all divides. Given the divisive campaigns sponsored by opposition parties, especially around the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen. Kashim Shettima, now President-elect and Vice President-elect, APC need to demonstrate that the politics of uniting Nigerians require unconventional approaches, which goes beyond simple recognition of the dominant groups in Nigerian politics. Over the years, issues of representation in Nigeria were skewed in favour of the three major ethnic groups – Hausa/Fulanis, Yorubas and Igbos. Other groups were relegated to secondary players.
Associated with this reality is the lack of consideration for other factors that defined the identity of Nigerians, which include religion and gender. Of course, inbuild in all of these is the demographic factor of age. All these are taken for granted and conservatively assumed that once ethnic factors are considered, however skewedly defined, issues of religion, gender and demography are resolved with them. Whether consideration of ethnic factors alone marginalises other groups is hardly given consideration. Marginalised groups are left on their own to struggle for political survival.
Interestingly however, even within majority ethnic groups the other subsidiary identity factors of religion, which potentially debases citizens to status of marginalisation are hardly respected. For instance, the assumption that a Hausa/Fulani person is a Muslim, a Yoruba man is a Christian and an Igbo man is a Christian excludes anyone from such ethnic groups who does not fit into such categorisation. There are Hausa/Fulani people in the North who are Christians. There are many Yoruba people who are Muslims and there are some few Igbo people who are Muslims. Electoral politics constructed based on the old assumption of straight jacketed identity of Hausa/Fulani Muslim identity, Yoruba Christian identity and Igbo Christian identity may not guaranty electoral viability.
Beyond the challenge of electoral viability, it also risks mobilising strong opposition largely because it may have to alter political equation in favour of minorities within the major ethnic groups. In summary, this was the challenge, which the APC had to respond with the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 Presidential election. The big question is whether the choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket with Sen. Shettima as Asiwaju Tinubu running mate was deliberately designed to broaden the scope of political participation and representation in the country. While acknowledging that it may not have started as a deliberate plan to broaden political participation or representation, it will be important to recognise that it highlights the political ingenuity and capacity of Asiwaju Tinubu to courageously make a choice that deviate from conventional politics to win the support of citizens.
Being a Muslim within a majority Yoruba ethnic group who is interested in winning election, it must have been very clear to him that electoral attractiveness to the highly populated North would have to be sensitive to factors of religion in addition to ethnic factors. Of course, following the 1993 electoral template of Chief M. K. O. Abiola and Alh. Babagana Kingibe, with hard work electoral success could be achieved. No doubt, the choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket is a choice, which both the APC and Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the party had to make as electoral strategy. Of course, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) have throughout the campaign use the choice of the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC as a big campaign issue. They used it to mobilise Nigerians against the APC and all its candidates, especially Asiwaju Tinubu being the Presidential candidate.
Now that the election is won by APC and Asiwaju Tinubu, it is important to demonstrate that the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Asiwaju Tinubu and Sen. Shettima is simply an electoral strategy and indeed represent a progressive template for inclusion in Nigerian politics. For this to be achieved, APC and its leadership must not allow individual politics of personal aspiration by potential office holders to drive the process of constituting the next Federal Government to be led by Asiwaju Tinubu and Sen. Shettima as President and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Individual aspirations by potential office holders may only result in unmanageable contests for positions in the next Federal Government and could further complicate the challenges of inclusive politics in the country. Besides, unregulated contest was what produced the rebellious leadership of Sen. Bukola Saraki and Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara in the National Assembly in 2015.
APC must avoid past pitfalls and develop proactive strategy of producing a broadly inclusive government post May 29, 2023 under the leadership of Asiwaju Tinubu. For that to happen, first thing first, APC need to acknowledge the groundswell of grievances both within the party and the country and resolved to use the opportunity to setup the next Federal Government to address most of the challenges. It must be acknowledged that the process of producing candidates for 2023 elections itself created so many disputes within the party. In fact, since 2015, many disputes arising from internal party primary to produce candidates for elections have been snowballing and rolling into next electoral contests. Although under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, these disputes were not allowed to undermine the electoral viability of the party, inability to resolve these internal disputes, combined with problems associated with guaranteeing inclusive politics in the country may destroy APC’s electoral viability in future elections.
While it is important to avoid witch-hunting individual leaders of the party for their role during the primary that produced candidates for 2023 elections, including those who supported or campaigned against Asiwaju Tinubu, it is important as a matter of strategy to broaden the scope of opportunity to rectify the outlook of the party and use it to also project the politics of an Asiwaju Tinubu led Federal Government as being inclusive. Also, learning from PDP’s mistake of insensitivity whereby the inability to align the outlook of the leadership of the party with the standard bearer of the party for the 2023 Presidential race, which became a source of deep-seated animosity among party leaders, it is important that APC, even before May 29, 2023 when Asiwaju will be sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, take every step to rectify any situation that may be used to continue divisive campaigns and propaganda against the APC and its control of Federal Government.
With a National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, who is also a Muslim, it will be important that every necessary step is taken to inject a change of leadership for the party so that a new National Chairman who is a Christian take over. Part of the advantage of this is that the National Chairman could be retained in North-Central. Noting that the current National Chairman has done an excellent job to manage a successful campaign to win the 2023 election with all the attendant challenges, there should be no difficulty in convincing Sen. Adamu to resign as National Chairman to create opportunity for a new National Chairman of APC to emerge who is a Christian. For that to happen may require Emergency National Convention because if the hierarchy of the current leadership is to be followed, the successor to Sen. Adamu will be Sen. Abubakar Kyari who is a Muslim from North-East.
Apart from changing the National Chairman, there is the need to also recognise that the case of Sen. Iyiola Omisore, National Secretary of the party has become a source of stronger dispute in Osun State. Unfortunately, rather than serving as a unifying factor for the party leadership in Osun State, Sen. Omisore is more a divisive factor, which may have been responsible for why APC lost the 2022 Governorship election to a political mediocre whose only qualification in politics may appear to be comic dancing skill. To save Osun State and bring it back to its old standard of national political reckoning, Sen. Omisore would need to resign as National Secretary of APC, and a new unifying National Secretary elected. Beyond Sen. Omisore, similarly, any member of the National Working Committee of the party who is not a unifying leader in his/her state should be changed.
In addition, APC must take of the challenge of reconciling its members across the country. The recalibrated APC leadership with a new National Chairman must take up the challenge of reconciling members from every part of the country. APC must never make the mistake of proceeding with the task of constituting the Asiwaju led Federal Government based on business-as-usual strategy. The opportunity of constituting the Federal Government led by Asiwaju Tinubu must be used strategically to reconcile the APC with Nigerians. Every sacrifice must be made by every leader of the party to create the condition for an Asiwaju Tinubu led Federal Government to emerge with strong legitimacy and wider support base by Nigerians.
Therefore, side by side with the initiative to recalibrate the APC leadership is the need to properly plan the distribution of key positions in the Federal Government to reflect both ethnic, religious, gender and other demographic considerations. As a party, we must consciously avoid any mistake that could be used by our political adversaries to suggest insensitivity to the inclusion of all Nigerians. APC leadership must take steps to regulate the aspirations of individual leaders to positions in the next Federal Government. Some positions, for instance must be deliberately locked to sections and groups in the country.
Some specific recommendations may be necessary at this point. The offices of Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives would have to be locked. Given that the President and Vice President are from South-West and North-East respectively, nobody from either of these two regions should aspire for any of these offices. Opportunist may argue that in the last four years, the South-West also produced the Vice President and Speaker of House of Representatives. We must correct this kind of lop-sided reality as a strategic approach to dousing ethnic and religious tension in the country. With a National Chairman from the North-Central and hopefully a Christian, the North-Central too should also be excluded from aspiring for either the position of Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Accordingly, the positions of Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives should be zoned to North-West, South-East or South-South. With a Muslim President and a Muslim Vice President, it is only logical to zone the Senate President who is the number three ranking leader of government to either the South-East or South-South who would be Christian. Logically, the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives should be zoned to the North-West. This would have the advantage of acknowledging that the North-West gave Asiwaju Tinubu the highest votes of 2,950,393 representing 33.6% of the votes he won. All other positions in government can be assigned by taking bearing from that.
While it may be important to consider including the position of Secretary to Government Federation (SGF) as part of positions to be zoned, Asiwaju Tinubu must avoid the mistake of undermining his government by appointing politicians with zero experience in managing public service institutions to serve as SGF. The office of SGF is in fact the brainbox of government and once a wrong person is appointed into such a position, the delivery capacity of government will be weak. Therefore, the choice of where the SGF will come from is as important as the qualification and public service experience of any person to be considered.
Achieving all these would require institutionalised consultations and negotiations involving structures of the party. Asiwaju Tinubu as the new leader of APC should challenge party leadership to make all structures of the party functional in line with provisions of the constitution of the party. A situation whereby key decisions including issues of zoning are handled outside the constitutional structures of the party is unhealthy, unsustainably, and challengeable. APC need to recognise that the Muslim-Muslim ticket it provided for the 2023 Presidential election, if not managed to produce desired outcome of inclusivity to broaden the foundation for wider participations of Nigerians in politics and governance across all divides, could further widen the division among Nigerians, which should be avoided. A successfully well-managed Muslim-Muslim would make a Christian-Christian ticket viably possible. For instance, if a Christian Northerner is to emerge as a candidate for a Presidential contest, the choice of a Southern Christian as running mate should be a viable consideration for a potential electoral victory.
Finally, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government for eight operated based on the philosophy of “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”. As a result, APC leaders and members had to leave with the reality of producing a government in which they have little or no influence. Many Federal Government appointees inherited from PDP were retained. For instance, Mr. Godwin Emefiele is one of the appointees of Federal Government inherited from PDP in 2015 but retained till the end of President Buhari’s tenure. Similarly, processes of appointments into government positions were handled without consulting party leaders. Consequently, many appointees of government were hardly accountable to the APC and its leadership. An Asiwaju Tinubu led Federal Government must avoid the mistakes of President Muhammadu Buhari administration while building on its strength.
Salihu Lukman
Re: APC Internal Dynamics and Future of Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Following the statement on the above caption, which I issued on Friday, March 10, 2023, on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 I feature on Africa Independent Television (AIT) Jigsaw, hosted by Mr. Gbenga Aruleba. While on the show, I reiterated my call for our National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore to vacate their position in the interest of the country, our party and as a demonstration of strong support for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-elect to proceed with the business of constituting an inclusive Federal Government led by him come May 29, 2023.
While in the case of the National Chairman, Sen. Adamu, the call is necessitated by the need to douse ethnic and religious tension in the country because of the desperate campaigns led by PDP and LP during the Presidential election, the case of Sen. Omisore is necessitated by his inability to provide the needed leadership in Osun, which cost us the 2022 Osun Governorship election. I further supported my call for Sen. Omisore to vacate his position as the National Secretary with the demand for accountability around the management of campaign funds provided by the party, which was delivered through Sen. Omisore.
In response, Sen. Omisore has sent abusive messages and requested his lawyer, Mr. Gboyega Oyewole, SAN, FCArb to ask me to retract my statement, make public apology and pay him the sum of N500 million in compensation for some alleged damages to “his character in the eyes of right-thinking Nigerians.” I am in receipt of the letter from Lords & Temple, signed by Mr. Oyewole, dated 15th March, 2023 (the letter was actually wrongly 15th March 2022).
Since Sen. Omisore’s response to the request for accountability is to threaten legal action, I have also instructed my lawyers to respond appropriately to his legal threat. However, as a committed party member I insist that the challenges facing us as a party and as a nation are broadly political and limiting our actions to the courts may only distract us from initiating the right responses to resolve the challenge of facilitating negotiations for inclusive government under the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I want to restate that being leaders of the party, we are obligated to facilitate negotiations through our structures, namely National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Caucus. Unfortunately, as things are, these structures have been frozen by our inactions as members of the National Working Committee (NWC) led by Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore. No meetings of these structures have taken place for almost. In ability to make these structures functional will weaken the capacity to regulate the conduct of party leaders and we risk creating a situation whereby challenges of inclusivity will be further compounded in the country. Already, individual Senators-elect and House of Representative members-elect have begun to aspire to positions of Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives in a very insensitive and reckless manner.
May I once again remind all of us, both as leaders and APC members, that APC is a product of sacrifices and more than ever before the challenges we face today calls for sacrifices. Both our National Chairman, Sen. Adamu and National Secretary, Sen. Omisore must demonstrate willingness to make sacrifices to earn the respect and followership of Senators-elect and House of Representative members-elect.
I make this appeal respectfully and without any ill-feeling to anyone, including Sen. Omisore. I stand by my position that Sen. Omisore is unable to unite party leaders and members in Osun State, which is responsible for why we lost the election. He is opposed to any demand for accountability and is resorting to acts of intimidation to perhaps manipulate processes of appointment into the Asiwaju-led Federal Government. What makes democracy attractive is the requirement for accountability and Sen. Omisore must be held accountable. We need to have accountable leaders to the process of negotiations to be facilitated by the party.
Finally, after 24 years of interrupted democracy, we must not shy away from initiatives that will strengthen internal contest within our party, APC. Part of the big challenge of Nigeria’s democracy is that internal contest is being destroyed. As a result, we produced situations where some leaders act as tyrants. Anyone who expresses views that are not in harmony with thinking of some leaders is condemned. This attitude is responsible for the destruction of PDP as a party and is gradually being entrenched in our party. There should be conscious effort to call these leaders to order!
Both as party leaders and Nigerians, we must wake up to the reality that negotiation to form the next APC government under the leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu must depart from the conventional approach of allowing leaders to emerge based on individual aspirations. We cannot risk any further complication of entrenchment of the existing religiously lopsided Muslim-Muslim identity of Asiwaju Tinubu and Sen. Shettima. No legal threat should distract us from addressing this challenge.
Salihu Lukman
APC and Tasks of Negotiating 10th NASS Leadership
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
It was Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, while declaring to contest for the position of National Chairman of APC on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, who argued that “party supremacy comes from decisions of the party made by the relevant party organs. The decisions of the party have to emerge from the debate by party organs at various levels, and the conclusions reached will constitute the party’s position on any matter which will then be binding on all the members of the party from the President to every member.”
Comrade Oshiomhole must have had at the back of his mind the sad experiences of having to accommodate the rebellious leadership of the 8th National Assembly who defied efforts by APC leaders to regulate conducts of some APC elected National Assembly members in 2015, partly because of absence of clear decisions of party organs. At the time of inaugurating the 8th National Assembly on June 9, 2015, the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC: 2014 – 2018) was unable to regulate the conduct of elected party members in the National Assembly, notably Sen. Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara who respectively emerged as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives. Their emergence as leaders of the 8th National Assembly was a defiance against the preference of APC’s leadership for Sen. Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila for the position of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
In 2015, the consultative process for the selection process of the leadership was narrowed to the NWC. No NEC meeting or National Caucus was convened. The party’s Board of Trustees was not constituted. Somehow, the Saraki/Dogara groups in both Chambers of the National Assembly were able to defeat the groups loyal to the party’s NWC. Good enough, this situation was corrected in 2019 and a wider consultative process involving both the NWC, elected members of the two chambers of the National Assembly and other party leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari was initiated by the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC. This accounted for the successful emergence of the Sen. Ahmed Lawan and Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila-led 9th National Assembly.
As a party, it would seem that APC has relapsed back to 2015 mode of allowing elected National Assembly members to proceed with the business of constituting the leadership of the 10th National Assembly in an unregulated manner. This is very risky, not just for APC but for the country. Given that as a party, we contested the 2023 elections with a Muslim-Muslim ticket of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen. Kashim Shettima, unregulated contest for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly could produce another Muslim as Senate President. In fact, there is also the high probability that a Muslim could also emerge as Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives.
At a time when irrationality has become overbearingly manifest in the politics of the country, no thanks to the so-called Obidient politicians who thrive in peddling lies and falsehood as a strategy to mobilise support, every care should be taken to manage our diversity. It is quite frustrating for many members of the APC NWC that as leaders mandated to provide leadership in managing affairs of the party, we have become onlookers in matters that we should be directing. This must be urgently corrected.
The APC NWC led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu need to become more aggressive in driving the process of negotiating leadership of the 10th National Assembly. Laidback attitude of the NWC being the administrative organ of the party has produced the embarrassing situations of public disagreement with the National Chairman over the issue of consensus Presidential candidate before the party’s Presidential Primary in June 2022. It is also responsible for some of the disagreements between some members of the NWC with the party’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) before the 2023 elections.
Part of the challenge is that it has become a practice whereby NWC continue to appropriate powers of superior organs of the party, especially the National Executive Committee (NEC). So long as the NWC continue to govern the party based on the strategy of usurping the powers of NEC, elected representatives of the party will continue to organise rebellion against what could be regarded as positions of the party. We need to strongly appeal to the National Chairman, Sen. Adamu to consider wider consultative process in managing affairs of the party. Adopting wider consultative process will require invoking provisions of the party constitution to convene NEC and National Caucus meetings.
This public appeal has become necessary given the flood of aspirants for leadership of the 10th National Assembly, which if left to continue unregulated could throw up unexpected people in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly. Should that be allowed to happen may result in producing the undesirable consequences of destroying the electoral viability of APC in future elections. As a ruling party, mandated to provide political leadership to the country for the next four years, everything must be done to sustain the confidence of Nigerians.
As a concerned party member and leader, I make this appeal conscious of where we are coming from. We have proven to Nigerians that nothing is impossible in Nigerian politics. We have successfully consummated the first and only merger of opposition parties in the political history of the country. We are the first party to successfully defeat a ruling party. It is therefore not impossible to be the party that can facilitate the emergence of Nigeria as a strongly united country. For that to happen, we need to douse the current ethnic and religious tension in the country.
Dousing ethnic and religious tension in the country will require sacrifices on the part of all of us both as leaders and members of APC. Without going into the details of the sacrifices required, we certainly would need to invoke the powers of superior organs of the party where all proposals could be tabled, debated and decisions taken, which should be binding on everyone, including elected representatives in the National Assembly. Perhaps, we need to acknowledge that the critical issue before us as a party today is decision about zoning formula for offices in the National Assembly and in the Asiwaju Tinubu-led government.
Partly, because of the ineffectiveness of the party’s National Secretariat, no proposal is on the table for consideration of any organ of the party. Instead, we have many fake proposals circulating with hardly any attempt to initiate alternative proposals for debate within the constitutional structures of APC. It may however interest all of us that the configuration of the leadership that will be assuming office on May 29, 2023 is about the same with that of 1999. Recall that in 1999, we had former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar respectively from South-West and North-East. Taking bearing from that, we had Senate President from the South-East and Deputy Senate President from North-Central. Recall that also we had the National Chairman of the ruling party from North-Central.
In the House of Representatives, we had a Speaker from North-West and Deputy Speaker from South-South. Other positions in the leadership of the National Assembly were distributed accordingly to other zones. Given the challenge of neutralising religious tension in the country, this would appear to be advantageous. For instance, if Senate President is to come form South-East, he would certainly be a Christian. The only problem is the experience of 1999 – 2003, which highlight problems of instability with the South-East holding the position of Senate President. Also, as at 1999, the South-East strongly voted for the PDP to emerge as the ruling party. The same could not be said today.
Perhaps, to avoid that, and to compensate the South-South, which gave more votes to the APC, including winning the Governorship election in Cross River and majority members of the Edo State House of Assembly, consideration can be given for the South-South to produce the Senate President. If that is to be considered, then the position of Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives should be given to the South-East. All these are issues to be debated, around which a decision would have to be taken one way or the other. Once there is a decision, it will be binding on everyone.
So far, we only have individual aspirations for leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly. Most of the aspirations hardly recognise the challenges of national cohesion. Unfortunately, most of those aspiring for positions of leadership in the 10th National Assembly appear to be disrespectful to structures of the party and their membership, including the NWC. Hardly do they show any interest to consult the NWC as an organ or its members individually. Somehow, there is also the demeaning perception that aspiring leaders could always acquire (however defined) the support of party organs. This must be remedied.
For instance, I have people from North-West declaring to contest for the position of Senate President without the courtesy of consulting any of us from North-West in NWC. As much as I respect every elected National Assembly member from North-West, I will appeal to those aspiring for the position of Senate President to step down their aspiration in the overall interest of national cohesion and to ensure that in line with our commitment as leaders of the North-West to support the administration of Asiwaju Tinubu to assume office in May 29, 2023 with a good support base from Nigerians across every section and irrespective of ethnic and religious divide.
Salihu Lukman
APC and Questions of Progressive Credentials
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
It is now exactly one year since our election into the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. Having emerged from cycles of internal challenges leading to the dissolution of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led NWC in June 2020 and the appointment of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee, which manipulated its existence beyond the initial six months given by the National Executive Committee (NEC), what is the scorecard of the NWC? Being a privileged member of the NWC and one of the critiques of both Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC and His Excellency Buni’s Caretaker Committee, have we been able to provide leadership to the party to overcome its challenges? What were even the challenges facing the party from the time of Comrade Oshiomhole and His Excellency Buni?
Without going into details, the major challenge facing the party since the time of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC, which was the predecessor to the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC was the problem of making the organs of the party functional. Following the electoral victory of 2015, meetings of NEC and National Caucus were frozen for more than a year as opposed to the quarterly meetings stipulated in the party’s constitution. For two years during the tenure of Comrade Oshiomhole, not more than two NEC and National Caucus meetings held. In addition, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party, which was vested with the responsibility of intervening ‘in all disputes and crisis in the party to ensure its stability’ was not inaugurated since the emergence of the party in July 2013. The party’s BoT was also given the constitutional responsibility of holding the properties of the party in trust and ‘act as Arbitrators and Mediators in disputes and ensure the enforcement of discipline in accordance with the Constitution of the Party’.
The name of the party’s BoT has been changed to National Advisory Council (NAC) and its functions have been substantially reduced to advisory as the name imply at the March 28, 2022 National Convention. Even with that there is hardly any ongoing discussion to constitute the party’s NAC in the last one year. By the provision of Article 13.2B.(i) ‘the National Secretary shall, not later than one month after an elective convention, convene the meeting of the National Advisory Council’. One year after assuming office, the National Secretary has never proposed any action towards the inauguration of NAC.
So far, there was only one meeting of the party’s NEC on April 8, 2022. There was never any meeting of the National Caucus. Instead, meetings of the NWC hold without necessarily ensuring that existing constitutional provisions are respected. In the circumstance, critical functions of the NEC, which include approving the national budget of the party as provided in Article 13.3A(xiv) of the Party’s Constitution is simply ignored.
Further, Article 13.3A(xv) of the party’s constitution directed the NWC to give quarterly financial reports to NEC. Also, Article 13.4(ii) direct the NWC to present reports and Article 13.4(iv) compel the NWC to present financial report on income and expenditure of the Party. All these have been ignored. Yet, it is public knowledge that the party has earned billions of Naira in revenue from sales of forms to aspiring contestants for the 2023 general elections. We are yet to, as NWC, declare to any organ of the party how much we inherited from His Excellency Mai Mala-led Caretaker Committee and how much was received as donations and contributions for the 2023 elections. Large-scale expenditure, which include the renovation of the National Secretariat complex are being undertaken without any organ of the party exercising the powers of due diligence.
As a member of the NWC, I can say without fear of contradiction, all decisions bordering on managing the finances of the party are being taken by the National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and the National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore. Most members of NWC are reduced to onlookers or at best rubber stamp. All appeals for accountability have fallen on deaf ears. Decision of the NWC to convene NEC meeting in August last year was simply sabotaged.
Once the party’s constitution is no longer the guide for managing the affairs of the party, discretionary decisions of leaders take over. Consequently, even what get paid to party officials and organs becomes acts of benevolence by the National Chairman or anyone he delegates. As a result, something as fundamental as the decision on what proportion of the party’s income is paid to States, Local Governments and Wards is exercised solely by the National Chairman and National Secretary. Party staff are hired and fired by the National Chairman and National Secretary without report to any organ, including the NWC.
Given all these, there are embarrassing reports of party members who served in Screening, Primary and Appeals Committees for the 2023 elections yet to be paid their allowances. There was also the case of aspiring contestants for party offices during the March 28, 2022 National Convention who voluntarily stepped down in the spirit of facilitating consensus and therefore entitled for refunds of the cost of their nomination forms who are yet to be paid.
Now, with the 2023 general elections over and our party emerged victorious in the Presidential, 15 State Governorship and majority positions in the two chambers of the National Assembly, we are faced with the big challenge of regulating the contest for the emergence of leaders of the 10th National Assembly. With organs not meeting, it can be predicted that the contest will be driven by individual aspirations by aspiring Senators-elect and House of Representative members-elect. Given that we already have two Muslims occupying the highest positions of President and Vice President, any attempt to allow another Muslim to aspire for the position of Senate President, who is the number three highest ranking officer in government will be insensitive, injurious to the unity and peaceful co-existence of the country and damage the electoral viability of our party.
To avert this, and as a party envisioned to be progressive will require activation of wider consultative process and negotiations using our constitutional structures, especially the NEC so that decisions taken will be binding on all members, including the aspiring candidates. Being a progressive party specifically requires dynamism, actions, and improvements on how things are managed. Dynamism will require acknowledgement of the realities facing us a nation and as a party vested with the responsibility of providing leaders for the country for another four years, based on which we are able to initiate proposals. One of such realities is the existing ethnic and religious tension in the country. Our proposals should seek to improve on previous experiences of leadership formation during the 9th and 10th Assembly.
With regards to contests for positions in the 10th National Assembly, at the minimum we should seek to improve on the experiences of 2019, which effectively regulated the conducts of Senators-elect and House of Representative members-elect ahead of the inauguration of the 9th Assembly. It is to the credit of the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC that any possible rebellion by members of the 9th Assembly was blocked, unlike what happened in the case of the 8th Assembly in 2015. All the indications are there now that no attempt is being made to regulate the emergence of leaders for the 10th National Assembly with a high possibility for the emergence of self-centered leadership in the 10th Assembly, which should be averted.
As a member of the NWC, I want to publicly register my objection to the seeming inability of our NWC to activate the process of convening meetings of NEC to appropriately take decisions and regulate the emergence of the 10th National Assembly leadership. In particular, I want to restate my position that the leadership profile to emerge for the country on May 29, 2023 is already taking the coloration of the leadership of the country in 1999 with a President from South-West and Vice President from North-East. Unlike in 1999, we have two Muslims as President and Vice President. It is therefore very compelling that the Senate President should come from either the South-South or South-East. And since the North-West produced more votes to give our party the victory in the 2023 Presidential election, the position of Speaker House of Representatives should be zoned to North-West in line with what obtained in 1999.
I want to specifically note that two respected Senators-elect from North-West have made public declaration their aspirations for the position of Senate President. These are His Excellency Abdulaziz Yari and Sen. Barau Jibrin. The North-West has been known for its commitment to progressive politics. Our Governors and other party leaders from the zone were unwaveringly progressive during the contest to produce Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of our party for the 2023 elections. They were forthright in ensuring that nothing is done to threaten the unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria, based on which they stood for power shift to the Southern part of the country.
Now that power has shifted to the Southern part of the country, as a region, we equally have the responsibility to regulate the conduct of all our Senators-elect from the North-West, including the two Senators-elect Abdulaziz Yari and Barau Jibrin to withdraw their aspiration for the Senate President. All party leaders from North-West must prevail on these leaders to, in the overall interest of the unity and peaceful coexistence of the country withdraw their aspirations to contest the position of Senate President for the 10th Senate. At the most, they should aspire for the position of Majority Leader of the Senate in line with the 1999 zoning formula in the Senate.
Given that no meetings of either the NEC or National Caucus is about to be convene anytime soon, party leaders at Zonal levels should take initiatives to regulate the conducts of Senators-elect and House of Representatives members-elect in the contests for leadership of the 10th Assembly. President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu should immediately intervene to restore constitutional order in the management of the party affairs. It will be a mockery to continue to bear the name progressive and continue to run affairs of the party based on the personal discretion of the National Chairman and National Secretary.
There is also the challenge of urgently reviewing the performance of the party in the 2023 general elections. One of the issues that should be addressed as a matter of urgency is the case of indiscipline by party leaders at all levels. There are highly placed party leaders who have worked against our candidates during the 2023 general elections. This should be investigated, and appropriate disciplinary actions taken in line with provisions of our party’s constitution.
Democracy without accountability means dictatorship. Once organs of the party are not meeting as enshrined in the constitution of the party, accountability will be absent, and the character of our party will be autocratic and retrogressive. Asiwaju Tinubu cannot afford to assume office with the baggage of being a leaders of an autocratic and retrogressive APC, which is insensitive to ethnic and religious tension in the country, largely compounded by our inability to regulate the conduct of our Senators-elect and House of Representatives members-elect. Everything must be done to return our party to its founding vision of engendering progressive politics in the country, which is about equitable distribution of power and resources in the country. It is disappointing that one year since our election into the NWC, we have been running the party based on the old mindset of disregard for allowing organs of the party to guide decisions and appropriately allows for wider input by members and leaders of the party in decision making process. This must change urgently!
Olushola Adeyeye
--
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/LO0P123MB6446D48836C38104421B6AA1AE929%40LO0P123MB6446.GBRP123.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.
Salihu Lukman
Cash-and-Carry Contest for Leadership of 10th National Assembly
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Unfolding developments around the contest for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly is quite worrisome. Apart from the clear disregard for national unity and outright disrespect for Nigerians, especially the persons of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Sen. Kashim Shettima, being the President-elect and Vice-President-elect respectively, some of the aspiring candidates for the positions of Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives are neither concerned about the security and well-being of Nigeria nor are they in anyway disturbed about factors that could erode the electoral viability of our party – APC. These are aspiring candidates for these positions, two of them Muslims from North-West aspiring for the position of Senate President and one of them from North-East aspiring for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives, who are desperately mobilising support in unethical manner without any regard or respect to the party and its leadership.
Certainly, these aspirants know that there is very high probability that once the party is allowed to finalise the processes of zoning positions of leadership, the probability is high that these positions would be zoned to other sections of the country outside theirs. In order therefore to force their way and weaken the party, they are proceeding with mobilising support for their aspirations in a very unethical manner. Some of them, including another aspirant for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives from the North-West have sent bags of rice and sugar to members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC). There are speculations that some of them are bribing party leaders with huge amounts of money to stop the party from zoning positions. There are also the disturbing reports from House of Representatives members-elect that one aspirant for the position of Speaker from North-East apart from bribing members-elect with huge amounts of money is also offering jeeps to members-elect if they will commit to electing him as the Speaker. This has reduced the contest for the leadership of 10th National Assembly to Cash-and-Carry.
To say the least, this is both disappointing and worrisome. How can APC elected representatives descend so low as to be using unethical methods of cash-and-carry to mobilise support for their aspirations? The two Senators-elect who are being alleged to be involved in such unethical methods are both Muslims from the North-West. Conscious that APC has already produced two Muslims as President-elect and Vice President-elect, it should be very clear that any person whose aspiration for the position of Senate President being the number three highest ranking position in Federal Government, who is a Muslim will not mean well for Nigeria and will be working to undermine the electoral viability of APC as a political party.
Any Muslim aspiring for the position of Senate President has no respect for both the constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the APC. This is because Chapter II, Section 14(3) of the Nigerian constitution clearly outlined that ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.” With two Muslims already elected to be sworn in as President and Vice President of the Federal Republic on May 29, any attempt to consider another Muslim as Senate President will promote the dominance of Muslims in the Federal Government and will be injurious to national unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity, which must not be allowed.
Further, the APC constitution enjoined party leaders and members to “render service at all levels of governance, and to build a nation which will guarantee equal opportunity for all, mutual and peaceful co-existence, respect and understanding, eliminating all forms of discrimination and social injustice among Nigerians, rendering selfless service that will rekindle a deep sense of patriotism and nationalism.” How can anyone aspiring for position of leadership at all levels seeking to bribe his/her way be said to be interested in rendering service? Such a person will only be interested in rendering service to himself and himself alone. Besides, given that both the two persons allegedly involved in this cash-and-carry approach to mobilising support for their emergence as Senate President are Muslims, it will be gross insensitivity to the peaceful co-existence of the country and disrespectful to Nigerians to allow them to continue to aspire for the position of Senate President.
In addition, any Muslim Senator-elect aspiring for the position of Senate President is disrespectful to the leaders of the country and the party, including President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu. However considered, the emerging risks threatening the peaceful co-existence of Nigeria, however manifest, will squarely be interpreted based on the actions or inactions of the political leadership of the country in the persons of President Buhari as the current leader and Asiwaju Tinubu as his successor. Noting that Asiwaju Tinubu in his campaign document Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan for a Better Nigeria outlined that “Our objective is to foster a new society based on shared prosperity, tolerance, compassion, and the unwavering commitment to treat each citizen with equal respect and due regard”, all aspiring candidates for both Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 10th National Assembly seeking to emerge through cash-and-carry methods clearly are not committed to the success of Asiwaju-led Federal Government. If anything, they are only seeking to destroy our society and block the government of Asiwaju Tinubu from achieving its objective of fostering a new society.
Once aspirants win leadership positions through cash-and-carry methods, their loyalty to the government led by Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC will be weak. Such a person could even hold the Government hostage in pursuance of their personal ambitions, which is known only to themselves. With all these worrisome developments, the passive and almost unresponsive calmness of members of the APC NWC led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu is giving credence to the speculation that some of these cash-and-carry aspirants for leadership position in the 10th National Assembly may have bribe the NWC not to initiate actions to zone positions in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly. Otherwise, why is the NWC unable to convene meetings of organs of the party to invoke Article 13.4(vi) of the APC constitution, which directs the NWC to “propose electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections to party offices at all levels, and procedure for selecting Party candidates for elective offices”?
It is very disturbing and highly unacceptable that something as sensitive as electoral guidelines and regulations for electing leaders of the 10th National Assembly will be left to public speculations. At a time when opposition political parties are practically taken over by combinations of religious bigots and political opportunists who will go to any length to manufacture lies aimed at manipulating gullible citizens to support them, we can’t allow the contest for leadership of the 10th National Assembly to continue unregulated. Everything must be done to mobilise all committed party leaders and members to call all APC elected representatives aspiring for positions in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly to order.
Accordingly, the APC should take every step to sanction all those mobilising support for their so-called aspirations based on cash-and-carry method. We must appeal to both President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu to promptly urge our National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and the whole NWC to immediately restore constitutional order within the APC. The audacious impudence of our elected representatives aspiring for leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly is only a reflection of the dysfunctionality of the organs of the party, which has been the cause of all the leadership challenges facing the party since the time of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun. So long as organs of the party are not meeting as provided in the constitution of the party, decisions required to regulate the conduct of party leaders and members, including the sensitive issue of zoning party leadership will be absent. Once that is the case, leaders and members can go to every extent to achieve their narrow objective of winning election into leadership positions even if that will undermine the peaceful co-existence of Nigeria and the electoral viability of the APC as a political party.
Our Governors and all our party leaders must also be reminded about their abiding commitment to the unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria, which was responsible for their support for the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as the candidate of our party for the 2023 elections. It can be said without any doubt that the support of our Governors and leaders of the party go beyond the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as our Presidential candidate, which was responsible for why they all mobilised Nigerians to vote for him and emerge the President-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Now that he is elected, that support must also translate to cooperation, partnership, and collaboration to ensure that his government succeeds in renewing the hope of all Nigerians irrespective of our differences across ethnic and religious divides. Therefore, everything must be done to regulate the conducts of all aspiring candidates for leadership positions of the 10th National Assembly to comply with the constitutional obligation of promoting national unity and peaceful co-existence.
All APC leaders and members should be called upon to intervene individually and collectively and kindly call all aspiring candidates for leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly to strictly conduct themselves ethically with the highest respect for Nigerians and in compliance with the provisions of the constitutions of both the APC and the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which compels everyone to promote national unity and peaceful co-existence of the country. Promoting national unity under the Asiwaju Tinubu-led Federal Government to be inaugurated on May 29 would require that, at the minimum, the Senate President should be a Christian from either the South-East or South-South. In addition, any candidate who is mobilising support based on cash-and-carry methods will not be loyal to Asiwaju Tinubu-led government and therefore a potential risk to such a government. Everything must be done to ensure that the configuration of the Asiwaju Tinubu-led Federal Government command the support of all Nigerians irrespective of our differences.
Salihu Lukman
Restoring Constitutional Order in APC – Not Negotiable
Open Letter to Sen. Abdullahi Adamu
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Kindly recall my letter to you with the subject “Restoring Constitutional Order in APC: Demands”, dated February 5, 2023. The letter outlined nine demands as follows:
- In line with provision of Article 13.4(ii) of the APC Constitution present report of activities for the last one year to the NWC.
- In line with provision of Article 13.4(iv) of the APC Constitution present financial report on income and expenditure of the party for the last one year.
- In line with provision of Article 13.3A(xiv) of the APC Constitution prepare a national budget for the party for the period May – December 2023, which should be ratified by the NWC for the consideration and approval of NEC.
- In line with provisions of Article 13.4(vi) of our party Constitution, which directs the NWC to ‘propose electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections to party offices at all levels, and procedure for selecting Party candidates for elective offices’, the NWC should immediately develop a proposal to zone leadership positions for the 10th National Assembly and present to NEC for consideration and approval.
- Hold a NEC meeting before May 29, 2023 and 1 – 4 above should be part of the agenda of the NEC.
- Submit the audited account of the party for 2022 that was submitted to INEC to the NWC.
- Setup a committee to review the 2023 general elections and investigate cases of anti-party activities by leaders and members of the party.
- Given the shameful outcome of the Osun 2022 Governorship election and the embarrassing outcome of the 2023 general elections in Osun State whereby we lost all the three Senatorial seats, all the House of Representatives seats and all the House of Assembly seats in the state, the National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore who is the most senior party leader in the state should immediately resign. In addition, the NWC should recommend to NEC that a high-powered reconciliation committee should be setup to facilitate reconciliation of all party leaders in Osun state.
- In order to demonstrate commitment that we are going to restore constitutional order in the party, actions should commence on all these and NWC should meet within the next two weeks from today, Wednesday, April 5, 2023 to review progress.
Today, being February 19, 2023 makes it two weeks since the demands were presented. There was neither acknowledgement nor indication that any of the demands are being considered. Although the NWC met on Monday, February 17, 2023, deliberation of the NWC was limited to ratifying our Governorship candidates for Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States for onward transmission to INEC. The only conclusion I can reach is that the demands I presented to you are not important. Perhaps, by extension, I can also conclude that given your disposition to run affairs of the party only based on your discretionary decisions without reference to provisions of the APC constitution, your commitment to the party and its electoral viability is weak.
Being the National Chairman who is respected by party leaders at all levels, it is worrisome that under your leadership, we will be back to the old problems of being unable to respect provisions of our constitution with respect to convening meetings of organs and ensuring that all our organs are allowed to perform their statutory functions as provided in our constitutions. It is more worrisome given that you are a lawyer by training, a very experienced politician who had the rare privilege of being a two term Governor as well as someone who has been operating at the highest level of national politics since the Second Republic. By any standard, no one will expect a person of your stature and experience in politics to be taciturn when it comes to managing affairs of the party based on respect for the party’s constitution.
To say the least, as a member of the NWC, I am scandalised and embarrassed that after one year in office we are yet to have a regular NEC, National Caucus or National Advisory Council (NAC) meetings. All the functions of these organs and the decisions expected from them by the constitution are being taken by you, perhaps in consultation with the National Secretary. When it suits you, the NWC is invited to ratify or approve some of your actions and decisions. As a member of NWC, we have never had any session where we were invited to consider any report of activity in the last one year. Yet, Article 13.4(ii) of our constitution require that the NWC submit quarterly reports to NEC. We have never deliberated on any financial report even when Article 13.4(iv) require that we present quarterly financial reports to NEC. We have never deliberated on a national budget although Article 13.3A(xiv) require that we present one to NEC and get approval.
Perhaps, inability to hold quarterly NEC meetings as provided under Article 25.2(i) of the party’s constitution may be the excuse for not having quarterly reports of activities, quarterly financial reports, and national budgets. It can also be argued that the problem of inability to hold quarterly NEC meetings go way back to the era of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and is partly responsible for the crisis of leadership during the tenure of Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. By extension, it could be argued too that the culture of running affairs of the party based on the discretionary decisions of the National Chairman did not start with the current NWC.
True as this may appear to be, I will imagine that one of the reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari nominated you to serve as the National Chairman is that being an experienced politician with all your track records, the least you can achieve is to be able to rally everybody to respect the constitution of the party based on which organs meet as directed by the constitution and decisions taken accordingly. Partly because we assumed office at the time when nomination of candidates for the 2023 elections was our first responsibility, that may be argued to have created the sense of urgency, which allowed for discretionary decisions to continue in the management of party affairs. But when one considers that the only NEC meeting, we had on April 8, 2022, decided only to allow the NWC to exercise its powers for a period of 90 days, it means that all the sense of urgency permissible to warrant discretionary decisions is only allowed for a limited period of 90 days from April 8. Thereafter, any decision requiring the authorisation of NEC, as from August 2022, must be referred to NEC.
With you as the National Chairman, experienced politician and knowledgeable in political jurisprudence, the question of legality of discretionary decisions within the jurisdiction and scope of issues NEC is empowered by our constitution to take decision should be very clear. Because you have chosen to only run affairs of the party based on your personal discretion, you have committed us into sacking our former Directors and appointing new ones without inviting even the NWC to deliberate on it. To the best of my knowledge, all that I could recall is that NWC decided to send all the former Directors on compulsory leave. At no time did the NWC decided that their appointments should be terminated, and new ones should be employed. Assuming the party’s constitution allows you to hire and fire all the staff of the party, the constitution of the party under Article 13.4(ii) has compelled you to present that as part of the quarterly reports to NEC.
With respect to national budget, the closest we came to was when the April 8, 2022 NEC approved the cost for nomination forms for 2022 elections. No proposed expenditure of any kind was presented to any organ of the party apart from the budget for the June 2022 National Convention, which was presented to the NWC on the eve of the June 2022 National Convention. Similarly, no report has been rendered to any organ including the NWC about any revenue received by the party. It is however speculated in the media that the party was able to generate over N30 billion from sales of nomination forms to aspiring candidates for the 2023 elections. Our state structures and other lower organs, which statutorily are entitled to shares of the party’s revenue are given very negligible amounts without allowing any organ of the party, including the NWC to make input into what was paid to the states.
Large scale financial expenditure is being undertaken without any organ of the party including the NWC allowed to perform any form of statutory due diligence. The National Secretariat has been undergoing large scale renovation and both the costs and details of the contract is not provided to any organ of the party including the NWC. Without a national budget approved by NEC as required by our constitution, all decisions on financial expenditure are limited to your benevolent disposition. Unfortunately, because this is the reality, there are party members who have rendered services during the process of nominating candidates for the 2023 elections that are yet to be paid their entitlements. There is also the decision to refund party members who bought nomination forms to contest for position of party leadership during the March 28, 2022 National Convention that elected us but were asked to stepped down to facilitate our emergence as consensus candidates, but are yet to be refunded.
Apart from very clearly unambiguous constitutional directives to the NWC with respect to our responsibilities to NEC and other superior organs such as quarterly reports of activities and financial reports of incomes and expenditure, there are other functions such as requirement for electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections for party offices at all levels as provided under Article 13.4(vi) of our constitution. This is a responsibility given to NEC, and given the outcome of the 2023 elections, which gave us majority in both the two chambers of the National Assembly, require that the NWC should develop proposals for the consideration and approval of NEC. With about six weeks to the inauguration of new government, there is no indication that any proposal is being developed. In fact, no indication that a NEC meeting is being contemplated before May 29, 2023.
It is very difficult to comprehend why we should not be holding meetings of party organs to facilitate smooth transition from the current government of President Buhari and the incoming government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Elementary logic would suggest that meetings of party organs would be required to help manage the process of assuming ownership and responsibility of the programmes, policies, and achievements of the current government by the incoming government. Because this is not happening some of our elected representatives have proceeded to declare aspirations and are going about campaigning in an unethical manner with the highest level of impunity and disregard for the party. At the rate we are going, it is almost a case that, as a party, we are abdicating our responsibility and we are setting a stage for the emergence of a rascally leadership in the two chambers of the 10th National Assembly, which can hold the Asiwaju Tinubu government hostage.
As someone who was part of the advocacy for the merger of our old legacy parties, it is very worrisome that we are working to undo all that we have achieved in Nigerian politics. Being the only party that was a product of merger negotiation throughout the political history of Nigeria, and the only party to have succeeded in defeating a ruling party, it was never the vision of our founding fathers, led by President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu that we will become a party that is disrespectful to our rules and our constitution.
As a reminder, we are a party that was inspired by President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu to make every sacrifice to lead the process of changing Nigerian politics. Changing Nigerian politics was envisioned to be about respect for our constitution based on which organs are allowed to meet and take decisions. Integral to that is about having party leaders that respect and comply with decisions of party organs. Sadly, we are today surrounded by many party leaders who worked against the party during the 2023 elections. Some of them are among those aspiring for the leadership of the two chambers of the 10th National Assembly. Yet, the party is not taking any step to take disciplinary action against these recalcitrant party leaders.
Certainly, this is not the vision that guided the merger negotiation of 2012 and 2013. We have allowed self-centred and, in many respects, sectarian people to assume position of responsibility within our party simply because we are comfortable with the positions we are privileged to be holding today. The demands for the restoration of constitutional order in APC is primarily to arrest the drift towards the emergence of unaccountable leaders within the party, which can only be achieved by ensuring that all party organs meet regularly as directed by the party’s constitution. These demands are hereby presented to restore constitutional order in the APC and to halt the current drift whereby most decisions of the party are narrowed to discretionary choices of the National Chairman and the National Secretary.
If discretionary decisions are allowed to continue to guide the management of the party, self-centred and sectarian approached to managing elections will take over. This can adversely erode the popularity base of our party as was the case in Osun State. This must be arrested immediately and with the urgency it requires. The only way to do that will be to restore constitutional order within the APC. Restoring constitutional order within the APC is about returning the APC to its founding vision, which is non-negotiable. Restoring the APC to its founding vision is about protecting the principles that guided the leadership of President Buhari throughout the last eight years. It is about calibrating the incoming government of Asiwaju Tinubu to ensure that it build on the successes of the President Buhari administration. This will also require that every member of the Asiwaju Tinubu government share in the vision of the party. This is not something that can be left to chances.
The party is practically therefore required to manage the process of transition in such a manner that there is indeed continuity while at the same time taking steps to learn from the mistakes of the President Buhari administration. This is one responsibility, which the PDP managed very poorly and, in the end, produced a highly frustrated former President Olusegun Obasanjo who end up destroying his PDP membership card. As a founding member of the APC, we must push for the restoration of constitutional order in APC such that the inspirationally strong relationship between outgoing President Buhari and incoming President Asiwaju Tinubu will remain and would continue to guide the management of both party and governmental affairs.
As things are, if allowed to continue, under your leaders as the National Chairman of the party, we are unfortunately setting the stage for destroying the relationship that exists between outgoing President Buhari and incoming President Asiwaju Tinubu. Anyone who is working to destroy a political relationship that inspired the successful achievement of the first political merger negotiation in the political history of Nigeria, which led to the first defeat of a ruling party for Nigeria, don’t mean well for Nigerian democracy.
I make this an open letter because it is about campaigning to return the APC to its foundation, which requires that we mobilise all like-minded party leaders and members in this crusade to restore constitutional order in the APC. As a person, I have concluded that everything must be done to compel you to respect the constitution of our party and manage its affairs based on the requirements of our constitution and not your personal discretion. Therefore, by this open letter, I am serving you notice of one week from today, being Wednesday, April 19, 2023 to take all the appropriate steps required to convene a NEC meeting before May 29, 2023 wherein all the issues bordering on the management of smooth transition between the outgoing government of President Buhari and the incoming government of President Asiwaju Tinubu can be considered. If by the end of this one-week notice, no action is taken to convene a NEC meeting as the first step to restore constitutional order in APC, I will not hesitate to take further actions, including approaching our courts to enforce compliance with the provisions of our party’s constitution under your leadership.
Like I have argued in my letter to you of December 26, 2022 on the subject “Democracy and Accountability: Concerns about State of Affairs of APC”, “being a party that is committed to enthroning progressive politics as the pillars of developing our democracy and moving our nation forward, these issues should be urgently addressed. Inability to address these issues would continue to undermine our electoral viability.” The current NWC under your leadership should stop acting as a Trojan Horse programmed to destroy our party. Only compliance with and respect for our constitution by allowing all our superior organs, notably NEC, National Caucus and NAC, to function and take decisions accordingly, which should be binding on all party leaders and members can secure our party. This is not negotiable!
Salihu Lukman
Apologies, please slight correction:
Restoring Constitutional Order in APC – Not Negotiable
Open Letter to Sen. Abdullahi Adamu
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Kindly recall my letter to you with the subject “Restoring Constitutional Order in APC: Demands”, dated February 5, 2023. The letter outlined nine demands as follows:
- In line with provision of Article 13.4(ii) of the APC Constitution present report of activities for the last one year to the NWC.
- In line with provision of Article 13.4(iv) of the APC Constitution present financial report on income and expenditure of the party for the last one year.
- In line with provision of Article 13.3A(xiv) of the APC Constitution prepare a national budget for the party for the period May – December 2023, which should be ratified by the NWC for the consideration and approval of NEC.
- In line with provisions of Article 13.4(vi) of our party Constitution, which directs the NWC to ‘propose electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections to party offices at all levels, and procedure for selecting Party candidates for elective offices’, the NWC should immediately develop a proposal to zone leadership positions for the 10th National Assembly and present to NEC for consideration and approval.
- Hold a NEC meeting before May 29, 2023 and 1 – 4 above should be part of the agenda of the NEC.
- Submit the audited account of the party for 2022 that was submitted to INEC to the NWC.
- Setup a committee to review the 2023 general elections and investigate cases of anti-party activities by leaders and members of the party.
- Given the shameful outcome of the Osun 2022 Governorship election and the embarrassing outcome of the 2023 general elections in Osun State whereby we lost all the three Senatorial seats, all the House of Representatives seats and all the House of Assembly seats in the state, the National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore who is the most senior party leader in the state should immediately resign. In addition, the NWC should recommend to NEC that a high-powered reconciliation committee should be setup to facilitate reconciliation of all party leaders in Osun state.
- In order to demonstrate commitment that we are going to restore constitutional order in the party, actions should commence on all these and NWC should meet within the next two weeks from today, Wednesday, April 5, 2023 to review progress.
Today, being April 19, 2023 makes it two weeks since the demands were presented. There was neither acknowledgement nor indication that any of the demands are being considered. Although the NWC met on Monday, April 17, 2023, deliberation of the NWC was limited to ratifying our Governorship candidates for Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States for onward transmission to INEC. The only conclusion I can reach is that the demands I presented to you are not important. Perhaps, by extension, I can also conclude that given your disposition to run affairs of the party only based on your discretionary decisions without reference to provisions of the APC constitution, your commitment to the party and its electoral viability is weak.
Being the National Chairman who is respected by party leaders at all levels, it is worrisome that under your leadership, we will be back to the old problems of being unable to respect provisions of our constitution with respect to convening meetings of organs and ensuring that all our organs are allowed to perform their statutory functions as provided in our constitutions. It is more worrisome given that you are a lawyer by training, a very experienced politician who had the rare privilege of being a two term Governor as well as someone who has been operating at the highest level of national politics since the Second Republic. By any standard, no one will expect a person of your stature and experience in politics to be taciturn when it comes to managing affairs of the party based on respect for the party’s constitution.
To say the least, as a member of the NWC, I am scandalised and embarrassed that after one year in office we are yet to have a regular NEC, National Caucus or National Advisory Council (NAC) meetings. All the functions of these organs and the decisions expected from them by the constitution are being taken by you, perhaps in consultation with the National Secretary. When it suits you, the NWC is invited to ratify or approve some of your actions and decisions. As a member of NWC, we have never had any session where we were invited to consider any report of activity in the last one year. Yet, Article 13.4(ii) of our constitution require that the NWC submit quarterly reports to NEC. We have never deliberated on any financial report even when Article 13.4(iv) require that we present quarterly financial reports to NEC. We have never deliberated on a national budget although Article 13.3A(xiv) require that we present one to NEC and get approval.
Perhaps, inability to hold quarterly NEC meetings as provided under Article 25.2(i) of the party’s constitution may be the excuse for not having quarterly reports of activities, quarterly financial reports, and national budgets. It can also be argued that the problem of inability to hold quarterly NEC meetings go way back to the era of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and is partly responsible for the crisis of leadership during the tenure of Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. By extension, it could be argued too that the culture of running affairs of the party based on the discretionary decisions of the National Chairman did not start with the current NWC.
True as this may appear to be, I will imagine that one of the reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari nominated you to serve as the National Chairman is that being an experienced politician with all your track records, the least you can achieve is to be able to rally everybody to respect the constitution of the party based on which organs meet as directed by the constitution and decisions taken accordingly. Partly because we assumed office at the time when nomination of candidates for the 2023 elections was our first responsibility, that may be argued to have created the sense of urgency, which allowed for discretionary decisions to continue in the management of party affairs. But when one considers that the only NEC meeting, we had on April 8, 2022, decided only to allow the NWC to exercise its powers for a period of 90 days, it means that all the sense of urgency permissible to warrant discretionary decisions is only allowed for a limited period of 90 days from April 8. Thereafter, any decision requiring the authorisation of NEC, as from August 2022, must be referred to NEC.
With you as the National Chairman, experienced politician and knowledgeable in political jurisprudence, the question of legality of discretionary decisions within the jurisdiction and scope of issues NEC is empowered by our constitution to take decision should be very clear. Because you have chosen to only run affairs of the party based on your personal discretion, you have committed us into sacking our former Directors and appointing new ones without inviting even the NWC to deliberate on it. To the best of my knowledge, all that I could recall is that NWC decided to send all the former Directors on compulsory leave. At no time did the NWC decided that their appointments should be terminated, and new ones should be employed. Assuming the party’s constitution allows you to hire and fire all the staff of the party, the constitution of the party under Article 13.4(ii) has compelled you to present that as part of the quarterly reports to NEC.
With respect to national budget, the closest we came to was when the April 8, 2022 NEC approved the cost for nomination forms for 2022 elections. No proposed expenditure of any kind was presented to any organ of the party apart from the budget for the June 2022 National Convention, which was presented to the NWC on the eve of the June 2022 National Convention. Similarly, no report has been rendered to any organ including the NWC about any revenue received by the party. It is however speculated in the media that the party was able to generate over N30 billion from sales of nomination forms to aspiring candidates for the 2023 elections. Our state structures and other lower organs, which statutorily are entitled to shares of the party’s revenue are given very negligible amounts without allowing any organ of the party, including the NWC to make input into what was paid to the states.
Large scale financial expenditure is being undertaken without any organ of the party including the NWC allowed to perform any form of statutory due diligence. The National Secretariat has been undergoing large scale renovation and both the costs and details of the contract is not provided to any organ of the party including the NWC. Without a national budget approved by NEC as required by our constitution, all decisions on financial expenditure are limited to your benevolent disposition. Unfortunately, because this is the reality, there are party members who have rendered services during the process of nominating candidates for the 2023 elections that are yet to be paid their entitlements. There is also the decision to refund party members who bought nomination forms to contest for position of party leadership during the March 28, 2022 National Convention that elected us but were asked to stepped down to facilitate our emergence as consensus candidates, but are yet to be refunded.
Apart from very clearly unambiguous constitutional directives to the NWC with respect to our responsibilities to NEC and other superior organs such as quarterly reports of activities and financial reports of incomes and expenditure, there are other functions such as requirement for electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections for party offices at all levels as provided under Article 13.4(vi) of our constitution. This is a responsibility given to NEC, and given the outcome of the 2023 elections, which gave us majority in both the two chambers of the National Assembly, require that the NWC should develop proposals for the consideration and approval of NEC. With about six weeks to the inauguration of new government, there is no indication that any proposal is being developed. In fact, no indication that a NEC meeting is being contemplated before May 29, 2023.
It is very difficult to comprehend why we should not be holding meetings of party organs to facilitate smooth transition from the current government of President Buhari and the incoming government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Elementary logic would suggest that meetings of party organs would be required to help manage the process of assuming ownership and responsibility of the programmes, policies, and achievements of the current government by the incoming government. Because this is not happening some of our elected representatives have proceeded to declare aspirations and are going about campaigning in an unethical manner with the highest level of impunity and disregard for the party. At the rate we are going, it is almost a case that, as a party, we are abdicating our responsibility and we are setting a stage for the emergence of a rascally leadership in the two chambers of the 10th National Assembly, which can hold the Asiwaju Tinubu government hostage.
As someone who was part of the advocacy for the merger of our old legacy parties, it is very worrisome that we are working to undo all that we have achieved in Nigerian politics. Being the only party that was a product of merger negotiation throughout the political history of Nigeria, and the only party to have succeeded in defeating a ruling party, it was never the vision of our founding fathers, led by President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu that we will become a party that is disrespectful to our rules and our constitution.
As a reminder, we are a party that was inspired by President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu to make every sacrifice to lead the process of changing Nigerian politics. Changing Nigerian politics was envisioned to be about respect for our constitution based on which organs are allowed to meet and take decisions. Integral to that is about having party leaders that respect and comply with decisions of party organs. Sadly, we are today surrounded by many party leaders who worked against the party during the 2023 elections. Some of them are among those aspiring for the leadership of the two chambers of the 10th National Assembly. Yet, the party is not taking any step to take disciplinary action against these recalcitrant party leaders.
Certainly, this is not the vision that guided the merger negotiation of 2012 and 2013. We have allowed self-centred and, in many respects, sectarian people to assume position of responsibility within our party simply because we are comfortable with the positions we are privileged to be holding today. The demands for the restoration of constitutional order in APC is primarily to arrest the drift towards the emergence of unaccountable leaders within the party, which can only be achieved by ensuring that all party organs meet regularly as directed by the party’s constitution. These demands are hereby presented to restore constitutional order in the APC and to halt the current drift whereby most decisions of the party are narrowed to discretionary choices of the National Chairman and the National Secretary.
If discretionary decisions are allowed to continue to guide the management of the party, self-centred and sectarian approached to managing elections will take over. This can adversely erode the popularity base of our party as was the case in Osun State. This must be arrested immediately and with the urgency it requires. The only way to do that will be to restore constitutional order within the APC. Restoring constitutional order within the APC is about returning the APC to its founding vision, which is non-negotiable. Restoring the APC to its founding vision is about protecting the principles that guided the leadership of President Buhari throughout the last eight years. It is about calibrating the incoming government of Asiwaju Tinubu to ensure that it build on the successes of the President Buhari administration. This will also require that every member of the Asiwaju Tinubu government share in the vision of the party. This is not something that can be left to chances.
The party is practically therefore required to manage the process of transition in such a manner that there is indeed continuity while at the same time taking steps to learn from the mistakes of the President Buhari administration. This is one responsibility, which the PDP managed very poorly and, in the end, produced a highly frustrated former President Olusegun Obasanjo who end up destroying his PDP membership card. As a founding member of the APC, we must push for the restoration of constitutional order in APC such that the inspirationally strong relationship between outgoing President Buhari and incoming President Asiwaju Tinubu will remain and would continue to guide the management of both party and governmental affairs.
As things are, if allowed to continue, under your leaders as the National Chairman of the party, we are unfortunately setting the stage for destroying the relationship that exists between outgoing President Buhari and incoming President Asiwaju Tinubu. Anyone who is working to destroy a political relationship that inspired the successful achievement of the first political merger negotiation in the political history of Nigeria, which led to the first defeat of a ruling party for Nigeria, don’t mean well for Nigerian democracy.
I make this an open letter because it is about campaigning to return the APC to its foundation, which requires that we mobilise all like-minded party leaders and members in this crusade to restore constitutional order in the APC. As a person, I have concluded that everything must be done to compel you to respect the constitution of our party and manage its affairs based on the requirements of our constitution and not your personal discretion. Therefore, by this open letter, I am serving you notice of one week from today, being Wednesday, April 19, 2023 to take all the appropriate steps required to convene a NEC meeting before May 29, 2023 wherein all the issues bordering on the management of smooth transition between the outgoing government of President Buhari and the incoming government of President Asiwaju Tinubu can be considered. If by the end of this one-week notice, no action is taken to convene a NEC meeting as the first step to restore constitutional order in APC, I will not hesitate to take further actions, including approaching our courts to enforce compliance with the provisions of our party’s constitution under your leadership.
Like I have argued in my letter to you of December 26, 2022 on the subject “Democracy and Accountability: Concerns about State of Affairs of APC”, “being a party that is committed to enthroning progressive politics as the pillars of developing our democracy and moving our nation forward, these issues should be urgently addressed. Inability to address these issues would continue to undermine our electoral viability.” The current NWC under your leadership should stop acting as a Trojan Horse programmed to destroy our party. Only compliance with and respect for our constitution by allowing all our superior organs, notably NEC, National Caucus and NAC, to function and take decisions accordingly, which should be binding on all party leaders and members can secure our party. This is not negotiable!
Salihu Lukman
APC and Transition Politics
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is today the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Taking over from former President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29, 2023, having won a keenly contested 2023 elections. President Tinubu’s Road to the Nigerian Presidency wasn’t an easy one. The opposition against him within the APC was as strong and determined as that from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), etc., if not stronger. Unlike in the case of the PDP in 2007 whereby former President Olusegun Obasanjo crowned late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as his successor and even went ahead to rig the 2007 elections to ensure victory, in the case of President Tinubu, everything was done within the APC to manipulate former President Buhari to oppose President Tinubu’s emergence as the Presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 general elections.
The 2023 Presidential election, which produced President Tinubu was the most keenly contested election, at least since 1999. President Tinubu lost his home State, Lagos to LP. One of the strongholds of the APC, Kano State was also lost to the NNPP. In the case of the results from Kano State, unlike in 2015 and 2019 whereby the PDP was able to win more than 25% of the constitutionally required threshold, in 2023, the PDP was not able to get anywhere near the 25% requirement. The APC also lost some of its strongholds, including Katsina State, former President Buhari home state where the PDP won the Presidential election, although marginally. Luckily, PDP also lost many of its strongholds such as Rivers and the South-East. In many respects, it can be summarised that President Tinubu and APC won the 2023 elections largely because of the combined damage both the Labour Party and NNPP did to the support base of the PDP.
Before emerging as the APC Presidential candidate, President Tinubu had to confront a very strong opposition internally within the APC. At the highest level of the party’s leadership, attempts were made to manipulate the emergence of a so-called consensus Presidential Candidate of the party. For instance, the APC National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, on June 6, 2022, ahead of the June 8, 2022 APC National Convention where the party was scheduled to elect its Presidential candidate, informed members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) that Sen. Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan has been chosen as the consensus Presidential candidate following consultations between former President Buhari, Progressive Governors and other party leaders. Majority members of the NWC had to declare their opposition to such a plot, which was supported by Progressive Governors. Eventually, former President Buhari declined the move to impose a so-called consensus Presidential Candidate and declared support for internal democratic process allowing delegates at the National Convention of June 8, 2022 to elect the party’s Presidential candidate.
Prior to the declaration of Sen. Ahmed Lawan by the APC National Chairman as the consensus Presidential candidate, there were all manner of public speculations, throwing up so many strange names of politicians and public office holders as possible Presidential candidates of the APC, which included former President Goodluck Jonathan and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. These are people that are not members of APC. If anything, former President Jonathan is a member of the PDP and Mr. Emefiele was first appointed CBN Governor by PDP government of former President Jonathan and was never known to be a member of any political party, including the APC. Early in 2022, there were some public campaign and mobilisation for the emergence of Mr. Emefiele as a Presidential candidate by a group led by Mr. Nduka Obaigbena.
There were also some media reports indicating that APC leaders were also considering adopting former President Goodluck Jonathan as a consensus Presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. Interestingly, when the APC began sales of nominations forms for the 2023 general elections, some APC members were reported to have bought Presidential nomination forms for former President Jonathan and Mr. Emefieli. The reality also was that there was intense debate in the country for quite sometimes around power shift between the Northern and Southern parts of the country. With President Buhari completing his two terms tenure of eight years coming from the North, the domineering sentiment in the country was that former President Buhari’s successor should come from the Southern part of the country.
Beyond public agitations, however, the big challenge was ensuring that parties produce Presidential candidates who are from the Southern part of the country. Accordingly, cutting across the two leading parties, APC and PDP, both Southern and Northern Governors Forums declared their support for power shift from the North to the South. Unfortunately, PDP Governors were unable to mobilise the support of delegates to ensure the emergence of a Southerner as the PDP Presidential candidate. Instead, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and a Northerner emerged as the PDP Presidential candidate for 2023 elections, defeating his main rival Mr. Nyesom Wike, former Governor of Rivers State.
The emergence of Alh. Atiku Abubakar as the PDP Presidential candidate was used by the conservative bloc within the APC as the rationale for why the APC should also field a Northerner as its Presidential candidate. It took the determination of President Tinubu, supported by Progressive Governors, majority members of NWC and many party members to resist and defeat the attempt by the conservative bloc within APC to impose a Northerner as a so-called consensus Presidential candidate of the APC. Credit must also be given to former President Buhari for refusing to endorse Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the ‘consensus’ Presidential candidate of the APC. Had former President Buhari endorsed the choice of Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the so-called consensus APC President candidate, the campaign for power shift from the Northern to Southern part of the country may have suffered a big setback. Good enough, President Tinubu successfully won the APC Presidential primary with 1,271 votes, defeating 13 other aspirants, including Sen. Ahmed Lawan who came fourth in the contest with only 152 votes. Former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi came second with 316 votes, while former Vice President Yomi Osinbajo came third with 235 votes.
The emergence of President Tinubu as APC’s Presidential candidate for the 2023 general elections tested the capacity of both President Tinubu and the APC as a party to remained united. With Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate who is from the Southern part of the country who is a Muslim, the choice of a possible Christian from the Northern part as a Running Mate became an issue both internally within the party and nationally. Certainly, the issue of respecting religious diversity couldn’t be ignored. Conventional Nigerian politics would dictate a balanced religious ticket with a Muslim Presidential candidate and Christian Running Mate. This is a big risk in terms of whether combinations of two personalities from Southern and Northern minorities could produce the votes to guarantee eventual victory.
In the end, President Tinubu after consultations settled for the unconventional choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket with Sen. Kashim Shettima, a Muslim from North-East as his Running Mate. The logic is simple; instead of considering a balanced religious ticket with a ticket of two personalities from Southern minority (Asiwaju Tinubu) and an idle Northern Christian minority, the unconventional choice of producing a balanced ticket of a Southern minority (Asiwaju Tinubu) with a Running Mate from the Northern majority (Sen. Shettima) was made. Combination of President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, two Muslims emerging as APC Standard Bearers for the 2023 Presidential elections was highly contested by Nigerians. Perhaps, it also must be admitted that the choice of Alh. Atiku Abubakar as PDP Standard Bearer for the Presidential election although with a Christian, Ifeanyi Okowa, former Delta State Governor as his Running Mate may be regarded as more offensive to the ‘principles of freedom, equality and justice, and …consolidating the unity of our people’ as enshrined in the preamble to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended, which was what the whole debate for power shift was about.
The reality that confronted Nigerians given the choices made by both the APC with respect to the Muslim-Muslim ticket of President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima, on the one hand, and PDP domineering Northern ticket of former Vice President Atiku, on the other hand, makes it very difficult for ordinary Nigerians. With so much ethnic and religious considerations dominating Nigerian politics, making a choice out of a religiously imbalanced APC candidature and sectionalist PDP candidature by ordinary Nigerians, is to say the least, expecting too much. While in the case of PDP, it is a clear case of insensitivity, in the case of APC, it is more a case of taking a conscious risk to win the votes. Taking conscious risk to win votes is more a function of responding to the challenge of perhaps having a ‘minority’ from the Southern part, in the person of President Tinubu, emerging as APC Presidential candidate. Note that minority in this context is only applied relative to the Southern population being predominantly Christians. The challenge in this case is the question of what a candidate should do who is from a ‘minority’ group to win the votes from the majority groups. This is not an easy question to answer. Whichever way answered, it will be contested.
This will remain an open debate in Nigerian politics. In the case of the 2023 elections, we are extremely lucky and grateful to Nigerians as a party to emerge victorious. There are many explanations being advanced around the inability of the PDP to manage itself leading to all the manifest contradictions and breakaways, including the emergence of Mr. Peter Obi as the Presidential candidate of Labour Party. Similarly, there was also the fact of Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s breakaway from the PDP to form the NNPP. All these are no doubt contributory factors. But by far, a bigger factor why the APC almost lost the 2023 elections was the inability to properly manage internal contestations within the APC. This is largely because, although since its formation, internal contestation within the APC remained very strong, capacity of the party leadership to facilitate internal negotiation within the party, producing agreements that are respected by all remained weak. In addition, the party was unable to use its position as a ruling party both at Federal level and in many states it produced government to its advantage.
All these negatively affect the electoral viability of the APC. If the truth must be said, as a party, we didn’t manage electoral victory very well. Since 2015, after winning the Presidential elections, we allowed many PDP appointees to remain in the service of Federal Government, including Mr. Godwin Emefieli who was inherited as CBN Governor. This has produced some gaps in terms of policy implementation aimed at achieving campaign promises. There is also the case of allowing appointees to remain in office even when they failed to meet expectations. This created unhealthy situations whereby many APC supporters felt neglected and therefore demoralised. In addition, there is the inability of APC governments, especially at Federal level to take new initiate as responsive measures to respond to emerging challenges. A good example is the issue of handling security challenges of banditry in the North-West and North-Central. Although, in terms of investment in hardware, arms procurement and personnel recruitment, relative to past governments, APC under former President Buhari has made significant investment, inability to boldly rolled out new initiatives weakened impact of the investment.
Being a party founded with the vision of being progressive require unconventional initiatives. In the context of security challenges, for instance, in addition to arms procurement is the issue of mass recruitment of security personnel, which is very inadequate. Part of the age long debate in Nigeria is the issue of decentralising Nigerian Police to allow for State policing. In the last few years, there is sufficient national consensus that there should be State Police, which under the 2017 APC True Federalism Committee, chaired by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, it was recommended. Unfortunately, nothing was done since then and the APC Federal Government under former President Buhari throughout the last eight years discountenance any consideration in that respect. There was also the case of replacing Service Chiefs whose tenure expired and in the wake of rising insecurity, Nigerians across diverse sections demanded for their replacements, but APC government of former President Buhari hesitated for quite some time to replace the Service Chiefs.
All these are issues that provided political oxygen to the opposition against APC during the 2023 elections. Couple with the domineering influence of leaders within the APC who are outrightly conservative or at the least unprogressive, internal dynamics were created to either seek to undermine the development of capacity to both manage the party and enhance its progressive credential to facilitate internal contestation and manage governance. Most times, when internal contestations within the party achieve some progressive leap, the conservative bloc within the party try to push the party back. This was exactly the case when President Tinubu was able to mobilise for the defeat against the so-called consensus Presidential candidate championed by the conservative bloc. With the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the APC, the conservative bloc within the APC came up with the so-called Naira redesign policy and use that to confiscate citizens hard earned money, and thereby almost making it impossible to access cash ahead of the 2023 Presidential elections.
And when APC and Asiwaju won the 2023 elections, the structures of the party were blocked from functioning to allow for wider internal democratic consultations, debates and contestations using the legitimate structures provided in the constitution of the party to facilitate internal negotiations to zone leadership of the 10th National Assembly. Practically, in a manner that is nothing more than suspending the constitution of the party, the National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, supported by the National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore have blocked all organs of the party from meeting, except the NWC. In the case of the NWC, it is more a case of spoon-feeding members with convenient information. And where challenged as was the case with the court case aimed at restoring constitutional order in the party, the National Legal Adviser, Barr. Ahmed El-Marzuq become handy with spurious legal interpretations, which are anything but legal, bereft of any logic.
The same conservative bloc is now spewing up hardcore ethnic Northern arguments against the zoning decisions approved by the NWC following the outcome of consultations between Sen. Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC team with President Tinubu. As if those consultations were not designed to produce agreements, once the NWC approved the recommendation for zoning the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, instead of acting as the National Chairman, facilitating implementation of decisions of organs of the party, he is acting as a factional leader opposing the decision of the NWC. Instead of working for the success of the decision of the NWC through activating meetings of higher organs of the party to confer more legitimacy to the decision of the NWC, he seems to be more interested in ensuring that the 2015 model of rebellious leadership emerge in the 10th National Assembly.
As things are, the biggest challenge for APC of concluding the transitionary journey into the new era of President Tinubu is whether the vision of producing a progressive party managing progressive governance initiatives will be produced. To have a progressive party requires dynamism, action and improvement both in the management of the APC and governments it produced. This is more about responding to challenges facing Nigeria with unconventional initiatives aimed at producing results that will accelerate Nigeria’s march towards democratic development than anything else. Inability to guarantee accelerated Nigeria’s march towards democratic development is the source of frustration for Nigerians and is why Nigerians would find failed and colourless politicians in other parties attractive during elections.
Part of the big challenge facing Nigeria’s democratic development is also the apparent oversimplification of democracy to only periodic elections. Important as periodic elections are, the requirement of having parties with developed capacity to facilitate internal competition is fundamental. In fact, internal competitions are supposed to be the backbone for interparty contests. Part of what most be recognised as the source of APC’s approval ratings in 2015 was the expectation by Nigerians that it offers a breakaway from PDP’s dark era of imposing candidates and rigging elections. To be candid, these were legitimate expectations, which at its formative stages between 2013 and 2015, the APC managed very well.
With the emergence of President Tinubu, being the leader of the party, will he continue to provide leadership for the fight against conservative take over of the APC? Or will he, like former President Buhari continue to project indifferent disposition to questionable conduct of conservative leaders of the party? If he is indifferent to the development of the party, will he be indifferent to the capacity of his government to implement the manifesto of the party, including his action plan – Renewed Hope – which is derived from the manifesto of the party? Will he run a progressive government, initiating unconventional policies and programmes, challenging Nigerians to relate with the Federal Government with zeal, hope and expectations, thereby opening new frontiers of human endeavour? Or will President Tinubu’s government operate based on business-as-usual practice, recruiting appointees from among familiar foes and therefore hardly able to discipline them when they fail to meet public expectations?
President Tinubu’s job is clearly cut out for him. From all available evidence he must have been very prepared. Given, all the internal battles he had to surmount ahead of his emergence as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he has all it takes to return the APC to its founding vision of being a progressive party. And based on his governance track record in Lagos state, he clearly has both the vision and drive to turn a new progressive leap for the country with a government that is both responsive and representative. As someone who, as he refers to himself – city boy – basically coming from humble beginning, he has no excuse if he fails to roll out unconventional leadership initiatives.
The first test of his emergence as the leader of the APC as President of the Federal Republic is whether he will allow leading conservatives to continue to block structures of the party from operating as provided in the APC constitution. It is already a tragedy that two undeniably hardcore conservatives will be given the task of leading the APC as National Chairman and National Secretary. How can a party envisioned to be progressive have such a misfortune? Part of the test will be whether President Tinubu, having agreed together with the APC NWC on zoning formula for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly just sit and watch conservative right-wing elements within the APC use Northern ethnic arguments to mobilise for the defeat of endorsed APC candidates for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly?
The take off for the President Tinubu administration will surely define what to expect. The choices are clear. It is either a progressive government led by a reformed and progressive APC with a competent team of dynamic, visionary and selfless appointees both leading the party and governments it produced; or outrightly conservative APC managing business-as-usual government led by unambitious team of appointees whose interest is not more than self-enrichment thereby converting public resources into personal assets. Will the transition ushering President Tinubu produce ‘equality of opportunity, social justice and prosperity for all through the initiatives set forth’ in the action plan Renewed Hope? Or will the transition end up only keeping Nigeria in the backward situation reproducing old and new problems in bigger magnitude? May God continue to produce the resilient Asiwaju Tinubu who is a fighter with capacity for unconventional initiatives as President Tinubu! Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Contestation and Disagreement are Defining Attributes of a Progressive Party
Open Letter to APC Leaders:
For the Attention of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Since the release of APC and Transition Politics on Wednesday, May 31, 2022, I have been accused of violating the agreements we reached at the NWC meeting of May 3, 2023 to the effect that I should stop media campaigns and use internal structures of the party to make my demands. First, the agreements of May 3 presuppose that structures of the party would be activated to guarantee internal contestations and debates. So far, the only structure of the party meeting is the NWC. Even the NWC, since the agreement of May 3, no dedicated meeting was convened to consider all the issues that made it compelling to institute the court case aimed at restoring constitutional order in APC in the first place. As a person, no one, not even the National Chairman or National Secretary being the two presiding officers of the party have deemed it fit to invite me for any form of engagement on the issues I raised, which compelled me to institute the legal action against them and the APC. All I see is return to business-as-usual.
About a week after the agreement to withdraw the court case was reached, another NWC meeting held on May 10, 2023 where the National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu presented report of the consultation meeting they had with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then President-elect, on zoning of leadership of the 10th National Assembly whereby the NWC was informed of the agreement reached to zone the Senate President to South-South and adopted Sen. Godswill Akpabio as the APC’s standard bearer for the position of Senate President and the Deputy Senate President to the North-West with Senator Jibril Barau as the APC candidate. For House of Representatives the Speaker is zoned to North-West with Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen as the candidate, while Deputy Speaker is zoned to South-East with Rt. Hon. Ben Kalu as the candidate.
After exhaustive deliberation at the May 10, 2023 NWC meeting, wherein the National Chairman and the other representatives of the NWC to the consultation meeting with Asiwaju, which included Sen. Iyiola Omisore, National Secretary and the two Deputy National Chairmen, Sen. Abubakar Kyari and Chief Emma Eneukwu, responded satisfactorily to concerns raised by fellow NWC members and the NWC endorsed the agreements reached with Asiwaju Tinubu. Of course, one of the concerns raised by NWC members was the issue of why the North-West should be given two positions while North-Central did not have any position in the four positions agreed excluded. Explanations were given by both Sen. Adamu and all those who were part of the consultations leading to the agreement with Asiwaju Tinubu to the effect that all the issues were considered.
To my mind, I believe the complains by party leaders and members from North-Central about exclusion are legitimate. However, the way to resolve the grievances would have been to put all the leadership positions in the two chambers of the National Assembly as part of the basket of positions being negotiated. This is in the first place what Article 13.4(vi) of the APC constitution directed the NWC to first undertake by developing a proposed electoral guidelines and regulations to guide negotiations within the structures of the APC. In fact, the proposed guidelines and regulations should have guided the consultations with Asiwaju Tinubu on May 5. Rather, the NWC team led by the National Chairman, Sen. Adamu went to the consultation meeting empty handed.
Prior to that time, cash-and-carry contestation by some of the aspirants became the order. And as leaders of the party, we turned blind-eye and just allowed almost everyone to join the race. I raised alarm, appealing to deaf ears, calling on us to take steps to respond to the situation by doing what our constitution directed us to do, which would include convening a NEC meeting to take decision. Recall that our NEC has not met for more than a year. We have managed the party since April 2022 without approved budget as required under Article 13.3A(xiv) of the APC constitution. No report of any kind to any organ, not even the NWC. Yet, Article 13.4(ii) and (iv) require the NWC to submit quarterly reports of activities and finances covering income and expenditure to NEC. Billions of Naira have been expended based on discretionary decisions of the National Chairman and National Secretary. Till date, no member of the NWC can claim to know how much is in all the accounts of the party outside Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore and perhaps the National Treasurer and National Financial Secretary.
We have had Osun and Ekiti elections, which cost the party billions without any attempt to review experiences, and in the case of Osun, specifically identify reasons why the party lost the election even when we are faced with the embarrassing situation whereby in Osun, not only did we lose the 2022 Governorship election, but we have also been roundly defeated in the 2023 elections. We lost all the three Senatorial seats, lost all the seats for House of Representatives and lost all the House of Assembly seats. And this is the state where the National Secretary, Sen. Omisore come from. And he seats shamelessly, pompously and pretending to command political influence when he cannot win any election. If we are truly aspiring to be a progressive party, leadership must be earned. Sen. Omisore must give account of his leadership in Osun State in every respect. Osun is the only state in the country today where the party has no single elected representative. Maybe we has Counsellors, who by this trend would be voted out in the next election.
A party aspiring to be a progressive party must respect its constitution and at the minimum allow all its organs to meet as enshrined in the constitution. It is not about convenient interpretation, which with respect to the NEC, for instance, it is statutorily required to meet quarterly and the National Legal Adviser, Barr. Ahmed El-Marzuq would brazenly and audaciously seek to manipulate the NWC to imagine that meetings of NEC should be at the discretion of NWC. This is the kind of advice you can only get from any member of the legal profession whose knowledge of the law is so narrow and self-serving, which is most unfortunate.
When I instituted the court case on April 27, 2023, my objective is to challenge this false and dangerous attempt to block structures of the party from meeting, which can only lead to destruction of the APC. I was determined to proceed with the case even in the face of the threat to expel me from the party. Like I highlighted at that time, the NWC had no power to expel me. I am however grateful to my colleagues in the NWC, especially fellow National Vice Chairmen who believed that once I withdraw the case we will be provided with opportunity through meetings of structures of the party, which unfortunate has not happened. As things are, it is my view that Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore as National Chairman and National Secretary are the ones who have betrayed the agreements we reached on May 3 and therefore have let all of us in the NWC and in the party down.
For instance, instead of convening meetings of structures of the party after the May 10, 2023 decision of the NWC to conclude internal negotiations to zone all leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly, as NWC members, we were only invited to syndicated meetings to listen to so-called aggrieved aspirants. And in all the meetings, the pronouncements of Sen. Adamu in the presence of media betrays any commitment to defend the decisions of the NWC. Sen. Adamu’s common byline at all the meetings is that in deciding on the zoning, the NWC advise that there should be more consultations. And when Hon. Abbas Tajudeen and his team of supporters from the House of Representatives came to meet the NWC on May 23, 2023, Sen. Adamu was visibly angry when Hon. Tajudeen was referred to as Speaker.
To recommend consultations without providing the needed leadership through activating meetings of organs of the party, is, to say the least, dereliction of responsibility. As leaders of the party, if there should be any form of consultation to promote internal democracy within the party, it should be led by the structures of the party as provided in the party’s constitution. In which case, being leaders of the party – NWC – we should be the convening authority. Sen. Adamu, no doubt, is an experienced politician and a very conscious one for that matter. He knows exactly what he is doing by not convening the meetings of organs of the party. By every definition, Sen. Adamu’s politics is conservative and reactionary. Unfortunately, however, based on all the unfolding realities, he is on a reckless conservative and reactionary politician, who, if left unchecked, can pull the party in the direction of committing political suicide. All party leaders and members must wake up to this reality and stop Sen. Adamu from achieving his mission of self destroying the APC.
Both Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore, from all available reports appeared to be animated that I have resumed public advocacy on the need to save the APC and ensure that the structures of the party are given life in line with provisions of the APC constitution. Yes, I have resumed public advocacy because all the structures that should have permitted internal debates are being blocked from meeting. For the records, if you want to resume deliberations to consider expelling me from the party, you are free to do so. I will defend myself publicly to the best of my ability. APC, as a party founded with the vision of being a progressive party, must accommodate debates and contestations. Nobody, no matter how highly placed should imagine that the best way to win debates and contestation is to bully and blackmail opponents. I can guarantee you; no amount of bullying will stop the campaign to return APC to constitutional order.
By the way, you are free to expel me from APC, but you cannot expel me as citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. APC is not a private property. It is a public political organisation with rule, which must be respected. Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore can block organs of the APC from meeting to the extent that other leaders of the party are willing to permit. No one can block me, in anyway, from discharging my right to engage the issues both as Nigerian and as a member of APC, expelled or not. For your information, I am currently working to document all these experiences, which I will publish, God willing, so that it contribute to the body of knowledge in the development of party politics in Nigeria. Whether you respect my right to hold membership of APC or not, I can proudly say that my publications will remain references for anyone who wish to understudy the APC for the foreseeable future.
Perhaps, let me also indulge the National Chairman, Sen. Adamu by informing him that contrary to his campaign of slander against me, I consider myself a very successful person. Unlike the lies he enjoy telling NWC members that I was sacked in five places, in all the places I worked, I left credible records, and they are all there to be verified. Respect begets respect. I respect Sen. Adamu and I will not because of disagreement with his politics slander his person and his reputation. Without doubt, I can confirm to you that I am committed to anything I subscribe to and will always discharge any responsibility given to me that I willfully and willingly accept to discharge. My current position as APC National Vice Chairman North-West is no exception. In discharging my responsibility for that office as provided in the APC constitution, I will do so without fear or favour with the objective of contributing to the development of Nigerian democracy and the APC as a political party registered under the law.
The struggle to return APC to constitutional order is about achieving the founding vision of forming a party that is progressive and encourages internal debates and contestations by allowing all the structures provided in the APC constitution to freely operate. Leaders of APC must be friendly to debates, contestations, engagements and should not lay back to find ways of blocking debates using bullying methods and blackmailing opponents. In the last few years, APC has been so damaged to point of being reduced to a party that is in contempt with its own rules. As a person, I believe that all leaders and members of the party must rise to the challenge of restoring APC to its founding vision and one that is undeniably progressive, and not only in name. The struggle continues!
Salihu Lukman
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
The APC Manifesto identified that ‘the challenge facing us as Nigerians is whether we have the will and the courage to unite to radically reform, modenise and move our nation forward – not looking back to the failed policies and practices of the past. It is no longer a question of choice but of will and courage.’ In his campaign document, ‘Renewed Hope 2023 – Action Plan for Better Nigeria’, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, took this forward when he identified that ‘the structural model upon which our national economy has always been based needs major reform. Our economy is unhelpfully designed to export raw materials and import increasingly expensive finished products. Crude oil still provides most of our foreign exchange and represents the primary source of Federal Government revenues. Over the long-term, the revenues from these natural resources export will prove insufficient to meet rising costs of imports let alone support the fiscal obligations demanded by modern democratic governance.’
More than anything, the issue of fuel subsidy tests the commitment of President Tinubu and the APC in terms of whether new initiatives will be introduced to courageously unite Nigerians ‘to radically reform, modenise and move our nation forward’. It is about whether we want to continue to spend about 30% of our total revenue as subsidy for importation of fuel. For instance, under the 2023 Federal Government budget, for the first six months, January – June, N3.36 trillion was provided. Between 2017 and 2022, more than N5 trillion was expended on subsidy for the importation of fuel. In 2017, it cost the country N144.5 billion. The cost increased to N722.3 billion in 2018, N551.2 billion in 2019, N102 billion in 2020, N1,780 billion in 2021 and N2,042 billion in 2022. It is projected that between 2017 and June 2023, Nigeria would have expended 26.06% of its revenue on fuel subsidy payment. Nigeria’s 2023 budget is N21.83 trillion. This means that oil subsidy for the first six months already accounted for about 15% of the Federal Government’s budget and if it is to continue, it will account for nothing less than 30% of the Federal Government’s budget by December 2023.
The reality therefore is that the challenge of managing the astronomical cost of fuel subsidy payment is the first test of whether President Tinubu’s government will operate based on commitment to deliver on his campaign promises to Nigerians of initiating reform of the economy so that revenues accruing to government can ‘support the fiscal obligations demanded by modern democratic governance.’ Certainly, this will require bold and courageous decisions. But perhaps, more than that, it will require being able to mobilise Nigerians to support the initiative of government. Mobilising Nigerians to support initiatives of government is a function of engagements and negotiations with the aim of winning agreements that will strategically commit citizens to both support the initiatives of government as well as discharge complementary responsibilities.
This is more about the relationship that exists between government and citizens, which often is taken for granted. If anything, part of the reasons why relations between government and citizens is most times tense is the absence of a functional framework to facilitate engagements and negotiations with Nigerians on policy issues. It all comes down to questions of representation and responsiveness. Theoretically, representation and responsiveness are more about how different interests are accommodated and promoted in policies of government. Somehow, these are issues that are yet to be reflected in the ways our political parties are organised. None of our registered parties can claim to have developed structures that allow for caucusing such that blocs of interests can strategise within the structures of the political party on how to promote their own interests. Through caucusing within the structures of the party, interest blocs can, for instance, sponsor and promote candidates and use the structures of the party to negotiate policy priorities to be adopted by governments produced by the party.
This presupposes that our parties will respect and allow structures provided in their constitution to operate. In our case in APC, for instance, with a conservative and reactionary leadership that is lawless and believe that statutory structures of the party can only meet at its own discretion, it will be a pipe dream to expect that they will allow caucuses to emerge in the first place, not to talk of allowing the caucuses to use the structures of the party to negotiate policies. Aside the fact that the APC constitution provided for the existence of National Advisory Council (NAC), National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Caucus whose membership is diverse and could be adjudged to reflect various interests, these organs have been rendered idle, if not irrelevant. In their place, the National Chairman of the party, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu take decisions on issues that the APC constitution mandated these organs to discharge as he deems fit. Occasionally, he invites the National Working Committee (NWC), to legitimise some of his decisions, which by the provisions of the APC constitution is supposed to be an administrative organ.
In addition to these organs (NAC, NEC and National Caucus), the amended APC constitution created three new structures, namely Women’s Wing, Youth Wing and Persons Living with Disability Wing. These are structures that are expected to function as autonomous bodies within the APC structures with their own constitutions, and regulations, which should not conflict with the constitution, guidelines, and policies of the APC. Outside the initiatives of the presiding officers of these three structures – National Women’s Leader, National Youth Leader and National Leader of Persons Living with Disabilities, since April 2022 following the assumption of office of the Sen. Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC, nothing has been done to organise the Women’s, Youth and Persons Living with Disability Wings. Yet, these are potential structures that could facilitate effective representation of critical categories of interests that are adjudged marginalised groups in Nigerian politics.
Beyond these structures, the APC constitution also require the establishment of five Standing Committees, namely, Establishment, Finance, Publicity, Intergovernmental and Conflict and Reconciliation Committees. None of these committees have been established so far. Part of the logic of establishing these Standing Committees is to broaden membership participation through ensuring that more leaders of the party take responsibility of managing affairs of the party. Through meetings of all these structures of the party, it should be possible for the party to exercise strong influence in the initiatives of governments it controls. The other advantage is that the party would be able to hold governments it produces and appointees accountable.
Inability to ensure that party organs as provided in the APC constitution meets has created a situation whereby governments produced by the APC have weak or no relationship with the party and appointees highly unaccountable. And during the 2023 elections, for instance, there were many alleged cases of anti-party activities by very highly placed government appointees. In fact, the case of the Naira redesign policy is only possible because of the disconnect between the APC Federal Government of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC as a political party. Otherwise, how can it be explained that a party interested in winning the 2023 elections will allow a government it controls to roll out such a draconian policy that would confiscate citizens’ hard-earned money about six months to a general election?
Therefore, without doubt, part of the challenges of both implementing the APC Manifesto and President Tinubu’s campaign promises is to also prioritise the reform of APC so that it truly become a progressive party led by progressive leaders, or at the minimum democrats who are law abiding and would run the affairs of the party based on the provisions of the APC constitution and not personal discretions. As a party envisioned to be progressive, APC should be developed to grow beyond being an electoral vehicle producing only candidates for elections. APC must in this respect seek to broaden its structures to allow for participation of diverse groups of interests. Already, this is a source of frustration in the country, which political opportunists are taking advantage and unfortunately deceiving Nigerians. The popularity of Labour Party during the 2023 elections is partly a reflection of the frustration of Nigerians with our political parties, including the APC. Nigerians are looking for parties with vibrant structures whose internal debates and contestations would aggregate the diverse interests of Nigerians.
Aggregating the diverse interests of Nigerians is about representation and responsiveness, which is what is required to affirm that ‘sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through the constitution derives all powers and authority’ and ‘participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of the constitution as provided in section 14 (2) (a and c) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended. The challenge of giving practical expression to these provisions of the Nigerian constitution is about providing the much-needed leadership to change Nigerian politics? This is about whether the APC government of President Tinubu will come with initiatives that will result in increased participation of Nigerians in the process of governance. Unlike what obtained in the past, whereby elected leaders run governments based on old conventions and, therefore, having weak commitment to new political initiatives, which may be necessary for Nigeria’s democratic development, President Tinubu’s APC government should be able to summon the courage to break the jinx of managing the business of government almost to the exclusion of Nigerians.
Breaking the jinx of managing the business of government to the exclusion of Nigerians is about putting in place clear framework for citizen engagement aimed at mobilising Nigerians to support government policy initiatives. This will be much easier for President Tinubu when supported by an open party structure which is already facilitating internal negotiations and contestations. So long as the APC is allowed to continue to operate a closed structure, blocking its organs from functioning and the potential negotiations and contestations that come when party organs are allowed to meet, President Tinubu’s government will lack the needed political legitimacy to win the support of Nigerians especially when it comes to implementing difficult policy choices. No doubt, difficult decisions must be taken to effectively resolve our challenges as a nation. However, in taking those difficult decisions, it will be much easier to implement when government is able to win the support of Nigerians through engagements with organised groups.
Often, engagements with organised groups are narrowed to getting groups to accept decisions of government. Once this is the case, it means government will always announce its decisions before it meets with groups. This will also continue to produce situations whereby citizens represented by their organisations will believe that the best way to engage government is through protests. In the case of the fuel subsidy matter, for instance, this was the response of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), which was expected. A progressive government managed by a progressive party must seek to change this through citizens’ engagement. Citizens’ engagement is what will guarantee wider participation of Nigerians in governance through participation in policy formulation. This is what is required to give meaning and practical expression to section 14(2)(c) of the Nigerian constitution.
We need to, as a democratic nation, work hard to introduce framework for engagement to facilitate development of strong synergy between government and Nigerian citizens. Looking at the resolutions of most disputes since 1999 with organised groups, the missing element is engagement at the initial stage. We need to break away from our past whereby the operative framework produces a cycle of policy announcement – protest – negotiations. A progressive government should seek to introduce a new framework, which could produce a new orientation of citizens – government relations that would lead to the emergence of policy negotiation – agreement – announcement – implementation.
This new orientation will require problem posing communication framework that facilitate consultations to resolve Nigeria’s problems by providing important information that would produce new policy initiatives. Government should be able to acknowledge citizens as true partners especially with respect to resource management, allocation and utilisation, as well as challenging citizens and stakeholders to respond to identified challenges with proposals for alternative policy recommendations. Such a problem posing communication framework would beyond expectation engender spirit of partnership and harmony between citizens and government.
Both as a party and government, APC leaders should have the confidence to engage Nigerians directly. It is just unfortunate that with respect to the issue of fuel subsidy we want to allow old arguments and old approaches, which have held the nation to a standstill to continue dominate public debate. It is doubtful if Nigeria’s organised labour are opposed to the withdrawal of subsidy because they will approve that the Federal Government should continue to expend more than 30% of the nation’s revenue on fuel subsidy payment. To what extent will expending more than 30% of the nation’s revenue for fuel subsidy going to advance or promote the interest of Nigerian workers? But once there is no governmental framework to engage organised labour, NLC and TUC may have limited options in compelling government to consider the efficacy of negotiating policy issues.
Good enough, the young government of President Tinubu was able to open negotiations with NLC and TUC and already both NLC and TUC have agreed to suspend their planned strike action. However, beyond the suspension of the planned strike action, APC and the government of President Tinubu must consider developing functional partnership with organise labour. The partnership must be strategically to facilitate consultations between organised labour, APC as a party and the governments it controls both at federal and state levels. Common template should be agreed to guide consultations. There are many policy issues that organised labour would be interested and simple courtesy of being in the loop of policy design would help reduce frictions and tension between labour and APC governments and eliminate distractions that come with strikes.
Some would argue that NLC has already registered Labour Party. The truth is that NLC lost Labour Party a long time ago. What exists today as Labour Party is a corrupt representation of the Labour Party envisioned by the NLC in 2002. The Labour Party envisioned by the NLC in 2002 was a party to be controlled by people committed to Nigerian working class. For quite sometimes now, Labour Party is the political equivalent of stock market whereby every person aspiring to emerge as a candidate of the party for election, is free to bid so long as he/she has the resources. The reality is that the highest bidder wins the ticket of the party. This is what produced Mr. Peter Obi as the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections. NLC and all their partners had no say in the emergence of Mr. Obi and had he won the election, NLC and their partners would have been the first casualty. Besides, NLC and TUC need to come to terms with the fact that they must relate with the government of the day to promote and defend the interests of Nigerian worker. They must relate with the federal government both as a sovereign authority and as the largest employer of labour irrespective of the party in power.
Everything considered therefore, it will be easier for organised labour to develop a functional relationship with APC and its governments at all levels and seek to defend and promote the interests of Nigerian workers than for NLC and its partners to reclaim the Labour Party and use it to sponsor candidates and win elections. The question is whether APC will reform itself to make it and governments it produces at all levels veritable political organisation that could facilitate citizens engagement. How President Tinubu being the new APC leader proceed with the task of managing negotiations with organised labour on the fuel subsidy matter will to a large extend determine the orientation of the new APC government under his leadership. Once negotiation is limited to getting organised labour to accept the new policy of withdrawal of fuel subsidy without contracting partnership agreement with organised labour aimed at securing functional relationship to negotiate the roll out of difficult policies, which would be considered necessary to move Nigeria forward, the old distractions of managing strike actions by organised labour would continue.
Developing a functional partnership relationship with organised labour, and by extension other groups, require deeper political reforms in the country. To achieve that would also demand more focus in reforming the APC as a pollical party, which may have to compel President Tinubu to ask the APC leadership to organise mid-term National Convention earlier than schedule. Some of the changes for instance required to bring about new leadership who could lead the party to achieve its vision of being a progressive party can only be decided by the National Convention. If, for instance, the party want to correct the problem of having reactionaries and conservatives leaders such as Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore leading the party, organising a mid-term convention is necessary and compelling. The earlier this is done, the better for the young government of President Tinubu especially if he wants to run a progressive federal government, one that can guarantee the participation by Nigerians represented by their organised groups in his government as provided by the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended.
Salihu Lukman
Rebuilding the APC to Reform Nigerian Politics:
Task Before President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
With the election of leaders of the 10th National Assembly concluded on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 and the victory of the nominated candidates of the APC for the two chambers (Senate and House of Representatives), President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, being the leader of the party need to prioritise rebuilding the APC to reform Nigerian politics so that our political parties are developed to grow beyond being mere election vehicles. Rebuilding the APC is simply about returning the party to its founding vision of truly becoming a progressive political party. Prioritising rebuilding the APC to return it to its founding vision is basically about ensuring that all the organs of the party are constituted and allowed to function in line with the provisions of the APC constitution.
Since the time of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as the National Chairman, the National Executive Committee (NEC), which by the provisions of Article 13.3 A is empowered ‘to be the principal Executive body of the party’, discharging ‘the functions of National Convention in between National Conventions’ has not been meeting quarterly as provided under the APC constitution. In fact, between 2015 and today, not more than eight meetings of NEC held when if the statutory requirement of quarterly meetings provided under the APC constitution has been respected, not less than thirty NEC meetings would have held. Had the NEC been meeting as provided in the APC constitution, members would have stronger power in managing affairs of the APC and most of the challenges facing the party could have been resolved based on decisions of organs of the party.
As it is now, the management of the party is limited to the discretion of the National Chairman and when it is convenient, he involves members of the National Working Committee (NWC). In few cases, the National Chairman gets the NWC to legitimise his decisions when the APC constitution only assign administrative responsibility of implementing decisions of superior organs such as the NEC, National Caucus and National Advisory Council (NAC) to the NWC. In addition to implementing decisions of superior organs, the APC constitution gives the NWC the powers to make specific proposals to facilitate decisions of organs. So far, powers of superior organs of the party have been illegally usurped by the National Chairman and by extension the NWC.
It is quite worrisome that since formation in 2013, the party’s Board of Trustees now renamed National Advisory Council (NAC) was never constituted. Not more than five meetings of National Caucus held and under the current leadership of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu none has held. Lower organs of the party such as Zonal Executive Committees, Zonal Congresses, Working Committees, Executive Committees, Congresses at states, local governments and wards suffer the same problems. Requirement to setup Senatorial District Committees as provided under Article 13.10 of the APC constitution is redundant. Women’s, Youth and Persons Living with Disabilities Wings provided in the APC constitution are left to the discretions of National Women’s Leader, National Youth Leader, and National Leader of Persons Living with Disabilities.
Five Standing Committees established by the APC Constitution were never constituted. These are Establishment, Finance, Publicity, Intergovernmental and Conflict and Reconciliation Committees. Perhaps, the slightest exception is Conflict and Reconciliation, which on about three occasions there were attempts. The first one was initiated by former President Muhammadu Buhari when in February 2018 he gave President Tinubu, then as National Leader of the party the task of reconciling aggrieved members of the party. The second was when the leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole around 2019 appointed Chief Bisi Akande reconciliation committee. The third was when the Caretaker Committee under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala appointed the Sen. Abdullahi Adamu led National Reconciliation Committee in 2021. All these instances were not approved by the NEC as required under Article 18(i) of the APC constitution.
The sad reality is that the APC as constituted today is only a shadow of itself with a National Chairman that is highly unaccountable running affairs of the party more as a garrison commander. He relates with his colleagues in the NWC just like his appointees. In their name he meets other leaders of the party and seek to manipulate party decisions to suite personal vested interests that is only known to him. Recall the shameful attempt to impose Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the consensus Presidential candidate of the party. In all the so-called consultations he claimed to have had with other leaders of the party on the matter, perhaps except for the National Secretary, no member of the NWC was either informed of the details of the consultations or invited. Similarly, the NWC was never invited to consider any proposal being negotiated. It was only on June 6, 2022, ahead of the June 8, 2022 National Convention that Sen. Adamu invited the NWC only to inform members that a consensus Presidential candidate in the person of Sen. Ahmed Lawan has been chosen. Members were not even given the opportunity to comment on the matter.
Similar scenario repeated itself around the negotiation to decide on the candidates of the party for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly. Instead of developing proposed guidelines to guide negotiations within the structures of the party as provided in the APC constitution, Sen. Adamu claimed to be carrying out consultations to the exclusion of members of the NWC and to the exclusion of all structures of the party. But for the steadfastness of President Tinubu, Sen. Adamu would have led the party to a disastrous outcome, which could be probably worse than the rebellious leadership of the 8th National Assembly. Even after the NWC endorsed the proposal from the consultations by Sen. Adamu and representatives of NWC with President Tinubu adopting standard bearers for the two chambers, Sen. Adamu encouraged opposition to the decision of the NWC and didn’t consider convening superior organs to ensure the decisions of the NWC is respected by all elected representatives of the party in the two chambers.
Beyond all these is also a clear case of reckless financial management of the party. With more than N30 billion realised during the sales of forms for the 2023 elections, Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore have embarked on spending extravaganza based on their discretionary decisions without any form of budget as required by the APC constitution. With NEC not meeting as required, they give no financial report to anyone, not even to the NWC. Having got the NWC around July 2022 to approve the suspension of Directors, they have proceeded to employ new Directors as well as more staff at the National Secretariat without recourse to the Establishment Committee, which is yet to be formed. All these have increased the running cost of the party without the approval of NEC.
Unlike the vision of establishing a people-oriented progressive party that would facilitate the democratic development of the country, we sadly have in our hand an APC, which is in contempt with its own rules led by a determined and decidedly conservative, reactionary, and undemocratic leadership who are opposed to allowing any form of internal accountability to party organs and members. Consequently, the APC has been reduced to only an election vehicle, like other parties in the country. To the disappointment of many founding members of the party and Nigerians, almost all the undemocratic practices associated with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) such as imposition of candidates are now common in APC.
Critical issues of party funding, for instance, has remained very ad hoc. No defined funding framework has been established. Although Article 22 of the APC Constitution provides that the Party shall be funded through the following:
- Subscription, fees and levies of members;
- Proceeds from investments;
- Subventions, donations and fund raising;
- Gifts and grants by governments, individuals or groups of individuals as allowed by law;
- Borrowing as approved by National Executive Committee; and
- Any other lawful means.
The only funding so far is fees and levies, which is more limited to cost of nomination forms for party aspiring candidates. Membership subscription, which would have been the main source of funding for the party is yet to be addressed. Unfortunately, even if membership subscription is set and approved by the competent organ of the party, poor membership record and poor organisation of the party at lower levels may become a stumbling block and source of corruption internally within the party. This is partly because, apart from poor membership records, absence of clearly defined financial policy, many zonal, state, local government and ward structures of the party don’t operate any bank account. These structures hardly receive any funding from the National Secretariat.
These are issues, which the Finance Committee of the party would have to immediately address. Addressing this would require a return to developing the needed institutional framework for establishing a computerised membership data base. At the formative stages of APC, in 2013 – 2015, there was an attempt to establish one located at No. 10 Bola Ajibola Street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos, which was attacked by the PDP Federal Government of former President Goodluck Jonathan on November 22, 2014 based on the allegation that the APC is using the data centre to “clone INEC Permanent Voters Card with the intention of hacking into INEC database, corrupting it and replacing them with their own data” (Premium Times, November 23, 2014). Since the attack, work was suspended and even when the APC in 2021 had to organise membership registration and revalidation, the manual unsustainable method was used rather than resuming work on the computerised membership data centre.
Part of the vision of establishing a progressive party was the expectation that caucuses would emerge within the party to engender interest negotiations. This partly encouraged Governors elected on the platform of the party to organise themselves and formed the Progressive Governors Forum with a Secretariat that was mandated to manage programmes that facilitate the development of policy synergy across APC states. Through the PGF, structures were developed that enabled consultations and capacity development initiatives for functionaries of APC state governments. The programmes managed by the PGF Secretariat were also expanded to facilitate relationship between Progressive Governors and the APC controlled Federal Government as well as the National Assembly leadership.
Part of the reality that weaken the initiatives of the PGF is the complete absence of ownership by the party leadership. Apart from the time of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, there is a complete absence of structured relationship between the NWC and Progressive Governors. During the time of Chief Oyegun, Progressive Governors were meeting with NWC on monthly basis. Through those meetings critical issues and challenges facing the APC as a ruling party were addressed. For instance, the proposal to setup the APC True Federalism Committee led by Mal. Nasir El-Rufai in 2017 came from those consultative meetings between Progressive Governors and the NWC, which was adopted by the APC NEC.
Perhaps, it must also be stressed that the inability of the APC to implement the recommendations of the APC True Federalism Committee can be attributed to the weak structures of the APC. With NEC, NAC and National Caucus not meeting, any expectation of influencing the actions of elected representatives at both the executive and legislative arms will continue to be dashed. Worse still, with a conservative, reactionary, and undemocratic leadership, even if organs of the party meet, they will be manipulated to consider extraneous issues and not substantive reports bordering on the challenges of managing the country.
Returning the APC to its founding vision is immediate and urgent. To get that started the NWC should convene meeting of NEC within the shortest possible time. Already, there are unconfirmed reports that the NWC is proposing a NEC meeting sometime in July 2023. If a NEC meeting is to hold in July 2023, it is important that the agenda of the NEC is made elaborate to ensure that it is not a window dressing NEC. The NWC should be made to present complete reports of all activities of the party since the assumption of office of the current leadership led by Sen. Adamu in line with provisions of Article 13.4(ii) of the APC constitution. And in line with provisions of Article 13.49(iv) of the APC constitution, the NWC present financial report on income and expenditure.
To ensure that the proposed NEC move the party forward and its decisions frees the party from the current ad hoc method of funding the party, the NWC should be made to present a proposed budget covering the operations of the party for at least the next one year. The proposed budget must cover all the operations of the party structures at all levels in line with provisions of Article 13.3(xiv) of the APC constitution. To fund the proposed budget, the NWC should present preliminary proposal to the NEC to mobilise all the funds required to meet all the budget needs in line with provisions of Article 22 (i-vi) of the APC constitution. For emphasis, the budget required should ensure that all the organs of the party should meet as required by the constitution. Therefore, attached to the proposed budget there should be schedule of meetings of all the organs of the party for consideration and approval of NEC. Once such approval is given, there should be no debate again about whether meetings of party organs should be debased to the discretion of the National Chairman or NWC.
The other issue that must be on the agenda of the NEC is proposal for establishment of the five standing committees of Establishment, Finance, Publicity, Intergovernmental and Conflict and Reconciliation Committees. Perhaps, the slightest exception is Conflict and Reconciliation as provided under Article 19.1 of the APC constitution. Similarly, the NWC should be made to present clear proposals for the establishment of the Women’s, Youth and Persons Living with Disabilities wings in line with provisions of Articles 12.19, 12.20 and 12.21 of the APC constitution. Similarly, the agenda of the proposed NEC should include the review of the 2023 elections. This is very fundamental to ensure that all the challenges that the APC, our candidates, and our members faced during the election are identified and needed remedial measures put in place to prevent recurrence.
To do justice to all these issues and ensure that any proposed NEC is not a window dressing NEC, the party should budget at the minimum two days to allow members exhaustively debate all the issues and take all the necessary decisions needed to transform the party to return to the path of emerging as a progressive party in line with its founding vision. Part of the debate at the proposed NEC must also prioritise the need to assess whether decidedly conservative, reactionary, and undemocratic leaders should continue to lead a party envisioned to be progressive. How that debate is managed and the decision that come from it will be a major determinant of whether the Renewed Hope agenda of APC and President Tinubu will have the requisite internal expression within the workings of the APC.
Returning the APC to its founding vision is about developing the structures of the party to competently have all the requisite power and relationship with elected representatives of the party to serve our dear country Nigeria based on the provisions of the party’s manifesto and President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda. As a party, we must wake up and respond positively to the expectations of Nigerians and begin to douse citizens’ frustrations, which is producing so much anger and making our people vulnerable to manipulative antics of political opportunist during electoral contests. This is the minimum, which our agenda of Renewed Hope under the leadership of President Tinubu should ignite and trigger a deeper political reform in the country!
Salihu Lukman
APC: Way Forward
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Following the resignation of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore as National Chairman and National Secretary respectively, there is all manner of speculations as to which way forward. Of course, understandably, most of the speculations, if not all, are driven by interests to control affairs of the party. Regrettably, however, many of the speculations do not share the commitment to either restore constitutional order in the party or return the party to its founding vision of returning to the path of progressive politics. In fact, if anything, some of the speculations, if true, will reduce to nonsense the decision to have a change of leadership, which means that no lessons have been learnt from all the circumstances of the last few years since the emergence of APC as a political party.
It is therefore necessary that at this very early stage of negotiating new leadership for the APC, we caution all our leaders that the only way we can justify the exit of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore out of the leadership of the APC is by demonstrating commitment to restore constitutional order in APC and return the party to its founding vision of being a progressive party. These are issues that would appear to be taken for granted and if not engaged could be abused by power blocs within the party, which could lead to the emergence of leaders that are worse than Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore. This must be avoided.
First, restoring constitutional order in APC is basically about complying with extant provisions of the party’s constitution. A situation whereby the National Chairman usurped powers of National Working Committee (NWC) and all organs of the party is unacceptably. All organs of the party, namely, National Advisory Council (NAC), National Caucus, National Executive Committee (NEC), etc. must be allowed to function in accordance with provisions of the party’s constitution. The irresponsible culture of asking organs of the party to donate their powers to the NWC, which basically empowers the National Chairman to convert all the resources of the party to personal use must end.
Inability to allow organs to function will block any attempt to return the party to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. Being a progressive party is about ensuring that we can produce a dynamic, action-oriented party that is able to produce governments that can and improve the lives of Nigerians. It is about goal-setting and developing strategies to achieve them. with a clear vision. This is easier said than done. In our context in Nigeria, this is reduced to claims and narrowed to winning elections. Certainly, winning elections is primarily the required precondition to improve the lives of citizens. Being a progressive party will mean that we are able to ensure that organs of the party develop the capacity to hold elected and appointed officials accountable.
Holding elected and appointed officials accountable has certainly been a challenge in Nigerian politics and has been a major source of frustration. Returning to our founding vision of becoming a progressive party is about initiating actions within the structures of APC that can strengthen the party to influence the conducts of elective and appointive officials. This is more about the quality of leadership that will take over. It is also about initiatives being introduced within the party to re-orient the management of APC, especially in the context of facilitating negotiations to produce and engage leaders of the party.
In terms of negotiations to produce and engage leaders of the party, to what extent are all the relevant power blocs within the party active? What are even the power blocs within the APC, as it is today? Certainly, the President, being the leader of party is the most important power bloc. There are the blocs of Governors, National Assembly Caucus, elders who are recognised in the APC constitution as members of National Caucus. There are other blocs, which are recognised in APC constitution yet to be constituted and to that extent therefore very passive. These are Women, Youth and Persons with Disability who are recognised and empowered to be organised as wings within the party.
The extent to which all these power blocs are active in the negotiations to produce and engage leaders of the party will confirm whether necessary steps are being taken to return the APC to its founding vision of progressive politics. Are there debates within the party on how this is to be achieved? Unfortunately, no. Instead, there would appear some deceptive celebrations around the exit of Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore, imagining that all the problems of APC have been solved with their exit, which is not true. If anything, the exit of Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore provided us with the opportunity to start initiating actions to return the APC to its founding vision, by first restoring constitutional order in the party.
Through restoring constitutional order, we can activate some of the power blocs to actively participate in the process of producing and engaging leaders of the party. For instance, elders of the party can have stronger say when the meetings of the National Caucus are restored. Women, Youth and Persons with Disability will similarly have stronger say when the Women, Youth and Persons with Disability wings are constituted with all the complementary structures as provided in the APC constitution. In fact, beyond the Women, Youth and Persons with Disability Leaders, these three wings are expected to have Secretaries who will be members of NEC.
So far, as things are, only the President and Governors blocs are active in the negotiation to produce and engage leaders of APC. Already, part of the speculations emerging from the Governors bloc is that Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is being considered to succeed Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. If this is true, it only suggests insensitivity and taking members of the party for granted. This is without prejudice to the person of Dr. Ganduje. This is because such a choice will completely distort the zoning arrangement that informed the present configuration of the leadership of the National Assembly. With the Speaker of House of Representatives and Deputy Senate President coming from North West and North Central shut out of consideration, to propose the party’s National Chairman to move to North West from North Central will be unjust and almost a political suicide.
We must caution our Governors that since the emergence of APC, Governors have served almost as the conscience of the party. Any consideration for such an insensitive and unjust consideration of Dr. Ganduje to become the National Chairman of APC must be discarded. If anything, the position of National Chairman of the APC must be retained in North Central. Part of the challenge of managing the current transition within the party is getting the NWC to properly take the driving seat in managing and facilitating negotiations to produce and engage leaders of the party. The NWC must sit up and guide the unfolding negotiations. No single power bloc should be allowed to appropriate the process.
This where the intervention of the President, being the leader of the party would be required to moderate the excessive conduct of any power bloc, especially when such conduct risk further damaging the prospect of returning the APC to its founding vision. At these early stages of President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s leadership of the party, he needs to make that strong intervention to guide the process of restoring constitutional order and returning the APC to its founding vision of progressive politics. Progressive politics must be about inclusion and justice and not some blind and insensitive considerations.
Salihu Lukman
APC and Question of Party Building
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
One challenge we continue to face in APC is when things become worse after winning an outcome. That was the experience we had after dissolving the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole led National Working Committee (NWC), only to find ourselves stuck with a Caretaker Committee that was unwilling to organise a National Convention, which was its clear mandate. Similarly, after winning the campaign to get the Caretaker Committee organise a National Convention, which produced the current NWC led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, in no time the party was returned to the old mode of business as usual whereby statutory organs of the party were frozen. No meetings of party organs were taking place and the NWC became practically an observer whereby the National Chairman and National Secretary basically usurped the powers of all organs of the party.
The height of it was when the National Chairman attempted to impose Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the party. Progressive Governors and many members of the NWC had to rise to the occasion and check the excesses of the National Chairman, which produced President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the candidate of the party for 2023 elections. The rest, as is often said, is now history. However, we continue to move from one unhealthy situation to another during both the 2023 electioneering campaigns and the process of negotiations to produce leaders of the National Assembly after the elections. It was as if the party under the leadership of Sen. Adamu is either contesting the authority of President Asiwaju Tinubu or at the least working across purposes.
With all organs of the party frozen, it was very upsetting for many party members, which was partly why the campaign for Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisoro’s resignations was popular. One could only imaging how frustrating it was for President Asiwaju Tinubu to have to cohabit with a party leadership that was covertly subversive at the beginning of his administration. It will be very understandable if President Asiwaju Tinubu therefore will move to bring in a strong loyalist such as Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the next National Chairman having experienced first-hand what a disloyal party National Chairman can do to undermine a government produced by the party.
As loyal party members, it is however very crucial that we strongly appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu that it will be injurious to the party and all governments produced by the party to produce Dr. Ganduje as the next National Chairman of APC without clearing his name of the corruption charges against him. This is very crucial because it will protect the person of Dr. Ganduje, confirm his uprightness, and therefore shield the party from all the negative campaigns against him. We must appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu not to create a situation that will promote any public insinuation that his government will shield anyone being accused of corruption charges, no matter how close the person may be to him. Rather than seeking to nominate Dr. Ganduje to emerge as the next National Chairman of APC, President Asiwaju Tinubu will end up only doing more damages to the person of Dr. Ganduje and to the party and his administration if Dr. Ganduje is to emerge as National Chairman of APC without clearing the corruption charges against his person.
The second issue is whether as the leader of the party, President Asiwaju Tinubu is committed to restoring constitutional order within the APC. Restoring constitutional order would require some demonstration of commitment to give life to the statutory organs of the APC so that the debate about replacing the National Chairman and all existing vacancies, including that of the National Secretary will be done within the structures of the party. Inability to revive statutory organs of the party will suggest that the process of replacing existing vacancies will be manipulated to suite some narrow interests within the party even if it means violating provisions of the APC constitution. If for whatever reasons President Asiwaju Tinubu allow this to happen, it will simply mean that he doesn’t share the commitment to restore constitutional order in APC, and to that extent therefore his commitment to return APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party is weak. This will be most unfortunate and will contradict the historical essence of all the struggles President Asiwaju Tinubu has successfully waged on his journey to the Nigerian presidency.
It is quite disconcerting to imagine a situation whereby President Asiwaju Tinubu does not share the commitment to restore constitutional order in APC or his leadership of the party will take actions that will make him vulnerable to accusation of not following due process and subverting provisions of the APC constitution. Unfortunately, here we are having to contend with such possibility. As things are, the NWC is not only an onlooker but a far distant observer. The power blocs that are being credited with the speculated emergence of Dr. Ganduje as the next National Chairman, including the Presidency, are not even considering any meeting with the NWC or even the Acting National Chairman. Yet, the NWC has the convening authority for any meeting that can produce the next National Chairman. Sadly, many members of the NWC, for whatever reasons seems to be timid and taking everything that comes their way as given and therefore right.
The vision of producing a progressive party cannot be produced with a reticent leadership. As NWC members, we need to appreciate that part of our responsibility is to ensure that all our elected representatives are guided to produce outcomes based on provisions of our manifesto and all our campaign promises. This is a function of the knowledge and skills of individual members. We must challenge ourselves to rise to the occasion by demonstrating the required capacity and competence. A situation whereby we sit in our ‘comfort zones’ and expect our elected representative to come calling and recognising our powers to provide leadership to the party only suggest gap in competence.
Part of what must be urgently addressed in the Nigerian context is the unfortunate reality whereby the party is a dumping ground for people whose role is not more than that of serving as surrogates to elected representatives. This has been the PDP model of party building, which has destroyed the PDP. Sadly, as APC, since 2013, we have been unable to produce a different model of party building. This takes us to the third issue, which we must address given the opportunity to fill the vacant position of National Chairman. So long as we uncritically respond to the debate around proposed candidates based on the desire to massage leaders of the party, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, it will simply mean abdicating our responsibility of guiding our leaders to take the right decisions in the best interest of the party and the country.
As a party, envisioned to be progressive, we must encourage debates. When issues are raised, members and leaders of the party must not use their disagreement with the issues being raised to seek to gag everybody especially when the issue being raised borders on objections to proposals from party leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu. When the party is confronted with proposals with potentials to subvert provisions of the APC constitution, members must be encouraged to engage the issues. Rather than seeking to gag party members and leaders with dissenting voices based on so called arguments about positions of the party organs even when individuals making such arguments have been absent from meetings and therefore highly ignorant about the position of organs of the party, party leaders and members, no matter their positions, should be humble and honest to admit when they are presenting their personal positions. We must not hide under our official designations to claim to be speaking for organs of the party on any issue, except when clearly mandated to do so.
The situation we faced today in APC present us with the opportunity to restore constitutional order in APC. Once we don’t use the opportunity properly and restore the sanctity of the APC constitution, we would be laying the foundation for worse things to happen under a new National Chairman. As NWC members we must be seen to be active in the debate of the way forward. A situation whereby President Asiwaju Tinubu and Progressive Governors are being alleged to have decided on Dr. Ganduje as the next National Chairman of APC without consulting other power blocs in the party and without meeting any of the organs of the party, including the NWC, is very risky and potentially damaging to President Asiwaju Tinubu and the party. If this is associated with a President who come from military background, it will be understandable. But to be associated with President Asiwaju Tinubu whose background is outrightly civilian having to lead the struggle for democracy in Nigeria for almost four decades, it will be highly unimaginable.
We must therefore appeal to all those sponsoring this campaign to nominate Dr. Ganduje for the position of APC National Chairman, especially His Excellency, Hope Uzodinma, Chairman, Progressive Governors Forum to come to order and allow due process within the party to take its rightful course in the selection process of who become the next APC National Chairman. Nobody, including the PGF, should be allowed to seek to entrench arbitrariness and injustice in the determination of who emerges as the next National Chairman of APC. We must remind everyone, including President Asiwaju Tinubu that so far, the agreed zoning formula in APC seed the position of National Chairman of the party to North Central. Therefore, the relevant section of APC constitution with respect to filling vacancies should be respected. Anything short of that will amount to illegality and will constitute an act of injustice against members of the party from North Central. A party envisioned to be progressive must not be associated with that especially if one of our objectives now is to return the APC to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party.
Salihu Lukman
Resignation from APC NWC: Explanatory Note
Salihu Moh. Lukman
All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Since the news of my resignation from APC NWC broke out, I have received so many queries and responses, all expressing disappointment in one way or the other. My common explanation is that I am just tired having to remain in the fighting mode, campaigning for the reform of the APC. First, it was against the leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who was my boss and in many respect my mentor for more than sixteen years. Not long after we thought the exit of Comrade Oshiomhole and the whole NWC under his leadership would provide the opportunity to reform the APC and return it to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party did we come to the sad realisation that we had to wage another bitter struggle to get the Caretaker Committee led by His Excellency Mai Mala to organise a National Convention to produce a new leadership.
From a tenure of six months, it was almost an impossible task to push His Excellency Mai Mala to organise a National Convention in 27 months. With the emergence of our NWC led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, all hopes were dashed when with every passing day we were confronted with reigns of impunity whereby it was as if the constitution of the party was suspended. Almost all organs of the party were frozen and as leaders of the party we were forced to accept illegality as normal and acceptable. Ordinarily, it should be expected that the departure of Sen. Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore should provide a window of opportunity to return the APC to constitutional order.
Sadly, the turn of events in the last 10 days since the resignation of Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore suggests to the contrary. Members of the NWC were left in suspense. A meeting of NWC with PGF scheduled for Wednesday, July 19, 2023 was cancelled without any explanation. Suddenly, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, in his capacity as Chairman of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) converted himself into a receiver manager for the party and begin to act almost as the party’s NWC. Speculation about nomination of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as nominee of Governors and President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu then started and became stronger each day. Efforts to highlight legal and moral issues which should require a rethink was simply ignored. The dominant view among leaders is that once President Asiwaju Tinubu has decided on an issue, we should just simply work for its success even with all the legal and moral questions.
May be at this point, we should publicly state both the legal and moral questions. The legal question is straight forward. Article 31.5(i) of the APC constitution dealing with what to do when there is vacancy clearly stipulate that ‘in the case of a National/Zonal Officer, the State Executive Committee shall propose a replacement to the State Congress and Zonal Executive Committee for endorsement. Thereafter, the name shall be sent to the National Working Committee, which shall be forward same to the National Executive Committee for approval.’ No section of the APC constitution gives anyone, including President Asiwaju Tinubu the power to act in any contrary way. Therefore, if this provision of the APC constitution is to be respected, Nasarawa State Executive Committee of the APC, which is where Sen. Adamu comes from should have the right to propose replacement, which should be endorsed by the State Congress and the Zonal Executive Committee. Following which the name shall be forwarded to the NWC for onward transmission to NEC and approval.
Related to this is the fact that negotiations for leadership of the National Assembly ceded the position of National Chairman of the party to North Central. For whatever reasons, to proceed to act arbitrarily and move the position of National Chairman to North West will be unfair and unjust. It simply amounts to taking the people of North Central for granted. Just imagine if the South West where President Asiwaju Tinubu comes from is to be treated by any leader of Nigeria that way. The related moral question is the choice of Dr. Ganduje. Sincerely, it simply means that we don’t attach any importance to the party if with all the corruption allegation against Dr. Ganduje, we find him about the only one in the North West to be recommended. Perhaps, it needs to be stated without fear of any contradiction, if leaders of the North West are asked to nominate five people for consideration to serve in the capacity of National Chairman of APC, I am confident, Dr. Ganduje will not be one of the five nominees.
That we are even debating these issues is worrisome. At the risk of sounding very personal, I have made my small contributions to the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. I have also made my modest contributions to the development of APC as a political party in Nigeria. We started campaigning to end military rule long before June 12, 1993 under the leadership of late Alao Aka Bashorun. It will be recalled around April 1991, late Bashorun attempted to convene a National Conference in Lagos, which was blocked by the military government of former President Ibrahim Babangida. That gave birth to the emergence of Campaign for Democracy (CD) under the leadership of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti. I was privileged to serve as the founding Deputy General Secretary of CD.
As young Nigerians passionate for the democratic development of Nigeria, we committed ourselves to those struggles for more than three decades. Having joined partisan politics in 2010 and being a member of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), it was clear to me after the 2011 elections that the only way opposition parties can defeat PDP is through merger. Having come to that realisation, I was among the few who began public advocacy and campaign for merger. Today, all that is history. My hope is that President Asiwaju Tinubu being privileged to come from a background of struggle for justice and democracy in Nigeria as someone who was in the trenches during the NADECO day, he should not be associated with any decision that will be illegal or immoral not talk of being unjust to any section of Nigeria.
If Osun State is debating possible replacement of Sen. Omisore for the position of National Secretary of APC in line with provisions of our party’s constitution, why is Nasarawa State not treated in the same way? Why the double standards? I wish I can pretend to be dumb and blind on these issues. Unfortunately, I cannot. Painful as it is, I want to appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu and all our leaders to resist the temptations that would project our party and our leaders as champions of illegality and repression. I hold the strong conviction that President Asiwaju Tinubu will not only succeed but lead Nigeria to a new era of unconstrained democratic development. As members of APC, we must provide the critical support to President Asiwaju Tinubu such that rule of law in all its ramification will define his tenure for the next four years. Achieving that would require unwavering commitment to build the APC to develop every needed capacity to function as the regulatory authority holding every leader of the party, including President Asiwaju Tinubu accountable.
Perhaps, it is important to clarify that this is not in anyway questioning the authority of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the moral leader of the party. Being the moral leader of the party doesn’t give him the power of exercising statutory functions of organs of the party or unilaterally changing provisions of the party’s constitution. It will amount to setting President Asiwaju Tinubu for failure in the worse possible way to proceed to encourage him to act in a manner that is illegal and immoral. If the scheming to have Dr. Ganduje emerge as the next National Chairman of APC succeeds with all the legal and moral questions, as a party, we would have set the stage for the destruction of our party and God forbids, we would have laid the foundation that will make President Asiwaju Tinubu and all our elected representatives unpopular. God in his infinite mercy will guide President Asiwaju Tinubu and all our leaders to return our great party APC to constitutional order and its founding vision.
kabiru danladi
--
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
Salihu Lukman
Silver Bullet Politics and Challenges of Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
C/o All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Reacting to President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s National Broadcast of Monday, July 31, 2023, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), dismissed it arguing that it is ‘not the silver bullet Nigerians expected’. Silver bullet simply means that the national broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu failed to address the problems facing Nigerians. Given that the main issue, which the national broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu sought to address has to do with the hardship facing Nigerians occasioned by the withdrawal of petrol subsidy, beyond the issues contained in the national broadcast, what is NLC expecting?. Among other reasons given by the NLC why the President’s speech wasn’t the silver bullet was that it ‘was completely silent on the repair of our national refineries.’ If the speech was silent on the repair of refineries, does that fall short of the expectations of Nigerians?
While acknowledging that apart from the repair of refineries, the NLC identified other four issues as reasons why President Asiwaju’s Tinubu’s July 31 National Broadcast didn’t provide the solutions of the hardship Nigerians are facing, somehow, the NLC was more speaking like a political opposition to President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government. Being a political opposition to the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu, nothing in the proposals contained in the national address merit acceptance as solution to Nigeria’s problems by the NLC. As far as the NLC is concerned, repairs of refineries, unmasking those behind the subsidy fraud, matching public promises with commitment on issue of minimum wage, increase salaries of workers by Federal Government, and promises of palliatives are the solutions to hardship facing Nigerians. Didn’t the July 31 national broadcast attempted to address these issues.
Perhaps, not in the language expected by the NLC, certainly some of these issues are addressed either directly or indirectly. Going through the NLC’s statement signed by Comrade Joe Ajearo, President of the NLC, one is tempted to conclude that the main objective of their response was more to dismiss all the policy proposals contained in the President’s address as a justification of why the scheduled national protest being organised by the NLC will go ahead on August 2. The statement completely ignores all the proposals contained in President Asiwaju Tinubu’s broadcast. It is almost as if the NLC response was written even before the broadcast and therefore completely blind of all the proposals. Having served the NLC, and conversant with the tradition of critically and dispassionately reviewing government’s policy proposals, it was disappointing that the NLC reduced its responses to generalised commentary without reference to the specific issues contained in President Tinubu’s national broadcast.
As Nigerians, we must appeal to NLC leadership to rise above the narrow sentiment of playing to the gallery based on some deceptively flimsy argument of a so-called silver bullet, if you like silver bullet politics, which is simply egocentric that inconsistent with the interest of Nigerians, including that of the working class. While acknowledging that there would be gaps in the proposals by government and there would be challenges in terms of implementation especially when it comes to guaranteeing that broader interests of Nigerians are accommodated, swiftly dismissing them in the manner done by NLC is unacceptable and will not augur well for our democracy. The mere fact that President Asiwaju Tinubu finds it compelling to address the nation given the difficulties Nigerians are facing since the withdrawal of fuel subsidy is commendable. If anything, this confirms that President Asiwaju Tinubu is not in denial and aspire to ensure that his government is responsive.
As argued in the past, part of the challenges of finding solutions to Nigeria’s problems, or silver bullet politics as NLC would want us to consider, is the issue of accommodating the diverse interests of Nigerians in designing and implementing policies of government. Accommodating the diverse interests of Nigerians is about representation and responsiveness, which is what is required to affirm that ‘sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through the constitution derives all powers and authority’ and ‘participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of the constitution as provided in section 14 (2) (a and c) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended.
We must admit that the decision to address the nation represent remarkable progress in the management of contentious public policy in the country. It is indeed required to give life to section 14 (2) (a and c) of the Nigerian constitution. In the past, such addresses and proposals contained are only made after protests and strikes. Coming before any strike or protest, it is important therefore, we encourage the government to take forward all the proposals contained in the address and use them to engage targeted organised groups in the country, including the NLC. For instance, the Federal Government should immediately meet with Organised Private Sector to work out modalities for the implementation and disbursement of the proposed N75 billion aimed at strengthening the manufacturing sector ‘to increase its capacity to expend and create good paying jobs.’ The engagement should put in place agreed conditions and framework for the selection of the 75 enterprises to access the N1 billion credit. Part of the conditions should include the minimum number of workers to be employed by each of the beneficiary enterprises.
Similarly, government should also engage organisations of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to set conditions and framework to access the N125 billion being set aside to energise the sector. Criteria for the selection of the 1 million nano businesses that would access the N50 billion Conditional Grant should be agreed. Also, the engagement with organisations of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises should establish needed criteria for the selection of the 100,000 MSMEs that would access the start-ups Conditional Grant of N75 billion being proposed by government.
The third category that the federal government should immediately engage is farmers and agricultural associations aimed at putting in place clear framework for the disbursement of 225,000 metric Tonnes of fertilizers. Seedlings and other inputs. In addition, the federal government may wish to use the engagement with this group to explore strategies of achieving the cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland and all-year-round farming. Noting that government has earmarked N200 billion from the N500 billion approved by National Assembly, it will be necessary to use the engagement with farmers and agricultural associations to negotiate both ownership and commitment to achieve success.
The fourth category of groups that should be engaged immediately is transporters aimed at negotiating implementation of proposed investment of N100 billion to acquire 3000 units of buses. Deeper strategic thinking will be required in engaging this category given that this is the sector that is directly affected by high increases in prices of PMS because of withdrawal of subsidy. The goal of engagement with respect to transporters should be to revolutionise the transport sector, which should lead to the rebirth of public transportation in the country. This would require stronger collaboration with state governments, most of whom already have established transport services.
All these issues were swiftly dismissed by NLC with the cheap claim of a silver bullet, which may reflect the knowledge gap in NLC. Leaders of NLC have historically demonstrated humility in engaging policy issues by opening and developing stronger networks with academic and knowledgeable constituencies. It is possible that NLC response to President Asiwaju Tinubu’s national broadcast did not seek to draw input from some the traditional allies of the NLC.
Had President Asiwaju Tinubu denied that the withdrawal subsidy has brought hardship to Nigerians and failed proposed measures to address them, the claim that the national broadcast wasn’t the silver bullet Nigerians expected would be justified. Were the proposals contained in President Asiwaju Tinubu sufficient to mitigate all the hardships Nigerians are facing? May be not. If not, one would expect the NLC to go a step further to highlight what will be required. May be the four issues emphasised in the response of the NLC are the proposed additional issues. These are: repairing our refineries, unmasking those behind the subsidy fraud, not matching public promises with commitment on minimum wage, failure of Federal Government to increase salaries of workers, and promises of palliatives are empty.
What are the details of all these and what actions are required to achieve them are not contained in the NLC’s statement. The challenge of giving practical expression to section 14 (2) (a and c) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended is about providing the much-needed leadership to change Nigerian politics. This is about the extent to which initiatives contained in the July 31 national broadcast reflects the diverse interests on Nigerians. To the extent that proposals highlighted in the national address cover the interests of workers, organised private sector, micro, small and medium enterprises, farmers and agricultural groups, transporters, etc., wide spectrum of interests are already targeted. The crucial issue would be that of ensuring success in achieving expected results as well as allowing for additional scope to cover other interests of Nigerians not captured in the President’s broadcast.
What is required to achieve success especially in terms of engaging Nigerians to affirm that truly sovereignty belongs to the people is to take every necessary step to develop framework for engaging groups and organisations of Nigerians to facilitate policy negotiations and implementation. In the context of NLC, it is about reviving the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) and use it to promote tripartism, which is what the challenge of developing and managing palliatives arising from withdrawal subsidy requires. A situation whereby labour organisations use their singular interest to force the hands of government in any direction in managing public policy that affect all Nigerians must be moderated.
While acknowledging that what was contained in the national broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu of July 31 should be treated as proposals that require further engagement with all stakeholders, including labour, the federal government must take every necessary step to revive NLAC and get NLC and all other labour associations to use the tripartite platform to negotiate policy design and implementation. Being a negotiating platform, labour and organised private sector should be free to also make proposals to be negotiated.
Given where we are as a democratic nation, rather than dismiss proposals coming from government, especially when it comes with the kind of opportunity of saving one trillion Naira in two months, responsive and representative organisations such as NLC should be coming up with proposals of what to do with the trillion Nairas that are being saved. Given the challenge of insecurity and the problems of policing the country, can’t we target investing such resources or at least part of it to address some of the security needs of the country. If part of the fear of citizens about state policing is funding, doesn’t this give us the opportunity of pushing the federal government and all our state governments to negotiate sustainable funding framework that can guarantee adequate funding of state police?
As a democratic nation, framework for citizen’s engagement aimed at providing what NLC call silver bullet should be to facilitate development of strong synergy between government and Nigerian citizens. The President Asiwaju Tinubu led federal government, being a government produced by a party envisioned to be progressive, should seek to introduce a new framework of engagement between government and organised groups in the country to produce a new orientation of citizens – government relations that would lead to the emergence of policy negotiation – agreement – announcement – implementation. This new orientation will require problem posing communication framework that facilitate consultations to resolve Nigeria’s problems by providing important information that would produce new policy initiatives.
Part of the appeal that must be made to all organised groups in the country is to demonstrate corresponding commitment to also share the burden of resolving Nigeria’s challenges. The current attitude of distrust against government, which makes groups to dismiss proposals of government without attempt to present alternatives should be moderated. Similarly, a situation whereby groups, including NLC believe that the only way they can engage government and achieve results is through strikes and protests must change. For democracy to be meaningful, it must be about constant negotiations and engagements to produce agreements.
Now that the young government of President Asiwaju Tinubu is about to be fully constituted with ministers appointed, President Asiwaju Tinubu should consider giving all his ministers clear mandate to ensure strong engagement with organised groups. In particular, engagement with NLC and other labour groups must target pre-empting strikes and protests in all sectors. In the context of that, as a democratic nation, we must begin to set benchmarks of allowable limits for all strikes in all sectors. Minister of Labour and by extension ministers in all sectors who fail to operate within such benchmarks must be shown the way out. This is more to ensure that government services in all sectors accommodate the diverse interests of citizens in those sectors.
That is the silver bullet, which President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government should give to Nigerians.
Salihu Lukman
Road to Renewed Hope
Salihu Moh. Lukman
C/o All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Following the confirmation of 45 out of the 48 Ministerial nominees by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Monday, August 7, 2023, transition from the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari to the new era of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been completed. The newly confirmed ministers will be sworn in and will be expected to manage the business of government and spearhead initiatives aimed at delivering on campaign promises in line with provisions of the APC manifesto and President Asiwaju Tinubu’s Action Plan for a Better Nigeria – Renewed Hope 2023.
The big question is whether APC, as a party has grown such that elected and appointed leaders produced by the party are faithful to the commitment to serve Nigerians. Are elected and appointed representatives going to demonstrate knowledge in terms of discharging their responsibilities? How deep is their knowledge and does it come with recommended solutions to the numerous challenges facing the country? Do they (elected and appointed representatives) even have the confidence to apply the recommended solutions?
Most times, these are issues that are assumed defending on who is considering them. Without belabouring the issues, both as party members and as Nigerians, we need to be creative in engaging these issues with the firm belief and confidence that the young government of President Asiwaju Tinubu will succeed in resolving most of Nigeria’s challenges. As a democratically elected government, it is our hope that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government will be responsive and will broaden the scope of citizens’ engagement at all levels and therefore accordingly produce processes of wider participation of organised groups in the business of policy design and implementation in the country.
Given that democracy is founded on the logic that political parties should have manifestos, which should highlight ideological orientations and commitments of leaders and members, will APC under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu begin to move closer to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party with the capacity to regulate the conduct of elected and appointed representatives? Or will the vision of being a progressive party remained only in the name of the party? To what extent, for instance, will elected and appointed representatives produced by the APC, at all levels, initiate policies and programmes based on provisions of the manifesto? How many elected and appointed representatives actually gone through the party manifesto and the Action Plan for a Better Nigeria – Renewd Hope 2023? How many of them are actually able to develop perspectives, which will highlight policy choices in line with provisions of the APC’s campaign promises?
Inability to answer these questions positively will suggest the strong likelihood of President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government collapsing to business-as-usual mode not long after it assumed office and with that reducing the business of managing government to propaganda aimed at mobilising support for 2027 re-election. Once that is the case, every member and leader of the APC will be compelled to only demonstrate agreement with decisions taken by the government and especially by President Asiwaju Tinubu. Once that is the case, sycophancy will take over and a new transition mode for 2027 will commence even before the young government of Asiwaju Tinubu settles down.
What is it that can be done to ensure that truly President Asiwaju Tinubu’s led APC federal government succeed in emerging as a strongly responsive and representative government? For APC to emerge as a truly progressive party beyond bearing the name, President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government must be dynamc, action oriented and therefore competently able to improve on the quality of lives of Nigerians. What this requires at these early stages in the life of the administration is that the government must be able to set clearly define targets, which must be achieved within the next four years. For instance, the government should define annual targets for all sectors and each mandate ministry led by the newly confirmed ministers should be given the responsibility to achieve.
Setting those targets and orienting all the newly elected and appointed APC representatives to apply themselves towards meeting them should not be taken for granted. In fact, once Ministers are sworn in and no ministerial targets is given to them by the President, the seed of failure would have been planted. Therefore, the first task before President Asiwaju Tinubu is ensuring that ministerial targets are given and putting in place stronger supervisory and regulatory framework both within government and as a party to ensure delivery.
Again, both as party members and as Nigerians, we should support President Asiwaju Tinubu to succeed in bringing APC back to its founding vision of emerging as a truly progressive party capable of regulating the conducts of all elected and appointed APC representatives to be accountable to Nigerian citizens. Supporting President Asiwaju Tinubu should include being able to disagree with him when he takes any decision that is unjust to any section of the country. Both APC members and leaders, as well as Nigerians must be courageous in reminding President Asiwaju Tinubu that any claim of being progressive must guarantee social justice and equity, especially regarding distribution of resources and opportunities in all manifestations.
All the challenges that confronted APC and the federal government since 2019 borders on the strong perception by many sections of Nigerians of unfair and inequitable treatment. Contentious as it may appear, being a democracy and especially as a party envisioned to be progressive, we must demonstrate sensitiveness and responsiveness to these perceptions. We therefore must appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu to demonstrate balanced commitment to providing truly progressive leadership to both the APC and the Nigerian nation as whole.
Providing progressive leadership to the APC will require President Asiwaju Tinubu to honestly resolve within himself whether under his leadership he want to resolve the big political problem in the country whereby all our parties are reduced to only serving as an election platform. In 2012/2013, when under our old legacies parties, merger negotiations commenced, the expectation of many Nigerians was that the new party, APC, that emerged will depart from serving only as election platform. Especially, with the adoption of slogan “CHANGE”, expectation was high in the country that APC will distinguish itself as a democratic party and produce new model of party politics in the country.
We must as a party admit that between 2015 and now, APC has moved further away from meeting these expectations. Internal contest within the APC has been weakened. Efforts to resolve this problem especially since 2019 has created leadership instability within the APC. All the efforts to resolve the problems of the party end up further worsening the challenges. For instance, the decision to setup a Caretaker Committee under the leadership of Governor Mai Mala Buni on June 25, 2020 with a short tenure of six months produced a monstrous outcome of a sit-tight Caretaker Committee, which had to be forced out of office after 27 months.
Similarly, the emergence of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu led NWC in March 2022 was expected to have resolved the leadership challenges facing the party. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case as the APC was plunged into deeper problems whereby all the statutory organs of the party became frozen and the NWC especially the National Chairman and National Secretary became emperors and highly unaccountable to anyone. In addition, the leadership of Sen. Adamu became subversive and covertly antagonistic against Asiwaju Tinubu both during the internal contest to produce the Presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 general elections and after Asiwaju Tinubu won the election and became the President-elect. For instance, instead of working in harmony with Asiwaju Tinubu as President-elect to nominate candidates for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, Sen. Adamu opposed and undermined initiatives of Asiwaju Tinubu to produce the current leadership of both the Senate and House of Representatives.
No doubt, these are bitter experiences within the APC that must be corrected. In correcting them however, are we focusing on the bigger question of restoring constitutional order, returning the party to its founding vision, and ensuring the development of the APC to be capable of regulating the conducts of elected and appointed representatives? Or is the objective reduced to question of producing simply loyal leaders who will only ensure successful implementation of what President Asiwaju Tinubu want as a leader of the party?
In other words, what should APC members and Nigerians expect from the current attempts being made to re-organise the APC under the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje? Without any attempt to pre-empt the leadership of Dr. Ganduje, it is important to highlight that both Dr. Ganduje and President Asiwaju Tinubu cannot afford to fail. They must do everything possible to succeed in restoring constitutional order, returning APC to its founding vision of becoming a truly progressive party, based on which all elected and appointed representatives led by President Asiwaju Tinubu are both responsive to Nigeria’s challenges and representative of the wider interests of Nigerians.
Being responsive to Nigerians is a function of knowledge and competence in managing affairs of government. Being representative is about ability to engage Nigerians and through those engagements being able to accommodate proposals and mainstream them into policies of government at all levels. Will this be the renewed hope Nigerians will expect? Coming days, weeks, and months ahead in the next four years will determine the colouration of President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government. As APC members and highly optimistic Nigerians, we must look forward with confidence that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government will succeed in producing a progressive government supported by a re-organised APC that is truly progressive both in name and indeed, which operate strictly based on its rules and all the laws regulating the conducts of political parties.
Emerging as a truly progressive party, APC must unambiguously guarantee social justice and equitable distribution of resources and opportunity both within the party and as a party in control of governments at all levels in the country. Achieving this is what will translate into Renewed Hope for a Better Nigeria.
Salihu Lukman
Disturbing Signals:
Open Letter to President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Salihu Moh. Lukman
C/o All Progressives Congress
North-West Zonal Office
Kaduna
Your Excellency, I find it very compelling to send this open letter to you because there are disturbing signals, which if not averted could produce bigger problems and irreversibly destroy our electoral viability as a party. These are issues bordering on whether as a leader, you will be accessible based on which party members and, by extension, Nigerians can influence your decisions as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Noting that democracy is founded on the principles of representation, it is expected that being an elected President, your decisions should be representative of the interest of Nigerians.
Without attempting to question your authority and commitment to the wellbeing of Nigeria as a nation, within the short period since May 29, 2023 when you assumed office, there are decisions you took, which are very disturbing to many of us who are loyal party members. As loyal party members, we did not only support you to win the 2023 elections, but we have strong belief that your leadership is what our dear country needed at this critical period of our political development.
Perhaps, it is important to highlight that I am making this letter open because having resigned my position as a member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC), I don’t want to make any claim of having access to you in whatever form. Even as NWC member, it was almost impossible to access you after winning the election. Now, given that I resigned because I disagreed with your decision to nominate Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to emerge as the National Chairman of APC, I don’t expect you to be amenable to meeting a “protestant” like me.
To be honest, making Dr. Ganduje National Chairman of APC is the first disturbing signal. Many party members are yet to recover from that shock. With all the uncleared corruption allegation against Dr. Ganduje, you opted to nominate him to become the National Chairman of the party even when Article 31.5(i) of the constitution of APC clearly gave Nasarawa State Executive Committee the power to nominate who should replace Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. Given that Sen. Umaru Tanko Al-Makura is from Nasarawa State, and he has been very loyal to you, it was scandalous that you will opt for Dr. Ganduje with all the baggage of corruption allegation against him. Recall that before the March 2022 APC National Convention, Sen. Al-Makura aspired to become APC National Chairman and President Buhari was influenced to nominated Sen. Adamu over Sen. Al-Makura partly because he was alleged to be loyal you, it defies every logical reasoning that you will ignore provision of Article 31.5(i) to nominate Dr. Ganduje even when the same provision of the constitution was used to nominate Sen. Basiru Ajibola from Osun State as replacement of Sen. Iyiola Omisore.
The emergence of Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman of APC send the disturbing signal of being weakly committed to fighting corruption. This is very troubling and is neither representative of the interest of APC members, nor is it representative of the wider interest of Nigerians. If our democracy is to develop to the point of being capacitated to resolve our national challenges, the commitment of our leaders to fighting corruption must never be in doubt.
That our leaders in APC accepted the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as APC National Chairman without much resistance produces the second disturbing signal. This is because the absence of resistance was more a reflection of fear, whic is the new reality in APC. Once leaders and members of APC continue to feel threatened that when they express opposition against your decision, we may end up with the bigger danger of creating a police state. This may not arise from any conscious decision coming from you but will be produced from circumstances of having to rationalise or enforce your decisions, which may not be acceptable to party members and citizens. In fact, the first casualties of such reality will be fellow party members.
Largely because of the atmosphere of fear surrounding the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman, the wider debate of using the vacancies created to respond to the challenge of inclusivity given that we won the 2023 election with a Muslim-Muslim ticket was lost. Rather than even attempting to respond to that challenge and demonstrate that truly we only invoke the Muslim-Muslim ticket as an electoral strategy, in a very insensitive manner we imposed another Muslim-Muslim scenario in the party with National Chairman and National Secretary both Muslims. And we want to claim we are a progressive party? What is the brand of our progressive politics? Certainly, not the one which Nigerians expect, which endears us to citizens on account of which Nigerians gave us the mandate to manage the affairs of government since 2015.
The third disturbing signal is the quality of your appointees. Sincerely, Your Excellency, throughout the 2023 electoral campaigns, one of the strong campaign points was that you know how to find talents. When it took you more than eight weeks to nominate your Ministers, the belief was that you are taking your time to identify indisputably proficient people. With due respect to all those you nominated, many party members and extension Nigerians were disappointed. It is clear to any discerning mind that political consideration eclipsed any other factor, definitely no argument about talent can be sustained. As it is, both as party members and as Nigerians, our expectation from your government has crashed.
This leads us to the fourth disturbing signal, which is about the management of policy process. When in your inaugural address you declared that petroleum subsidy is gone, it gave many of us the confidence that you have assumed office ready to take all the hard decisions and initiate measures for accelerated national development. Of course, no one expect that process of accelerated development will produce immediate results. But many of us expect that the details of initiatives will be clear and will not be reduced to propaganda. As things are, Nigerians are still waiting to know what the agenda of government is with respect to managing the downstream oil sector beyond saving the amount of money that used to be expended for subsidy payments.
The second issue related to management of policy initiatives is the exchange rate of the Naira. Some of us expect that decisions around exchange rate will be integral part of broader economic policy of government. Now, it would appear that isolated decision has been taken to float the Naira without any clear economic policy. The consequence is that the Naira is on a downward swing. Combined with rising cost of transport as a result of withdrawal of subsidy the inflationary pressure on the economy is very high. As a result, living condition is getting worse. At this rate, poverty incidence will be terribly high, beyond any rational expectations.
Mr. President, you need to urgently address these disturbing signals coming early in your tenure. No one should deceive you into believing that party members and leaders, and by extension Nigerians are not worried with all these disturbing signals. It will be a disservice to your leadership and to our people if we don’t bring these to your attention. You need to act fast to start correcting these disturbing signals before they become defining attributes of your administration and by extension our party. It is either you correct them, or we sign off any prospect of winning any future election.
I am confident that your indisputable commitment to progressive politics will be activated at this early period of your leadership to correct all these disturbing signals. Both as Nigerians and loyal APC members, we believe in your capacity to provide fair leadership. It is our hope that you are still committed to the founding vision of APC, which is progressive politics. And as someone who was in the trenches fighting for democracy in Nigeria, our expectation is that under your leadership, democracy will achieve its representative credentials, based on which the ability of Nigerians to influence your decisions will be high. This is only possible is you take appropriate steps to correct all the disturbing signals arising from decisions taken directly by you. May Allah (SWT) continue to guide you and hopefully through that ensure that it is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the progressive politician that will rule Nigeria for the next four years! Amin!!!
Salihu Lukman
Opening Door to Renew the Hope of Workers
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Late in the evening of October 1, 2023, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mal. Mohammed Idris released a statement announcing resolutions reached between Federal Government and leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC). The resolutions acknowledge decisions of the Federal Government to pay all federal government employees additional N25,000 for the next six months, fast-track provision of Compressed Natural Gas Buses (CNG) to ease public transportation, provide funds for micro and small-scale enterprises, waived VAT on diesel for the next six months, and commence payment of N25,000 to 15 million households from October – December 2023. These are measures announced by President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the Independence broadcast to the nation.
Accordingly, among other agreements, NLC and TUC agreed to consider these offers by the Federal Government with a view to suspending the strike action scheduled to commence on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Shortly following the statement by the Honourable Minister, the Chief of Staff to President Asiwaju Tinubu, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila announced that Government has reviewed upward the proposed additional payment to federal government employees from the N25,000 to N35,000. Certainly, this may have been necessitated by demands from labour leaders who were early reported to have rejected the N25,000 offer made by President Asiwaju Tinubu.
Both the Federal Government and leadership of NLC and TUC should be commended for this development. With that, no doubt the development should encourage NLC and TUC leaders and their members and by extension Nigerians to have stronger confidence in the commitment of President Asiwaju Tinubu and the Federal Government to address challenges facing Nigerians in the face of existing hardship occasioned by the withdrawal of petroleum subsidy and therefore suspend the strike. This is not just about the offers the government made as contained in the Independence Day Broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu, but more about the openness with which the government used the offers to engage leaders of NLC and TUC immediately after the broadcast.
If past experiences are anything to go by, ideally following the broadcast of President Asiwaju Tinubu, government would have resorted to propaganda and opted for some shadow engagement in the media about how the government has met all the demands of labour. Instead, government invited leadership of NLC and TUC, listen to all their demands and responses to the offers being made. With clear open mind, government was able to agree with the leadership of NLC and TUC that instead of limiting the payment of N25,000 monthly to junior category of federal employees, the payment will be made to all category of federal employees. At the same time, government also agreed with the leadership of NLC and TUC to increase the payment to N35,000 monthly for the next six months.
This clearly demonstrated strong commitment by the President Asiwaju Tinubu led Federal Government to manage public policy based on disposition to negotiate with Nigerians and win agreements. This has been the foundational principles of democracy that has been weak or ineffectual. As a young government, less than four months in office, all committed democrats should encourage the President Asiwaju Tinubu led government to build on this. Building on the resolutions reached is not just about commending government and the leadership of NLC and TUC, but to highlight all the challenges that would come with the implementation of the proposals, so that the scope of negotiations is broadened to engender sustainability.
Some of the challenges that can readily be identified include for instance what happens at the end of the six months of implementing the additional N35,000 payment to federal employees? Noting that already government has announced its intention to open negotiations for the review of minimum wage in the country, should Nigerians expect that agreement for a new minimum wage will be reach within the six months? If agreement for the new minimum wage is to be reached within the six months, should Nigerians expect that the new minimum wage will not be less than the aggregate of the current minimum wage plus the additional N35,000 being offered for the next six months? In which case, since the current minimum wage is N30,000, should Nigerians therefore expect a new national minimum wage at least N65,000?
Before attempting to explore any probability of a new N65,000 minimum wage, perhaps, it will be necessary to first check the implication of additional N35,000 to all federal employees. Based on records of Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR), total number of workers in the Federal Civil Service is 720,000, with monthly cost of about N320 billion. Additional N35,000 to all category of federal employees will mean additional N25 billion to the monthly personnel cost of federal government, which is about 7.7% increase. By extension, it means that if minimum wage is to be increased to N65,000, the additional cost to federal government would be less than 10%.
What about workers at states, local governments, and organised private sector? Can states, local governments and organised private sector also be given similar offers? Can these categories of employers afford any additional offer? If not, what contingency measure should be taken to capacitate these categories of employers to mitigate the sufferings of their workforce occasioned by the withdrawal of subsidies? Finding answers to these questions is at the root of challenges of managing labour relations in the country. In fact, inability to address these questions is responsible for all the challenges of guaranteeing ability of all employers to comply with statutory provisions of minimum wage in the country. As it is, beyond the Federal Government, many state governments and some big private employers, are already in default of existing statutory provision of national minimum wage of N30,000.
In fact, not up to 20 states governments have implement the N30,000 minimum wage. Almost all the 774 local governments are in default. Many would rationalise this with reference to corruption and fiscal indiscipline of political leaders. Without dismissing such allegations, the reality of managing labour relations in the country require higher commitment to find solutions to problems of corruption and fiscal indiscipline by political leaders. Finding solutions to the problems of corruption and fiscal indiscipline by political authorities is a function of strengthening accountability.
Most times, issues of accountability are reduced to question of management of existing resources. Part of the received wisdom in Nigeria is that government has all the resources, which is being embezzled by political leaders, especially governors at state level. Many references are made to issues of security vote. If revenue indices are anything to go by, the truth is that Nigeria is poor. With a federal budget of about N20 trillion, which is about $30 billion, Nigeria is operating at about 10% its spending capacity. Countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia and even South Africa are operating budgets of more than $200 billion.
At state level, except for Lagos State, none of our state has N1 trillion budget. In fact, most states budgets are below N250 billion. With reference to personnel cost, average monthly costs for state governments are more than N2 billion. Many states generate less than N1 billion monthly. Average receipt from the federation account is between N3 and N4 billion. With such reality, capacity therefore to make additional payments to workers to cushion the effects of high prices of goods and services because of withdrawal of petroleum subsidy will be expecting too much.
Yet, given the reality, all employers should be able to copy the federal government initiative of making additional payments. Making additional payments to workers should be condition precedent for a new national minimum wage. The question is whether such condition precedent would be tailored towards strengthening Nigeria’s federalism. Debates about strengthening Nigeria’s federalism with respect to management of labour relations, especially the issue of minimum wage, have produced strong debate about amending the 1999 Nigerian Constitution to move labour matters from the exclusive list to concurrent list. This has produced a strong ideological opposition by the labour unions.
Given all the challenges facing Nigeria as a nation, and the need to produce a new template of partnership, it is important that the current negotiation between labour and federal government is used to lay a sustainable foundation for strong partnership with organised labour and employers. Part of the goal should be to introduce strategies to promote growth and competitiveness in all sectors, to improve productivity and wages. Therefore, without putting on the table any recommendation that could have ideological connotation, on account of which therefore would elicit any opposition, the question of increased revenue earnings should be jointly reviewed by representatives of governments (covering federal government and states), employers organisation and NLC and TUC.
Reviewing revenue earnings of employers should be objectively done in ways that should strengthen issues of accountability by public authorities in the country. Integral to strengthening accountability by public authority is the issue of setting clearly defined ambitious development targets. Noting that already, President Asiwaju administration has committed itself to achieving $1 trillion GDP in the next eight years, this must be broken down to indices of productivity in the country, which all employers and NLC and TUC should be committed to achieving based on negotiated partnership agreements.
Clear legal and institutional frameworks for collective bargaining in Nigeria between all employers of labour, including governments at all levels, and NLC and TUC should be strengthened. One of the things that must be acknowledged is that Nigeria has all the needed laws to facilitate the process of negotiations. These are provided under the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended, Trade Union Act, Labour (Employment) Act, Factory Act, Workmen’s Compensation Act, Trade Disputes (Essential Services) Act, etc. Procedural rules and regulations governing workplaces, including negotiations between employers and employees are provided. Specifically, ILO Convention 98, which guarantees the right to organise and bargain collectively is ratified under the Trade Unions Act. One of the things that can be deduced is that practice of collective bargaining between workers’ and employers’ organisations should be correlated with productivity and revenue indices.
A major challenge of Nigeria’s labour relations is the question of whether the needed environment will be created for all actors in the bargaining process to have confidence and commit themselves to producing the desired outcome of higher productivity and therefore higher revenue based on which demands for higher rewards can be sustained. That is what the current reality requires. Without achieving higher productivity and higher revenue in all sectors of the economy based on strategies to promote growth and improve productivity, the current offer of N35,000 monthly to federal employers will not cover all workers and may not translate to sustainability by the federal government in terms of producing a new national minimum wage that will aggregate the new federal government offer.
Therefore while commending both the Federal Government and the leadership of NLC and TUC for the landmark resolutions reached on October 1, 2023, which would have removed the threat of the October 3, 2023 strike action, it is important that the negotiation between the federal government, on the one hand, and NLC and TUC, on the other, is expanded to include all employers inclusive of organised private sector and state governments. The negotiations should be oriented to produce agreements to improve productivity and produce higher revenue in all sectors of the Nigerian economy based on which necessary frameworks of partnership agreements between all employers and organised labour in the country should be achieved.
This will give life to President Asiwaju’s commitment as contained in Renewed Hope 2023, when he categorically affirms that ‘Show us a door, we shall open it. Show us a road, we shall travel it. Show us a problem, we shall find a way to fix it. Show us an injustice, we shall strive to correct it, no matter how long it takes or how hard it gets.’ Improved productivity and increased revenue are the road to fixing the problem of high cost of living in the country. Putting in place frameworks for negotiation between employers and organised labour is what is required to correct injustice in the workplace in all sectors and in every section of the country. More than anything, this will open the door to renew the hope of Nigerian workers.
Salihu Lukman
APC: The Inconvenient Reality
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
The emergence of APC in 2013 raised the hopes of Nigerians that the party will provide a different model of party administration such that processes of candidates’ selection and party governance could allow for broader membership participation. Incidences of imposition of candidates and party leadership and allegations of large-scale corruption, which characterises PDP’s sixteen years tenure as a ruling party at federal level and in majority of the 36 states of the federation were also expected to end, or substantially reduced. The operative culture in PDP was that incidences of imposition of candidates made mockery of party primary. Largely because leaders of the PDP who are delegates during party primary were surrogates of aspiring candidates, manipulation of results of primary was the trademark for candidates selection. Similarly, allegations of vote buying during PDP primary was the order.
Without going into details, these were problems, which frustrated Nigerians and at the time of the emergence of APC in 2013, Nigerians wanted an alternative model of party administration. Not just an alternative model, Nigerians wanted a model that would eliminate or minimise incidences of imposition of candidates and party leaders as well as guaranteeing proficient and accountable party governance. Given the promise of CHANGE, combined with the popularity of former President Muhammadu Buhari, especially in the Northern parts of the country, Nigerians found in APC a new political adoration with the high optimism of birthing a new party different from what defines the PDP since 1999. The rest, as is often said, is now history – APC succeeded in replacing the PDP since 2015 and became the ruling party at federal level and in majority of the 36 states.
How have we as a ruling party performed? Have we been able to present a new model of party governance? Or did we collapse and therefore metamorphosed into another PDP in the name of APC? While as individuals we will have different explanations to the reality called APC today, the reality is that, as a party, it is yet to emerge as the model Nigerians expected when the it emerged in 2013. Incidences of imposition of candidates and allegations of vote buying unfortunately have gradually found strong expression in APC. With serving Governors alleged to be exercising what could be considered monopoly control of party structures at state levels, APC primary is reduced to window dressing activity, producing anointed candidates. Internal party contests are being muscled out of existence. Inducements to party leaders at all levels have graduated beyond rational comprehension.
Beyond all these, cost of party nomination forms in APC have become the most expensive in the political history of Nigeria. Recall that in 2014, ahead of the 2015 general elections, cost of APC Presidential and Gubernatorial nomination forms was respectively, N27.5 million and N5 million. In 2019, it was increased to N45 million and N22.5 million for Presidential and Gubernatorial nomination forms respectively. It rose to N100 million and N50 million in 2023 respectively. At this rate, by 2027, the cost of APC nomination form for Presidential election will not be less than N250 million. That of Gubernatorial election may not be less than N125 million.
While acknowledging that high cost of nomination forms for candidates for election assisted in mobilising large-scale financial resources for the party, it has also brought about allegations of large-scale corruption by APC leadership especially at national level. For instance, in 2023, APC realised more than N32 billion from sales of forms to aspiring candidates under the leadership of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. Unfortunately, allegations of mismanagement of the funds accrued to the Party by Sen. Adamu, Sen. Iyiola Omisore and Barr. Ahmad El-Marzuq, National Chairman, National Secretary and National Legal Adviser characterised the two-year tenure of Sen. Adamu between March 2022 and July 2023, which led to their resignations.
Apart from allegations of mismanagement of financial resources, there were alleged cases of arbitrary and discretionary management of the party by Sen. Adamu, on account of which virtually all structures of the APC, notably, National Advisory Council, National Executive Committee and National Caucus, were frozen. The National Advisory Council, which by the provision of Article 13.2B(i) requires the National Secretary to ‘not later than one month after an elective convention, convene the meeting …at which its first leadership, including the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Secretary and other officials that may be deemed necessary, shall be constituted, remained a proposition. The National Executive Committee, which by the provision of Article 25.2(i) of the APC Constitution is required to meet every quarter, met only once throughout the tenure of Sen. Adamu.
The reality is that between 2015 and today, APC function with most of its structures as provided in the party’s constitution not operational. Powers of these structures were usurped by leaders of the party, mainly the National Chairman and the President who should be the moral leader of the party mainly expected to act as the conscience of the Party. Between 2015 and 2023, during the tenure of former President Buhari, many party leaders and members were able to leverage the ‘moral authority’ of the former President to contest and seek redress of Constitutional infractions by leaders of the party. This is largely responsible for many of the internal leadership contestations in APC since 2019. Those contestations resulted in changes of leadership of the party at different times.
Sadly, experiences since the emergence of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the new moral leader of the APC produce a new reality whereby potential infractions may be created by initiatives directly coming from the President himself. A typical example is the case of altering the APC’s zoning formula by arbitrarily moving the position of the National Chairman from North-Central to North-West. Even when for instance the North-Central remained shut out of consideration from any of the key positions in the leadership of the two chambers of the National Assembly, the position of National Chairman is being occupied by Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from Kano State, North-West with North-Central completely merginalised both in the party and in the APC controlled Federal Government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu. Intriguingly, APC leaders are calm, not even leaders from North-Central seem to be disturbed by this new reality. What has really taken over President Asiwaju Tinubu?
Arguably, the situation in APC after ten years of existence as a party and eight years as a ruling party is gradually catching up with the low standards set by PDP during its sixteen years. It is quite alarming that a party envisioned to be progressive will be associated with such arbitrary conduct. All these could be explained with reference to ensuring that structures of the APC are allowed to operate as provided in the APC Constitution. If structures of the party are allowed to operate, decisions of party organs would be binding on all leaders including the National Chairman and the President. Why should leaders who claimed to be progressive be opposed to meetings of party organs? If APC leaders are not disposed to allowing party organs to meet based on which they subordinate themselves and therefore become accountable to party members, to what extend would Nigerians expect that elected leaders produced by the APC, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, would be accountable to Nigerians?
If care is not taken, at the rate we are indulging our leaders in APC, tolerating, and accommodating undemocratic conduct and, perhaps, illegality, we would end up betraying all the goodwill of Nigerians and with it also erode all the electoral viability of the APC. As things are, with President Asiwaju Tinubu successful to have his way to produce Dr. Ganduje and Sen. Ajibola Basiru as the successors to Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore, gradually they have returned the APC to business-as-usual whereby all structures of the APC remained frozen. Otherwise, what is the explanation that after almost three months since the emergence of Dr. Ganduje and Sen. Basiru as National Chairman and National Secretary respectively, the National Advisory Council is yet to be convened and there is no indication that the National Executive Committee and National Caucus will be meeting any time soon. If part of the wrongdoing of Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore is immobilising structures of the party for more than two years, are we about to start witnessing another era of immobilisation of party structures under Dr. Ganduje and Sen. Basiru?
Ordinarily, one would expect that given all the controversial circumstances surrounding the emergence of Dr. Ganduje, as the National Chairman who enjoys the confidence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, Dr. Ganduje will take every step to manage the party differently. In fact, given that he came in at a time when all the financial resources generated during the sales of nomination forms were squandered by the Sen. Adamu leadership, it should have served as incentives for Dr. Ganduje to activate structures of the APC and use them to initiate new strategies for financial resource mobilisation. For instance, it is a known fact that notwithstanding provision of Article 22A of the APC, which outlined subscription, fees and levies of members, even with a claimed membership of more than forty million, the APC is yet to fix any rate for membership subscription. What is then the value of having such a large membership?
Perhaps, the fact of valueless membership is responsible for low turnout of members to vote for the candidates of the APC during the 2023 elections, which is responsible for why President Asiwaju Tinubu was only able to win the election with votes less than a quarter of the size of the claimed membership of the APC. And having had nasty experiences in the hands of the Sen. Adamu leadership of the party who by all intent and purposes behaved more as covert supporters of opposition candidates, perhaps, it was the main reason why President Asiwaju Tinubu supported the demand for Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore to resign from the leadership of the APC. Does this mean that President Asiwaju Tinubu is not committed to restoring constitutional order and returning the APC to its founding vision of being a progressive party?
Merely asking such a question is heartbreaking. Given all the role President Asiwaju Tinubu played, first during the merger negotiations that produced the APC, to all the sacrifices made producing all the electoral victory of the party since 2015, and finally to the progressively patriotic leadership he provided to block attempts by conservative elements within the APC to impose a so-called consensus Presidential candidate for the APC in 2023, the least APC leaders and members expected is that broader democratic openings, which will guarantee transparent decision making processes in line with provisions of the APC constitution will be the defining attributes of the new leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu. As things are, five months into the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu, most APC leaders are as unclear about the direction of party or the government as ordinary Nigerians. For instance, what is the status of the leadership of Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman of the APC? Is his tenure ending in March 2026? Or is he starting a new four-year tenure to end in August 2027? What happens to other members of the National Working Committee who were elected with Sen. Adamu? In short, when should we expect the next National Convention of the APC?
With the constitutional structures of the APC immobilised, Party leaders and members are left in the dark. In addition, will the North-Central continue to be marginalised throughout the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu? Why wouldn’t, for instance, Sen. Jibrin Barau, who is from Kano State where Dr. Ganduje come from, be asked to make the sacrifice by relinquishing his position as Deputy Senate President, in favour of a Senator from North-Central? Ideally, these are issues that could be debated internally if structures of the APC are allowed to operate. But because structures have been frozen with Dr. Ganduje conducting the affairs of the party based on business-as-usual practice, even when recommendations are made, they are simply ignored.
APC leaders must wake up and actively support President Asiwaju Tinubu to succeed. Success in this case is about restoring constitutional order and returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. It is simply unacceptable that APC will continue to exist as a party that is in contempt of its own rules. It is also unacceptable that President Asiwaju Tinubu will inspire us to fight against the culture of imposition, only for him to initiate actions that risk compromising him as a leader who tolerate, if not promote imposition within the APC. As loyal members and leaders of the APC, we need to demonstrate both competence and capacity to reproduce best practice initiatives of our leaders. Constitutional order cannot be restored in APC if members and leaders failed to wake up to the responsibility of contesting decisions that are wrong, taken by either President Asiwaju Tinubu or Dr. Ganduje. Once APC leaders and members become tolerant of every decision of President Asiwaju Tinubu and Dr. Ganduje, culture of arbitrariness will be so entrenched such that APC will collapse and become PDP 2.0.
As it is today, the only distinction between APC and PDP is that there is strong internal contestation in APC. At least, up to the end of the tenure of former President Buhari, it was possible to contest decisions of all party leaders, including the decisions of former President Buhari as the leader of the party between May 2015 and May 2023. With the way, party leaders and members seemed to be pushed into accepting decisions of President Asiwaju Tinubu with hardly any resistance even when incidences of unfairness against members and sections of the country are obvious, portent both personal risk for President Asiwaju Tinubu as well as obvious political consequences for the APC as a political party. It portends personal risk for President Asiwaju Tinubu because if not moderated he may overreach himself and end up producing the circumstances that would lead to his defeat in 2027. Political consequences for the APC largely because once we are out of power, all the privileges associated with being a ruling party will be lost.
Being a ruling party, many party leaders are contented with the privilege of being appointees of governments controlled by the APC. This is quite troubling because, we are hardly worried about the performances of governments controlled by the APC. Which is partly responsible for why the state of the nation is so alarming, the economy is on a downward spiral and instead of mobilising party structures to support the Asiwaju Tinubu led Federal Government, it is business-as-usual. Almost all APC leaders are calling on Nigerians to be patient without any logical explanation. No doubt, hard decisions are required to move Nigeria forward. However, as a party, APC leaders should be clear about all the plans being implemented by President Asiwaju Tinubu, which will produce the renewed hope we promised Nigerians during the 2023 campaigns.
In any case, how can we renew the hope of Nigerians if we can not respect our rules? Not respecting our rules simply means inability to renew the hope of APC members about guaranteeing that both President Asiwaju Tinubu and Dr. Ganduje would abide by the provisions of the APC constitution and return the APC to its founding vision of being a progressive party. Once we fail to renew the hope of APC members, the hope of Nigerians can only be imagined. Therefore, it must be unequivocally stated that getting President Asiwaju Tinubu to succeed is not about repeating the rhetoric of renewed hope. It is about being honestly object and selfless to be ready to contest every wrong decision or initiative taken by both President Asiwaju Tinubu, Dr. Ganduje and all APC leaders. As proudly loyal members of APC, we must not allow President Asiwaju Tinubu to collapse into becoming a typical Nigerian political leader whose only mission is to win election.
Nigerians invested so much confidence in APC, on account of which they have voted for the party and its candidates since 2015. APC members and leaders have made all the sacrifices required to attract the confidence of Nigerians. It will be a big political tragedy and disservice to Nigerians if APC is allowed to be destroyed by condoning undemocratic practices of imposition and unconstitutional conduct of running affairs of the APC without allowing the structures of the party to be functional as provided in the APC constitution. Democracy is about rule of law. Any party that is in contempt with its own rules cannot produce accountable, representative, and responsible leaders. For APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu to turn a new positive democratic leaf, restoring constitutional order and returning APC to its founding vision of being a progressive party is non-negotiable!
Salihu Lukman
Nigerian Politics of Morbid Desire for Naked Power
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
One of the famous quotes of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo called for ‘urgent and massive need for moral and spiritual reconstruction: the kind which will help to demolish morbid desire for naked power and domination and ensure justice, equity and fair play for all.’ Chief Awolowo died on May 9, 1987, more than 36 years ago, which means he would have made this call more than four decades ago. Certainly, whatever could have prompted him to raise such an alarm wouldn’t have been anywhere near what is being experienced today. ‘Morbid desire for naked power’ has become the political culture in Nigeria. From all indication, it is the incentive that drives virtually all aspirations for political offices, with the primary aim of controlling (dominating) citizens. Once successful, people in power (elected leaders) take decisions arbitrarily. Notion of justice, equity and fair play is reduced to empty political expressions.
As Nigerians, we must admit, this is what defines the current Fourth Republic since 1999. We have moved across different leaders, all produced through elections. Imperfect as the elections may be, certainly the leaders have the mandate of Nigerians. The manifest reality of injustices, inequitable representation, and unfairness by elected leaders in the country between 1999 and 2015, was thought to be only associated with leaders produced by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). This partly accounted for why when leaders of the former legacy parties – Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) successfully negotiated the merger that produced the All Progressive Congress (APC), the dominant belief in the country is that a new reality is being created, which will end the political culture of injustice, inequitable representation and unfairness in the country.
With former President Muhammadu Buhari and current President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the leaders of the APC, Nigerians believed and supported the APC. Undeniably, the expected ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’ of Nigeria, with APC in power since 2015, remained a wish. Even with President Asiwaju Tinubu in power today, who has throughout his political career associated himself with late Chief Awolowo’s philosophical and ideological leanings, ‘morbid desire for naked power’ seems to be the driving aspirations of his leadership. Otherwise, how can anyone explain the emerging attributes of President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government? Complaints about poor access to the President by many APC leaders is widespread. Capacity of APC leaders to exercise influence on President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government is very narrow.
Without any doubt, the orientation, attributes, and behavioural patterns of President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government is virtually the same with that of former President Buhari. Both the two are governments produced by APC but interestingly, both APC as a political party and leaders of the party had little or no say in the two governments. Appointments into positions in governments were or are practically carried out exclusively without consulting either the party organs or leaders of the party both during the tenure of former President Buhari and currently under President Asiwaju Tinubu. Criteria and qualifications for appointments were or are known only to the two leaders and their close associates. Consequently, party leaders and members became orphans, perhaps worse than when they were in opposition parties.
One important distinction is that in the case of the current President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government, steps are being taken to replace all heads of Federal Government Agencies. This is a complete departure from what obtained under former President Buhari whereby most heads of Federal Government Agencies appointed by PDP Government of former President Goodluck Jonathan were retained virtually throughout the eight-year tenure of former President Buhari, including Mr. Godwin Emefieli, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. This is mainly responsible for the poor relationship between leaders of the APC and Federal Government appointees even in their respective states. It is also the incentive for most of the cases of anti-party activities by many Federal Government appointees during the 2023 general elections.
Interestingly, however, with constitutional organs of the APC not functioning, these disloyal leaders of the APC have not only gone unpunished, but there are also many allegations of some of these recalcitrant appointees being reappointed in the President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government. Like during the tenure of former President Buhari, absence of input by organs of the APC in the decisions of current President Asiwaju is producing the undesirable consequences of loyal APC supporters heading some of the Federal Government Agencies being arbitrarily removed even before the end of their tenure.
Organs of the APC, since the 2015 electoral victory, never function as provided by the APC constitution. As a result, Article 13.3A(vii) of the APC constitution, which requires the National Executive Committee of the APC to ‘Examine the actions taken or legislation proposed or passed by any Government, Legislative House or Local Government Area/Area Council and determine what further actions the Party should take’ is rendered idle. Inability to make organs of the party functional and through the meetings of organs hold elected leaders accountable further entrenched the reality of ‘morbid desire for naked power’, which is very disturbing. Sadly, there seems to be attempts by some people in the current President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government and their supporters to explain this worrisome reality with reference to how bad former President Buhari’s government had destroyed the country.
As leaders and members of APC, we must take responsibility. Although, many of us were neither appointees nor direct beneficiaries of the former President Buhari’s government, as members and leaders of the APC, we were part of that government, and to that extend therefore coconspirators and liable for whatever is the scorecard of that government. Any claim to the contrary will amount to denial of all our failings or shortcomings and therefore outrightly being dishonest. If at all we are honest, as committed members of the APC, who were part of the vision to negotiate the merger of APC with the foresight of changing Nigerian politics (moral and spiritual reconstruction), we must acknowledge today’s reality, based on which we must reopen a new chapter of political negotiation in the country.
Reopening new chapter of political negotiation in the country should be about acknowledging all the shortcomings of both the two governments produced by the APC under the leadership of former President Buhari and current President Asiwaju Tinubu. Honest acknowledgement of shortcomings should at the same time recognise the achievements recorded during the tenure of former President Buhari. Once, as party leaders and members, we allow people in the current government of President Asiwaju Tinubu and their supporters to dishonestly explain their ‘morbid desire for naked power’ based on which they are not disposed to allowing structures of the APC to function as provided in the party’s constitution, ability of the President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government to undertake ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’ as proposed by late Chief Awolowo would be enfeebled. Once that is the case, the promise of Renewed Hope, which was our campaign promise will be an empty slogan.
APC leaders and members, as part of the demonstration of commitment to ensure that President Asiwaju Tinubu succeed in Renewing the Hope of Nigerians should support the campaign to reopen new chapter of political negotiations in APC with the objective of restoring constitutional order and returning the APC to its founding vision. Restoring constitutional order and returning the APC to its founding vision should be oriented to achieve ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’ of Nigerian politics, which was the dream of late Chief Awolowo as far back as more than four decades ago. If late Chief Awolowo was the ‘best President’ Nigeria never had, why should his claimed political disciple in the person of President Asiwaju Tinubu fail to achieve his dream? Why should President Asiwaju Tinubu allow ‘morbid desire for naked power’ to take over his government?
Specifically, reopening new chapter of political negotiations in the country should be about exerting pressure on the APC under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu to retore constitutional order and return APC to its founding vision, which is about ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’ of Nigerian politics. This is centrally about strengthening mechanism for holding all elected leaders accountable. Absence of this is making President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government to function epileptically. This moment, it is taking excellent initiative strengthening the confidence of Nigerians that it will Renew the Hopes of Nigerians, the next moment, it is producing completely contradictory results eroding all existing expectations.
Given our political reality as a nation, it must be emphasised that ‘morbid desire for naked power’ by political leaders is not peculiar to APC. In fact, it is what is consuming the PDP so much so that today, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is succeeding to destroy the PDP. And Mr. Obi Obi has taken over Labour Party (LP) without any corresponding commitment to build the structures of the party based on which elected leaders produced by the LP can be held accountable. This reality has stagnated Nigeria and hold the nation back into a state of permanent electoral contests. Public debate in the country is all about who should be the leader and never about holding leaders accountable.
If anything, the potential to strengthen the structures of any of the existing parties in Nigeria is stronger in APC largely because it is about the only party with strong internal contests aimed at reforming the party. The test of whether President Asiwaju Tinubu is at all a true political disciple of late Chief Awolowo will be determined based on his capacity to initiate actions towards ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’ of Nigerian politics, which should start with restoring constitutional order and returning the APC to its founding vision. A situation whereby elected leaders produced by the APC will be allowed to run affairs of governments controlled by the party arbitrarily without permitting organs of the party to guide processes of appointment and decisions, is simply anti Awoism, retrogressive and unacceptable.
As party leaders and members, who lived the lives of ‘internally displaced politicians’ virtually throughout the eight years of former President Buhari, and about to start a new era of displacement during the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu, we need to appreciate that the fact of our displacement is the product of the non-functionality of the structures of the APC. It doesn’t matter whether it was former President Buhari or current President Asiwaju, or any other political leader for that matter is the President. So long as elected leaders are allowed to function in an atmosphere which renders structures of the party that produced them worthless and inactive, ‘morbid desire for naked power’ will continue to be the political culture and all claims to commitment for ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’, or changing Nigeria as promised by APC will elude citizens.
Just like the situation before 2015 whereby Nigerians were confronted with a ruling party, PDP, which was in denial of the challenges facing Nigerian politics that entrenched ‘morbid desire for naked power’, APC is gradually moving into state of self-denial with APC government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu retaining the same behavioural attribute of demobilising APC structures and blocking them from operating in line with the provisions of the party constitution. This portend the danger of being thrown out of power in 2027 just like PDP experienced in 2015. APC leaders (including President Asiwaju Tinubu) and members may wish to delude themselves into believing anything to the contrary, the reality is that there is a limit to which Nigerians can continue to tolerate and accommodate injustice, inequitable representation, and unfairness on account of ‘morbid desire for naked power’ by leaders entrusted with governmental responsibilities.
The fact of living with entrenched ‘morbid desire for naked power’ will continue to reduce APC leaders and members to the status of ‘internally displaced politicians’ and problems of injustice, inequitable and unfair representation in both the party and government produced by the APC will continue. Already, in less than six months since the inauguration of President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government, insensitive decisions have been take, which marginalised the North-Central in both the leadership of the APC and the leadership of the National Assembly. Not even the emergence of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the National Chairman of the APC, who is from Kano State, North-Central has elicited any rational consideration to renegotiate the leadership of the Senate for instance, whereby another person, Sen. Barau Jibrin, from the same Kano State is occupying the position of Deputy Senate President. Ideally, any claim to progressive politics would have compelled President Asiwaju Tinubu, Dr. Ganduje and all leaders of APC to recognise the ‘moral and spiritual’ burden requiring the need to reconstruct the leadership of the Senate to ‘ensure justice, equity and fair play for all’ by replacing Sen. Barau with a ranking Senator from North-Central as Deputy Senate President.
Like late Chief Awolowo has argued, the need for a campaign to end ‘morbid desire for naked power’ in Nigerian politics is urgent and massive. Nigerians must not allow serving political leaders to reduce the current challenges facing the country to the cheap question of who will emerge as the next President of Nigeria in 2027. Whether President Asiwaju Tinubu will continue for another four years after 2027 or not should be determined based on his ability or otherwise to restore constitutional order and return the APC to its founding vision of being oriented as a progressive political party. Just like the case of negotiating the merger that produce the APC, which started in 2012, after the 2011 general elections, more than three years before the 2015 general elections, if Nigerian politics is to move forward such that structures of political parties, are activated and made functional, which is a fundamental precondition for ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’ of Nigerian society, reopening political negotiations in the country aimed at ‘demolishing morbid desire for naked power’ is ‘urgent and massive’ as prophesised by the revered late Chief Awolowo.
APC leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu have very limited choices in this respect. It is quite worrisome and disappointing that with every change in leadership of the party, respect for rules of the APC as contained in the APC constitution gets further eroded. Very troubling, after ten years of APC existence, the National Advisory Council, which is expected to serve as the conscience of the party is yet to be constituted. The APC has no defined funding mechanism. The party doesn’t operate any budget and doesn’t render financial account to any organ. Almost all operations of the party, including managing its finances is manage in ad hoc manner based on the personal discretion of the National Chairman. These were the main issues, which were responsible for the internal disagreements with the leadership of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore leading to their resignations.
Almost three months into the tenure of Dr. Ganduje and Sen. Ajibola Basiru, nothing has changed. If anything, financial management has gotten worse as the APC is unable to meet its financial obligation. Organs of the party are not being mobilised to initiate responses. Outside the National Working Committee, which meets weekly, no organ of the party is meeting. At this rate, it can only be predicted that under the leadership of Dr. Ganduje, the APC will only mark time to produce candidates for 2027 elections. Once this is the case, Renewed Hope agenda as promised by President Asiwaju Tinubu would be reduced to entrenching ‘morbid desire for naked power’ and many APC leaders and members would continue to exist as internally displaced politicians. To avoid this, APC leaders and members must reopen strong campaign to restore constitutional order and return the APC to its founding vision.
‘Urgent and massive need for moral and spiritual reconstruction’ of Nigeria to ‘demolish morbid desire for naked power’ is a critical success factor for Renewing the Hopes of Nigerians. Like is often said, charity begins at home, Renewing the Hopes of Nigerians must start with restoring constitutional order and returning APC to its founding vision based on which members can have stronger influences on governments produced by the party, especially the Federal Government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu. The capacity of President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government to achieve ‘moral and spiritual reconstruction’ of Nigeria in line with the political foresight and ingenuity of late Chief Awolowo who is supposed to be the political role model of President Asiwaju Tinubu is only possible if structures of the APC are allowed to function in line with the provision of the party’s constitution. Anything short of that will amount to political betrayal of late Chief Awolowo. President Asiwaju Tinubu must never allow history to record him as one of those who betrayed late Chief Awolowo.
Salihu Lukman
Agonising Experience of Being APC Member
Message to APC Leaders
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Your Excellencies, I want to sincerely express my gratitude many party leaders for tolerating me all these years. Conscious of the fact that I have often taken provocative positions regarding developments within the APC, but despite that many party leaders have been very receptive. I am very humbled and challenged to remained committed to the growth and development of our party. I am convinced beyond all doubts that our party, APC, represent both the present and the future of democracy in Nigeria. APC is not just the ruling party, as it is today, it is about the only party that permit strong internal contests, not just during elections, but even when there are no elections.
Without going into details, this was what defines our experiences between 2019 and 2023. In fact, those strong internal contests were the critical success factors for the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria today. No doubt, President Asiwaju Tinubu provided the needed leadership both as a National Leader and as our Presidential candidate for 2023 elections. The expectation of many party leaders and members is that the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the successor to former President Muhammadu Buhari would enable us to reform the party and return it to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party.
I wish I can say with confidence that our party is going through such a reform. Sadly, instead of reforming the APC to return it to its founding vision, we are consolidating and emerging as a malfunctioned and despotic party organisation, which is increasingly becoming a replica of the PDP by every passing day. In addition, we today have an APC that is completely in contempt with its own rules. None of the organs of the party is functioning in line with the provisions of the Constitution. Partly because structures of the party are not functioning in lines with provisions of the APC constitution, leaders of the Party are not accountable.
Recall that issues of lack of accountability and refusal to allow structures of the APC to operate in lines with provisions of the APC Constitution were the main disagreements we had with Sen. Abdullahi Adamu when he was the National Chairman between April 2022 and July 2023. These are issues that are again rearing their ugly heads under the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. Beyond these issues, there are also the problems of funding facing the leadership Dr. Ganduje.
At personal level, I have tried to present recommendations to Dr. Ganduje, including a funding proposal for the party. Painfully, I am not able to convince him and the leadership of the party to consider some of the recommendations and proposals. Or, at least, I am not able to get any feedback that my proposal is worthy of consideration. As things are, it is also very clear that access to Dr. Ganduje is becoming narrower and narrower. In the circumstance, one is left with no option but to conclude that I am only being tolerated.
I have been a member of APC since its formation. I was privileged to be a member of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before the merger and was one of those who started public advocacy for the merger as far back as April 2012. No doubt, because one had summoned the courage to give honest advises to our leaders, including former President Buhari and current President Asiwaju, I only had remote relationship with these leaders. Somehow, many people close to these leaders consider me antagonist, largely on account of many of the provocative recommendations one had make. For instance, I was one of those who campaigned that both the two leaders, former President Buhari and current President Asiwaju Tinubu, should not aspire to emerge as the Presidential candidate of APC in 2015, if the merger negotiation is to succeed.
After the merger, I was opposed to former President Buhari emerging as the Presidential candidate of APC for 2015 for the simple reason that combining moral authority with statutory responsibility of being President will undermine the capacity of party leaders to influence his decisions. That has come to pass and today, the model of leadership we are presenting to Nigerians is for serving Presidents to combine moral authority with statutory responsibility. Some may argue, this was also the operative model under PDP.
Possibly, yes. But was that not what we wanted to change? Again, recall that prior to the emergence of APC in 2013, problems of lack of internal democracy and the overbearing manipulation of candidates selection process for elections was a source of frustration for Nigerians. Almost all registered political parties, including our legacy parties, operate as closed shops whereby so-called Godfathers are the proprietors of the parties. These so-called Godfathers monopolised the emergence of candidates at all levels.
APC emerged with the promise of change. And most Nigerians interpreted this to mean changing the paradigm, which determines the emergence of candidates. Perhaps, in 2014, ahead of the 2015 general election, there was a slight shift in paradigm, which was more liberal and participatory. Between 2015 and 2023, increasingly, APC was corrupted, and Godfathers took over virtually all the processes of candidates emergence. The only exception was the case of the emergence of the Presidential candidate.
Of course, in the case of the emergence of the Presidential candidate, there were attempts to impose a candidate other than Asiwaju Tinubu for the 2023 Presidential election. Many party leaders and members rose to the occasion and resisted the attempt. Good enough, we succeeded in defeating the attempt to impose a Presidential candidate. Interestingly, even after that, forces of reaction within the APC attempted to both sabotage and undermine the electoral prospect of the APC and all its candidates, especially Asiwaju Tinubu who was the Presidential candidate. After that was defeated, with Asiwaju Tinubu emerging as the President-elect, we had the irritating experiences of cohabiting with a party leadership that was antagonistic to the leadership of Asiwaju Tinubu.
At a time when it was convenient for many to do sit-down-look, some of us rose to the occasion and campaigned for the removal of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore from the leadership of the party. Speaking for myself, I did so not based on any expectation of being rewarded. In fact, if anything, I thought the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu would prioritise returning the party to its founding vision of becoming a truly progressive party. This should have been the best reward for our sacrifices and courage to resist the reactionary attempt to undermine the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu. It was with this in mind that I expressed the ambition of remaining in the party leadership.
Events since the resignation of Sen. Adamu and Sen. Omisore on July 17, 2023, suggest that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s priority may be different and may not include returning the APC to its founding vision. Having openly expressed my disagreement about some of the decisions taken, including the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as the APC National Chairman, I don’t expect everyone, including President Asiwaju Tinubu to support all my actions. The least, however, I expect every party leader, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, to acknowledge my contributions both to the development of APC, as well as the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the APC Presidential candidate and eventually as President of the Federal Republic.
I am not making any claim and I am not demanding anything extraordinary. My expectation is that President Asiwaju Tinubu and all his appointees, especially those saddled with the responsibility of managing his relationship with party leaders and members, should do so with humility and respect to other party leaders and members. As things are, it would have been more rewarding if one had been antagonistic, or opportunistic to the person of President Asiwaju Tinubu. When, for instance, party leaders who were boisterously opposed to the Presidential ambition of President Asiwaju Tinubu are today appointees in the Federal Government, and in the case of Governors such as Sen. Hope Uzodinma, who financed the attempt to manipulate the emergence of Sen. Ahmed Lawan as the consensus Presidential candidate of APC, emerging as the Chairman of Progressive Governors beat the imagination of every founding leader of APC, and in every respect heartbreaking.
I have attempted to reach out to many people who are adjudged to be close to President Asiwaju Tinubu, in the hope that one can can make recommendations that can convince President Asiwaju Tinubu to prioritise reforming the APC. At the minimum, it should not be too much to have the expectation that returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party should be the priority of President Asiwaju Tinubu. I am only able to succeed in meeting Dr. Ganduje, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Dr. Ganduje is the current National Chairman, and the three others were all former National Chairmen.
Apart from explaining circumstances leading to my decision to resign as APC National Vice Chairman North-West, I presented to them my perspectives both in terms of recollections of the internal struggles within the APC leading to the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, as well as what needs to be done to reform the APC. These are documented and contained in my forthcoming publication, APC and Transition Politics. I have shared the manuscript to these party leaders and was hoping that eventually President Asiwaju Tinubu will agree to write the Foreword to the publication. In fact, Dr. Ganduje agree to assist to convince President Asiwaju Tinubu to write the Foreword. With the hope that both editing the manuscript and negotiation to get the Foreword from President Asiwaju Tinubu will be concluded in about two months, I projected that the public presentation of the publication can take place around the end of November 2023.
The idea of the public presentation was more about facilitating some forms of public engagement around the future of our party, APC, and by extension, the future of democracy in Nigeria. As an active member of the party, and someone who has been in the forefront of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria since 1980s, one could see that gradually and systemically, we are crashing to the point where PDP was before 2015. Disappointingly, we are getting to a point whereby, once you are marked as someone whose views are not in agreement with the priorities of elected leaders, access is blocked.
As things are, work on the manuscript APC and Transition Politics has been concluded and I am confronted with a brick wall. Access to both President Asiwaju Tinubu, Dr. Ganduje and many of the appointees close to them is hardly available. It is my hope that President Asiwaju Tinubu will write the Foreword. It is also my hope that both President Asiwaju Tinubu and all our elected and appointed representatives today, will always remember that the struggle to reform the APC and return it to its founding vision predates the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If anything, President Asiwaju Tinubu provided leadership to that struggle and deservedly, he is today the main beneficiary.
Therefore, let it be known, blocking access to President Asiwaju Tinubu, or refusal of President Asiwaju Tinubu to be accessible will not end the struggle for the reform of APC. Both President Asiwaju Tinubu and all his appointees must recognise that, indeed, reforming the APC is an integral part of the struggle for the development of Nigerian democracy. APC emerged in 2013 with the historical mission of changing Nigerian politics such that our parties are internally democratic. Incontestably, both former President Buhari and current President Asiwaju gave us the needed leadership to inspire Nigerians into believing and committing their votes to the APC.
Eight years after, we are still on the starting line. APC is becoming more and more a replica of PDP with all the negative attributes. We have spent eight years under former President Buhari motionless, in terms developing the needed initiatives for party building. Are we also going to experience another era of zero initiative for party building under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu? Where is then the claim of being progressives? Where then is the justification or any link to being an awoist?
It is no doubt agonising and troubling that President Asiwaju Tinubu is starting his leadership tenure of APC by sending a very strong disturbing signal that reforming the APC is not his priority. Because reforming the APC is not his priority, out of all the leadership materials available to the party, Dr. Ganduje is his best candidate. Having achieved producing Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman, whether party organs are functioning or not, it is not President Asiwaju Tinubu’s headache. It was also the reason why even if the emergence of Dr. Ganduje meant marginalisation of the people from North Central in both the party and the Federal Government, it is not important.
Perhaps, we need to remind President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders about Frantz Fanon’s timeless warning to the effect that ‘Each generation must, out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.’ President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders must be reminded about that APC founding mission of changing Nigerian politics, which is basically about internal reforms within our parties to facilitate the emergence of candidates for electoral contest through democratic means. President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders must not indulge themselves to imagine that simple defeat of PDP and producing former President Buhari and now President Asiwaju Tinubu as Presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria equates to the political change Nigerians are desirous of.
So long as APC will allow a situation that could be interpreted to mean consolidating the old political paradigm that promote lack of accountability and imposition of leadership, it means betrayal of the founding mission of APC. We can deceive ourselves to imagine that we can continue to succeed in emerging victorious in elections and successful leaders surround themselves with sycophants who only tell them what they want to hear, it will not change the reality of betrayal and it will not protect leaders.
As loyal party members, we will continue to campaign for the reform of APC and the reform of party politics generally in the country. Having access to leaders is an advantage. But it is never the sole determinant for a victory. For more than four decades we have been in this struggle. We will remain in the struggle for as long as we are alive. May Allah (SWT) guide President Asiwaju Tinubu, touch his heart to make him appreciate and commit himself to reform the APC based on enlighten self-interest! Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Resolving APC’s Progressive Retrogression
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Addressing the closing session of the 2023 cabinet retreat for Ministers, Presidential Aides, Permanent Secretaries and top Government functionaries on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu enjoined members of the cabinet not to “be afraid to make decisions, but don’t be antagonistic of your supervisor. If they are wrong, debate it. I stand before you and I’ve claimed on several occasions and I’m saying today again as the president, I can make mistakes, point it to me I would resolve that conflict, that error, perfection is only that of God Almighty. But you are there to help me succeed. Success I must achieve by all means necessary.”
As loyal members of the APC, and above all, as patriotic Nigerians, we are all here to make the President and Nigerian governments at all levels succeed. Being the father of the nation and the leader of the APC, President Asiwaju Tinubu is the supervisor in chief, and we will not antagonise him. We acknowledge the courage of the President to take all the necessary decisions. But like he enjoined members of his cabinet to debate wrong decisions of their supervisors, it is our hope that he will have the large heart to listen to us when we draw his attention to priority decisions he should be taking, not even mistakes, or perceived mistakes coming from his decisions as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our objective of drawing his attention to prioritise decisions regarding certain issues is to help him to ‘succeed by all means necessary.”
First, the biggest problem many APC leaders have with President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government is inaccessibility. Perhaps, partly because of the challenge of managing pressure from people seeking political appointments in government, the assumption is that everybody seeking to meet the President or people around him will be lobbying for appointment. Although that could be true in many cases, such reality shouldn’t produce indiscriminate barricade. Recognising that problems of accessibility is common to all leaders, being committed to building a progressive party, which should idly be mass based capable of winning public support require leaders to be accessible.
Ordinarily, being political leaders produced by a party, in our case, APC, the requirement of influencing decisions of governments and leaders could be achieved through meetings of organs of the party. With organs of the APC frozen, party leaders are left with very little options but to seek audience with elected leaders in government, including President Asiwaju Tinubu. Recalling all the internal contestations within the APC since 2019, which borders on expanding the democratic scope within the party, largely due to inability of organs of the party to meet as required by the constitution, many party leaders expected that under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu the problems will be resolved. With party organs still frozen, even after replacing Sen. Abdullahi Adamu with Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the National Chairman, and now combined with inaccessible access to the President, possibility of influencing decisions of government will be remote.
Ability to influence decisions of government and elected representatives provides the main attraction for democracy. Part of the assumption is that democracy is founded on the logic that political parties should have manifestos. Prior to 2015, the major political frustration of citizens is that virtually all our parties have manifestos that exist only in the archives of INEC. Processes of merger negotiations of our old legacy parties stimulated strong internal debates and consultations about the manifesto of the APC between 2012 and 2013. The internal debates aggregated public expectations, which made Nigerians to strongly believe that the APC is radically different and therefore potentially and truly going to emerge as a progressive party.
There is no need belaboring the point that having won the 2015 election, the APC manifesto was virtually relegated to the same fate as that of other parties in the country. Throughout the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC manifesto was hardly a guide to decisions of government. In fact, many elected representatives and appointees may have served their tenure between 2015 and 2023 without any knowledge of the provisions of the APC’s manifesto. This legimised most of the criticisms against our party and all the governments it produced in the last eight years.
It is the hope of many party members and leaders that the unfortunate reality whereby the manifesto of APC is made redundant will change and being a government produced by the APC, the vision of the party as contained in the APC manifesto would guide policy initiatives of the government. Noting that the Renewed Hope 2023: Action Plan for a Better Nigeria was the premise for President Asiwaju Tinubu’s 2023 Presidential campaign, and to that extent therefore one of the important guides for policy initiatives, the extent to which all these are harmonised and unified with commitments contained in the APC manifesto is an important determinant of whether the leadership of President Asiwaju would prioritise building the APC as a truly progressive party.
Noting that the APC National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was at the cabinet retreat, it should be assumed that, however defined, sessions of the retreat would have deliberated on some of these issues. In addition, review of APC’s challenges suggests the need to appeal to leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu to take provisions of the APC’s manifesto much more seriously when designing policies. Beyond provisions of Renewed Hope 2023, it is important that the APC manifesto is used as the primary guide for policy design for all governments produced by the APC, including the Federal Government.
As much as party members and Nigerians can hold elected and appointed leaders in government responsible for delivering on campaign promises, party leaders, especially NWC members are ineffective in terms of regulating the conducts of elected representatives. Their ineffectiveness renders provisions of Article 13.4(xi), which required NWC members to ‘examine the activities, policies, programmes and legislation made by governments in the Federation, from time to time, in order to determine their alignment with the manifesto and Constitution of the Party, and when necessary, to make recommendations to the National Executive Committee for its actions’ indolent. The reality is that, just like elected and appointed representatives in government, there are many members of the NWC who are ignorant of the provisions of the APC manifesto. It is even possible that there are many members of the NWC who have never sighted the APC manifesto.
Once members of the NWC who are expected to be the custodians of both the APC Constitution and manifesto are ignorant of provisions of the APC manifesto, elected and appointed representatives in government will be weakly committed to delivering on campaign promises. Many would argue that the initiative of President Asiwaju Tinubu to establish a Result Delivery Unit with a Special Adviser to the President, Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, as the coordinator would strengthen capacity of the APC led Federal Government to deliver on its campaign promises. As much as that is true, it may not produce the needed ownership by APC leaders, based on which sustainability by future APC governments can be guaranteed.
The challenge of ensuring that governments produced by the APC use provisions of the party’s manifesto as primary guide for policy initiatives is even more compelling in the case of state governments. Part of the vision of setting up the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) was informed by the objective of getting state governments produced by the APC to ‘commit themselves to specific policy actions in their states aimed at promoting the social democratic programmes of APC in line with provisions of the party constitution and manifesto’. Being facilitators of the merger negotiations that produced the APC, the founding members of the PGF, in recognition of the ideological orientation that informs provisions of the APC manifesto, which is social democratic, underpin policy orientation of all APC states to be also social democratic based on which the PGF Secretariat was mandated to facilitate development of initiatives that would produce policy synergy across APC controlled states.
Sustainably achieving all these would require corresponding appropriate capacity development within the organs of the APC. A situation whereby, the organs of the party are frozen and elected and appointed representatives in governments at all levels operate in complete isolation from party organs, could produce weak commitment to implementation of party manifesto and when, to the contrary, stronger commitments are produced, may not be sustainable. Absence of strong commitment to the APC manifesto is partly responsible for the unfortunate reality whereby the public perception about similarity between the APC and other parties in the country is getting stronger and almost impossible to contradict.
Beyond issues of strong public perception about similarity between the APC and other parties, there is also the troubling reality whereby it is increasingly becoming more expensive to aspire and win elections in APC, perhaps more expensive than in any other party. For instance, cost of APC Presidential and Gubernatorial nomination forms in 2014, ahead of the 2015 general elections, was respectively, N27.5 million and N5 million. In 2019, it increased to N45 million and N22.5 million for Presidential and Gubernatorial nomination forms respectively. It rose to N100 million and N50 million in 2023 respectively. At this rate, by 2027, the cost of APC nomination form for Presidential election will not be less than N250 million. That of Gubernatorial election may not be less than N125 million.
In the case of the 2015 general elections, it is most likely that many of those who emerged as the Governorship candidates for APC and won the party primary may have succeeded with far less than One Billion Naira (N1 billion). Although many would imagine such a cost as outrageous, this is most likely to be a very conservative estimate. There are states such as Lagos, Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom, which may have cost far above Two Billion Naira (N2 billion) to win the Governorship Primary in 2015. Like the case of cost of nomination forms, the cost certainly increased in 2019 and 2023 substantial.
In fact, the most disturbing reality was more reflected in the case APC Presidential primary. While in 2015, we had one of the excellent models of producing a Presidential candidate in the person of former President Muhammadu Buhari who wasn’t a moneybag, and therefore had to rely on the generosity of fellow party leaders and well-wishers to finance the campaign for his primary election in both 2015 and 2019, in 2023 the reverse completely happened as all those who aspired and contested for the APC Presidential primary, including President Asiwaju Tinubu shouldered all the financial burden for their primary campaign. To that extent, it is possible that President Asiwaju Tinubu may have incurred not less than Fifty Billion Naira (N50 billion) to win the APC Presidential primary and emerged as the party’s presidential candidate.
After incurring such huge personal expenditure with almost zero contributions from other party leaders, President Asiwaju Tinubu had to also shoulder almost all the cost of the 2023 Presidential election with very negligible contributions from the APC and other leaders, if at all. Certainly, inclusive of the cost of winning the Presidential primary, winning the 2023 Presidential elections may have cost President Asiwaju Tinubu upward of One Hundred Billion Naira (N100 Billion). By every standard, this is very outrageous and alarming. Cascading it down to Governors, it would have cost each of the APC Governorship candidates for 2023 elections not less than Ten Billion (N10 Billion) to win the elections.
How a party envisioned to be progressive would be degraded to money politics is quite worrisome. Partly because money politics took over internal party contest during the 2023 elections, contest for the leadership of the 10th National Assembly became driven by money politics too. It may have cost both Sen. Godswill Akpabio and Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen nothing less than Fifty Billion Naira (N50 Billion) each to win the contest for Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives. What this simply means is that for any person to contemplate aspiring for President of the Federal Republic or Governor of any state, the person must have impossible amount of money running into hundreds of billions. How many Nigerians can afford this from legitimate earning?
How is APC going to address this disturbing reality? Or will APC simply turn a blind eye to such a troubling reality? Is this a problem, which President Asiwaju Tinubu want to address during the tenure of his leadership? Or is he going to ignore it since he can afford it? One can deduce that with such high cost of winning elections, it is enough to weaken the bond between elected leaders and other party leaders, which may have created the present problems of accessibility. So long as elected leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu, are inaccessible to other party leaders, the prospect of returning APC to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party will continue to diminish. And problems of money politics within the APC will be further entrenched.
As things are, we must be honest, Nigerian politics cannot continue the way it is today. Many Nigerians, especially APC members, expected that doing away with money politics is one of the changes APC will bring about. Unfortunately, things have progressively got worse. Sadly too, because structures of the party are not functioning, there is no avenue to deliberate all these and make proposals. APC is progressively losing even the little democratic credentials, which in 2015 encouraged Nigerians to expect the possibility of a progressive party emerging out of it. Many Nigerians, including APC members may be tempted to rationalise this unfortunate reality based on the liberal disposition of former President Buhari who was unable to ensure that APC matured into the envisioned progressive party in the last eight years. Consequently, APC virtually was taken over by whatever was PDP, and all its negative values include money politics.
How is the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu going to be different? Like during the tenure of former President Buhari, will APC structures remain frozen under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu? If APC structures remained frozen, how can APC become a progressive party? What does being a progressive party means to APC leaders and President Asiwaju Tinubu? Will being a progressive party minimise money politics? How can that be achieved? Minimising money politics will require putting in place comprehensive funding strategy for all activities of the party, including electoral contest. So long as aspirants and candidates are required to bear all the financial burden of winning elections, the extent of being successful may not include transforming APC into a progressive party, which is the primary source of APC’s electoral advantage.
It is the hope of many APC leaders and members that President Asiwaju Tinubu will prioritise decisions to return the party to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. We are confident, he has everything it requires to take every necessary decision. It is in his enlightened electoral interest to so and in the national interest too. Nigerians are desirous of a party that can make access possible to elected leaders, including the President, for other fellow party leaders. Nigerian democracy must resolve the challenge of astronomical cost of winning elections by aspirants and candidates. Will President Asiwaju Tinubu prioritise all these as part of what he wants to achieve during his tenure as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? May the success of President Asiwaju Tinubu’s leadership also produce a truly progressive APC! Amin!
Salihu Lukman
The Cancer Destroying Nigerian Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
During the November 11, 2023 elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) Election Analysis Centre highlighted the ‘need to separate the unpredictable technical failures that are due to the operational, logistical and infrastructure challenges of electoral administration in the country on the one hand from the politically instigated failures attributable in the main to deliberate manipulation by candidates, political parties and their proxies in state and society on the other hand. The challenge, therefore, is how to unscramble the nexus connecting technical to politically motivated failures with a view to enhancing the integrity of elections in the country.’
In short, ‘politically instigated’ or ‘motivated failures’ due to ‘deliberate manipulation by candidates, political parties and their proxies’ is the main challenge negatively affecting ‘integrity of elections’ in Nigeria. This is certainly not a new revelation. If anything, it only drew attention to the fact that the main problem of elections in Nigeria remains mainly ‘deliberate manipulation by candidates, political parties and their proxies’. ‘Deliberate manipulation’ of election results ‘by candidates, political parties and their proxies’ has been a problem in Nigerian politics since the beginning of the Fourth Republic in 1999. Some may argue that it is as old as politics itself and is not limited to Nigeria. As much as that could be true, what is uniquely Nigerian is the fact that the institution that should have developed the capacity to deal with the challenge become the first casualty of the problem. That institution is the political party.
Ideally, every political contest or contest for an election is expected to start internally within parties. Aspiring candidates emerged and parties are expected to conduct internal elections, which produces candidates, otherwise known as party primary. Rules or guidelines to guarantee free and fair contest or equal opportunity to each aspiring contestant are expected to be set by each party for the conduct of the primary. The reality, however, is that although all parties in Nigeria have rules or guidelines for primary elections, copies of which are deposited with INEC, the first act of ‘deliberate manipulation’ starts internally within parties during primary election. In fact, the process of manipulation begins when party leaders are being elected. These are the people expected to produce as well as enforce the party rules or guidelines expected to guarantee free and fair contests internally within parties.
Consequently, political practice and culture, across all Nigerian parties, is about recruiting membership based on individual aspirations for political offices. The scenario, therefore, is that once an aspirant has strong financial capability, the party is handed over to the person. Such a person would then proceed to appoint loyalists to serve as party leaders. Issues of membership and participation in political activities, including holding party positions and appointments into governments controlled by the party, are restricted to close associates and supporters, while professional management of the party and disciplinary conduct of members are conveniently ignored.
As a result, there is the preponderance of unethical, unfair, and other substandard practices by all political parties and their candidates without any exception in Nigeria. Party offices are manipulated to be controlled by aspiring candidates. All the problems associated with Nigeria’s national elections become manifest at this point. Imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. emerges from this point. Party leaders are produced through these unethical methods and in return they are expected to produce their sponsors who are the aspirants for elective positions through such methods as party candidates for elections. Once they become party candidates for elections, the next task is to use the same methods of manipulating election results to emerge winners.
Manipulation of political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc., which begin at the level of producing party leaders grew and sadly become political culture that unethically determine winners of electoral contests. Manipulation of political contests are the cells or tumours that grow uncontrollably and spread. Once a party produces its leadership through processes of manipulation, such a party would end up producing candidates through manipulation and the candidates would in turn be seeking to win elections by manipulating results.
This was what destroyed the PDP as a party. When the APC emerged in 2013 with the promise of change, many Nigerians, especially founding members of APC expected that being envisioned to be a progressive party meant departure from the culture of manipulation. To be candid, ahead of the 2015 general elections, internal party contests in APC was relatively competitive. There were certainly incidences of vote buying during the APC primary elections in 2014, the scale was however negligible relative to what was the case in PDP. Virtually, all APC candidates who contested the 2015 elections were elected by delegates at party primary. None emerged through imposition, which explains why there were hardly any court cases challenging the emergence of any APC candidate for the 2015 general elections.
Unfortunately, by 2023, the situation in APC completely changed negatively. Like was the case in PDP in 2007, whereby almost all the candidates of the party for the 2007 general elections were products of imposition, including its Presidential candidate, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, imposition of candidates in APC also became rampant. In fact, the attempt by members of the 9th National Assembly, which was dominated by APC legislators, to insert the clause of compulsory direct primary was a deliberate response to the problem of potential imposition of candidates in the APC. However, unlike the case of the PDP in 2007, there was a strong resistance in APC in 2023 against attempt to impose a Presidential candidate.
President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as the APC Presidential candidate for the 2023 Presidential election after a strong internal contest, including opposition to attempt by people loyal to former President Muhammadu Buhari to impose a so-called consensus Presidential candidate. Strong internal contest within the APC ahead of the 2023 general elections rekindled some belief among Nigerians that there is still some hope that APC can be transformed to emerge as a truly progressive party, based on which problems of manipulation of political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. can be resolved. Many APC leaders were confident that under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the potential transformation of the party into a truly progressive party would be achieved.
About six months since the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, such confidence can hardly be sustained. If anything, what is very clear is that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s commitment to the development of the APC as a political party may only be guaranteed to the extent that the party will give him what he wants. It is almost a return to the old PDP model of party organisation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the requirement of 100% loyalty. Without any attempt to reopen old wounds, the requirement for 100% loyalty was responsible for the graveyard silence internally within the APC when Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was proposed by President Asiwaju Tinubu as National Chairman. After Dr. Ganduje’s successful emergence, there is also graveyard silence even when Dr. Ganduje continued with the practice of freezing structures of the party. No meetings of organs are taking place almost four months after the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as the APC National Chairman.
Given such ugly reality, it should only be expected that the culture of manipulating political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. would become entrenched in APC. Like the case in PDP in 2007, it may grow to the point whereby almost all APC candidates for 2027 elections may be produced through imposition. Unless we want to lie to ourselves, as things are, culture of manipulating political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. in APC has reached the point where PDP was in 2007. Recall that on May 29, 2007, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua while delivering his inaugural address to the nation, acknowledged that the election that brought him to power had shortcomings and undertook to ‘set up a panel to examine the entire electoral process with a view to ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general elections, and thereby deepen our democracy.’ On August 27, 2007, late President Yar’Adua inaugurated a 22-member Electoral Reform Panel, chaired by Hon. Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais GCON. The Panel submitted its report in December 2008 and regarding the state of political parties, the Panel identified that:
‘One of the most crucial and yet least developed democratic institutions in the country is the political party system. There are currently 50 registered political parties in the country, most of which are an assemblage of people who share the same level of determination to use the party platform to get to power. As such, it is usually difficult to identify any party programmes or ideologies. The structure of the political parties is such that internal democracy is virtually absent. The political parties are very weak and unable to effectively carry out political mobilisation, political education and discipline.’
Given this reality, the Justice Uwais Panel recommended the establishment of Political Parties Registration and Regulatory Commission to, among others, ‘monitor political campaigns and provide rules and regulations which shall govern the political parties.’ The logic that informs this recommendation is the need to unbundle INEC to make it efficient based on which two additional commissions were recommended to be created out of INEC. These are Electoral Offenses Commission and Constituency Delimitation Commission. Specifically, the Election Offices Commission was envisioned by the Justice Uwais Panel to, among others, perform the function of ‘enforcement of the provision of the Electoral Act 2006, the constitutions of registered political parties and any other Acts or enactments.’
All the recommendations to unbundle INEC were not considered. Instead, since 2008, successive governments limit their focus to electoral reforms, mainly dealing with strengthening the technical capabilities of INEC to handle operational, logistical as well as developing all the necessary infrastructural requirements for elections. Over the years, at least since 2008, INEC has been strengthened. Unfortunately, political parties in the country have remained what they were as identified by Justice Uwais Panel – ‘assemblage of people who share the same level of determination to use the party platform to get to power… difficult to identify any party programmes or ideologies… internal democracy is virtually absent… very weak and unable to effectively carry out political mobilisation, political education and discipline.’
With currently about 91 political parties (as at 2023), the primary focus of all the registered parties is to win elections based on the culture of manipulation of political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. It starts at the small level of producing party leaders and grow to become unethical political culture producing winners of every electoral contests. APC with all the vision of emerging as a progressive political party is being destroyed. Suddenly, APC leaders, sadly, including President Asiwaju Tinubu have assumed the overdrive mode of operating with hardly any strong respect for internal democracy within the APC. Otherwise, what could explain the current happenings in APC whereby none of the party organs is functioning as provided in the APC constitution?
The reality is that, unless political parties are compelled to respect their rules based on which organs of the parties are allowed to function, problems of manipulation of political contests through imposition, vote buying and rigging would continue. Political parties and many other political institutions would continue to be destroyed. Any proposal for electoral reform in the country must therefore include stronger regulatory framework for the operations of political parties in the country. If INEC is not to be unbundled to produce Political Parties Regulatory Commission as proposed by the Justice Uwais panel, then it should be strengthened to regulate the conducts of political parties in the country, include getting parties to respect their own rules.
So long as political parties in Nigeria are allowed to operate in a lawless manner, the problems of manipulating political contests would continue and the ‘challenge …of unscramble the nexus connecting technical to politically motivated failures with a view to enhancing the integrity of elections in the country’ will continue to elude us as nation. At another level, being loyal APC members, we must also appeal to all APC leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu to resist the temptation of overindulging themselves with the false belief that they could continue to succeed to impose their choices on Nigerians. APC leaders must be humble enough to as much as possible bring themselves down to the levels of ordinary Nigerians and have a more listening ear. Inability to listen and have the needed humility to meet the expectation of Nigerians will strengthen the belief of leaders in unethical practices of manipulating political contests. As our Christians brothers and sisters would say, may this not be our portion in APC. Amen!
Salihu Lukman
End of Progressive Politics
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Wednesday, November 22, 2023, announced the dissolution of the Rivers State Executives of the party at all levels and appointed a seven-member Caretaker Committee led by Chief Tony Okocha to steer the party’s affairs in the state for the next six months. Interestingly, Chief Okocha who is alleged to be a supporter and political ally of Mr. Nyesom Wike led a delegation of Wike’s loyalists on a courtesy visit to Dr. Ganduje on Thursday, October 6, 2023 where he was reported to have alleged that Chief Rotimi Ameachi, former Governor of Rivers State (2007 – 2015), former Minister of Transport (2015 – 2023), APC Presidential Aspirant for the 2023 general elections and founding member of the APC, worked against President Asiwaju Bola Amed Tinubu in the last election.
Even without these allegations, it is public knowledge that Chief Amaechi has taken a backseat. Apart from Chief Amaechi, many other APC Presidential aspirant for the 2023 elections have taken a backseat largely because President Asiwaju Tinubu has not demonstrated any interest to work with them. In the specific case of Chief Amaechi, his political rival in Rivers State, former Governor (2015 – 2023), Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, since the 2023 general elections has become a strong ally of President Asiwaju Tinubu. Being a strong political ally, Barr. Wike is today the serving Minister of FCT in President Asiwaju Tinubu’s cabinet, if you like the 37th State Governor in Nigeria.
Without any reservation, the reality of Barr. Wike who is a member of the PDP serving in APC Federal Government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu suggest some strong backdoor political negotiations. What could be the details of the negotiations? Could it be that typical of Nigerian politics, APC is negotiating to get Barr. Wike decamp from the PDP and join the APC? Is the APC conceding to handover structures of the party in Rivers State to Barr. Wike? Even without probing deeper into all these issues, already, some APC leaders in Rivers have opportunistically began moving their support from being loyal to Chief Amaechi and now aliening with Barr. Wike. For instance, on Thursday, October 26, 2023, Chief Victor Giadom, APC National Vice Chairman South-South and a long-time ally of Chief Amaechi led a delegation of APC leaders from Rivers State on a courtesy visit to Barr. Wike.
Given all these unfolding developments in APC, it is very clear that the NWC decision, dissolving Rivers State Executives of the party at all levels, is preparing the stage for the emergence of Barr. Wike as the new leader of APC in Rivers State. With Chief Okocha, who is alleged to be a political ally of Barr. Wike given the responsibility of serving as Caretaker Chairman, it simply means that all the new emerging executives for APC at all levels in Rivers State will be Barr. Wike’s supporters. And since Chief Ameachi is a political rival of Barr. Wike, all Chief Ameachi’s supporters must be expelled from the APC.
This is the dirty politics at play in Rivers State. It is very shockingly coming from leaders of a party envisioned to be progressive. Ideally, progressive politicians are expected to be committed to issues of justice and equity. This would require that when there are allegations of anti-party activities against leaders and members, such allegations should be properly investigated. At personal level, I am one of those who demanded that the NWC should invite the attention of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of APC to review the 2023 general elections and investigate cases of anti-party activities by leaders and members of APC. Inability of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu as the National Chairman to consider many of these demands as part of the requirement to restore constitutional order in APC and return the party to its founding vision was responsible for all the disagreements, I had with Sen. Adamu.
Instead of restoring constitutional order and returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party, under the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, dirty politics of expelling political opponents has taken over. The APC NWC is now abrasive, it takes decisions based on convenience without reference to provisions of the party’s constitution. Simply because allegations of anti-party activities are made by a political opponent who is today the sweetheart of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the allegation is confirmed and all party leaders associated with the alleged person are equally guilty and therefore stand expelled. This is most unfortunate and seriously heartbreaking for all of us who are loyal APC members and look forward to the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu for our hope to be Renewed.
As a loyal party member who is strongly committed to progressive politics, my expectation is that provisions of Article 21.3(i – vi) shall be invoked to investigate the allegation of anti-party activities against Chief Amaechi by the NWC. This should have started by appointing a fact-finding committee to examine the matter and report to the NWC. Eventually, given that there are enough grounds to establish a prima facie case of bias by the NWC given that at least one of its members, for whatever reason, Chief Giadom, is bias, in line with provision of Article 21.3(v), the NWC lack any jurisdiction to decide on such a matter.
The sad reality of all these unfolding development is that, although Article 21.4(i – x) make sufficient provision for appeals by aggrieved members, with organs of the party frozen and only the NWC functioning, decisions of the NWC are supreme. This simply means a return to former President Olusegun Obasanjo era of garrison politics. How could this be happening in APC with President Asiwaju Tinubu as the leader? Is President Asiwaju Tinubu not a progressive politician? Or did he just use the acronym (progressive) to achieve his life ambition of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
It is very troubling to ask these questions, largely because these were questions, we asked when former President Buhari was the leader of the party, but we were ashamed to accept the harsh reality that our elected leaders, and by extension our party has failed Nigerians. As loyal party members, we had the hope that the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the new leader of our party would correct and heal all our troubles. When President Asiwaju proposed Renewed Hope as his campaign slogan, party members welcome it with the belief that we are returning to the founding vision of the party, which will rekindle the era of progressive politics in the country.
Being someone who professes to be a disciple of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, one of the founding fathers of our great nation and incontestably the forebearer of progressive politics, we had no doubt that the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu would return APC to its founding vision. Part of the expectation of many of us in the APC was that at the minimum internal debate within the party will be strong and decision-making process in the party will take its bearing from positions being canvassed. The first shocker was when after the resignation of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore as National Chairman and National Secretary of the party respectively, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje emerged as the nominee of President Asiwaju Tinubu. Taking away the position of National Chairman from North-Central to North-West in a very crude way.
Apart from violating internal zoning agreement within the APC, moving the APC National Chairman from North-Central to North-West in the manner that it was done was simply contemptuous of the people of North-Central. This is the kind of decisions that can only be taken under a military rule. Having taken such decision, one expect a review of the internal zoning arrangement within the APC to attempt to pacify the people of North-Central. At the minimum for instance, the position of Deputy Senate President, which is currently being occupied by Sen. Barau Jibrin who come from Kano State where Dr. Ganduje come from should have been moved to North Central. Instead, it is just business-as-usual.
Again, at personal level, I cannot but ask the question, did President Asiwaju Tinubu support the removal of Sen. Adamu simply because he wanted to impose someone like Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman of the APC simply because he needed someone who will not say no to him even when it means destroying the party? Could that be responsible for why President Asiwaju Tinubu has become completely inaccessible to virtually all party leaders? If President Asiwaju Tinubu is commencing his leadership tenure by embracing garrison politics, what will be the coloration of his leadership by the end of his tenure in May 2027? Given such a circumstance, will he be aspiring for a second term?
Perhaps, it is important to recall that former President Obasanjo pretended to be a democrat throughout his first term. The organs of the PDP during his first term were very functional and fully in charge. The dynamics of negotiating second term in 2003, which compelled former President Obasanjo to have to subordinated himself to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar were mainly responsible for the high level of political intolerance that characterised the second term of former President Obasanjo between 2003 and 2007. As an administration that was intolerant, it became more and more unpopular. Being intolerant, it blocked almost every opening for internal debate within the PDP. Imposition of candidates for election took over. Consequently, winning election was all about vote buying, rigging, manipulating elections, and writing results.
No need to revisit all our ugly electoral past. But APC won its popularity and won the 2015 general elections incontestably because Nigerians trusted the APC when it came with the promise of change. Certainly, under the leadership of former President Buhari, both as Nigerians and members of APC, we were highly frustrated that the promise of change didn’t manifest itself strongly such that the problem of imposition of candidates by political parties, especially by our own party APC is minimised. If anything, instead of changing Nigerian politics, what we witnessed between 2015 and now is that our promising party, APC, has changed to become PDP incorporated in every respect.
If anything, the decision of the NWC dissolving Rivers State executives at all levels confirm this reality. If allowed to stand, stage managed congresses will be organised to produce new party executives at all levels who will be loyal to Barr. Wike, the new APC leader in Rivers State. Accordingly, in 2027, Barr. Wike will produce the APC Governorship candidate for Rivers State. Since Barr. Wike has already fallen apart with the current Rivers State Governor, Chief Siminalayi Fubara, the prospect of Chief Fubara coming to APC is foreclosed. Therefore, the strategy of APC in Rivers State for 2027 will be to further fragment the people of the state. Rather than working to unite political leaders in Rivers State, based on which APC being an envisioned progressive party will be seeking to unite Chief Amaechi and Barr. Wike to be members of APC, President Asiwaju Tinubu’s garrison politics will only seek to take advantage of the current division between Chief Amaechi and Barr. Wike. In addition, Barr. Wike will have to incur the political cost of separating from his political godson, Chief Fubara. Even if Chief Fubara achieved all that needs to be achieved as Governor of Rivers State, President Asiwaju Tinubu’s garrison politics will emasculate him.
For all these to be imagined under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu, who is regarded to be a progressive politician and a descendant of Chief Awolowo will make Chief Awolowo to turn in his grave. Even Chief M. K. O Abiola have difficulty relating with many of the political decisions taken by President Asiwaju Tinubu in the last six months. At this rate, President Asiwaju Tinubu is practically pushing Nigerians to bid bye bye to progressive politics. With such reality, it simply means, the structures of APC in FCT will also be dissolved to produce new APC leaders at all levels of the party who will be loyal to Barr. Wike. And any state where APC is led by people who might have opposed President Asiwaju Tinubu will similarly be dissolved. Once the circle of imposing stooges as APC leaders at all levels is completed, which started with imposing Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman, the next level of imposition will spread to all other democratic institutions to guarantee the supremacy of garrison politics, which will then affirm all the political choices of APC under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu, whatever that means.
This is anything, but progressive politics. With a garrison brand of progressive politics, problems of political divisions in the country will be entrenched. Addressing challenges of marginalisation, inequality and above all welfare of citizens will not be a political priority. At this rate, it will be safer for the country to conclude that APC, as it is constituted today will be incapable of meeting the expectation of Nigerians. Renewed Hope has invariably produced Dashed hope. This is very unfortunate. APC under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu, as it is constituted today, wasn’t the APC we sold to Nigerians both in 2015 and 2023.
Something must be done urgently to arrest the current drift towards garrison politics in the name of progressive politics. It is either APC leaders take the needed steps to call both Dr. Ganduje, the APC NWC and President Asiwaju Tinubu to order by restoring constitutional order and returning the party to its founding vision of progressive politics, which should be about unity of party leaders and Nigerians, or the party can as well declare an end to progressive politics in Nigeria. So long as the decision of the NWC to dissolve all party executives in Rivers State at all levels is allowed to stand, it simply means that anyone who is alleged to have worked against President Asiwaju Tinubu during the 2023 elections is expelled from the party. With such declaration, the culture of imposition of candidates at all levels will take over APC. Consequently, elections will not be about the votes of citizens. Winners in elections will only be produced through rigging, vote buying and other manipulative strategies. The earlier every genuine APC leader come to terms with this new reality and begin the process of mobilisation both within the party and at wider levels of national political mobilisation, the better for the survival of democracy in country. A stitch in time, saves nine!
Salihu Lukman
Travesty of Nigerian Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
On Sunday, November 26, 2023, Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, informed Nigerians that ‘President Bola Tinubu inherited an administration that was almost comatose’. Before then, Mal. Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser had on November 13, 2023 at the Annual Conference of Chief of Defence Intelligence disclosed that President Tinubu inherited ‘a bankrupt country’. All these are excuses given to rationalise why Nigerians are going through the current difficult times. No one will dispute the fact that former President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t manage the Nigerian economy well. It is about the only administration that operated without an economic team.
However, being an APC government, which succeeded a previous APC government, it is disrespectful to Nigerians to give excuses about the current state of harsh living conditions in Nigeria by blaming previous governments. As members and leaders of the APC, we should take responsibility and take the needed initiative to make life better for all Nigerians. If anything, we should justify the confidence of Nigerians in giving us the mandate to continue to rule the country even after being unable to meet the expectations of Nigerians in many respect. Unarguably, Nigerians voted the APC and President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last general elections very consciously and confident that under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu the challenges facing the country will be addressed.
Therefore, rather than giving excuses, we should be telling Nigerians what we are doing to address their problems. Excuses would only confirm that we are in denial that a government produced by our party is perhaps responsible for Nigeria’s challenges. Once we are in denial, it also suggests that we are going to grandstand when we initiate actions that worsen the situation or fail to initiate actions to resolve the problem. This will simply mean being dishonest, which will narrow our responses to making excuses for our failure or inability to meet expectations of Nigerians. This must be avoided.
It is quite worrisome that coming from a party envisioned to be progressive we are giving excuses. How can we Renew the Hope of Nigerians by giving excuses. We must appeal to our leaders to stop giving excuses and take responsibility. If we are to be responsible, we should admit that the current hardship facing Nigerians is largely a product of two critical decisions taken by the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu. The two decisions are withdrawal of fuel subsidy and floating the Naira against other major currencies. No doubt, these are very necessary decisions and President Asiwaju Tinubu deserved every commendation for those bold decisions. Part of what is very glaring is that the decisions were taken by the government without proper planning. Withdrawing subsidy without addressing the question of what needs to be done to guarantee local production, we are bound to have the current mess of skyrocketed increase in prices of petroleum products. Similarly, floating the Naira against other major currencies without taking the needed steps to reduce imports will also produce what we have today whereby the value of the Naira is permanently on a downward slide.
Ideally, if we are progressives as we claim to be, we should have timed all these decisions to coincide with when local production would have picked up. Now that the decisions have been taken, what is it that is being done to improve local production? With respect to local production of fuel, there have been so many references in recent times about repairs of refineries and commencement of production by Dangote refinery. Where are we with all these should the information coming from our leaders and not excuses.
As loyal APC members, it is traumatic to continue to witness situations whereby the business of governance is reduced to excuses. When we supported the merger of our legacy parties, we were very hopeful that the emergence of our party would change all these. Unfortunately, here we are, contending with the same old reality of excuse making by our leaders in government. That is the bane of our politics, it is the travesty, which characterises Nigerian democracy, which APC promised to change. If for whatever reasons, we have been unable to change it under the leadership of former President Buhari, Nigerians have given us a second chance under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
Being a party member who is never a beneficiary in every respect of both the government of former President Buhari and the current one under President Asiwaju Tinubu, we feel the pains Nigerians are going through. It is important to appeal to all our leaders not to take Nigerians for granted. Nigerians voted for our party not because they just wanted former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu to achieve their personal ambitions of becoming Presidents. Our party and our leaders, notably former President Buhari and current President Asiwaju Tinubu were voted largely because Nigerians trusted that our leaders would honestly deliver on their campaign promises. If by whatever yardstick, the conclusion is reached that former President Buhari has failed, our leaders in government at whatever level don’t have the luxury of celebrating it. Instead, we should all be busy working hard to translate such failure to become the success of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
We must appeal to both President Asiwaju Tinubu and all our APC leaders in government at all levels to resist the temptation of giving excuses. If we at all aspire to return to the founding vision of APC of becoming a progressive party, our leaders, and governments we produced must take responsibility. Taking responsibility is about being honest. When we initiate or fail to initiate actions to respond to challenges, we must accept responsibility. Both in terms of the alleged failure of former President Buhari to initiate the right measures to manage the Nigerian economy during his eight-year tenure and initiatives of President Asiwaju Tinubu to withdraw fuel subsidy as well as float the Naira against other international currencies without proper planning, as APC members and leaders we should take responsibility.
The failure or limitations of former President Buhari is our collective failure, in the same way we will also be failing as a party if we allow President Asiwaju Tinubu to fail whether we are part of the government or not. We must appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu and all our leaders in government to do something urgently to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians before it is too late. Nigerians are truly going through hard times. No excuses will pacify our citizens. In fact, excuses will not put food on the table of Nigerians. Beyond all the short terms measures initiated by government such as conditional cash transfers to 15 million Nigerians and N35,000 monthly award to federal employees, what is the economic plan to increase local production of goods and services domestically? What are the specific targets, especially in terms of employment, reducing inflation and other economic indices impacting on living conditions of citizens.
Speaking both as loyal APC member and ordinary citizen, part of our challenge as Nigerians is that we always trust our leaders, which is why it is very traumatic when our leaders fail us. As much as citizens have high confidence in the capacity and competence of President Asiwaju Tinubu to turn the Nigerian economy around for the better, our leaders and our party must earn the trust of citizens. Excuses cannot be currency of earning the trust of citizens. Rather, concrete achievements should be the currency. When in 2015 we undertook to change Nigeria, it wasn’t just former President Buhari that made the promise, it was all our leaders including President Asiwaju Tinubu.
If, as is being alleged, former President Buhari’s government handed over a bankrupt or comatose nation to President Asiwaju Tinubu, for President Asiwaju Tinubu to earn the trust of Nigerians, he must first and foremost accept that as APC leader he is equally responsible for the failure of former President Buhari. With the claim of being progressive politicians, we must not allow the travesty that characterise our democracy, which makes politicians and elected representatives to imagine that they can earn the trust of citizens by giving excuses to define the administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
Salihu Lukman
Why Political Parties in Nigeria should be Reformed
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
The Fourth Republic, which began on May 29, 1999 was received by most activists in Nigeria with contempt and outright denial. As a privileged leader of the prodemocracy movement in Nigeria, I recall with utmost regret how we refused to participate in the Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar transition programme that ushered in the Fourth Republic. Being a founding member of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), and a founding member of Democratic Alternative (DA), it is painful to recall how we rationalised our refusal to participate in the transition programme with the argument that ‘it is democracy without democrats’, ‘Abacha politicians have taken over’, etc.
Right from our university days in the 1980s, we committed ourselves to radical transformation of Nigeria. We were oriented to be very critical as well as very receptive to criticisms. We were brutally honest to ourselves, which was responsible for why when some of our leaders in Lagos, including Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti and Mr. Femi Falana, in 1993, met with Gen. Oladipo Diya as part of their consultation to overthrow the Interim Government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan to bring in the Gen. Sani Abacha administration, we expressed our disapproval by breaking away from the CD to form the DA led by Mr. Alao Aka Bashorun. Mr. Olisa Agbakoba and Mrs. Ayo Ogbe were part of the breakaway leadership that formed the CD. Both are alive to confirm or refute this. Mr. Falana is also alive.
The period 1993 – 1999 was quite traumatic for all prodemocracy activists. Being arrested and held in SSS facilities across the country was very common. Going for meetings outside the country and travelling through footpaths across Nigerian borders defined that period. Funding our trips personally to meetings in Lagos and other parts of the country, travelling on night buses on popular ‘attachment’ was our reality. I was privileged to be working with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at the time in National Union of Textiles, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN). Being my boss who was also committed to prodemocracy struggles, he gave me approvals to travel to prodemocracy meetings and in some few occasions supported me financially, including providing air ticket from Kaduna to Lagos to enable me attend meetings, which were most times on Saturdays.
The reality was that we fought for democracy but having won it failed to show up to be part of the political actors in 1999. I recall with very deep regret how our leaders in Lagos, including Mr. Falana reported to us in some of our meetings how our respected Mr. Nelson Mandela, then as President of South Africa sent Mr. Thabo Mbeki to appeal to prodemocracy activists in Nigeria to participate in the transition programme in 1998 but was turned down. Again, Mr. Falana, Mr. Agbakoba and Mrs. Ogbe are all alive to confirm or refute this allegation.
The truth is that, as a person, I have spent the best part of my life campaigning for democracy. I have made sacrifices and am still making sacrifices in the hope that our children and future generation will have a nation that is governed democratically. I became an activist not because I wanted a job. If anything, I came from a family that was privileged to have a Minister at the time. To be fair to him, he made every offer to me to make me abandon my activist orientation, but I declined. I remained committed to my belief and lived a life of orphan, which enabled me to have all the love in the world so long as I accept everyone showing love to me as my parent. It is a very difficult task because it requires being able to stand by the truth, including being opposed to my parents when they go wrong.
This has remained my guide throughout my adult life. But it also imposes an obligation on me to keep my eyes open and always be ready to move on when I have completed any given task. Moving on necessarily challenges one to find new tasks and responsibilities. This was responsible for my exit out of NLC in October 2006. And it is responsible for my exit out of the APC leadership in July 2023. Having left both the NLC and the APC leadership, I remained committed to their values, which is about justice and equitable distribution of resources in society.
In the case of APC, it is a troubling reality. Here we are as a party, just coming out election and very lucky to have President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the leader of the party who was part of the prodemocracy struggle to bring an end to military rule in the country in 1999. My layperson, or innocent person, expectation was that if under former President Muhammadu Buhari we were confused or unable to achieve the vision of making APC a truly progressive party, under President Asiwaju Tinubu, we should have no difficulty in achieving that. Somehow, it would appear politics has taken over everything and business-as-usual has become the orientation.
We are not and we will never abandon the campaign for democracy in Nigeria. Whatever is responsible for the current orientation can be surmounted and should be conquered. We will not degrade ourselves to becoming antagonists of our party and President Asiwaju Tinubu. We are confident that our party is blessed with leaders who are capable of initiating processes of reform to return our party to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. We are also confident that President Asiwaju Tinubu is a committed democrat and truly a progressive politician. We were never wrong in our estimation that out of all the 23 leaders who aspired to become our Presidential candidates for the 2023 general elections, he was best qualified.
Therefore, as party members and leaders we must continue to engage him to live up to all the promises we made to Nigerians since 2015. We must work hard and make all the necessary sacrifices to ensure that both President Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC succeed in moving Nigerian democracy forward. Moving Nigerian democracy forward is about promoting political competition in the country. A situation whereby few people have taken over our party, APC, and are doing everything possible to block internal competition within the party is unacceptable and should not be allowed to continue. This was, and still is, the problem of PDP. It was one the fundamental issues APC promised to change in 2015, which won the support of Nigerians.
As Nigerian citizens committed to democracy, we must go back to the drawing board and begin the campaign to reform our political parties in Nigeria to guarantee internal political competition. It is only when internal political competition is achieved within political parties that wider national competition can be achieved. Once we fail to guarantee internal competition within parties, the current reality of excessive manipulation, through rigging of elections, vote buying, and other criminality would continue.
Since joining partisan politics in 2010, I committed myself to being different, which is quite challenging. I made up my mind that although access to elective and appointive positions will be quite advantageous, it will not prevent me from remaining in the vanguard for democracy in Nigeria. It is a big challenge. To achieve that I committed myself to use the only resource I have now, which my little knowledge. I will continue to use it to mobilise for the reform of our parties to have democracy in Nigeria.
Since joining partisan politics, it has been my strength, through which I am able to produce five publications so far. In the last few years, application of my little knowledge to engage our leaders has projected me as a controversial personality, which I am not. Often, inability of our leaders to accept to engage issues create the unhealthy impression of being antagonistic. This was the sad reality that created the rift between Comrade Adams and me. Inability to properly manage our disagreements with Comrade Adams and resolve them democratically led to all the challenges we had with the Caretaker Committee under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni. The challenges we had with the Comrade Adams leadership of APC became a child play under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala. By the time our leadership with Sen. Abdullahi Adamu as Chairman was elected on March 26, 2022, the challenges became a jock. Sadly, this reality continues under the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
Having left the leadership of the party and being actively involved in all the contestations within the party leading to the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, I decided to document some of the experiences, which is now contained in the publication APC and Transition Politics. Part of the motivation is also to clarify many of the allegations against me that I am against the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu. I must say very clearly, I disagreed with President Asiwaju Tinubu’s decision to nominate Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman of APC but I respect and accept the fact that Dr. Ganduje is today the National Chairman. I also have strong concerns about the direction taken by the Federal Government under the leadership of President Asiwaju. Under the leadership of Asiwaju Tinubu, we have sadly produced an irritating political reality whereby the North-Central region is marginalised. My fear is that at the rate we are going, with all the lowly rating of former President Buhari, if care is not taken, he may turn out to be more progressive.
I wish I can have a better channel of direct communication to the President and leaders within the party. Unfortunately, with organs of the party frozen and leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu becoming more and more inaccessible, one is left with no option but the available public channels. In spite of all that, I am confident that like we succeeded in bringing an end to military rule in the country, we will succeed in ending this madness whereby politicians reduce democracy to a game of manipulation.
Having succeeded in producing the publication, APC and Transition Politics, a public presentation is being scheduled to hold at 9.30 am Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Abuja on December 19, 2023. The Public Presentation is oriented to stimulate both reflections and consideration of what needs to be done to return APC to its founding vision of progressive politics. Both the publication and public presentation is not just about APC but about the future of democracy in Nigeria. The goal is to ensure that elected governments and leaders are accountable and responsive to the needs of citizens.
Given that APC is the ruling party, the obligation of setting the necessary democratic standards is squarely the responsibility of leaders of the party. Again, given that we are blessed with leaders who were responsible for all the success of both the merger of 2013 and the subsequent electoral victory of 2015, the public presentation will be guided by them. Chief Bisi Akande, who was the founding Chairman of the APC will be the Chairman of the public presentation. Chief Akande, without hesitation, wrote the foreword to the publication. The Keynote Address at the public presentation will be delivered by Hon. Olawale Oshun, the leader of Afenere Renewal Group. Sen. Ajibola S. Basiru, National Secretary of the APC will review the book.
Special Guests at the occasion, include Sen. Kashim Shettima GCON, Vice President of the Federal Republic, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, APC National Chairman, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Speaker of House of Representatives, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, former APC National Chairmen, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, former Vice President and APC Presidential Aspirant, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, former Rivers State Governor and APC Presidential Aspirant, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, former Ekiti State Governor and APC Presidential Aspirant, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, former Ogun State Governor and APC Presidential Aspirant, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, former PGF Chairman and APC Presidential Aspirant, Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, former PGF Chairman and APC Presidential Aspirant, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, former Governor of Kaduna State, Mal. Uba Sani, current Governor of Kaduna State and all serving Governors of APC.
The public presentation of the publication APC and Transition Politics will mark the commencement of structured public engagements aimed at ensuring that our parties are reformed to guarantee internal political competition, which is fundamental requirement for democracy. This is being initiated in line with the principle, which require citizens to organise and not agonise. While acknowledging the wide gap that exists between expectations of Nigerians to have a democracy that permit political competition and the reality of having parties that are nothing but tools of manipulation in the hands of few politicians, rather than limiting ourselves to complains, it is important to set the stage for reflections to produce ideas for possible exploration. Just like the campaign for merger of opposition parties started with reflections and exploration, we are confident that the reform of political parties can start with reflections and exploration.
Olisa Agbakoba
i have followed you closely . I confirm all you say here in relation to me and Ayo Obe . you are a good Man. Olisa Agbakoba
On 10 Dec 2023, at 12:46 PM, Salihu Lukman <smlu...@gmail.com> wrote:
--
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/LO3P265MB1820B6CD047FECA896C127ACAE88A%40LO3P265MB1820.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.
Ayo Obe
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/46E28E47-8208-4893-8239-6285F86263F2%40oal.law.
Salihu Moh. Lukman
On 11 Dec 2023, at 20:57, Ayo Obe <nai...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Olisa, Lukman is not talking about Ayo Obe here, but about one Mrs. Ayo Ogbe. And although I’ve been called many things in my time, oddly enough, “Ogbe” is not one of them.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/C91A95FF-86B3-49D3-AA2A-28BF6AE9DCEB%40gmail.com.
Olisa Agbakoba
On 11 Dec 2023, at 10:28 PM, Salihu Moh. Lukman <smlu...@gmail.com> wrote:
Apologies Ayo for calling you ‘Ogbe’. Correction well taken. The correction about not being among us who broke away from CD to form the DA also well noted. Although if I remember very well you were at the inaugural meeting of DA in Benin in 1994. By the way you must have become President of CLO in 1995 not 1985. 1985 CLO was not formed. CLO must have been formed around 1988 or 1989.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/B6016DBF-0229-488A-9AF0-F6C6F81587D8%40gmail.com.
Olisa Agbakoba
On 12 Dec 2023, at 8:27 AM, Olisa Agbakoba <ol...@oal.law> wrote:
Ah!!! Thanks for the correction ,Ayo!!! but Salisu is broadly correct about the events he narrated. CLO continued its work ubder your presidency but we were part ofDA albeit reluctantly and we declined Mbeki offer to be part of the pomitucal process . this was resolved at a neeting at Gani house . Olisa
Omano Edigheji
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/D44A61A9-CF21-4965-9C6B-D4DE372250A9%40oal.law.
Olisa Agbakoba
On 12 Dec 2023, at 4:34 PM, Omano Edigheji <oma...@gmail.com> wrote:
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/CAHUed0jTrsx5gYgSy%2ByqOoutmKLoThX_8CxS28UT4iHmg4RT0w%40mail.gmail.com.
Salihu Lukman
Public Presentation of APC and Transition Politics
Kind reminder about Public Presentation of the book APC and Transition Politics scheduled to hold 9.30 am on Tuesday, December 19, 2023 at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja. Fellow party members and Nigerians committed to the development of democracy in Nigeria can join using the link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85079204519?pwd=rr8zPAMbbeZdDonfSdTlMPyfanlayH.1
While looking forward to your guidance and a successful public presentation, kindly accept the assurances of my highest esteem and best wishes.
Organising Committee
Ibrahim Jibrin
Salihu Lukman and the Thankless Job of Reforming the APC
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 22nd December 2023
One thing everyone agreed upon is that Salihu Lukman, the famous trade unionist turned politician is a very stubborn man. For almost a decade, he has been very steadfast, focused and committed to transforming his party, the All Peoples’ Congress (APC) into a democratic, ruled-based, open, people-focused and people-led party that would set the highest standards in internal party democracy. Six books and hundreds of memos, letters and pamphlets later, the party has not changed and Lukman has not deviated from his laser-focused advocacy to change it. On Tuesday, he invited the party, comrades and friends to the public presentation of his latest book – APC and Transition Politics.
To the surprise of many, the APC National Chairman, Dr Umar Abdullahi Ganduje was there for the occasion. Surprise because Lukman had campaigned vigorously against the imposition of Ganduje as Party Chairman setting aside established rules and procedures of the party and the tone of his campaign was quite hard on Dr. Ganduje. I found a lot of the discussions at the launch rather trivialized the importance of Lukman’s contribution to internal (and external) party debate by focusing on Lukman’s allegedly excessively critical language while addressing party leaders which many find irritating and annoying. My analysis is that Lukman’s language is truthful rather than sycophantic and we must all see talking truth to power as the only path to democratic development.
I agree with the argument made by former Ekiti Governor Kayode Fayemi that Lukman’s advocacy is vital for party building and ensuring that the party becomes a political instrument for the common people who should own it. He added that the party should see Lukman as its conscience rather than an adversary that tells them what they don’t want to hear. Dr Fayemi recalled that at some point, his APC governor colleagues in the Progressive Governors Forum ganged up and sacked Lukman from his position as Director General. It is pleasing that some Nigerians in exalted positions will risk their positions on matters of principle. Lukman’s next position was in the party as National Vice Chairman, North West and he resigned voluntarily last July to give himself more opportunities to continue telling truth to party leadership.
It was in this context that discussions at the book presentation focused on Lukman as remaining faithful to his personal history of being more of a political activist than a politician. His desire is not for getting positions but for articulating the correct position. He has therefore not changed from when I worked with him to defend the Abiola Mandate following the June 12, 1993 elections when I was chair and he was secretary of the Kaduna Alliance for Democracy. His entire career as a trade unionist was also focused on defending the rights of workers and linking their struggles to the wider ambition of advancing democratic development.
Lukman’s core concern is that political parties must behave in ways that are respectful to democratic norms as well as their constitutions and policies so that they would attract membership whose aspirations and interests they must always be their priorities. Failure to do so would lead to the gradual death of the parties as they lose touch with their base. His ambition is to see the ruling APC return to its foundational vision of a progressive party that advances the interests of the ordinary Nigerian rather than remain at the level of the primitive accumulation of wealth for the self-aggrandizement of the leadership. This is a noble position to take. The real question however is whether this party, the APC is not too far gone along the path of “money politics”, and that it is too late for it to reform to save itself. If this is indeed the path taken, then Lukman’s consistent message remains valid - that they are enroute to self-destruction. I encourage Lukman to remain steadfast in his advocacy.
The side show at the event was the attempt by Adams Oshiomhole to ridicule and demolish Lukman’s advocacy because when he was National Chairman, this same Lukman fought him to a standstill on his reckless attempt to evacuate democratic engagement within the party as he sought to establish party supremacy defined as Oshiomhole supremacy. Adams openly accused Lukman of playing a script put together by Nasir el-Rufai and Kayode Fayemi, two ex-players in the Progressive Governors Forum, to checkmate his ambition. The attack was uncouth because Lukman’s foray into trade unionism was with Adams in the Textile Union and in the decades that followed, he had learnt that Lukman would always stand by his principles so belittling him by claiming he was playing a game orchestrated by others was unfair. The fact that historic party leaders such as Chief Bisi Akande were in attendance to stand by Lukman is an indication that his message of commitment to issue-based politics is respected by some of the leaders. In his closing speech Akande made the point that Lukman has documented his own vision in books that were already on the table and those with an alternative vision should go and write their own. Even more important, the democratic mission in contemporary Nigeria is to provide content for parties so that they work for the interests of the people so that the entire system does not collapse because of the practice of practicing democracy without democratic dividends for the people.
I would conclude with the response of Senator Ibikunle Amosun to Adams Oshiomhole’s diatribe at the book launch:
“Adams Oshiomhole conducted one of the worst primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics and ended up shopping for his own enemies, leading to his eventual removal as Chairman of our party. Nigerians should not be in a hurry to forget the allegations that preceded the conduct of those primaries and his eventual invitation by the Department of State Service, DSS, to clarify certain grave allegations. If anyone was in doubt that Senator Oshiomhole posed the biggest and most destructive threat to the existence of the APC at that time, and the party’s best bet was to dispose of a canon folder that he was and unfortunately still is, his utterances and grandstanding yesterday at an occasion to find solutions to our democratic and party challenges, would have cleared such mindset.”
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development
Jabi/Airport Road By-pass, P.O.Box14345, Wuse
Abuja, Nigeria
Tel - +234 8053913837
Twitter,@Jibrinibrahim17
Facebook,Jibrin.ibrahim---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
Salihu Lukman
Kindly find attached the review of the book APC and Transition Politics by Sen. Ajibola Basiru, APC National Secretary.
Salihu Lukman
Salihu Lukman
Salihu Lukman
Book Review
Title of Book: APC and Transition Politics Author: Salihu Moh. Lukman
Book Reviewer: Senator Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru Ph.D., BL
Transition simply defined is the process or a period from one state or condition to another. Succession on the other hand is defined as the action or process of inheriting a title, office, property etc. In view of the definitions of the term as well as the intrigues narrated in the book it is debatable whether a more apposite title of the book should not be “APC and Succession Politics”.
The book is a polemical narration of historical and political developments of the APC and its federal government from the Senator Adams Oshiomhole led National Working Committee up to the emergence of the new leadership of the party with the election of Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Senator Ajibola Basiru as the National Chairman and National Secretary of the APC. The book is unsparing in his criticisms of action and actors of the events in the book and make insightful comments and recommendation on how the APC can be strengthened and repositioned to be a genuine party of change.
The book is the fifth publication by the author, which was produced “as part of the effort to broaden the party’s capacity to access intellectual perspectives that would guide” the development of the All Progressives Congress (APC). See page238. The earlier four publications are listed on page 238 of the book under review.
The 238-page book contains Dedication, a foreword, a preface, acknowledgement, appendix which is a copy of letter of resignation of the author from the National Working Committee of the APC dated July 26, 2023, explanatory note on the author’s resignation from the APC on, Prologue, Chapters I to XII on pages 43 to 222. There is also an epilogue on page 223 of the book. The book ends with a short autobiography of the author on page 236 of the book.
The preface of about 10 pages is certainly not a usual one as its length could also make it a chapter of the book. The preface is more or less a summary of the preoccupation of the book, which is a summary of events and political intrigues from the dissolution of Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee to the setting up of the CCEPC led by the Governor of Yobe State up to the convention that produced Senator Adamu Abdullah led National Working Committee and the triumph of President Bola Tinubu at the National Convention of the party. The author commented on the political exigencies necessitating the choice of Senator Kashim Shettima, a Muslim from the Northeast. According to the author, even though the emergence of two Muslims as standard bearers was contested by some, the choice of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the PDP standard bearer for the presidential poll, although with a Christian, Mr Ifeanyi Okowa, former Delta State Governor, as Running Mate could be regarded as more offensive to the principles of freedom, equality and justice, and … consolidating the unity of our people as enshrined in the preamble to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution which was what the power shift debate was about. Having emerged as the party's leader, the author enjoined President Tinubu to provide the needed leadership for the fight against the party's conservative bloc. The author, however, did not identify who he referred to as the conservative bloc. He further submitted that President Tinubu's job as the party's leader is to restore constitutional order in the APC and return the party to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party.
Another unusual feature of the book is acknowledgement. Of the 8 pages of acknowledgement starting from page 19, the real acknowledgement did not start until the first paragraph of page 25, running to page 26, which only has content of half the page. The bulk of the “acknowledgement” was devoted to the commentary on the reluctance of the CCEPC to organise a National Convention for the emergence of new leadership of the party, the intrigue around organisation of the 2022 National Convention of the APC as well as explanations of the roles of the author up to his emergence as the National Vice Chairman (North west) of the party and his eventual resignation from the National working Committee of the party over the choice of Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, immediate past Governor of Kano State, as the National Chairman of the party after the resignation of the duo of Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Senator Iyiola Omisore as National Chairman and National Secretary of the APC respectively.
The author submitted that his resignation from the NWC is a personal one, and notwithstanding that, he disagrees with the nomination of Dr Ganduje as the National Chairman, he is still a "loyal party member and strong supporter of President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC governments at both Federal and State levels. He further affirmed that "all party leaders and Members must accept and support Dr. Ganduje leadership". See pages 24 to 25.
Curiously, the acknowledgement was followed by an appendix, which is a copy of the resignation of the author from the NwC and a 4-page narration titled "Resignation from the APC: Explanatory Note”, whereby the author offered some explanation for his resignation. In the main, the author asserted that his common explanation was that he was just tired of remaining in the fighting mode campaigning for the reform of the APC. He narrated how he was part of the struggle leading to the exit of Senator Adams Oshiomhole, only to contend with the CECPC under Governor Mai Mala Buni and the administration of Senator Adamu Abdullahi. From his explanation, what finally pushed him to resign was what he considered non-adherence to the agreed constitutional formula with the emergence of Dr Abdullah Ganduje as the National Chairman from the North west. Even though he clarified that he was not questioning President Tinubu's authority as the party's moral leader, he asserted that being a moral leader does not give the President the power to change subsisting zoning agreements within the party unilaterally. He nevertheless urged leaders and party members to unite and support Dr Ganduje.
It is germane to note that the author's letter of resignation was dated July 26, 2023, and the Explanatory Note was dated July 27, 2023. The eventual emergence of Dr Umar Abdullahi Ganduje as the national chairman and Senator Ajibola Basiru was at the National Executive Committee of the party, which was held on 4 August 2023. Contrary to the proposition that the President acted to change subsisting zoning agreements within the party unilaterally, the NEC resolved to change the zoning formula at the August 4 meeting by agreeing to a resolution to zoning the National Chairman to the North West and the National Legal Adviser to the North Central while retaining other positions in the respective zones. It is imperative to state that zoning of positions is a matter of expediency, and the dynamics of politics can always dictate necessary adjustments. It is obvious that the author fired his gun before the game came out!
The prologue is titled APC, and the Challenge of Succession Politics is segmented into five subtopics: the Challenge; Associated Issues of Leadership and Membership Recruitment; Democratised APC and Political Content: Discipline of Party Leaders and Members and Conclusion- inviolability of Succession Planning. The author makes a case for succession planning but that this cannot be a stand-alone initiative. According to him, it may have to be part of “broader initiatives for expanding democratic space for membership mobilisation and participation in party activities and processes of managing governments produced by the party”.
Chapter I of the book, pages 43 to 63, titled Caretaker and the Surreptitious Campaign, contains narration about the establishment of the Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC on June 25, 2020, with a six-month mandate within which to organise a National Convention and elect a new leadership of the party. The chapter narrated how the tenure of six months becomes almost indefinite until the National Convention of March 2022. According to the author, the leadership of the CECPC orchestrated and promoted some clandestine campaigns to allow them to organise the National Convention that will produce the party's Presidential campaign for the 2023 general elections. Under the subtopic 2022 National Convention, the author discussed, on a comparative note, the effort to tackle insecurity under the former PDP administration and the APC under President Buhari.
He contended that the government has successfully strengthened Nigerian security personnel’s capacity across all services to respond to national security challenges in all parts of the country. He made the case for deeper introspection from citizens in tackling security challenges. He submitted that tackling the issue of security challenges, among other national issues, ought to be part of the agenda of the National Convention of the party. Rather, the campaign for postponement of the convention was being propagated using myriads of subterfuge, including raising the issue of needless further consultation. The author contended that the attraction for the campaign for postponement was predicated on the deceptive belief that any candidate who emerged, whether elected or imposed, could win the 2023 elections. The author posited that the electoral prospect for the 2023 elections was severely affected by the refusal to commence the organisation of the February 2022 National Convention. Therefore, internal party mobilisation for the emergence of candidates for the 2023 elections, particularly the Presidential Candidate, was reduced to a personality contest. It was thus the conclusion that personality contests weakened the APC and undermined the capacity of the party to link its 2023 electoral contest with the party's achievements under former President Buhari. The author passed a damning judgment on the CECPC that it ended up giving itself the new responsibility of being the political and electoral undertaker of the APC.
Chapter II of the book, pages 64 to 87, titled "APC on the Brink", is devoted to narration and polemical expose on the politics, intrigues and machinations at play ahead of the eventual holding of the 2022 National Convention, which is the preoccupation of chapter III of the book on pages 88 to 98 of the book. The author commenced Chapter II by deprecating acts of blind loyalty. He pointed out that an intolerant leader and a blindly loyal citizen will be vulnerable to making stupid blunders, resulting in dashed expectations. He pointed out that one of the issues that APC needed to change was the situation under the PDP, particularly under the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo when Nigerian democracy was cheapened to the level of autocracy.
According to the author, politics of change should produce elected leaders who should be highly tolerant and accommodate disagreements and criticisms. He, however, claimed that the APC became a captive of a few leaders whose interests are only about imposing themselves as candidates for elections, and this will reduce the APC to another party different from the original conception in 2013.
The author made the case that APC leaders must see party politics beyond being but that “it must be capable of reflecting on the challenges facing citizens to produce proposals to respond to them.
Under the subtopics titled “Caretaker or Undertaker” and “Mutiny”, in enjoining party leaders to tolerate criticisms and disagreements, the author counselled that both “party leaders and elected representatives must not expect ‘anticipatory obedience’ from both party members and Nigerians”. He deprecated the manner of handling of the organisation of the National Convention and submitted rather strongly that “The way the CECPC handled the organisation of the National Convention gave enough ground to suspect internal sabotage”.
According to the author:
“If the Comrade Oshiomhole-led NWC was alleged to be highhanded, intimidating and trampling on the democratic life of the party leaders and members, the CECPC led by His Excellency Mai Mala Buni administered poison, thereby weakening, if not terminated, every democratic practice in the party and attempted every stage for the burial rite of APC as a party. This may sound harsh, but it was the sad reality”. Page 72
He alleged that some named governors were working with the CECPC leadership for their ambition and that the CECPC Secretary, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, was also aspiring to emerge as the APC Akwa Ibom Governorship candidate for the 2023 elections. Therefore, the author posited that so much uncertainty created apprehension among party members and leaders that the CECPC was working to ensure that the party was manipulated to meet the aspirations of these leaders. Page 74
There was also narration about how the vote of no confidence of Mai Mala Buni at a meeting presided over by His Excellency Abubakar Sani Bello, Governor of Niger State and the eventual intervention by President Buhari, who facilitated some understanding leading to the withdrawal of the vote of no confidence of His Excellency Mai Mala. Also, the planning and preparation for the March 2022 Convention under Governor Sani Bello was reinforced.
The author also narrated the developments as regards the contending position of the emergence of new leaders of the party through consensus or contest, as well as the issue of Zoning of party position and the way that it appeared that the directives of the former President Buhari were not respected on this matter except as regards the election of Senator Adamu Abdullahi as the National Chairman. He pointed out the activities of those he called “CPC London Lobbyists” and their attempt to influence former President Buhari to anoint Hon Aliyu Adamu as Deputy National Chairman North. He wondered why the anointment of Sen. Adamu as the former President's choice for the National Chairman in favour of Sen. Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, who is by far the most qualified former CPC leader aspiring for the position of National Chairman.
According to the author, “Often, individual politicians with these self-serving agenda have used their close relationship with former President Buhari to impose themselves on party members as election candidates”.
Chapter III was titled “March 2022 National Convention”. The subtopics under this chapter are: ‘Adoption of Unity List as Basis for Consensus’; and ‘New NWC: New Administration or Business as Usual’. The chapter gave narration of the eventual conduct of the APC National Convention on March 26, 2022, whereby a new leadership for the party was elected, mainly through consensus. As signed by all the twenty-two Progressive Governors, the unity list is set out on pages 90 to 93 of the Book. The author pointed out that in view of adopting the Unity List, part of the terms to convince other aspirants who bought the nomination forms include refunding the fee paid for the nomination forms.
Notwithstanding the Unity List, the election was conducted for the offices of National Vice Chairman (North-East) and National Women Leader. The newly elected leaders were sworn in on Sunday, March 27, 2022, and the 25 National Working Committee list is set out on page 94 of the book.
The setting up and the composition, as well as the report of the Transition Committee, set up by the NWC at its inaugural meeting, are on pages 95 to 98 of the book, but except for the suspension of all the Directors and appointment of new ones, all other issues and recommendations of the Transition Committee were not addressed throughout the tenure of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu. See page 98.
“Leadership Recruitment and Negotiation for 2023” is the topic for Chapter IV. The preoccupation of the author in this chapter is about the processes for the emergence of party candidates for the 2023 general elections. The author expects candidates to emerge from the internal contest and not imposition, most often upon the assumption of loyalty. The author’s position is that; “Leadership recruitment based on assumed loyalty is not a function of commitment to principles or values”. He also made a case for succession planning as “the absence of succession planning negatively impacted governance through policy reversals”. The author pungently contended: “The crucial task before APC leaders during the 2023 internal party primary included whether it could ensure that the leadership selection process produces trustworthy leaders both as party leaders and as candidates for the 2023 elections”. He, therefore concluded that “Nigerian democracy cannot develop unless the right conditions within parties are created for the emergence of trustworthy leaders both as party leaders and candidates for election”.
The book, also in chapter IV, examined the intrigues around an attempt to impose presidential candidates and possibly the scheme of President Tinubu from the internal democratic contest of the party. The writer alleged that some associates “of former President Buhari attempted every manipulative strategy to instigate the imposition of a Presidential candidate” and that many manipulative strategies were deployed for the purpose of imposition of candidates.
The author narrated efforts to bring Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and former President Goodluck Jonathan to the presidential contest in the APC.
Chapter V is on “Campaign for 2023”. The chapter started by highlighting the opposition's grand strategy to whitewash former President Buhari's APC-led federal government as a failure while commending the former Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. The author was quick to point out the danger of this. According to the author, “It was simply very damaging to former Vice President Osinbajo for anyone to seek to project him as a good person while former President Buhari and the government he served were bad” page 112 The author made a case for the issue-based campaign which according to him should not be hypothetical because our democracy with more than twenty years is gradually stabilising. He pointed out that the APC put itself in a difficult position of campaigning based on propaganda with the resulting effect of dismissing challenges facing the country and rationalising every action of its government. He further reasoned that how initiatives implemented under the APC compared to the PDP 16-year rule were assessed as part of the campaign for 2023 should have been the issue. He further submitted that “preparations for the 2023 campaigns should have been based on strategic initiatives to win the confidence of Nigerians, which should have made APC leaders proactive in providing information to citizens about the progress being made and the challenges”. Pages 112 to 118.
Under the subtopic “Campaign for Succession”, the author pointed out the implication of the statement made by former President Buhari during the consultative meeting with the Progressive Governors on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, that President Buhari wanted to exercise the privilege of determining who succeeds him as the candidate of the APC for the 2023 Presidential election. However, the author believes that the “temptation for leaders to choose their successors is democratically risky and very costly”. Page 120
Therefore, APC leaders must influence former President Buhari to allow party members to exercise democratic rights to elect the party’s presidential candidate. Page 122
Chapter VI, “Emergence of Presidential Candidate and 2023 Campaign”, has three sections (See pages 123 to 139. One is the “Last Minute Battle against Imposition of Presidential Candidate”, two is “Negotiation for Running Mate”, and three is “Fallacious Politics of the 2023 Presidential Campaign”. The author narrated the attempt, on June 6, 2022, by the immediate past Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to make Senator Ahmad Lawan the consensus presidential candidate of the APC and how this was resisted by most members of the NWC with a press conference addressed by Alh. Suleiman Mohammed Argungu, the National Organising Secretary. After a meeting of the NWC with the Progressive Governors, which was boycotted by Senator Adamu Abdullahi, it was resolved that delegates at the National Convention would elect the Presidential candidate of the party. This decision was later affirmed at the meeting of the NWC and some Progressive Governors with former President Buhari.
The Convention was held on June 7 and 8 at the Eagle Square Abuja. The list of the 23 screened aspirants is on pages 125 to 126 of the book, out of which 9 of the aspirants announced their withdrawal, and therefore, 14 aspirants contested the APC Presidential Aspirants. The names of the 9 aspirants that withdrew from the race and the results of the Presidential primary are on page 126 of the book Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu won with 1 271 votes, with the runner-up, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi getting 316 votes, and the former Vice President getting 235 votes to come third.
On the negotiation for running mates, the author noted that religious and ethnic factors had been used in equal measure to hold Nigerians at a standstill and that it is imperative that the religious and ethnic background of leaders ought to be subordinated to the experiential attributes of persons being considered for leadership. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu eventually settled for Senator Kashim Shettima as his Running Mate.
In the section on fallacious politics of the 2023 Presidential Campaign, the author commented that many so-called Obidient supporters promoted outright falsehood and politics of hate against other candidates and their supporters and that this was “unfortunately self-defeatist”. Page 133. The writer described both Mr. Peter Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as political merchants moving from one party to another for the realisation of personal ambition and that of all the leading presidential candidates, it was only Asiwaju Bola Tinubu who never left his party to any party. Pages 134 to I35.
“Contending Issues for the 2023 Campaigns” is the preoccupation of chapter VII. The author posited that Nigerians became occupied in a game of wit which overlooked the obvious limitations and shortcomings of the chosen candidate and that once electoral contests are reduced to a game of wit, “prospects for democratic development risk being inhibited”. Page 140. The chapter examined the crisis occasioned by introducing and enforcing deliberate cash squeeze as the general election was approaching. It was believed that the policy was introduced and implemented by a cabal opposed to the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. See pages 146 to 151.
On this the author submitted that: “For APC as a party, and Nigeria, as a nation, one of the lessons that the reality of the cash squeeze policy imposes was the need to develop Nigerian political parties and make them capable of regulating the conduct of elected functionaries”. Page 149.
Chapter VII is on sundry issues around the victory of the APC and matters arising therefrom. The author submitted that foul cries by candidates who lost the election reflect the internal dynamics of party politics in the country and that, in many respects, the Labour Party’s rise to electoral prominence in the 2023 elections was mainly through harvesting the grievances from both the PDP and APC. The writer counselled APC leaders and associates of Asiwaju Tinubu to accept the trust of Nigerians invested in President Tinubu and the party with a high measure of humility and that this requires considerable attention and focus on the development of the APC. He advised President Tinubu to broaden his relationship with all party leaders and mainstream it to nurture the institutional development of party organs. He concluded by stating that an Asiwaju Tinubu- led Federal Government needed to orient itself to avoid the mistakes of former President Buhari’s administration while building on its strength.
In Chapter IX, the author x-rayed the ‘State of APC and Post-Election Challenges.’ He identified several challenges bedeviling the party, prominent among which is the problem of making the party’s organs functional. The failure of the organs at all levels, including the NWC, to operate according to the party’s constitution leaves the party to the whims and caprices of National Chairman. Indeed, he was right in stating that once the “party’s constitution was no longer the guide for managing the party’s affairs, leaders discretionary decisions took over.” He pointedly asserted that this contribute to financial recklessness by the Adamu/Omisore without approval by the NWC, mismanaging the rancour- free emergence of leadership for the National Assembly, and indiscipline (anti- party activities) by party members.
The Challenge of Governance in Nigerian Democracy was the focus of discussion in Chapter X. He situated President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda within APC’s manifesto of frontally tackling the issue of how to ‘unite to radically reform, modernise and move our nation forward.’ He advocated for engage ment in policy negotiation before announcement and implementation.
This is to avoid rejection by organised labour and the public, which in the past has resulted in policy rejection, and policy somersault. APC as a party, he insisted, must initiate policies and programmes based on the provisions of its manifesto.
Chapters XI and XII addressed the ‘Challenges of Rebuilding the APC’ and ‘APC
and the Way Forward’ respectively, which contained measures to retool the party on the party of progressive politics for Nigeria's peace, development, and well- being. On this score, he stated:
“Returning the APC to its founding vision is about developing the structures of the party to competently have all the requisite power and relationship with elected representatives of the party to serve our dear country Nigeria based on the provisions of the party’s manifesto and President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda. As a party, the APC must wake up and respond positively to the expectations of Nigerians and begin to douse citizens' frustrations, producing so much anger and making citizens vulnerable to the manipulative antics of political opportunists during election contests. Page 210.
Furthermore, the 7 recommendations on pages 210-211 will not only ensure good governance but will internalise democracy in the administration of the party based on the dictates of APC’s Constitution and not on personal whims.
The book is written in lucid English. It is highly polemical and provide insight into perspective of the author on national issue like security, relationship of party and government and other social groups. On the final note I concur with following statement of Chief Bisi Akande, CFR when he concluded in the foreword to the book:
“…permit me the privilege of recommending this book to the reading public. It would make an interesting reading as a literature in political history and as part of the means of achieving our aspirations in party-building. And if our aim is to build the party of our dreams through constructive debates and discussions, such efforts as this must be encouraged in all spheres of party affairs.”
Salihu Lukman
National Institute of Progressive Studies: Issues and Challenges
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
This is dedicated to His Excellency, Rotimi Akeredolu SAN who died on Wednesday, December 27, 2023. Late Akeredolu was an embodiment of progressive politics. Outspoken, very courageous, and as a leader boldly developing initiatives to confront challenges. May his soul rest in peace. Amin!
On Thursday, December 28, 2023, His Excellency, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, APC National Chairman, after the visit of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) to President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos, informed journalists that the party will establish a National Institute of Progressive Studies in 2024. This is a welcome development, which should be commended. Noting that the idea of establishing a Progressive Institute is as old as the APC, now that the National Chairman has expressed commitment to establish it in 2024, is a remarkable departure from the pronouncements of previous National Chairmen.
Perhaps, also worthy of commendation is the initiative of Dr. Ganduje to visit President Asiwaju Tinubu together with all members of NWC. This has not happened in a long time. The last time the NWC, as a body, met with the President is probably during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole between 2018 and 2020. Throughout the tenure of the Caretaker Committee between June 2020 and March 2022, it was only the Chairman, His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni that meets the President. Most times, those meetings were used to legitmised many decisions, which would have ordinarily required affirmation by organs of the party. This practice continued during the tenure of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu between March 2022 and July 2023.
In fact, the attempt to impose a so-called consensus Presidential candidate for the APC took advantage of this practice. The whole NWC of the party was reduced to a rubber stamp as virtually all the consultations between former President Muhammadu Buhari and party leaders excluded the members of the NWC, apart from the National Chairman, Sen. Adamu. Sen. Adamu only informed members of the NWC on July 6, 2022, without even the courtesy of inviting responses. The rest, as is often said, is history.
A major challenge facing the APC so far, is the question of whether it can truly become a progressive political party, not just election platform. For APC to become a progressive political party, an important precondition is that organs of the party must be made functional such that regular meetings hold as enshrined in the APC constitution. Meetings of organs of the party should be made to discharge the full responsibilities assigned to them. These organs are the National Convention, National Advisory Council, National Executive Committee, National Working Committee, Zonal Congress, Zonal Executive Committee, State Congress, State Executive Committee, State Working Committee, Senatorial District Committee, Local Government Area/Area Council Congress, Local Government Area/ Area Council Executive Committee, Ward Congress, Ward Executive Committee, Polling Unit Committee, National Caucus, State Caucus and Local Government Area/ Area Council Caucus.
It is expected that through meetings of these organs, the aims and objectives of the APC as contained in Article 7 of the party’s constitution would be achieved. Being a party envisioned to be progressive would entail that through meetings of organs of the party, specific objectives such as developing and promoting ‘economic policies that guarantee public participation in and, where necessary, control of major means of production, distribution and exchange’ as provided in Article 7(vi) should define the orientation of all governments controlled by the APC, from Federal to State levels.
In addition, observance of affirmative action in elective and appointive positions for youth, women, Persons Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) as enshrined in Article 7(vii and viii) should go beyond the current window dressing practice. Similarly, challenge of upholding ‘principles and practice of internal party democracy at all levels’ as well as institutionalising ‘representative democracy, discipline and observance of the rule of the rule of law’ as stipulated by Article 7(ix and x) shouldn’t be matters of claims. For instance, the National Convention of the party, which holds every four years should not be limited to just electing National Officers, as is the practice. It should ratify policies and programmes of the party. In addition, it should receive reports from organs of the party and take appropriate decisions in line with recommendations contained in the reports. The National Advisory Council, being the conscience and soul of the party should be able to intervene in all internal disputes and promote reconciliation. They can also advise and initiate policies to guide the party.
On its part, the National Executive Committee is required to ‘examine the actions taken or legislation proposed or passed by any Government, Legislative House or Local Government Area/Area Council and determine what further actions the party should take’. It is also the National Executive Committee that is mandated to ‘ensure that the actions and policies of the government at the Federal and State levels are consistent with the party’s manifesto and campaign promises’. Other practical functions of the National Executive Committee include raising adequate funds for the management and sustenance of the party, approving the national budget of the party, receiving quarterly financial report from the National Working Committee on income and expenditure of the party, etc. The National Working Committee is ‘responsible for the Administration of the party and putting into effect the decisions of the National Executive Committee.’
To achieve all these, the APC constitution makes provisions for twenty-five elected members of the National Working Committee and assigned specific responsibilities to each of them. How all these are coordinated and oriented to serve organs of the party to make them discharge all the responsibilities outlined in the APC constitution are assumed to be given. The sad reality however is that many party leaders emerge with hardly clear knowledge of their responsibilities. Many are ignorant of their basic responsibilities and least interested about provisions of the party’s constitution. Expectations about promoting implemention of provisions of the party’s manifesto will be a tall order.
This is unfortunately also the case with all political parties in the country, not just APC. The only thing indisputable to most party leaders is abiding commitment to do everything possible to win elections both internally within the party and during elections, which may be reduced to strategies to manipulate results of electoral contests. Mainly, because everything is reduced to manipulating electoral contest, all party activities are reduced to issues of elections. This create the unhealthy reality whereby virtually all political parties in the country, including the APC, are alienated from governments they produced. Parties produce governments but have almost zero influence in the decisions of the governments and elected representatives.
Without doubt, these were some of the issues Nigerians expected APC will change. Those expectations were responsible for why Nigerians supported the APC. Painfully, between 2015 and 2023, APC failed Nigerians on that score. The good thing however, unlike in other parties, in the case of APC, there were strong internal contestations pushing for reforms so that the APC can return to the path of meeting the expectations of Nigerians. Those internal contestations were responsible for the leadership changes in APC. Part of the reality compelling virtually all the leadership changes in APC, at least since June 2020, was attempt by leaders of the party to grandstand and block campaigns for internal reform. Without going into details, that was what consumed the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s National Working Committee. It was also what set the His Excellency Mai Mala Caretaker Committee against the party’s leadership. It was what consumed Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore.
Beyond the APC, inability to make political parties functional such that organs of the parties are discharging all their responsibilities including examining actions of government and elected representatives, as well as promoting policies in lines with provisions of the party’s manifesto is partly responsible for complete absence of ideological orientation by all parties. The reality facing Nigerian democracy begs the questions: how can we make our parties functional beyond electoral contests? How can we develop the capacity of party leaders to both understand their responsibilities as enshrined in the party’s constitution as well as have the requisite skills to contract the needed relationship with elected representatives to influence and guide their conduct to implement the manifesto of the party and all campaign promises? In simple terms, how can we transform party leadership beyond surrogate status?
These are no easy challenges. It requires strong political will. If APC is to return to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party, these are issues that must be positively responded to by the leaders of the party. The declaration by the National Chairman of APC, Dr. Ganduje, that the party will be establishing a National Institute of Progressive Studies in 2024, should be oriented to respond to all the challenges of making APC to emerge as a functionally progressive party. Such an institute should develop the needed programmatic framework of undertaking the requisite broader operational training to develop the aptitude of party leaders at all levels to discharge all their responsibilities to party organs. In addition, the institute should have the responsibility of organising political education courses for all party leaders at all levels.
Details of all of these are very easy to develop as there are models across the world, which could serve as references. For such an institute to succeed however, there are fundamental issues which must be resolved. The first one is the question of funding. This is in two parts. The easiest is mobilising funds for the proposed institute. It is easy because there are many sources of funding, which could be assessed by such an institute. The most difficult is the challenge of mobilising funding for management and sustenance of the party. Currently, like all political parties in Nigeria, APC has no sustainable sources of funding. The only defined source of funding is fees for nomination forms paid by aspiring candidates. Although more than N30 billion was generated under the leadership of Sen. Adamu ahead of the 2023 general elections, it wasn’t used to fund activities of the party organs nationally. For instance each of the six zones in the country was only given N40 million, and each state was given only N20 million.
If the organs of the party at all levels are to function as required by the provisions of the party’s constitution, the APC should have an annual budgets of not less than N100 billion. Certainly, funding activities of States, Local Governments and Wards organs of the party throughout the country would require not less than N50 billion. With an annual budget of not less than N100 billion, how can the party mobilise the required funding? What will be the responsibilities of all the organs of the party in the process of fund mobilisation? How will the funds be shared and what will be the accountability structures that will be put in place?
Part of what the budget of the party must clearly outline is unambiguous reward and conditions of service for party leadership at all levels. If the confidence of party leaders is to be strengthened, reward and conditions of service for party leaders should be benchmarked with public service conditions of service. This would entail, for instance, the National Chairman should have the same condition service with the Vice President. Deputy National Chairmen should have the same conditions of service with Senate President. National Secretary, the same conditions with Secretary to Government of the Federation. And other members of National Working Committee should have the same conditions with Ministers.
This should be cascaded down to states, local governments, and wards and should necessarily require that qualifications for all positions are appropriately benchmarked with corresponding public service qualifications. But first things first; the issue of party funding and capacity to mobilise the fund to implement all these should be resolved beyond assumptions. A situation whereby the National Chairman of the party is reduced to a beggar, expecting charity from elected and appointed officials in government is unacceptable. Once that is the case capacity of the party to influence and regulate the conduct of elected and appointed officials in government will remain weak.
Once the issue of party funding is not resolved, the current reality whereby party leaders are not committed to discharging their responsibilities will continue. Given such reality, the only realistic mandate of any proposed Progressive Institute could only be to develop the capacity of party leaders to manipulate electoral contests. Certainly, that couldn’t be the kind of institute Dr. Ganduje is proposing.
Beyond every doubt, Nigerian political parties should have a programmatic framework of developing the capacity of political party leaders to discharge the responsibilities assigned to them by their respective constitutions. Above all, if political parties in Nigeria are to emerge as the supreme political authority directing and regulating the conduct of elected representatives to ensure that policies and legislations by elected officials produced by parties are representative and responsive to the interest of citizens in lines with provisions of the party manifestos and campaign promises, the desirability of an institute should be welcome.
Such an institute can only succeed in meeting the expectations of Nigerians if it is part of wider strategy of reforming Nigerian political parties to ensure that their structures are functional in line with extant provisions of their constitution. Therefore, the proposed National Institute of Progressive Studies to be setup by APC should be part of a wider strategic reform initiative by the party to ensure that structures of the party at all levels are functional and elected party leaders at all levels are oriented to deliver on their respective mandates as enshrined in the APC constitution.
For this to happen, we must passionately appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu to strongly support Dr. Ganduje in every ramification, especially on the critical issue of resolving the challenge of party funding. Both President Asiwaju Tinubu and Dr. Ganduje have a golden opportunity to engrave their names in Nigeria’s political history if they can initiate reforms of Nigerian political parties beyond the status of serving as election platforms. Nigerian democracy is hungry for political parties that truly assert their authority as being supreme, on account of which manifestos of political parties will have expression in the policies and legislations of governments they control.
May God Almighty strengthen the capacity of Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman of the APC to succeed in truly returning the APC its founding vision of being a progressive party. May the proposed National Institute of Progressive Studies serve as the needed watershed for a deeper political reform that would change the orientation of Nigerian political parties and raise the profile of party leaders beyond the status of being reduced to surrogates such that party leaders have the same ranks with corresponding elected and appointed political leaders in government at all levels as provided under the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended.
Best wishes for 2024. May the New Year produce a new positive political reality for Nigeria such that our parties are transformed beyond being mere election platforms. May APC truly emerge as a progressive political party in 2024! Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Prebendal Politics and Crisis of Nigerian Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
In an opinion article, on January 13, 2024, titled The Audacity of Impunity, which reviewed the recent mindboggling revelation of corruption in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation under the suspended Minister, Dr. Betta Edu, Mr. Simon Kolawole contended that ‘because there was a widespread belief that President Bola Tinubu would run a corrupt, laissez-faire administration, some of his appointees decided to hit the ground running by spending public funds with impunity and audacity – and gleefully spitting on due process. There is corruption and there is impunity. And then, there is audacity. From the very beginning, we started hearing salacious stories, or allegations, of bags of dollars being dragged into and out of the offices of powerful government officials; lobbyists and aspiring political appointees spreading goodies around for “facilitation”; and undisguised sleaze in the 2024 budgetary process at every stage.’
Although Mr. Kolawole limited the scope of issues, he contended with, to the alleged corruption scandal in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, it is important to note the implicit recognition of the ‘widespread belief that President Bola Tinubu would run a corrupt, laissez-faire administration’. These so-called ‘widespread belief’ have produced discomforting media reports within less than one year of the administration, which include damaging reports about how the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila was alleged to have traded government appointment to highest bidders. President Tinubu had to respond to this on Monday, October 30, 2024 when at the commencement of the weekly Federal Executive Council he declared “absolute confidence in the integrity of my Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila”. Given the gravity of the allegation, President Tinubu further declared ‘we’re all joining hands to fight corruption.’
Most of the alleged reports of corruption in government could hardly be substantiated with evidence. But combinations of growing lack of trust by citizens against public officials and poor communications of government activities made the allegations of corruption against public officials popular. Unfortunately, coming at the beginning of the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu, makes virtually every initiative of the government to be enmeshed in corruption allegations. Recall the case of the N2 trillion supplementary budget and how allocation of N5 billion for Presidential Yacht became the subject of public debate. Other issues in the supplementary budget that attracted public debate include allocation of N7 billion for renovation of President’s and Vice President’s official residences in Lagos, additional N2.5 billion for the renovation of Aguda House, N1.5 billion for vehicles for First Lady, another N5.8 billion to replace operational pool vehicles. All these overshadow laudable initiatives such as N5 billion education loan scheme.
Around the same period when the N2 trillion supplementary budget proposal was being considered by the National Assembly, the issue of N160 million jeeps purchased for each legislator broke out. This meant total expenditure of N57.6 billion for House of Representatives and N15.8 billion for Senate. And the overall conclusions from all the public debate was that government and public officials were grossly insensitivity to the flight of Nigerians. The major problem, which strengthens all the public suspicion about corruption is that government communication remotely reflects the demands of citizens for improved living conditions, and to the extent of that alienate the government and political leaders. Communication then become passive, reactive and hardly projecting solutions to problems. For instance, when government proposed any budgetary allocation such as N5 billion for Presidential Yacht, or N7 billion for renovation of President’s and Vice President’s official residences in Lagos, or N5.8 billion for operational pool vehicle, etc., how would all those expenditures contribute to improving the lives of citizens?
With all the vast huge communication resources and networks at the disposal of especially federal government, why are public officials and government unable to manage public communication efficiently and admirably to spawn support and inspire mass appeal? Why should it be difficult to change passive and reactive communication to responsive, participatory, proactive and problem-solving communication? What is very remarkable is that the inability of communication managers both in government and at the party level to produce responsive, participatory, proactive and problem-solving communication is disastrously the source of opposition politicians strength. In so many respects, the popularity of political opposition to APC and its governments is hardly the case that the opposition is managing public communication differently. It is certainly not also the case that opposition is able to produce responsive, participatory, proactive and problem-solving communication. To the contrary, opposition’s communication is also passive, reactive and not able to project solutions to most of the problems bedeviling the nation, which APC and its governments are considered to be unable to achieve, if not the source of the problem.
Why should political communication be just about transmitting raw information in the form it is generated. Why shouldn’t communication of APC and the governments’ it produces be about citizens’ engagement? Given that APC is envisioned to be a progressive party, shouldn’t communication also serve as a means of getting feedback from citizens regarding policies, programmes, projects, actions, etc.? Methodological issues of getting feedbacks from citizens and how it contributes to shaping and reshaping government policies, programmes, projects, actions, etc. should provide the source for public confidence on the party and governments it controls. Once the source of public communication is remotely linked to broader section of society it will at best be a journalistic exercise, having expression only in pages of newspapers, radio and television programmes, and in contemporary times, in the social media handles of public commentators.
Accommodating the diverse interests of Nigerians is about representation and responsiveness, which is what is required to affirm that ‘sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through the constitution derives all powers and authority’ and ‘participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of the constitution as provided in section 14 (2) (a and c) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended. Being able to mobilise Nigerians to support the initiatives of government is a function of engagements and negotiations with the aim of winning agreements that will strategically commit citizens to both support the initiatives of government as well as discharge complementary responsibilities. To be candid, this has been absent and has been the source of virtually most of the crises that were responsible for the collapse of all previous Republics in Nigeria. In many respects, this reflects poor relationship that exists between government and citizens, which often is taken for granted. If anything, part of the reasons why relations between government and citizens is most times tense is the absence of a functional framework to facilitate engagements and negotiations with Nigerians on policy issues. It all comes down to questions of representation and responsiveness.
Theoretically, representation and responsiveness are more about how different interests are accommodated and promoted in policies of government. Somehow, these are issues that are yet to be reflected in the ways political parties and governments at all levels are organised. None of the registered parties can claim to have developed structures that allow for caucusing such that blocs of interests can strategise within the structures of the political party on how to promote their own interests. None of our governments, including the current Federal Government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu can claim to be organically connected with any organised group of interest based on which its policies and programme initiates could be adjudged to be derivative or reflective of the demands of members of the groups.
Inability or failure to make governments representative and responsive such that policies and programmes of governments find their bearing from demands of citizens as represented by organised groups legitimises the belief about ‘widespread corruption’ and in many respects mobilises citizens against governments. Analysing factors responsible for the collapse of the Nigerian Second Republic, Prof. Richard A. Joseph, as far back as 1987 described it as prebendal politics, which reduces governments and the resources it manages to basically control by few public officials. Sadly, here we are in 2024, still stuck with the reality of having to contend with prebendal politics as the main orientation of democracy in Nigeria.
This is further complicated by the fact that, it would appear, prebendal politics has become more entrenched even under the APC, both during the eight-year tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari and currently under President Asiwaju Tinubu. The whole allegations of corruption surrounding the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs since its formation in 2019 demonstrate how under the APC problems of corruption were allowed to continue. This is heart breaking because one of the campaign promises of the APC in 2015 is war against corruption for which Nigerians invested their trust on the party and former President Buhari. In fact, part of the reasons for the mass support of Nigerians from the Northern part of the country for former President Buhari was the expectation that he will be ruthless in fighting corruption in the country. Largely based of his antecedent as a former military Head of State between January 1984 and August 1985, who overthrew the Second Republic, arrested, tried, and sentenced many politicians to prison terms, many supporters of former President Buhari expected that he will handle the fight against corruption in the same way he did when he was military Head of State.
As it turned out, those expectations were not met. Although, there were flashes of attempts to fight corruption during the tenure of former President Buhari, however, it was not able to change the orientation of politics away from being prebendal. If anything, prebendal politics took over the APC and many public officials produced by the APC also became guilty of converting public resources to private use. Recall how the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was reported to have seized N19.3 billion salary bail out given to Kogi State by the Federal Government, which was deposited in an unlawful bank account domiciled with Sterling Bank Plc in November 2021. This is a State controlled by the APC. There are other similarly damaging allegations of how some APC controlled states were unable to pay salaries of workers.
All these confirms Prof. Richard Joseph seminal description of prebendal politics in Nigeria as a system, which ‘enables divergent groups and constituencies to seek to accommodate their interests. At the level of the individual, it is a pattern of social behavior that is quickly learned and accepted. It would be more comforting to say that it works because it is efficient, and that it is a rational and productive method of minimizing social costs and maximizing benefits. Unfortunately, such claims cannot be made: the system permits although it seldom satisfies such criteria. It is often wasteful, unproductive, and contributes to the increasing affluence of a relative few, paltry gains for a larger number, and misery for the great majority of the people.’
Debate about social costs and benefits regarding public policy choices of APC governments, for whatever it is worth can go on. However, so long as indices of poverty, cost of living and welfare conditions of citizens remain below acceptable thresholds, public expenditure would be heavily suggestive of waste, low productivity, increasing affluence of public officials, ‘paltry gains’ for citizens and ‘misery for the greater majority’ of Nigerians. It is painful to admit that the APC has ‘quickly learned and accepted’ prebendal politics and ‘it would be more comforting to say that it’ is working efficiently for some APC leaders in government. Part of the evidence of working efficiently produces the outcome whereby ‘some …appointees’ of President Asiwaju Tinubu ‘decided to hit the ground running by spending public funds with impunity and audacity – and gleefully spitting on due process’ as highlighted by Mr. Kolawole.
The big consolation is that President Asiwaju Tinubu has decisively intervened, first with the suspension of the Minister, Dr. Betta Edu, then followed by suspending implementation of all social investment programmes and full-scale investigation of activities of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. Will these produce a new beginning in the fight against corruption in the country? Or will it be another moonlighting providing escape routes for all those accused of corruption with another inconclusive outcome? Above all, will President Asiwaju Tinubu use the opportunity of this investigation to introduce deeper political reform in the country such that the orientation of APC begins to shift away from prebendal politics? Will such shift take APC back to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party based on which the party and all its organs are strengthened to not only become functional but also develop the capacity to regulate the conduct of public officials it produces?
Inability to regulate the conduct of public officials by political parties is at the root of the problem facing democracy in Nigeria, which strengthen prebendal politics. As loyal members of APC, the disposition will be to confidently engage both President Asiwaju Tinubu and all leaders of the party so that new chapter in the fight against corruption is opened, such that APC and all its organs are activated to be functional and strengthened to regulate the conducts of all public officials. However, it is important to moderate our expectations with the reality that once President Asiwaju Tinubu’s initiatives do not include developing corresponding relationships with organised groups in the country, based on which engagements and negotiations on policy measures and their outcomes are made possible, inclination towards prebendal politics will remain high in the country. Unfortunately, also given that President Asiwaju Tinubu is more disposed to be accessed by politicians whose mission is limited to being prebendal, discourages any strong expectation for deeper political reform in the country under President Asiwaju Tinubu.
Given such discouraging prospect, what is the future of democracy in Nigeria? Even with such ugly prospect, APC leaders must rise to the occasion and remain resolute in engaging President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders to return APC to its founding vision of being a functionally progressive party, based on which it is able to develop the needed capacity to regulate the conducts of public officials it produces. To be able to achieve that would require a change in the way party leaders relate with President Asiwaju Tinubu. A situation whereby disposition of party leaders towards the President is limited to issues of accessing opportunities in government would only strengthen prebendal politics and weaken initiatives towards returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party.
Once prebendal politics remain strong and initiatives towards making the APC becoming a progressive party are weak, the fight against corruption in the country will be weak. APC leaders must rise to this challenge and provide the required support to ensure that Nigerian democracy overcome its prebendal orientation to become both responsive and representative of the wider interests of Nigerians. As a party, APC must turn a new leaf in Nigerian democracy by doing everything necessary to ensure that the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu succeed. Nigerian politics must be about meeting the expectations of citizens based on which elected leaders make every sacrifice to justify the votes of Nigerians!
May Allah (SWT) guide President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders to initiate deeper political reforms in the country to end prebendal politics, which promote corruption and converts public resources to private use by political leaders and public officials. Amen!!!
Salihu Lukman
Challenges of Democratising Political Parties
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
The question of whether it is possible to have free and fair elections when political parties don’t allow internal competition to produce candidates is a recurring debate. As Nigerians, this is a question that is as old as the Fourth Republic. If anything, it is a challenge that has produced a cancerous reality whereby inability of political leaders to subordinate themselves to competitive practices internally within the structures of their own parties, create the current ugly reality of higher disposition to manipulate electoral results, which invariably nullified the votes electorates. This was the reality that weakened the support base of the PDP between 2003 and 2015. In fact, it was a reality that made many leaders of former opposition parties, who are today’s ruling politicians to agitate for ‘one man, one vote’, largely because of the frustration with high incidences of rigging of elections in the country by PDP.
Sadly, the same people who aggressively and successfully mobilised Nigerians against the PDP based on ‘one man, one vote’ campaign are also behaving exactly the way PDP leaders behaved between 2003 and 2015. Painfully, in the process, a party that emerged with so much promise, APC, winning the support of Nigerians is almost destroyed and on daily basis creating conditions for its own electoral funeral. As loyal members of the APC, we must remind our leaders that parties become more prone to electoral defeat when they resist or block internal pressures for leadership change.
APC’s electoral victory in 2015, for instance, could be partly explained based on the refusal of PDP leadership to recognise and respect the yearnings of party members and leaders. It was the inability to respect internal yearnings for change that produced the splinter group of New PDP, which eventually joined the merger that produced APC in 2013. Combined with other factors outside PDP, especially the ability of leaders of the opposition parties under the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to negotiate a successful political merger, which bolstered public confidence, APC’s electoral victory of 2015 was resoundingly accomplished.
Since 2015, having won the elections at national level, emerged as the ruling party in the country, the structures of the APC have increasingly become narrow. Meetings of organs are not taking place, access to leaders have become very difficult, if not impossible. Unfortunately, most demands for access are reduced to question of access for opportunities for political appointments and other privileges largely because that is also the prevailing reality. In the process, opportunity to manage governance differently by producing policies that are representative and responsive to interest of Nigerians is lost. Consequently, we end up constantly reproducing old realities whereby the business of political parties, including the APC is limited to producing candidates for elections.
Should we allow that to continue? Being members of the APC, what are our options in terms of engaging our leaders to open the party and allow internal competition to take place, especially on the question of producing candidates for election? Without attempting to directly respond to some of the criticism by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole about engaging issues publicly, it is important to draw attention to the fact that the issues we are dealing with border on the survival of our democracy and ensuring that our democracy is responsive and representative. These issues test the strength of our loyalties as citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Should our loyalty to the party be stronger, or should our loyalty to our country be stronger? The danger of loyalty to our party becoming stronger will reduce us to the status of being members of secret cult. No member of any political party has signed any oath of allegiance that subordinate him or her and therefore make them to operate as members of a cult.
Expectedly, Nigerian political parties are required to be open through meetings of their structures, as provided by their constitutions. The big draw back is that when structures of political parties don’t meet there are no penalties. With meetings not taking place, individual leaders take decisions, which directly affect members with grave consequences on the electoral prospects of the party. To mitigate these consequences, party leaders then pushed themselves to the overdrive electoral mode of rigging elections. Once that is the case, politics is no longer about developing strong relation with citizens. This is completely unacceptable. To take Comrade Oshiomhole back to his analogy of the family, it must be recognised that this is like the hurtful incidences of force marriages, which existed in our families. As members of our respective families, we had to come out publicly to fight such menace with all our convictions, even if it means losing all the privileges, which being family members may guarantee.
We must appeal to our leaders, including Comrade Oshiomhole not to be carried away by the aura of being todays rulers and conduct themselves in the same mode previous rulers of Nigeria conducted themselves. As party members, we are left with hardly any option but to engage our leaders publicly, given that the structures of our party, APC, are closed, and we don’t have the kind of access that would enabled us to influence the decisions of our leaders. It also should be empassised that as much as possible in engaging issues publicly, many party members do so with respect, but sadly, response of leaders is hardly the case. Because of disagreement with decisions of leaders, many of us are condemned and most times called abusive names.
Perhaps, it is important to remind our leaders where we are coming from. Nigerians fought against the military, campaigned for democracy, and eventually won to have the current Fourth Republic in 1999. Between 1999 and 2015, we had PDP as a ruling party, which took Nigerians for granted by blocking internal democracy within PDP on account of which Godfathers took over the PDP and impose candidates for elections across board. Led by the APC, in 2015, Nigerians rose to defeat the PDP. Having emerged as a ruling party since 2015, APC leaders have become just like the PDP, blocking all avenue of internal party contests. With every election, the situation is getting worse.
Internal contests within the APC are reduced to whether the party should abandon its founding vision and collapse into the conventional way of organising political contests in the country. The founding vision of the party is about having all party members to participate in the process of producing candidates for elections through direct primary. In fact, the debate around direct or indirect primary has been a constant issue in APC since 2014. Part of the experience is that aspiring politicians and by extension godfathers continue to impose their preferences, with the direct consequences of undermining initiatives within the party to develop new organisational frameworks that can allow for broader participation of members. This reflects Antonio Gramsci’s thesis about ‘the old is dying and the new cannot be born.’
Most of the public debate about internal democracy within Nigerian political parties hardly addresses the fundamental issues of membership management, party funding and administration. So long as political parties in Nigeria are not challenged to alter the current framework, which reduces party members to being free riders with no financial responsibility, and party leaders at all levels becoming surrogates to aspiring politicians, effectiveness of legal provisions will remain weak. With all its problems, in its short period, more than any party in the history Nigeria, at least in this Fourth Republic, APC has some empirical evidence to prove that a law compelling political parties to use the direct method involving all members of the party to select candidates for elections can exist but will not stop politicians from undermining the process.
Recall that ahead of the 2019 elections, the decision in APC was that stakeholders in each state will decide on the mode of primary to select the APC Governorship candidates for 2019 elections. In the case of Presidential primary, former President Buhari opted for the direct primary. In many of the states, the votes returned for former President Buhari were quite higher than the votes during the general election. For instance, Lagos State returned 1.9 million votes during the internal party primary but only got 580,825 votes during the general elections. In fact, the total voter turnout during the general election was just around one million. Similarly, Kano State returned 2,931,235 votes for the President during the party primary. But during the general election he got only1,464,768. Like the case of Lagos, the total voter turnout for Kano State during the general election was less than two million.
Instances of clear manipulations using direct primary are also evident at state levels. For instance, in 2019, through direct primary, Lagos State APC declared Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu winner of the election with 970, 851 votes. Then incumbent Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode was reported to have scored 72,901. During the 2019 Governorship election, Mr. Sanwo-Olu polled 739,445 votes to defeat Jimi Agbaje of the PDP, who polled 206,141 votes. Why did more than 200,000 APC members voters Mr. Sanwo-Olu during the direct primary failed to come out to vote for him during the general elections.
The vulnerability of direct primary to manipulative intrigues of political leaders was further confirmed during the Anambra 2021 Governorship election. The APC candidate in the election, Sen. Andy Ubah, during the APC primary election was said to have emerged with 230,201 votes but only got 43,285 votes during the election. Some measure of honesty is required from all leaders to address problems of internal democracy within political parties in Nigeria. No doubt, Nigerian democracy needs to be deepened to broaden the participation of party members in the process of selecting party candidates. But given the way some APC leaders are desperately and aggressively campaigning for direct primary, with all the current ambiguities, makes it suspect.
APC emerged in 2013 with the commitment to bring about political change in the country. One of the changes envisioned by the founding leaders of the party was the adoption of the direct method, which is to broaden the participation of members, not just few delegates, in the process of electing party candidates at all levels. Between 2013 and 2015, there were internal debates in the APC to develop the necessary infrastructural platforms that should allow all members of the party to elect both leaders and candidates. Under Chief Bisi Akande’s Interim Management leadership, substantial investment was undertaken towards establishing computerised membership Data Centre for the whole country, located at No. 10 Bola Ajibola Street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos. Sadly, PDP government under former President Jonathan Goodluck vandalised the Data Centre on November 22, 2014 based on the claims that the Department of State Services, (DSS), which carried out the attack, acted on a petition which alleged that the Data Centre was being set up to ‘clone INEC Permanent Voters Card with the intention of hacking into INEC database, corrupting it and replacing them with their own data.’ (Premium Times, November 23, 2014).
Issues of maintaining verifiable membership register is a condition precedent for the conduct of direct primary by any political party. Experiences under APC is that direct primary is being conducted without verifiable membership register, which empowers party leaders to simply write results in favour of aspirants they want to emerge as candidates for elections. Once that is the case, winning elections will hardly be about winning the votes of electorates. The same logic that is applied to produce candidates, which is manipulating results of primary will be used during the elections. Campaigns will be weakly committed to winning the support of the electorates.
Related to issues of membership management is the primary question of party funding. So long as political parties in Nigeria are not challenged to alter the current framework, which reduces party members to being free riders with no financial responsibility, and party leaders at all levels become surrogates to aspiring politicians, incidences of manipulation to produce candidates will remain strong and effectiveness of legal provisions, including abiding by extant provisions of party constitution to produce candidates will continue to be violated. Once that is the case, party members will be shortchanged as unpopular candidates will be produced.
This is the unfortunate reality, which has greatly weakened capacity of political leaders and institutions, including political parties to be able to facilitate or resolve political challenges in Nigeria. Is it possible to have democracy without political competition? In other words, is it possible to have election without contest? These are old questions, which made the American political scientist, Francis Fukuyama in his controversial book, The End of History and the Last Man to argue that “there is no democracy without democrats.”
The absence of competition in Nigerian democracy, especially in our political parties is responsible for so many unpredictable political circumstances and is making political leaders both unsure and insecure. This has basically reduced Nigerian politics to a game of conquest. A major attribute is that political leaders are conquerors, while party members and ordinary citizens are the would-be conquered. Arguably, while in other parties, including PDP, this is a well-established order, in APC, although highly contested, it is also increasingly becoming the norm. The recent decision by the APC National Working Committee (NWC) regarding the 2024 Edo election, whereby the NWC announced that the party’s candidate will emerge through direct primary may be informed by the strong desire of party leaders to manipulate the process. Already, there are media reports alleging that APC Stakeholders in Edo State have decided to limit the number of aspirants for the primary.
These are troublesome realities. Troublesome because the decision of the NWC to organise direct primary contradicts provisions of Article 13.4(iv) of the APC constitution, which only empowers the NWC to ‘propose electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections to Party offices at all levels, and procedure for selecting Party candidates for elective offices …to the National Executive Committee.’ The decision of the NWC to produce the Governorship candidate of APC for the Edo 2024 election based on direct primary is a clear usurpation of the powers of the National Executive Committee (NEC), which is illegal.
Combinations of illegality, clear disposition by APC leaders to manipulate the process of producing candidates could only mean that APC leaders are weakly committed to win the support of electorates. Once that is the case, it makes APC leaders more disposed to acts of rigging and manipulating electoral results with the attendant consequences of producing elected representatives on the platform of the party who are anything but representative or responsive to the interest of citizens. As loyal APC members, we will continue to appeal to our leaders to moderate their conduct and return to the founding vision of APC.
The founding vision of APC is for all members of the party to participate in producing the candidates of the party through a process which guarantees the existence of verifiable membership register. As it is, APC has no verifiable membership register anywhere. If it exists, like the case of INEC voters register, it should be displayed publicly long before the conduct of the primary for verification. Many APC leaders, including President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Comrade Oshiomhole were in the frontline of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. Now that they are the elected leaders of the country, they must justify that by demonstrating that they truly led the struggle for democracy based a conviction to end dictatorship in all its ramification. They must not imagine that because they were in the frontline in the struggle for democracy in 1990s, that gives them the license to permit, or even promote practices that undermine democratic values.
Beyond anything, the big test is the question of democratising the APC as a political party. Being the first time in this Forth Republic we are having elected leaders such as President Asiwaju Tinubu and Comrade Oshiomhole who were in the frontline of the struggle for democracy in the 1990s, they should justify that by ensuring that Nigerian political parties are truly democratic. Being leaders of APC, APC must emerge as a distinctly democratic party based on abiding respect for rule of law, which should be well reflected in a strong commitment to manage affairs of the party based on compliance with provisions of the APC. Anything short of this, will diminish the credentials of our leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu and Comrade Oshiomhole. May Allah (SWT) touch the heart of our leaders to function as democrats and not dictators, based on which they return APC to its founding vision and refrain from acts of manipulation to produce candidates of the party for all elections. It is only by allowing democratic process to produce candidates that popular candidates can be produced on sustainable basis. Anything, short of that will push leaders to seek to manipulate emergence of candidates, which will become the catalyst for rigging elections!
Salihu Lukman
Renewed Hope Exchanging for Renewed Anger
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Media reports on Monday, February 5, 2024 presented protests by citizens in the streets of Minna, Niger State and Kano, Kano State against increasingly rising cost of living in the country. Happening in less than a year of the President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, calls for urgent response by the government. Such a response must as a matter of necessity address existing reality whereby prices of goods and services, especially food items are astronomically going up, almost on hourly basis. There are gory tales of Nigerians going to the same markets within short intervals of less than 24 hours encountering higher prices for the same quantity of products. These are predictable realities triggered by conscious decisions taken by the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
Recall that as far back as August 2023, about four months into the tenure of the current government, I had cause to draw attention to some disturbing signals in an open letter to President Asiwaju Tinubu. Specifically, one of the disturbing signals was ‘the management of policy process’, based on which petroleum subsidy was withdrawn without clearly defined initiatives to guarantee local production. Related to that was the decision to float the exchange rate of the Naira, which turned out to be isolated decision without the corresponding clearly defined economic policy. At the time, the caution was raised that the ‘consequence is that the Naira is on a downward swing. Combined with rising cost of transport because of withdrawal of subsidy the inflationary pressure on the economy is very high. As a result, living condition is getting worse. At this rate, poverty incidence will be terribly high, beyond any rational expectations.’
The protests in Minna and Kano confirms the validity of the concerns raised as far back as August 2023. Sadly, six months after those concerns were raised, the situation is only getting worse as prices of food items are beyond reach of most Nigerians. If the truth must be told, there is hunger in the land! As a committed member of APC, it is very depressing that this is happening under the leadership of our party. Even more depressing was the statement issued by Mr. Felix Morka, our National Publicity Secretary alleging that opposition parties are behind the protests. For Mr. Morka to issue such a very dishonest statement points to only one thing that the leadership of our party have completely lost it and at this rate their political utility value is zero. This clearly suggest that even the old pretences about being progressive has been thrown to the dogs.
How can we be talking of opposition sponsoring protests in the strongholds of the APC? Both Minna and Kano are strong holds of APC. In the case of Minna, Niger State, APC is the ruling party. Kano is the home state of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the APC National Chairman. To suggest that any opposition party could mobilise citizens to protests our government is already defeatist. The hard reality is that these protests are logical responses to the realities facing Nigerians. If these realities continue unattended to, these protests will spread like bush fire across every part of the country within a very short period. No one should be deceived, these are justifiable protests, which tests the responsiveness of our party, our leaders and above all our democracy. APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu may wish to ignore them at their own peril.
Good enough, report from the Presidency suggests that the Federal Government is not ignoring the protests. The worrisome reality however is whether the government will decisively respond by coming out with a clearly defined economic policy, which should once and for all resolve the challenge of subsidy withdrawal and floating the exchange rate. Withdrawal of subsidy and floating the Naira against other major currencies are very necessary decisions, which should have been integral part of broader economic plans. Withdrawing subsidy without addressing the question of what needs to be done to guarantee local production of petroleum products is bound to have the current mess of skyrocketed increase in prices of petroleum products. Similarly, floating the Naira against other major currencies without taking the needed steps to reduce imports will also produce what we have today whereby the value of the Naira is permanently on a downward slide.
Once government is unable to settle these issues, it is predictable that cost of living will continue to go up. Once prices of necessities are beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians, citizens will respond in the streets to compel our leaders to do the needful. This is the value of democracy. Instead of blaming some imaginary opposition parties, our party’s leadership and our government should simply take responsibility. It is quite heartbreaking that we appear to be almost back in the old politics that characterises military dictatorship. Instead of calling meetings of organs of the party to initiate strategies of mobilising all governments controlled by the APC to coordinate responses to democratic demands of citizens, all we want to do is to criminalise the protests.
We must appeal to our leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu not to submit to the temptation of criminalising the legitimate grievances of Nigerians. Under no circumstances must our leaders imagine that because they are today’s rulers, unacceptably harsh living conditions caused by clear policy choices of our government should be tolerated. These were the same issues we rose against under the military and during the tenure of PDP between 1999 and 2015. Perhaps, if the truth must be told, if it were during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari, many would rationalise it given his military background. But coming during the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu who was indisputably a committed democrat, makes it even more compelling for Nigerians to protest. Maybe it is only the loud protests of citizens that will compel President Asiwaju Tinubu to have more listening ears and opens his government for citizens to engage it and influence its policy directions.
As it is now, the renewed hope agenda of our party has been floated. Like the Naira exchange rate, Renewed Hope is being exchanged for Renewed Anger. The value is becoming more and more provocative to citizens. At this rate, all appeals for patience may be simple waste of time given the challenge of survival. Already complicated by worsening security situation in the country so much that Abuja, the Federal Capital has also become unsecure, it is in our enlightened interest both as a party and as Nigerians to put pressure on President Asiwaju Tinubu to do the needful by putting in place immediately a clearly defined economic policy to resolve the situation. May God Almighty unite Nigerians in the struggle to make Nigerian democracy functionally responsive! Amin.
Salihu Lukman
Heartbreaking Reflections
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
For weeks now, the question, why did we fight against military rule, has been given me sleepless nights. Within a maximum interval of one hour, the question keeps coming back. No doubt, the need to have constitutional rule, which guarantee the right of citizens to elect their leaders cannot be wished away. But when constitutional rule fails to produce responsive governments in terms addressing challenges facing citizens, democracy then become elusive. Of what value is democracy when elected leaders cannot solve the problems of citizens? In other words, why should democracy only produce leaders who will only compound or create more problems?
The more this questions spin in my head, the more it produces strong feelings of disappointment, and to be frank, also raw anger. It forces me to look back into the hard road we travelled both as citizens and as activists to get to this point. Somehow, I find it very curiously disappointing that although we are supposedly in a democratic setup, our today’s reality is as nervous as it was in the late 1990s. Although, today, we have an elected government with President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President, it is difficult to predict the direction Nigeria is going. Almost every action of the administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu is reduced to political convenience, often with hardly any clear logic other than exercising the power to make decisions, which cannot be substantiated with reference to reasons. As a result, conditions of life are daily crashing. Being a loyal member of the APC and supporter of President Asiwaju Tinubu, it is very difficult to reconcile today’s reality with all the campaign promises made.
Since 2015, as a party, we raised the expectations of Nigerians. We promised to change Nigerian politics but since winning the 2015 elections, we have only succeeded in changing all our promises to the disappointment of Nigerians. Many of our elected and appointed representatives in government have acted exactly, if not worse than, the PDP leaders we defeated in 2015. Many of our leaders who were in the frontline of the struggles against military rule and against the PDP, are today very comfortable and are behaving like emperors and tyrants. They impose their decisions on citizens and when citizens criticise them, they hurl insults and abuses in the same way old military regimes responded. The only difference is that cases of arrests and detention are no longer the case.
The consequence is that notwithstanding the fact that we are in a democracy, we have produced the sad reality whereby the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu is becoming more and more insensitive to the plight of citizens. In less than ten (10) months since the assumption of office, prices of practically everything has jerked up. For instance, 50Kg bag of Rice, which used to be about N28,000 in May 2023, is now (February 2024) around N70,000. 50Kg bag of Maize, which used to be N16,000 is now more than N60,000. 10Litre of Groundnut Oil, which used to be N10,200 is now more than N21,000. 10Litre of Palm Oil, which used to be N7,000 is now more than N12,000.
All these are happening because President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government took the bold decision to remove subsidy on petroleum products and float the Naira exchange rate. As a result, a Litre of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) has increased to N670 from N189. Litre of Kerosine increased to N1,300 from N1,000. 12Kg Cooking Gas increased to N12,500 from N3,800. Exchange rate of the Naira is now hovering around N1,500 to the US Dollar from about N700. Given all these, incomes of citizens have crashed to below 25% of its value before May 2023. The value is still going down. The question of providing new opportunities for income earning is at best academic debate. High level government officials continue to engage the issues from the vantage view of their comfort zones.
The truth must be told: There is a big existential problem facing citizens. Unfortunately, all we here is appeal for patience. How long are citizens expected to survive under this kind of very harsh suffocating reality? What is really the plan government is working on? As someone who was in the forefront of the struggle for democracy, this certainly wasn’t what we fought for. Also, as a supporter of President Asiwaju Tinubu, we least expected that President Asiwaju Tinubu will be weakly responsive to the challenges facing Nigerians. Why did we negotiate the merger of the legacy parties that formed the All Progressives Congress? Did we really do that to produce a party that could produce leaders who will attend to the problems facing citizens? If so, where then are the leaders? Shouldn’t President Asiwaju Tinubu be one of such a leaders?
Clearly, at this rate, APC under President Asiwaju Tinubu may have succeeded in turning our democracy into an insensitive party. The APC should ideally be the model being the ruling party, based on which it is able to orient initiatives of governments it controls to respond to challenges facing citizens. Unfortunately, as it is either the APC is alienated from citizens, or it is unable to orient initiatives of governments it controls to respond to the needs of citizens. With none of the organs of the party functioning, meetings at any levels are hardly taking place, all that the party does now is organising phantom primary in which so-called aspirants for offices are crowned as candidates of the party. Yesterday’s fighters for democracy who resisted military dictatorship are today’s Godfathers. Being today’s Godfathers, they dispense patronage at will and shift anointment every election cycle. Is that the variant of progressive politics we are producing?
President Asiwaju Tinubu, APC leaders and Nigerian politicians can do better. How can anyone with the faintest of conscience live a normal life with a reality whereby the same citizens who elected them as leaders are impoverished by decisions we took as a ruling party? Is President Asiwaju Tinubu at all aware that majority of our citizens, including relatively high-income earners cannot afford medication when they are sick?
I must admit, both as an activist, as a politician, and as a Nigerian, I am heartbroken. I am devastated by the fact that the performance of President Asiwaju Tinubu in the last 10 months betrays all the expectations we had. We never expected that President Asiwaju Tinubu will be unmindful of the consequences of his decisions. The belief of many of us, and indeed most Nigerians is that President Asiwaju Tinubu is a responsive politician who will not recklessly take any decision without weighing its consequences on the lives of citizens. Being human, our expectation is that, if decisions are taken with grave consequences such as withdrawal of subsidy and floating the exchange rate, being the responsive leader he is, it is our expectation he will quickly review and recalibrate such decision with the overall objective of protecting the welfare of citizens. That is what progressive politics is all about.
If within a four-year tenure, after 10 months the scorecard is gory tales of existential crises for citizens, then the political value of such a regime is suspect. President Asiwaju Tinubu must wake up and urgently do the needful to demonstrate his true democratic and progressive credentials. APC leaders must also wake up from their current power drunkenness and push the administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu to become more responsive and stop behaving like a military administration. A civilian elected government, which trample on the structures of its own party and block its organs from functioning is as good as a military government. The choice between democracy and a dictatorship is clear. Once structures of party are blocked from functioning, capacity of any so-called democracy to respond to challenges facing citizens will be weak.
This is exactly our situation in Nigeria today. The question is whether the real President Asiwaju Tinubu who was adjudged to be a democrat and progressive, who was voted by Nigerians, will resurface at this difficult times? I pray and hope that the God of mercy will take charge and fix our leaders and nation, Nigeria. May God Almighty touch the heart of President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders, and indeed all Nigerian politicians, to understand that millions of Nigerians are confronted with life threatening reality today. Just like we asked for the votes of citizens during election, citizens are asking leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu to be responsive to today’s reality.
Salihu Lukman
APC and Question of Liability
Open Letter to APC Leaders
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Recently, the media reported Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to have attributed current hardship Nigerians are experiencing to “reckless policies” of former President Muhammadu Buhari. Before now, in November last year, Prince Dapo Abiodun, Governor of Ogun State and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser have made similar comments to the effect that ‘President Bola Tinubu inherited an administration that was almost comatose’ and ‘a bankrupt country’. These are issues, which border on the question of who to blame when elected leaders produced by the APC fail to meet our expectations or deliver on campaign promises. For instance, who should be held responsible for problems created by the last administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari? Beyond the blame game, what should be done to address the problem of failure of an administration produced by same political party such that the mistakes of the past are not repeated by the current administration of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.?
Perhaps, in engaging these issues I need to acknowledge the kind advice of Comrade Oshiomhole during the presentation of my book, APC and Transition Politics on December 19, 2023 when he queried why I should give advise publicly when I can give it within the party. According to him, ‘I don’t gain by writing off my own organisation’. He went at length to highlight our experiences in the NLC. My only appeal to him is that as much as possible in engaging these issues publicly, we need to be honestly receptive and not reduce them to egocentric debate around who is right or wrong. The bigger issue is the question of what needs to be done to serve Nigerian citizens. It is quite worrisome when I hear Comrade Oshiomhole talked condescendingly to some of us who practically made every sacrifice, including putting our lives on the line to even get him to emerge as President of the NLC in 1999. We didn’t do all that simply because we hated military government. Our conviction was that the actions of the military governments to impose repressive policies on Nigerians was unjust.
It is to the credit of Comrade Oshiomhole and a whole generation of trade union leaders that they provided the needed leadership to resist repressive government policies. We were able to do that successfully because the structures of the trade union movement were functional. All of us who were in the movement had voices that were respected. Many leaders of the movement, including Comrade Oshiomhole, consulted us almost on hourly basis and through those consultations we were able to influence their decisions. Although, some of the realities of many of them in the political leadership of the movement began to display individualistic dispositions and to that extend scheme to impose their personal preferences on the labour movement as opposed to collective decisions, overall, the organisation respected our voices. A typical example of how labour leaders began to impose individual dispositions was reflected in the way and manner the evolution of the Labour Party was trunked by personal political ambitions.
Without going into all the details, for instance, based on the recommendations of Comrade Oshiomhole, as NLC President, all of us who were full time officials in the NLC secretariat were banned from holding any leadership position in the Labour Party. This was a position Comrade Oshiomhole pushed and was adopted by the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of NLC in Bauchi in 2002. That was when Comrade S. O. Z. Ejiofor emerged as the National Chairman of the party, with late Comrade A. A. Salam as the National Secretary. Thereafter, every debate around the organisation of the Party was limited to the projection of Comrade Oshiomhole’s political ambition. Even at that, because the party wasn’t allowed to develop the capacity to contest and win elections, after Comrade Oshiomhole’s tenure as NLC President in 2007, he didn’t have the confidence to contest on the platform of the party, he had to syndicate an alliance with the Action Congress (AC). Some of these experiences have already been documented. One of such documentation is ‘The Failure of Nigeria’s Labour Party’ jointly written by late Prof. Bjorn Beckman and myself, which is published as chapter in the book ‘Trade Unions and Party Politics: Labour Movements in Africa Edited by Bjorn Beckman, Sakhela Buhungu and Lloyd Sachikonye.
As a person, I owe a lot to Comrade Oshiomhole. I will always give him his due respect even as he painfully in recent times present realities in a way that write some of us off. I will, no matter what, continue to remind him where we are coming from and the sacrifices many of us collectively made to get him and many others to rise to their current positions of national prominence. We may have lost our privileges of being their speech writers but if there is one thing that we must never lose is our voices. The interesting thing is that the same voices that used to be amplified by leaders such as Comrade Oshiomhole and Asiwaju Tinubu are today being despised and queried. Why is that so? Could it be because, we have succeeded to produce leaders such as Comrade Oshiomhole and Asiwaju Tinubu? Should such success then mean that we should accept actions like what previous leaders including military rulers were doing, which include imposing unfair and unjust decisions on citizens? My answer will be that if for any reason Comrade Oshiohmole and President Asiwaju Tinubu, being our leaders today, act the same old ways previous leaders acted, we should give them the same old medicines they used to administer to previous repressive governments.
This was what some of us exactly did when Comrade Oshiomhole was National Chairman of the APC between 2018 and 2020. We tried to engage him internally within the structures of the party. Being very ordinary members of the party, he had no time for us. The same letter he publicly complained of being delivered through a third party (Dr. Otive Igbuzor) was sent directly to him but coming from ordinary mortals, it didn’t merit his attention and perhaps he never cited it. When leaders are inaccessible, what are our options? The strength of any democracy is its capacity to respect freedom of expression. If we are despised by our leaders for expressing ourselves, it begs the question of whether our leaders are democrats. Especially given that during Comrade Oshiomhole’s tenure as National Chairman of the APC, the problem of convening meetings of organs of the party as provided under the APC constitution got worsened, how we exercise our rights to contest actions or inactions of our political leaders tests our commitment to the struggle for democracy.
Compounded by the fact that the challenge of producing candidates for the 2019 elections created more complications such that the dispositions of virtually most leaders of the APC, including Comrade Oshiomhole was to manipulate processes so that either they emerge as candidates, or their preferred choices emerged, the need to engage our leaders and try to influence their conducts was very necessary. My belief at the time was that with Comrade Oshiomhole as National Chairman of the APC, all that was required was to get him to apply his skills as a negotiator to resolve most of our challenges in APC. Having worked with him for more than sixteen years, I could attest to his excellent negotiating skills. Certainly, he is one of the best negotiators this country has produced. Without going into any further details, we were unable to get him to apply himself as a lead negotiator within the party as National Chairman. Instead, he acted as a typical Nigerian politician whose mission in leadership is narrowed to imposing his personal preferences.
If anything, all my public advocacy for reform within the APC during his tenure as National Chairman contested against his disposition to act as a dictator instead of a democrat. I stand by all the positions I took against many of the actions he took as National Chairman. I hold the strong belief that the APC is today faced with the sad reality of having completely lost its bearing and no longer the party with envisioned progressive credentials because we have lost a golden opportunity to get Comrade Oshiomhole during his tenure as National Chairman to provide the needed leadership, like the kind of leadership he provided to the labour movement when he was NLC President. Unlike when he was the NLC President, when he relied on structures of the NLC to take decisions, as National Chairman of APC, he, together with some of his colleagues in the National Working Committee (NWC) arrogated to themselves the powers of other superior organs and proceeded to take arbitrary decisions.
Just imagine the National Administrative Council (NAC) of NLC arrogating to itself the powers of Central Working Committee (CWC) or NEC of NLC. It is certainly inconceivable. Especially also with many of the public allegations of corruption involving large amounts of alleged receipts from aspirants for 2019 elections, it was very troubling for many of us who could attest to Comrade Oshiomhole’s moral standing. We had to summon the courage to engage all those issues publicly so that at the minimum our leaders in the party, including Comrade Oshiomhole could come back to their rational senses.
Between 2019 and 2020, I took every risk to campaign for reconciliation within the APC. Many leaders of the party, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, Comrade Oshiomhole and many Governors at the time labelled me as a paid agent. This much, Comrade Oshiomhole repeated during the launching of APC and Transition Politics. All I can say is that I will remain consistent in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. I demonstrated that when the Caretaker Committee under the leadership of His Excellency Mai Mala decided to work against organising the APC Convention to produce a new leadership, which was its core mandate. I demonstrated that against the leadership of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, which I was part of when he wanted to impose Sen. Ahmed Lawal as the APC Presidential candidate.
All these are now history. President Asiwaju Tinubu is today our President and leader of APC. Whether anyone want to acknowledge it or not, my public advocacy contributed enormously to the emergence of President Asiwaju as the Presidential candidate of the APC. Having won the election, emerged as President and leader of the APC, on account of disagreeing with his decision to nominate Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as National Chairman, I have lost virtually every privilege in the APC. The only thing I have today is my small voice. I may be wrong, but my expectation is that at the minimum President Asiwaju Tinubu will be more democratic than former President Muhammadu Buhari. It is quite unsatisfactory that expressing disagreement to leaders who claimed to be democrats, and progressives will elicit the kind of anger being displayed by both Comrade Oshiomhole and President Asiwaju Tinubu against some of us.
At personal level, with due respect to former President Buhari, I never expected much from him. Immediately after the merger, with the emergence of APC, I campaigned internally among our party leaders from the North not to allow former President Buhari to emerge as the Presidential candidate of the party. My position, at the time, around 2014, was that given all the challenges facing the country, especially insecurity in the North, we needed a President from the North who will be very active in uniting our people and giving clear leadership guidance. My honest view was that former President Buhari will not provide such leadership.
The reality was that former President Buhari was never a team player. All the allegations against him why his military colleagues led by General Ibrahim Babangida overthrew him in August 1985 are there in the public domain. Unfortunately, somehow, based purely on the strong public support he had largely coming from ordinary people in Northern parts of the country, former President Buhari could not be dismissed by anyone desirous of defeating the PDP. As a result, therefore, the whole merger negotiations leading to the emergence of APC was largely driven based on the strategic calculations of taking advantage of his popularity in the North to defeat the PDP. This was successfully achieved in 2015 such that former President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the results of the elections.
Having won the 2015 elections, with former President Buhari emerging as the leader of the APC, the question of whether the APC will provide the needed leadership to change Nigeria, which was our main campaign promise was taken for granted. What was even the change expected was more limited to expression of anger against the PDP. Although, the APC Manifesto provided some broad guidelines, in terms of how all those translated into policy initiatives of the former President Buhari-led APC government was not given much priority. Acknowledged that ahead of the inauguration of the government, there was a policy conference organised by the party early in May 2015. Around the same time, there was also a Transition Committee led by late Alh. Ahmed Joda.
Some of the danger signals highlighting how the APC became weakened in influencing initiatives of the government of former President Buhari began to emerge at that time of organising the transition for the APC government of former President Buhari. One of such signals was when the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was made ordinary member of the Alh. Joda-led Transition Committee setup by President Buhari. With such actions, the APC National Chairman became an appointee of former President Buhari. And subsequently, after the inauguration of the government, there were speculations in the media that Chief Oyegun was lobbying to become the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF). If those speculations were true, those realities would have been responsible for weakening the capacity of the party to relate with the government of former President Buhari based on strong moral recognition and therefore being able to influence its decisions.
Beyond the speculated ambition of the National Chairman, there were rumors that almost all members of the APC NWC lobbied for Ministerial appointments. As it turned out, Mr. B. D. Lawal who was the party’s National Vice Chairman (North-East) was appointed the SGF. The reality of reducing party leaders to the status of being appointees of the President defined relationship between the party and the President. Once that is the case, commitment to change Nigerian politics was compromised. Part of the changes that was expected has to do with changing the practice whereby political practice and culture in political parties is about recruiting loyalists to become members. Based that aspiring candidates for elections with strong financial capability are allowed to control structures of party. Such a person would then proceed to appoint loyalists to serve as party officials.
Eventually, this became the practice in APC. APC Governors at state levels took over control of the structures of the party. Ability of the APC at all levels to regulate the conducts of elected officials it produces was compromised. Issues of membership participation in political activities, including holding party positions and appointments into governments controlled by the party, are restricted to close associates and supporters, while professional management of the party and disciplinary conduct of members are conveniently ignored. A lot of the internal contests in APC is about whether the party should abandon its founding vision and collapse into the conventional way of organising political contests in the country. Somehow, APC, as it is today, is just like PDP and all the other parties. Aspiring politicians and by extension godfathers continue to impose their preferences, with the direct consequences of undermining initiatives within the party to develop new organisational frameworks that can allow for broader participation of members. This confirms Antonio Gramsci’s thesis that ‘the old is dying and the new cannot be born.’
Most of the public debates about internal democracy within Nigerian political parties hardly address the fundamental issues of membership management, party funding and administrations, and regulating the conducts of elected leaders. Sadly, here we are in APC, with leaders who have in the past given Nigerians the needed leadership, including Asiwaju Tinubu and Comrade Oshiomhole, to resist bad policies, also unfortunately implementing policies that have impoverished citizens. And instead of ruling with humility, and review policies when there is public outcry, they are grandstanding and giving excuses. They engage in the familiar blame games, attributing the consequences of government policies to the administration of former President Buhari. This is very uncharitable and dishonest, with due respect to our leaders.
Certainly, the government of former President Buhari did not measure up to the expectations of party members and Nigerians in general. But we must take responsibility that the truth is that the success or failure of former President Buhari’s government represent the collective success or failure of APC as a party. All of us in the leadership of APC, including President Asiwaju Tinubu were complicit in one or the other to all the circumstances that contributed to producing factors that made the administration of former President Buhari to have failed. Unfortunately, as things are, we are also strengthening the hands of President Asiwaju Tinubu to continue the path of failure. Just like we deluded former President Buhari into believing that every decision he took is right, our leaders are today misleading President Asiwaju Tinubu to believe that all his decisions are right.
Painfully, here we are, under President Asiwaju Tinubu, with a government whose initiatives are weak in addressing what is clearing emerging as existential crisis for citizens. During the short life span of the administration, value of incomes has been eroded and the downward slide is continuing almost in geometric scale. Our leaders, including Comrade Oshiomhole want us to believe that the problem is created by the administration of former President Buhari. If that is the case, why were they unable as party leaders to regulate the conduct of former President Buhari and prevent him from failing? Now that President Asiwaju Tinubu is in charge, what is being done to address this challenge and ensure that he does not suffer the fate of his predecessor?
Perhaps, it is important to remind Comrade Oshiomhole of some of the positions he eloquently presented on our behalf when he was NLC President regarding the issue of removal of subsidy, which is one of the decisions that is accounting for today’s hardship. It is on record, Comrade Oshiomhole provided the leadership to oppose withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products based on the demand that before it is done government must guarantee local production of refined petroleum products. We made recommendation that cover short, medium, and long term, which were contained in submissions we made to the Federal Government when Comrade Oshiomhole was NLC President. For instance, as a short-term recommendation, we proposed strategic innovative arrangements with neighboring countries such as Cote d’Ivoire so that storage facilities in those countries with refining capacities could be hired and NNPC supply crude and pay all the refining charges and collect the products for use in our domestic market.
As medium-term recommendations, issues of refiring and restreaming all Nigerian refineries were proposed. In the long run, allowing private investors to setup refineries were proposed. All these were as far back as 2000. At the time President Asiwaju Tinubu took over in May 2023, we were told local refineries will resume local production in December 2023. Good enough, the Dangote refinery had already been commissioned and was being projected to commence supply of refined products to Nigerians in 2024. There is clear national consensus that government should remove subsidy. The big challenge is aligning the removal of subsidy to correspond to clear timelines when local production of refined products can be guaranteed. Once this is not done, the problems of arbitrarily increases in the prices of refined petroleum products based on cost of importation will be the reality.
Compounded by the policy of floating exchange rate of the Naira, it is only natural given our dependence on importation, the value of our currency will be on the decline, which will add to the inflationary pressure on the economy. As things are, these are realities that are producing unbearable circumstances for citizens. As a party member, my expectation is that we can work collectively to strengthen the capacity of President Asiwaju Tinubu to initiate measures to arrest the current crash in the economy. It borders on whether we want to take responsibility and decisively initiate sustainable strategy to resolve the challenges permanently.
Although, the government is taking some measures, which include the directive to immediately release 42,000 metric tons of assorted grains from the strategic reserves to Nigerians and the decision to setup commodity boards to regulate prices of food items in the country, in the long run, the bigger challenge is the issue of guaranteeing local production. A number of these issues takes us back to the whole debate around restructuring, which is about adopting a wholistic, not piecemeal, approach to reforming the Nigerian economy. Both President Asiwaju and Comrade Oshiomhole were in the forefront of the campaign for restructuring the Nigerian economy. Part of the problem created today, is that instead of coming up with a comprehensive strategy with clear timelines, we are having isolated knee jerk initiatives.
We must appeal to our leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu to stop behaving in the mode of repressive leaders. Being leaders elected on the platform of the APC, as true democrats, they should allow structures of the APC to function based on which members and leaders of the APC can have a say in the policy directions of the government. Inability of members to influence actions of the former President Buhari’s government is responsible for whatever could be adjudged as the failure of that government. So long as the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu adopts the old framework of dictating to the party, it has made itself vulnerable to repeat all the mistakes and failings of former President Buhari.
Given this reality, it is painful to admit that both the APC as a party and the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu are becoming increasingly unpopular with Nigerians. No one should be deceived that given the way we are becoming more and more unpopular; we are faced with the risk of rebellion by ordinary Nigerians. The truth is that given the fact that political opposition to APC is weak, and organisations of civil society in the country are also weak, the capacity to provide the needed leadership to the opposition against APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu may be nebulous and desperate, which could become a threat to democracy. To avert such danger, it is important that our leaders return to their old mode of acting as visionary politicians and initiate deeply more substantive political reforms in the country to reposition the APC and return it to its founding vision of becoming a progressive political.
At the same time, we need a different President Asiwaju Tinubu to show up who is a democrat and above all a progressive politician who should have high tolerance level when party members and citizens express disagreements to his decisions. We want a President Asiwaju Tinubu who will be open to engagement by party members and Nigerians. Once the disposition of President Asiwaju Tinubu is limited to accommodating only views that agree to his decisions, it simply means that all hopes are dashed. Leaders of APC must therefore refrain from acts that can only strengthen the hands of President Asiwaju Tinubu to dash the hopes of Nigerians. The least that should happen is that if leaders of the APC have retreated their commitments to making APC a progressive party, they should openly make that declaration. It is my prayer that this is not the case.
However, as it is often said, the test of the pudding is in the eating. Will President Asiwaju Tinubu take the needed steps to review the policy directions of his government such that comprehensive policy framework is put in place, which should include the issue of removal of subsidy and exchange rate and not piecemeal strategy? Will the government accept to subordinate itself to the party based on which it accepts to work with decisions of the party, or will it continue to relate with party leaders as its appointees? These are issues that will define the kind of legacy President Asiwaju Tinubu want to bequeath to Nigerians. Once the commitment to reform the APC is weak and make it function as a progressive party under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the probability of reproducing the mistakes of past leadership will be high. And like past leaders, President Asiwaju Tinubu will end up only adding to the list of disappointingly bad leaders Nigeria has produced. No amount to blaming past leaders will save that from happening except honest political reform to return APC to its founding vision.
Salihu Lukman
Prospects for Reclaiming APC
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
The heartwarming news from Edo State that emerged early on Friday, February 23, 2024 reported His Excellency Bassey Otu, Governor of Cross River State who is the Chairman of the reorganised APC Governorship Election Committee to have declared Sen. Monday Okpebholo as the APC Gubernatorial candidate for the September 2024 election in the state. Polling 12,433 votes, he was reported to have defeated eleven other aspirants. The aspirants are Hon. Dennis Idahosa who polled 6,541, Mr. Agba 2,732, Mr. Amero Sunday 2,562, Clement Mr. Everest Afolabi 2,117, Mr. Gerald Charles 1,181, Dr. Blessing Agbomhere 731, Mr. Gideon O. Ikhanire 720, Sen. O. O. Osunbor 634, Mr. Lucky Imasuen 493, Col. David Imose 423 and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu 378.
Recall that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC declared the Edo primary election, which held on Saturday, February 17, 2024 as inconclusive following the emergence of three aspirants – Hon. Dennis Idahosa, Mr. Anamero Dekeri and Sen. Monday Okpebholo – all claiming to have won the primary. The February 17 primary was conducted under the supervision of His Excellency Hope Uzodinma, Governor of Imo State who was the initial Chairman of the Primary Election Committee. Following the controversial February 17 primary, His Excellency Uzodinma was reported to have declared Hon. Idahosa as the winner of the primary with 40,448 votes. Notably, Governor Otu was Deputy to Governor Uzodinma and the Committee Secretary was Mallam Lawal Garba.
The Chief Returning Officer for the primary was Dr. Stanley Ugboaja who announce a different result, returning Sen. Okpebholo as the winner with 12,194 votes. The February 17 primary was marred with series of allegations of malpractices. Everything about the February 17 APC primary election turn out to basically replayed all the old scripts of attempts to manipulate the emergence of a particular aspirant as the Governorship candidate of the APC for the September 2024 Edo elections. This was almost exactly the script acted in 2020 that produced Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the APC 2020 Edo State Governorship election. The slight difference is that this time around Com. Adams Oshiohmole is not the National Chairman of the APC. Interestingly, His Excellency Hope Uzodinma was also the Chairman of the APC 2020 Primary Election Committee.
It was quite worrisome that the APC was almost setup for another electoral disaster in Edo State. Without attempting to overlook one of the critical challenge of political party development in Nigeria, which is about instituting transparently democratic process of candidate selection process within our political parties, it is a source of pride that the APC NWC under the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was able to quickly arrest the drift, which would have confirmed the APC as an undemocratic party. It is quite commendable that the leadership of the APC was able to retrace its steps by first reorganising the Primary Election Committee and then allowing a level playing field to guarantee the emergence of a popular candidate based on majority votes. Unlike previous cases whereby the Primary Election Committee practically allocates votes to aspirants and declare an anointed person as the winner, it is also commendable that the reorganised APC Primary Election Committee under the leadership of His Excellency Otu chose the path of honour by allowing fair contest to produce the winner of the primary.
The big question is whether this will be the new standard in APC. Before even assessing whether this will be the new standard, the question of whether this will guarantee electoral victory for the APC in the Edo 2024 election need to be interrogated. What is very clear is that given the emergence of Mr. Asue Ighodalo and Mr. Olumide Akpata SAN as PDP and Labour Party candidates for the same elections, it should be expected that the election will be keenly contested. These are two well accomplished and respected persons. APC needed a popular candidate for the election to contest against these heavyweights. Is Sen. Okpebholo the popular candidate APC need to win the Edo 2024 Governorship election?
First, the mere fact that he could stand out and successfully become the arrowhead against imposition of candidate in APC for Edo 2024 election suggest that he enjoys strong support within the APC. Secondly, being the first person to have defeated the PDP since 1999 to emerge as the winner of Edo Central Senatorial zone is indicative of his popularity. Are these enough to guarantee victory for APC? Certainly, not. But what all these mean is that they provided the strong political foundation needed for a strong campaign structure for APC in Edo State. If anything, it can be said without fear of contradiction that Sen. Okpebholo will not be carrying the baggage or liability of any so-called Godfather. That alone is a source of political attraction in a state whose people are known to be very combative against Godfathers.
If anyone aspiring for political office in Edo State misses this point, then such a person should not expect victory in a fair election. However, notwithstanding the combative orientation of Edo politics against Godfathers, any candidate also desirous of winning election in the state must be a unifier. In fact, not just in Edo, this is the reality for every part of the country. Unfortunately, this is an aspect that APC is very weak, largely because of the strong influence of former President Muhammadu Buhari in terms of controlling a mass followership, which earned APC the electoral victory of 2015 and thereafter. We must be honest to admit that the question of getting APC leaders to serve as unifiers is taken for granted by many APC leaders. In fact, the reality is that most APC leaders are contemptuous to the issue of uniting leaders of the party. Many believed that they could win elections without the support of other leaders. This has substantially damaged the electoral viability of the APC and is indeed a major stumbling block to the question of whether the APC will return to its founding vision of progressive politics.
The truth is that once political leaders are contemptuous of uniting leaders and citizens, capacity to make the needed sacrifices to inspire citizens to believe in the party and its candidates will be weak. This a challenge, which has been weakening the APC incrementally over the years. In most cases where APC lost elections in areas where it is adjudged to be strong, inability of candidates and leaders of the party to remain united is one of the major contributory factors. This is certainly one of the problems that made APC to lose the 2020 Edo Governorship election. Will the emergence of Sen. Okpebholo as the candidate of the APC for the 2024 Edo election change that? A strong determinant will be the question of what will define the relationship between Sen. Okpebholo and all the other 11 APC aspirants? What will be the relationship between Sen. Okpebholo and Com. Oshiomhole who was alleged to have supported Hon. Idahosa based on which His Excellency Uzodinma attempted to manipulate his imposition?
Above all, will the reality of the emergence of Sen. Okpebholo based on opposition to manipulation to impose candidates become the new defining orientation for APC? Assuming that is the case, is APC now going to open itself up and allow for fair internal contest to produce candidates for election? How can this be sustained? This can only be achieved when all the structures of the party are allowed to function as provided by the APC constitution. Just imagine for instance that the APC State Caucus in Edo State is allowed to operate and drive the campaigns for the 2024 Edo Governorship election. Once meetings of the State Caucus are allowed to happen on regular basis, where for instance all the aspirants that contested the primary with Sen. Okpebholo are made members, the views of leaders of the party in the state can be accommodated.
Of course, the big challenge is the issues of negotiations in terms of appointments into government after winning the elections. At this stage of organising the campaign, Sen. Okpebholo and leaders of the party must try to focus more on issues of developing guidelines to manage processes of internal negotiations within the party. But once there are agreements, leaders, especially Sen. Okpebholo must respect them. Part of the appeal that must be made to Sen. Okpebholo and party leaders in Edo State is to avoid the familiar problems whereby in the end everything is reduced to invoking the template of winner takes all and the impunity that comes with it.
The problem of winner takes all is the main factor entrenching divisive politics across all our parties. Part of the impunity it produces include the temptation for elected leaders, especially Governors and Presidents to behave as if they are God. This encourages Governors and Presidents not to appreciate the democratic value of allowing structures of the party to function. If there is one area where APC has betrayed all the expectations of becoming a progressive party is the issue of not allowing structures of the party to function. The hard truth is that because the structures of the party are allowed not to function as provided by the constitution of APC, there are many individual leaders of APC in virtually all the states, especially serving Governors who believed that they have every right to impose candidates for elections.
Even at national level, during the 2023 general elections, there were APC leaders who made attempts to push former President Buhari to impose APC Presidential candidate. One of the reasons why President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu won the support of majority party delegates was his opposition to the attempt to impose a Presidential candidate. Now that President Asiwaju Tinubu is the leader of APC, will he take the needed step to ensure that the problem of imposing candidates in APC is permanently resolved by ensuring that all the structures of APC are allowed to function? For APC to return to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party, that is the minimum that must be guaranteed.
Does the emergence of Sen. Okpebholo as APC Governorship candidate for Edo 2024 election suggest that the party is being reclaimed and is on the path of returning to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party? Does the emergence of Sen. Okpebholo even reflect any organised initiative by anyone or group within the APC to return the party to its founding vision. Unfortunately, very unlikely. Even, in the context of Edo State, the struggle against imposition is not mainstreamed as an organised response within the APC, which is responsible for why it is permanently an issues, which if not contained cost the party electoral victory. This was what defeated the APC in 2020.
The sad reality is also that inability to allow structures of political parties to function is also the source of leadership conflict in all the 36 states of the country irrespective of the party in power. Given the way the APC has managed the 2024 Edo Primary election, it gives strong hope and confidence that the party is committed to winning the 2024 Edo Governorship election based on popular votes. Winning popular votes is about winning the confidence of electorates, which will be determined first by how strongly APC members and leaders support the candidate of the party. Given that Sen. Okpebholo is not a product of imposition, ability of Sen. Okpebholo to emerge as a candidate in the election who is a unifier will be determined based on his ability to bring all APC leaders together to support his election campaign.
Capacity to hold regular consultative meetings as provided in the APC constitution is an important precondition for unity of Edo APC leaders to support the election of Sen. Okpebholo as the next Governor of Edo State. The last time the APC probably managed its campaign based on strategy to unite all party leaders was at National level between 2014 and 2015, which strongly contributed to the defeat of the PDP in the 2015 Presidential election. For APC to regain all its electoral advantages, the emergence of Sen. Okpebholo being a popular candidate that won a strong contest and defeated attempt to impose a candidate for the APC, should be consolidated by allowing structures of the APC to operate as provided under the APC constitution. That way, the framework that produces Sen. Okpebholo as candidate can be replicate in every state and party leaders who behave as God, audaciously imposing candidates can be put in their rightful place.
Anything short of this, will reduce Sen. Okpebholo emergence to being an isolated development, which may not guarantee electoral victory even in Edo State. If APC is to be reclaimed and returned to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party, the capacity to oppose imposition of candidates must be a defining attribute. Candidates of the APC must emerge based on fair internal contests, and above all winning majority votes of party delegates and party members. Once capacity to oppose imposition of candidates, become the defining attributes of APC, its ability to win the confidence of citizens and become the barometer for the nations democratic development will be guaranteed.
Salihu Lukman
Beyond Taking Responsibility
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, in a press release, signed by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to President on Media and Publicity, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was reported to have assured Nigerians that the country ‘will survive the economic hardship’ and that he ‘take full responsibility.’ It is quite reassuring that President Asiwaju Tinubu is not in denial. However, the crucial issue is, having taken responsibility, how long would it take to get to the end of the ‘tunnel’ when will the expected ‘light’ begin to shine? What are the specific initiatives of government to take Nigeria to the end of the tunnel and what is the guarantee that bright light and not some other shades of light is what will shine? Being a democracy with an elected government, which claimed to be progressive, to what extent can citizens influence implementation of initiatives to get to the end of ‘tunnel’ and see the ‘light’?
The main issue worrying Nigerians, and particularly APC members, in addition to whether citizens will survive the current hardship being experienced, is also to understand what the details of government initiatives covers to get Nigerians out of the hardship. Both as Nigerians and as members of the APC, these are worrisome realities, which weakens confidence about the prospect for getting to the end of the ‘tunnel’ and whether any bright light will illuminate the lives of citizens. This is partly because what is becoming very disturbing is that since the assumption of office of the President Asiwaju Tinubu, on May 29, 2023, major policy decisions are taken impulsively without clearly defined plans, at least not shared with Nigerians. Three good examples are the issue of removal of subsidy on petroleum products, floating the exchange rate of the Naira, and sanction against Niger Republic following the coup of July 26, 2023.
Adding to the impulsive approach to decision making, on Monday, February 26, 2024 after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Meeting, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris announced the resolution of the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of Steven Oronsaye Committee report. With that decision, out of the 541 Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies that existed in 2012, 263 agencies should be reduced to 161, 38 abolished, 52 merged, and 14 returned to departments in ministries. To facilitate implementation within 12-week (3 months) deadline a committee comprising the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil Service, Attorney General of the Federation, Budget and Planning Ministers, among others has been empaneled.
Giving further explanations about the decisions of FEC, Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, Special Adviser to President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Policy Coordination informed that the committee is to ensure necessary restructuring and legislative amendments to achieve implementation. Ideally, this should have been made an integral part of a policy of rebuilding the Nigerian public service to make it more efficient and productive. After implementation, what is the guarantee that the new outlook will result in reduced cost and will be efficient and productive in delivering services to Nigerians.
As it is, the emphasis is more about trimming the size of of the civil service based on the old neoliberal agenda of World Bank and IMF. The approach, from the way it is being introduced is almost exactly the way previous administrations, especially military governments have initiated public service reforms in the country. Issues of engaging stakeholders aimed at guaranteeing inclusivity in policy implementation would appear to be taken for granted. Even the committee setup excludes critical stakeholders, which means stakeholders can only react to challenges of implementation with hardly any potential to influence or minimise possible negative consequences.
Arguably, with respect to all these issues, it is as if government first announce decisions before beginning to think in terms of what needs to be done to manage the consequences that followed. In which case, rather than acting as a progressive government that is dynamic, action oriented towards improving the welfare conditions of citizens, President Asiwaju Tinubu’s administration is behaving more like a reactionary government. Given such reality, it is almost impossible to predict what the goal or vision of the government is. This was clearly the same problem we had with former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. The incomprehensible reality is that both former President Buhari’s and current President Asiwaju Tinubu’s governments are APC governments, which got elected based on the promise of changing Nigeria. Part of the change that is expected is having a government that guarantees and accommodates inclusivilty, based on which the outcry of citizens is factored and utilised to guide design and implementation of government policy.
From the time of former President Buhari to the current era of President Asiwaju Tinubu, issues of inclusivity are in reverse gear. Rather than engaging Nigerians and getting them to own policies of government, supposedly progressive governments talked down on Nigerians and like dictators almost tell citizens to take as given every decision taken, even when faced with grave consequences, threatening survival as is presently being experienced. With a manifesto that was the product of robust internal consultations during the merger negotiations that produced the APC in 2013, the expectation was that, starting from the government of former President Buhari, through strong engagements of diverse interest groups in the country, the APC will begin to translate the party’s manifesto and all campaign promises into clearly defined policy decisions.
This would have been the progressive thrust of the APC and all its governments, especially the Federal Government. Without doubt, this wasn’t achieved throughout the 8-year tenure of former President Buhari. Any achievement recorded is far below what could have been recorded had the APC manifesto been used as a guide for policy decisions of government between 2015 and 2023. Part of the unwritten expectation of many party members is that the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu in May 2023, will produce a new reality whereby the APC controlled Federal Government would begin to find its bearing from the provisions of the APC manifesto and most, if not all, the lost opportunities will be recovered.
Coming with a well-defined action plan – Renewed Hope 2023 – which clearly further outlined thoughtout roadmap consistent with provisions of the APC manifesto, many expected the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu to come articulated policy plan, which was lacking during the tenure of former President Buhari. Had the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu come with an articulated policy plan oriented to implement both the APC manifesto and Renewed Hope 2023, the government may have saved itself the problem of limiting itself to only reacting to challenges produced by its policies. Instead, it would have been strengthened to at the minimum simulate engagements with Nigerians across diverse interests to negotiate expeditious implementation and perhaps fasttrack getting to the end of the ‘tunnel’ and produce the expected ‘light’ that should shine on Nigerians to herald the better nation, which is being promised.
Unfortunately, the most unexpected manifestation of lack of inclusivity in democracy is what appears to be a conscious demobilisation of the APC as a political party. From a situation whereby the challenge was to enforce the activation of party structures as provided in the constitution of the APC, through which party members and leaders could have a say in the process of managing governments produced by the APC, the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu has succeeded in completely insulating itself from basically all structures of the party. Few party leaders have access to him, which except for the National Chairman and may be National Secretary, other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) could at best be having distant or shadowy access to the President and other government functionaries. Perhaps, unlike during the tenure of former President Buhari when National Chairman meet the President periodically together with other members of the NWC, at least up to June 2020 during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the current reality is that only the National Chairman meets the President.
The consequence is that we are in a democracy that produce a ruling party, which scorn meetings. We have elected self-centred Presidents who hardly see the value of other party members. From the time of former President Buhari to today’s President Asiwaju Tunubu era, the orientation of government and party politics is that President is omnipotent, who no one can question. This has continued in a worse form under President Asiwaju Tinubu largely because at least under former President Buhari, he never invokes his omnipotent status to nullify subsisting agreement within the party. Interestingly, President Asiwaju Tinubu who is expected to be more democratic and progressive as well, one of the first exercise of his omnipotent leadership is to nullify zoning agreement within the party by moving the position of National Chairman out of North-Central to North-West with hardly any consultation with party leaders in both the two zones.
Betraying any commitment for justice in terms of distribution of positions to the zones, the new configuration of distribution of political offices in the country favours the North-West with Kano State alone occupying two major positions of National Chairman of APC and Deputy Senate President. The North-Central completely excluded from any political position. How can a party envisioned to be progressive produced such a backward unjust reality? Given the combined reality APC has produced, from the time of former President Buhari to President Asiwaju Tinubu, it is difficult to justify all the promises made to Nigerians producing all the electoral victories since 2015. What is responsible for all these?
Some of the explanations being canvassed by especially many disappointed APC members is that both former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu just wanted to win election and become Presidents of Nigeria. Once they achieved that, any other thing with respect to good government and policy orientation is hardly a priority. Impliedly, this means that the whole merger exercise producing the APC was a deception. Rightly or wrongly, many APC leaders and members have come to accept this explanation as the main objective for the merger. Sadly, the current economic hardship arising from impulsive decisions of the Asiwaju Tinubu government without an articulated policy plan is strengthening the belief that the commitments of both former President Buhari and President Asiwaju is not more than becoming Presidents, which they have achieved.
With APC now increasingly becoming a closed shop with virtually all its organs demobilised and the omnipotent status of the President strengthened, what is the future of the APC? Being an envisioned progressive party but end up producing progressive governments in reverse gear, what is the implication? Is it a question of leaders becoming indifferent to the electoral fortunes of the party? Does the fact of being indifferent to the electoral fortune of the party also mean being unconcerned about the future of democracy in Nigeria?
These questions are being asked not in agreement with any conclusion of being indifferent but to attempt to rekindle the conscience of our leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu. Without any hesitation, one can argue that at the rate we are going, our party, APC, and our leaders have shortchanged Nigerians. What Nigerians are having today wasn’t what was promised at all. The most disturbing reality is that given that the current economic hardship is produced during the first term of President Asiwaju Tinubu, with no end in sight, does it then mean that President Asiwaju Tinubu is not interested in second term? Certainly not. If he is interested in second term, why is he managing affair of government like a military dictator, shutting down the structures of the party and talking down on citizens like a philosopher king who has absolute knowledge of what will produce possible happiness for citizens?
Unless the objective is to secure second term by other means and not votes of electorate, there can not be any logical reasoning. Could that be the reason for the newfound love with some identified political merceneries who were strongly opposed to the election of President Asiwaju Tinubu? How successful could they be? If military governments with all their recruited merceneries could fail to guarantee their survival how could anyone imagine that merceneries could win second term for the President Asiwaju? It is so painful that party members have have been denied access to meeting President Asiwaju Tinubu but some shylock political merceneries have now become the faces and promoters of our so-called progressive government.
Where are our founding leaders who negotiated the formation of the APC? What exactly do our founding leaders want to leave behind as their political legacy? Is it that they have also resigned and accepted that the whole APC project is limited to making it possible for former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu to become President? In that case, why should Nigerians trust any political leader in future when they come with proposals for mergers, or even political alliances? Certainly, once leaders can not function within structures of political parties, such that leaders only operate based omnipotent status, no matter how loosely defined, commitment of leaders to democratic development of Nigeria will be weak. As it is, commitment of President Asiwaju to democratic development of Nigeria is increasingly being withdrawn. And so long as he continues to manage his government without allowing structures of the APC to operate and through that contribute to the decisions of government, President Asiwaju Tinubu, just like former President Buhari’s government will risk being on the path of continuous betrayal of expectations of Nigerians. Worst still, being a government that detests inclusivity, it will be anything but progressive.
It is my hope that President Asiwaju will recover his democratic credentials and reactivate his progressive politics before it is too late. As long as he continues to operate a closed government in which party leaders and members are unable to access him, he will continue to miss the golden opportunity God has given him to put Nigeria on the path of sustained democratic development. No amount of mercenery propaganda will change that. May Allah (SWT) give him and all our leaders the necessary guide to return to the path of democratic and progressive politics. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Burden of Leadership
Open Letter to APC Leaders
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
It was Mallam Aminu Kano who once said, ‘anyone who want to be a leader must be the servant, not the boss, of those he wants to serve’. The context and circumstances that made Mallam Aminu to make such statement must be in relation to how politicians easily get tempted into believing that once they can get into political office, they have been vested with the powers of becoming overlords and do as they wish, converting public resources into personal wealth. In other words, they become bosses and electorates reduced to being servants. In the process losing the essential requirement qualifying them to serve as leaders of the people.
It was easy for the founding fathers of Nigeria and the first-generation politicians to cautioned against failure of elected representatives to emerge as the legitimate and conventional leaders of citizens. Certainly, if one combs speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Joseph Tarka, and many other founding leaders of this our great country, one will find similar caution. Unfortunately, here we are, decades after all these cautions, having to live with the painful reality whereby the main attraction of joining politics is that elected leaders are indeed anything but leaders. From President to Governors, legislators, and political appointees such as Ministers, chief executives of government parastatals and Commissioners at state levels, they are the most powerful people and perhaps the richest categories of Nigerians on account of the resources they manage. They are today’s tin gods who see citizens as their servants.
We can rationalise all these with reference to the damages of more than 30 years of military rule. However, we need to also take responsibility that in different ways, both as politicians and as citizens, we have contributed to producing the unfortunate Nigerian reality we all have today. One good example is how we all worked hard to produce the APC, campaigned for the defeat of PDP, only to produce a government in which both party leaders and other Nigerians had almost zero influence in terms of its decisions whether with respect to people it appoints or even its policies. Party leaders cheapened themselves into acquiring cheap advantages of accessing elective or appointive positions on the platform of the party. Yet, this is supposedly a progressive party.
Consequently, instead of producing a government that should have led the process of changing Nigeria, which was our campaign promise in 2015, we ended with a government that is at best comfortable with all the realities we campaigned to change. Largely because our elected leaders are comfortable with realities of producing elected leaders who behave as overlords, APC elected leaders, since 2015, have failed to build the APC as a progressive political party, different from PDP and other parties. Interestingly, one of the elected leaders produced by APC was arguably one of the most popular politicians in the political history of the country. One would expect that at least, being very popular from the North, under his leadership, he will be able to provide the needed leadership to resolve most of the challenges facing the North. Without going into any judgmental assessment, the North is possibly worse off under his leadership. If anything, certainly the problem of insecurity in the North outlived his leadership.
Again, being party members and leaders, we must all take responsibility. Whatever was the shortcomings of the APC under the leadership of former President Muhammadu Buhari, party members and leaders are culpable in varying degrees. Perhaps, our major guilt is the expectation that a successor administration produced by the party will correct those shortcomings and return the APC to the path of producing a progressive government, which will be inclusive and manage the affairs of the country based on strategy of mobilising Nigerians to participate in initiatives of rebuilding the country. Integral to that is the task of returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive political party. Contrastingly, we have produced another closed government, which is anything but progressive.
Expectations of party leaders and member that President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s leadership will return APC to its founding vision were strengthened by his activist prodemocracy background and his records as Governor of Lagos State. Many APC leaders and members believed that the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as successor to former President Buhari would be a radical departure from all the disappointments, we had between 2015 and 2023. Sadly, immediately following the electoral victory of 2023, our leaders may have devalued themselves into a subservient relationship with President Asiwaju Tinubu. Almost all our leaders, with probably negligible exceptions became self-centred and limit engagements with President Asiwaju Tinubu to only what they can get from him in terms of appointments into his government. Questions of agenda of the government and the vision driving the government is simply ignored.
And typical Nigerian politician, President Asiwaju Tinubu used that to strengthen his hold on both the government and the party. Already, with the way former President Buhari had managed the country for eight years, in the same political orientation PDP ran the country for sixteen years, President Asiwaju Tinubu is justifiably also continuing that path. Although being a self-acclaimed Awoist and progressive, not coming from a military background like former President Buhari, the expectations of many is that he will at least be more democratic. This should connote more consultations, based on which perhaps the structures of the APC as a political party would be made more functional.
The first test was the question of zoning the leadership positions of the 10th National Assembly and by extension President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government. Confronted with a hostile party leadership under Sen. Abdullahi Adamu who was decidedly anti-zoning, to be fair to President Asiwaju Tinubu, he was able to handle the situation to the best of his ability, based on which he produced a balanced leadership for the 10th National Assembly. Unfortunately, most of our APC leaders from the North, for whatever reasons were speculated to have worked at variance with the initiatives of President Asiwaju Tinubu to produce a balanced leadership.
Perhaps, that could have been partly responsible for the complete lack of attempt to forge a united front with President Asiwaju Tinubu and party leaders from North in terms ensuring that the successor to Sen. Abdullahi Adamu as APC National Chairman is produced through consultations. With Sen. Adamu coming from Nasarawa State, North-Central, ideally provisions of Article 31.5(i) of APC Constitution should have been activated to get the APC State Executive Committee in Nasarawa State to nominate a replacement from the state. Instead, unilaterally, President Asiwaju Tinubu nominated Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from Kano State without even consulting APC leaders from North-West. One would expect that with former President Buhari coming from North-West, at the minimum President Asiwaju Tinubu should have consulted him on the choice of Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman. It is very doubtful if that was done.
As a result, from a party envisioned to be progressive, we are increasingly moving in the direction of strengthening reactionary orientation. If the truth is to be told, as it is, we practically have a party limited to producing candidates for elections in which Governors and some anointed party leaders in states without APC government exercise prerogatives beyond any rational expectations associated with any democracy. The issue of ensuring that party structures exercise some responsibilities in managing governments and influencing decisions of elected leaders is simply sacrificed. All the structures of the party have been frozen. Except for National Working Committee (NWC), which is an administrative organ expected to implement decisions of higher organs, no organ of the party is functional.
Sadly, with such ugly reality, APC may have succeeded in producing some of the worst governors in the history Nigeria. For us in the North, we have produced not only absentee Governors, but Governors and politicians who now go for lesser Hajj almost in the same frequency they go for weekly Jumma’at prayers, all probably with public resources. One of our Governors in North-Central is behaving like someone possessed or acting under the influence of some addictive, making scandalous policy statements, only to retract them, perhaps when he comes back to his senses. Painfully, both the party and all our political leaders just watch and behave indifferently.
One would have wished that the eight-year tenure of former President Buhari was used to inculcate some minimum standards expected to be respected by all APC elected leaders. A golden opportunity was lost, the country is faced with so much disadvantaged and a government produced by the APC is unable to put in place a clear policy plan to get the country out of the mess. Depressingly, this doesn’t appear to be a source of concern for most of our political leaders. So long as our leaders have access to political offices, they seem to be unconcerned with all the tragic realities facing the country. The conclusion is that our leaders occupying political offices are busy accumulating financial resources legitimately or otherwise for future elections.
We must cautioned our leaders, as things are, they are on the verge of self-destruction. It is very clear that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s respect for political leaders in the country is weak largely because of the failure to act as leaders. Virtually, all APC leaders are behaving more like bosses. Accordingly, this is now a source of threat with the potential danger of leaders completely losing relevance and unable to command the respect of citizens. Largely, because of inability to serve as leaders, most of our politicians have lost the capacity to be selfless. This has produced a situation whereby President Asiwaju Tinubu seems to be contemptuous of all APC leaders and therefore proceeding manage affairs of the country without consultation as required by the APC Constitution.
Consequently, for whatever reasons, APC leaders serving as Ministers and other senior positions in government also hardly consult anybody. Why should this be the case? With such reality, they are weakly accountable to the APC. Although many of these appointees are highly respected former Governors who ordinarily would have been members of the National Caucus of the Party, non-functionality of organs has reduced them the ordinary appointees of the President with very weak influence in his decisions. These are people who ordinarily in their true make-up, would have risen to the challenge of returning APC to its founding vision of ensuring at the minimum the emergence of an inclusive, not closed, government. This would have compelled some levels of strong engagement with President Asiwaju Tinubu. This was what happened when under the leadership of former President Buhari, there was the need to contest attempts to impose a Presidential candidate on the party from the North. It was these same leaders, then acting in different fronts, both within and outside the structures of the party, who forced an engagement with former President Buhari to make it possible for the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of APC.
Today, all that is history and we are almost back to where we were before 2015, if not worse in terms of producing respected political leaders who command strong influence in managing affairs elected governments, at all levels. And there is a conspiracy of silence by our APC leaders. It is either our leaders have compromised themselves or they have mismanaged themselves so much that they cannot survive without government patronage, which is now the prerogative of President Asiwaju Tinubu. It is my hope that this is not the case. Proving that will require that at the minimum our leaders recover their capacity to organise themselves and initiate processes of engaging President Asiwaju Tinubu. As it is, the inability to organise and initiate engagement with President Asiwaju Tinubu will in the long run be injurious to both to the political future of President Asiwaju Tinubu and the democratic development of the country at large. The least will be for APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu to lose elections for second term in 2027.
The bigger threat is the looming danger of rebellion against the harsh living conditions facing citizens, which may come with expression of wildcat anger against political leaders in the country. Potentially, this may be spontaneous without any leadership. Already, some of the flashes of protests, including the looting of warehouses and trucks conveying food items by angry citizens protesting hunger are bearing some of these spontaneous leaderless characteristics. And because our political leaders are behaving more as overlords, instead of taking steps to initiate engagements and avert such danger, they are all becoming onlookers, watching from their comfort zones.
As leaders in APC, we must accept responsibility for the present unfortunate reality whereby for the first time we have produced an elected government, which is practically scornful to other political leaders. Since the time of former President Buhari, we have succeeded in producing elected governments that audaciously imagine that they can manage the affairs of this country exclusively without allowing permissible consultations as provided in the APC Constitution. Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with all his military background, never indulge in such grave undemocratic practice. If, for any reason, during the tenure of former President Buhari, this was the case, why should President Asiwaju, being an Awoist, a democrat and supposedly progressive politician condone and adopt such undemocratic conduct? Why should President Asiwaju Tinubu adopt the current unfortunate reality of practically winding up the APC? Is his leadership of the party assuming the form of serving as the Receiver-Manager for the APC?
If our leaders truly want to earn the respect of Nigerians, having succeeded in getting President Asiwaju Tinubu elected, why should they limit the scope of their relationship with President Asiwaju Tinubu’s administration to only issues of being appointed into positions in his government? If our leaders could all rise to block the attempted injustice against the Southern part of Nigeria by former President Buhari some people around the President attempted to impose a so-called consensus Presidential candidate from the North, why should our leaders condone the current injustice against North-Central by President Asiwaju Tinubu with Dr. Ganduje now serving as National Chairman? Why should our leaders from North-West for instant find it convenient to adopt the current mode of conspiracy of silence with Dr. Ganduje single-handedly nominated by President Asiwaju Tinubu as National Chairman of APC, when already Kano State has produced Deputy Senate President from Kano State? Is Kano State the only state in North-West? Where is the sense of justice of our APC leaders?
The biggest worry is the fact that as it is today, it is difficult to dispute the allegation that APC is nothing more than an electoral vehicle to grab power. Even with that, the objective of grabbing power is limited to supporting former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu to achieve their ambitions of becoming Presidents. All the sacrifices made by leaders of legacy parties that merged to produce the APC have been jettisoned. It is very disappointing that we have successfully created a party, which has won three elections consecutively with hardly anything to show for it other than leaders who continue to manage the affairs of government exclusively in mode of dictatorship.
Given all these, any conclusion about APC shortchanging Nigerians can hardly be dismissed. The challenges facing us as a nation, especially having succeeded in producing the APC and winning elections three times, producing leaders who will act as servants to citizens, not bosses, is paramount. Our leaders, who were in the forefront of the struggle for justice within the APC, blocking former President Buhari from imposing a Presidential candidate, must wake up to the challenge of making APC become at least functional, if it cannot be returned to its founding vision of being a progressive party. Making APC a functional party is about ensuring that all organs of the party are allowed to operate as provided in the Party’s constitution. Anything short of that will only contribute to destroying democracy in Nigeria. Democracy should be about inclusivity through meetings of organs of the parties. Once party organs are shut down, democracy will be as good as dictatorship. So long as that is the case, it will only confirm that APC have shortchanged Nigerians.
Our leaders who led the merger negotiation to produce APC in 2013 owe it to Nigerians to call President Asiwaju Tinubu to order and get him to recover whatever is left of his democratic and progressive credentials. Both as APC and Nigerians, we all have a responsibility to make all the needed sacrifices to win President Asiwaju Tinubu administration back and put it on the path of emerging as an inclusive government managed by an envisioned progressive party, APC. APC leaders and President Asiwaju Tinubu must resist the temptation of toying the path of self-destruction by continuing to operate as a closed government. Achieving that will require readiness on the part of all APC leaders to make all the sacrifices to regain their respect back based on which they emerge as leaders and not bosses.
Salihu Lukman
Kaduna State Political Theatrics
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
At a Town Hall Meeting in Kaduna, on Saturday, March 30, 2024, Mallam Uba Sani, Governor of Kaduna State raised the alarm that he inherited huge debt of $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the administration of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai. Because of this huge burden, out of N10 billion due the State from Federal Allocation, N7 billion was deducted, which leave only N3 billion. With such reality, the State is finding it difficult to honour its monthly salary obligation of N5.2 billion to its workers.
Acknowledging that this is certainly a very challenging reality, it is important that this issue is not reduced to the politics of blame game and loud noise making with praise singers on both side defending their benefactors. In the first place, the issue of the huge debt burden of Kaduna State is public secret. It is a matter that is very known to His Excellency Uba Sani. Although there could new insight that he must have encountered after taking over as Governor, I want to believe that he came well prepared and ready to deal with the challenges and move Kaduna State forward from where Mallam Nasir left it. Part of the objective of the Town Hall could as well be to mobilise the people of Kaduna State to support the initiatives of Kaduna State government under the leadership of Mallam Uba Sani.
Unfortunately, as it is, the report seems to be sensetionalised, suggesting the reality of strong disagreement and breakdown of relationship between Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Mallam Uba Sani, which could as well be the case. I make this point cautiously having practically lost contact with both Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Mallam Uba Sani since my resignation as National Vice Chairman (North-West) in July 2023. I was only privilege to meet Mallam Uba once and there after couldn’t speak with him in any form. I only encountered Mallam Nasir once during the birthday reception of Chief Bisi Akande at the Presidential Villa and we only greeted and moved on.
This notwithstanding, I can’t claim ignorance about some of the dynamics playing out in Kaduna State. I am aware of the growing animosity between Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba, or at least I hear some of it from sources close to both of them. However, given the reality that I am not close to both Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba, I opted to keep my distance and not meddle into a dispute between two very close friends. My expectation was that they will resolve the matter. Sadly, this doesn’t appear to be the case. I think, people close to Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba are also not helping matters.
Perhaps, in making this intervention, I need to clarify that even before my resignation from the leadership of APC, my relationship with both Mallam Nasir and Mallam Uba is that of mutual respect, which did not translate into a strong political relationship back in Kaduna State. Having expressed my disagreement with Mallam Nasir back in 2014 to the extent of aspiring against his ambition to contest for Governor, I was never recognised as a stakeholder in the APC in Kaduna State. Perhaps, the only exception was when I became the National Vice Chairman (North-West). The dynamics that made that possible had to do with my role in many of the campaigns to reform the APC at National level, which pitched me against some party leaders and Governors, and my subsequent resignation as the Director General of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF). During those campaigns, I will say I am lucky to be on the same side with Mallam Nasir.
It is to the credit of Mallam Nasir that he was able to see beyond our differences and in March 2022 nominated me to contest for the position of National Vice Chairman (North-West). I make this clarification largely in response to many of the views held by many party leaders that Mallam Nasir is my sponsor. While it is true that especially with reference to reforming the party at national level, we seem to agree, when it comes to issues back in Kaduna State, we have strong disagreement. In fact, if the truth is to be told, most of the problems of the party at National level are also committed by the party in Kaduna, if not worse, under the leadership of Mallam Nasir. The hard truth also is that Mallam Uba was one of his strongest collaborators in Kaduna State.
The reality was that everything Mallam Nasir did during his eight (8) year tenure was endorsed and supported by Mallam Uba. Certainly, the decision of Mallam Nasir to anoint Mallam Uba as his successor must have been informed by the consideration of their strong personal relationship. That shortly after taking over, the two friends are falling apart is most unfortunate and only remind one about what played out between Alh. Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi and Arc. Namadi Sambo between 2007 and 2010. These were very close friends and business partners, on account of which Alh. Makarfi anoint Arc. Sambo to emerged as his successor in 2007. Till today, the relationship between the two is still very bad.
Across the country, similar reality is replicated virtually across all the states in the country. All the challenges that create worsened relationship between predecessors and successors highlight either the complete absence or very weak party structures in the determination of successors. Across all parties in Nigeria, serving Governors exercise monopoly in producing their successors. This is one area that highlight the complete failure of APC as an envisioned progressive party. And as it is, beyond Kaduna State, there are similar dynamics playing our in many APC States, and at best, the party leadership at National level is simply behaving as a distant observer. Check what is going on in Benue, Ebonyi and Cross River. This shouldn’t be the case.
Ideally, party leaders at both the state and national level should have the capacity to intervene to resolve the challenge. At the minimum, they should be able to intervene to strengthen the capacity to State governments to manage challenges of governance, which is the main highlight of Mallam Uba’s presentation at the Town Hall meeting. Certainly, Mallam Uba’s submission would have come with some indications of how the state government intends to resolve the challenge of huge debt burden. Somehow, the media reports have not emphasised that. Consequently, and predictably, supporters of Mallam Nasir have started responding and if care is not taken the matter will be reduced to public debate between supporters of Mallam Nasir and supporters of Mallam Uba, and in the circumstance the whole issue of what needs to be done to address the problem of Kaduna State huge debt will be left unattended to.
Without any excuse, all of us in APC in Kaduna must take responsibility for the bad situation facing the State. In taking responsibility, we must appeal to Mallam Uba Sani to take every necessary step to undertake inventory of the debt of the state and how it was utilised. Part of what is needed now very urgently is to assess whether there are cases of diversion, which if established should be recovered.
More substantively, there is the need to come up with new initiatives towards mobilising new resources for the state. Resolving the challenge of today’s huge debt burden require new initiatives beyond what is currently being undertaken. Mallam Uba need to setup a committee to review current challenges and recommend what needs to be done both in the short, medium, and long term. This more about producing a blueprint that will guide initiatives of government across all sectors to address the challenge. For instance, being a largely agrarian state that is riddled with insecurity, boosting agricultural production is contingent on securing the farms. Already, one of the steps taken by the young administration of Mallam Uba is to recruit additional 7,000 personnel into the Kaduna State Viginlance Service (KADVIS). This certainly would have increased the salary bill of the State Government. Shouldn’t it be possible to explore partnership between the State Government and Farmers and deplore the services of KADVIS personnel towards protecting farmlands in the state?
The details of the partnership between the state government and farmers could be negotiated, which should include what needs to be done to mobilise funding for the scheme. Integral to initiatives to protect farmlands are issues of extension services provided by Kaduna State Ministry of Agriculture to farmers. It has been on the decline over the years. Related to this is the whole question of reviewing some of the loans taken to boost agriculture production in the state. Without going into details, there are clearly some of the loans running into hundreds of million of Dollars. The state government must take steps to evaluate these loans and deal with all factors that must have worked against achieving the objectives earmarked for the loans.
The point is, we need to move away from noise making to substantive issues of strengthening governance. Without prejudice to all the initiatives being taken by the government of Mallam Uba, the debate about the huge debt profile of Kaduna state must be about strengthening the capacity of government to resolve the challenge. It is not simply about Mallam Nasir Vs Mallam Uba. Already, I have seen young people jumping into the debate in a very disrespectful manner. We must cautioned that as much as everyone is welcomed to make contribution, such contribution must be about what needs to be done to resolve the challenge, which is a function of knowledge. Afterall, we pride ourselves in Kaduna State as a Centre of Learning. Being a Centre of Learning requires that our politics should be about application of knowledge.
My final appeal to Mallam Uba and all our leaders both in Kaduna State and at National level is that we must summon the courage to admit our failure as a political party. Whatever could have been the shortcomings of Mallam Nasir as a Governor of Kaduna State between 2015 and 2023 would have been strengthened by the absence of a strong functional party structure, which could have checked or at the least moderated the excesses of Mallam Nasir. Those realities are still there today and if allowed to continue could lead Mallam Uba also in a wrong direction, whose implication may only become another subject of contestation between him and his successor.
The truth is democracy is as bad as any dictatorship so long as political parties continue to behave as shadow participants or observers to the business of governance. Like Mallam Nasir once thought he was incontrovertible, if care is not taken, all the current issues about Kaduna State huge debt profile may end up only making Mallam Uba to also assume similar incontrovertible outlook. Praise singers must not be allowed to take over a critical debate which is about the future of the state. Such a debate must not be reduced to the political theatrics of determining the future of the state in terms of only who is right or wrong between a predecessor and successor. Such an approach only stagnated the state in the past. In fact, it only holds actors at standstill. Just check where Alh. Makarfi and Arc. Sambo today are politically!
Salihu Lukman
Wither Nigerian Democracy: Urgency of Rebuilding Political Parties
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
The emergence of APC in 2013 following the successful merger negotiations of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Congress (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and Owelle Rochas Okorocha’s faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) raised the hope of Nigerians about the prospect of producing a new political paradigm whereby the question of internal democracy within the new party will be stronger. Towards the conclusion of the merger negotiation, a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – New PDP – comprising five PDP Governors, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and many PDP serving Senators and House of Representatives members, also joined the new party.
The expectation of Nigerians was that the culture of imposition of candidates for elections, which became the major attribute of PDP, will not be associated with APC. At least, in 2014, the APC was able to substantially meet those expectations as the primary conducted by the party was adjudged to be fair and inclusive. Across virtually all the states, candidates produced by the APC for 2015 general elections were supported by all aspirants that contested primary elections. At national level, after the emergence of former President Muhammadu Buhari as the Presidential candidate of the APC for the 2015 elections, the other four aspirants, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Mr. Sam Nda Isiah of blessed memory, all declared their support for former President Buhari. Alh. Atiku Abubakar, in particular, expressed delight at the transparent conduct of the primaries and remarked that APC would “renew our democracy in the country” emphasising that the APC Presidential primaries is the “most credible and transparent election to be conducted by any political party.”
Nine years down the line, realities have changed. Culture of imposition of candidates is gradually taking over the APC. Beyond the creeping culture of imposition, organs of the party as provided in the APC Constitution are not allowed to function. Hardly any meeting is taking place outside that of the National Working Committee (NWC), whose main function is administrative saddled with the responsibility of implementing decisions of higher organs – National Executive Committee (NEC), National Advisory Council (NAC) and National Caucus. In the absence of meetings of these organs, the NWC has usurped their functions and powers. The implication of this is that invariably the APC has become very weak in terms of influencing initiatives of elected representatives. Over time, within a space of less than nine years, APC governments at both federal and state levels have been alienated from APC members and leaders. To the extent of such alienation, elected representatives are behaving more like emperors, which increasingly is producing leadership crisis across all the states, especially in states controlled by the APC.
Being the ruling party, what affects the APC seems to be infecting all other parties in the country, in varying proportion. Problems of not allowing organs of the party to function have spread to the PDP. Leadership crisis is also consuming the Labour Party. The problems may be worse in other parties. Without doubt, Nigeria is faced with deeper crisis of accountability. Elected leaders in Nigeria are behaving more like emperors. Culture of debate and contestation associated with democracy are being destroyed. Sycophancy has taken over politics. Political survival is today a function of being conformist. Even in APC, with claimed progressive orientation, leaders avoid open disagreement with elected leaders. Even when elected leaders take decisions that are unfair and unjust, leaders simply mute themselves.
Coming from the background of opposition to military rule, with all the attendant risk, it is very difficult to reconcile how under a democracy Nigerian politicians are being subdued. Otherwise, how can anyone explain the emergence of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the National Chairman of APC? I wish Dr. Ganduje has proven some of us wrong by demonstrating capacity and competence to lead the APC. Sadly, instead, with all that has happened since his emergence, he has proved almost all our criticism right. He has in every respect betrayed the confidence of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and in many respect put the President in a very difficult embarrassing position. Painfully, all the challenges facing the party before his emergence have gotten worse. Hardly, has he taken any initiative to resolve challenges facing the party. Instead, he uses the opportunity of being the National Chairman to restore lost privileges, having lost the elections in Kano State. For instance, one of the thing he did once he emerged as the National Chairman was to appoint more than 270 aides, most of them from Kano State. Basically bringing all the people he worked with when he was Governor of Kano State to the APC National Secretariat.
Allegation of corruption in the APC under the leadership of Dr. Ganduje are becoming stronger. With hardly clearly defined funding framework, issues of lack of transparent financial management and diversion of resources in APC find expression in the open media. How can a party that has made so much history, emerging with so much high expectations, be reduced to the rubble and against the grain of almost everything it has promised? How can the first party in Nigeria to emerge following a successful merger negotiation of opposition parties, and the first to defeat a ruling party, be the one being alleged to have dash the expectations of citizens in ways that dismissed all that has been achieved to individual ambitions of leaders? It is quite worrisome that political realities under the APC since 2015 are being equated to situations under PDP between 1999 and 2015. This is simply suggestive of a wide gap between what was promised and what is being delivered. Arguably, we could contest this, but given the reality of insecurity in the country, for instance, which was one of our major campaign promises in 2015, we need to admit the existence of this gap.
Perhaps, a major issue, which must be recognised is that the existence of gap between what was promised and what is being delivered is not on account of failure to initiate actions in line with what was promised. Certainly, actions were initiated. But combinations of slow phase of initiatives, often not in line with specifications provided in the APC manifesto and poor or weak relationship with citizens are responsible for the existence of such gaps. Ideally, being a party envisioned to be progressive, it should be expected that APC will take steps to strengthen relationship with citizens. Developing strong relationship with citizens should take bearing from having stronger relation with party membership. For a party to have stronger relation with members presupposes the existence of functional party structures, based on which meetings are taking place on regular basis.
These were some of the expected changes APC promised, which would have earned it the desirable progressive credentials. Arguably, rather than expanding the democratic space in Nigerian politics, Nigerian democracy is being contracted. As a result, capacity of party members to influence decisions of elected representatives, across all Nigerian parties, is almost zero. Both at National and State levels, governments have been unable to meet the expectations of both party members and Nigerians. Increasingly, this is weakening the support base of political parties. The danger this posses is that out of frustration, Nigerians could support any opposition candidate and party to defeat a ruling party with hardly any prospect of changing existing reality. Very worrisome also is the fact that elected leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu are in denial of this danger or believe that they can surmount it without resolving the problem of imposition of candidates and discretionary decisions of the National Chairman, which undermines internal party democracy.
The fundamental question, which needs to be addressed is, does this means that APC, which emerged with all the prospects of changing this ugly political reality has been lost? Or is it a case that the vision that guided the whole merger negotiation, which produced the APC is no longer relevant? To the contrary, more than ever before, the vision of producing a progressive party, which should produce progressive governments that are both responsive and representatives to the wishes Nigerians, is very desirable. Being responsive and representative can only emerge by producing a party that is functional. Part of what the current reality of Nigerian democracy has produced is the question of whether if APC is unable to meet the expectations of Nigerians, can a new party achieve that? Or if both former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu have disappointed Nigerians, can Nigerians invest their trust on another leader or leaders?
Whichever way it is looked at, it boils down to choices. Opportunistic politicians will seek to impose their choices based on estimation of personal electoral advantages. Despondently, also, is the corresponding reality whereby those who dared the odds and cautioned leaders against the domineering practices of sycophancy become outcast. Leaders prefer to relate with sycophants than to accommodate people who are truthful. Being declared outcasts, many of us are being denied access to leaders at both national and state levels. Certainly, we must accept responsibility for whatever situation we are confronted with. However, rather than follow the opportunistic bandwagon of becoming conformists and supporting the current democratic recession in the country, it will be more honourable to remain resilient and continue to campaign for deeper political reform. It certainly come with heavy cost, including loss of personal privileges.
Without doubt, many are not preferred for such challenges. Nonetheless, these are challenges that must be overcome if the campaign for deeper reform in Nigerian politics must succeed. On no account, should the campaign for deeper political reform in Nigeria be allowed to be reduced to conformist standards. Once that is the case, we will continue to elect leaders that would fail to meet expectations of citizens. It will be more prospective to reform current leaders than produce new leaders based on the expectation that, that alone can resolve our political challenges. To the extent of producing new leaders who are unable to meet citizens expectations, Nigerian democracy will be weak in terms of responsiveness and representation and therefore, anything but democratic. What is it that can be done to address such problem?
Admittedly, there are many responses to this practical question. Depending on the mission of individuals in politics, many will condemn existing political parties and current leaders of the country. As much as it is true that our parties as they are today, all have problems, and our leaders seems to be comfortable with our parties as they are with all the problems they bear, the truth is that unless we can change the orientation of parties in the country, any new party created will be consumed by the same old problem. Similarly, any leader produced will replicate the same reality of being weakly accountable. Otherwise, how else can anyone explain the outlook of former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu? As it is, the capacity to reform Nigerian politics is largely dependent of being able to influence decisions of President Asiwaju Tinubu. Otherwise, at least for next three years, if not eight years, we will be stuck with this ugly reality.
Unlike many, I believe that, with all our shortcomings in APC and weak capacity to access and influence decisions of President Asiwaju Tinubu, all is not lost. To the extent that APC leaders and President Asiwaju Tinubu can consider proposals for internal reform of the APC, the prospects of APC rectifying its shortcomings, returning to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party are there. For instance, it is not a secret that leaders of APC, perhaps including President Asiwaju Tinubu, are disappointed by the performance of Dr. Ganduje since his emergence as National Chairman. In which case, the decision to change Dr. Ganduje would be highly possible. However, one must caution, changing Dr. Ganduje may not resolve the challenges facing the APC as much as that is highly desirable. If APC it to overcome all its challenges, there is the need for complete surgical operation. APC leaders must go back to the drawing board to review current realities, identify all the problems facing the party, and come up with comprehensive responses. It is doubtful if this can be achieve by just changing the National Chairman.
Especially, President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders must prevent the situation whereby another National Chairman will emerge with all the high possibility of betraying expectations based on business-as-usual practices. Avoiding that would require complete overhaul and the emergence of new party leaders, at least at national level. For new leaders at national level to emerge with needed prospect of resolving the challenges facing the APC, there is the need to change the formula of nominating party leaders. What exist now confer monopoly of nominating party leaders to Governors. Without prejudice to our Governors, there is the need to go beyond Governors in nominating new party leaders at national level. This is where the National Caucus of the party can become helpful. It is possible to use the platform of the National Caucus as the clearing house for prospective leaders of the party given that all Governors and former Governors are also members of National Caucus.
Beyond electing new leaders, the whole issue of activating all party structures and making them functional in line with provisions of the APC Constitution must be guaranteed. Once APC, being the ruling party, can operate based on provisions of its constitution can be guaranteed, the campaign to reform Nigerian politics and expand democratic space will be made much easier. If organs of the party are meeting regularly, problems of impositions of candidates will be minimised. In any case, issues leading to imposition of candidates are made possible and stronger because organs of the party vested with the responsibility of decisions regarding party primary are undermined. Consequently, party stakeholders who should have a say in decisions that can guarantee free and fair primary are marginalised. As much as party organs are meeting as prescribed by the party Constitution, incidences of imposition will be minimised.
For party organs to be made functional, the issue of party funding must be resolved beyond the current reality of dependence on elected representatives. The new leadership must be challenged to produce a National Annual Budget and NEC must consider all avenues of party funding and empower the new NWC to take every needed appropriate step to mobilise financial resources. There is no reason why APC, being the ruling party can not operate a National Annual Budget of over N100 Billion. Note that National Annual Budget should cover the operations of all party organs, from National to States, Local Governments and Wards. It is only when a ruling party can operate National Annual Budget of more than N100 Billion that the condition of service for party leaders at all levels can be benchmarked with public service conditions. So long as conditions of service for party leaders is below that of public service, party leaders will continue to subordinate themselves to elected leaders and capacity to hold elected representatives accountable to the party will be weak.
It is my wish that APC leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu will consider these proposals in responding to challenges facing the APC. Being a member of APC, even as an outcast, I strongly believe that reforming the APC by producing new party leaders, making all organs of the party functional, resolving challenges of party funding, operating an Annual National Budget of more N100 Billion and benchmarking conditions of service of party leaders at all levels with public service conditions, combined, would deepen Nigerian democracy, return APC to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party. Achieving this when the next general election is more than three years away, would confer stronger electoral advantages to the APC. For other parties, to effectively compete against the APC, they will need to be equally reformists and not conformist.
Salihu Lukman
Ganduje: Indefensibility of Moral and Political Burden
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Early in the afternoon of Monday, April 15, 2024, the news of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s alleged suspension from the APC by his Ganduje Ward of Dawakin Tofa Local Government, Kano State broke out. Announced by Haladu Gwanjo, who was reported to be the Ward Legal Adviser, the decision to suspend Dr. Ganduje was hinged on alleged bribery and misappropriation of funds against Dr. Ganduje by the Kano State Government. According to Gwanjo, members of the Ward Executive decided to pass vote of no confidence on Dr. Ganduje ‘due to his inability to clear his name from allegations of corruption against him.’ Specifically, the 2019 video where Dr. Ganduje was supposedly shown stuffing US Dollar into his agbada was cited.
In addition, already, Kano State Government has filed a criminal suit in Kano High Court against Dr. Ganduje, his wife, Haj. Hafsat Umar and three others, including his son, Umar Abdullahi Umar, bordering on ‘allegations of bribery, diversion, and misappropriation of funds, including the purported acceptance of $413,000 and N1.38 billion in bribe.’ The case will be heard on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 before Justice Usman Na’aba of State High Court number four. Kano State Government has declared readiness to present 15 witnesses to testify to the charges.
In a panic response, the APC Kano State Working Committee, in a Press Conference addressed by the APC Kano State Chairman, Alh. Abdullahi Abbas announced the dissolution of the APC Ganduje Ward Executive. Similarly, the APC Chairman of Ganduje Ward Executive, Alh. Ahmed Mohammed Koko, in a Press Conference, dismissed the announcement made by Gwanjo as action carried out by ‘non-APC members in the Ward.’
There is no need to go into technicalities of whether the vote no confidence is valid. No need to debate the merit or otherwise of the response of the Ganduje APC Ward Chairman and Kano State Working Committee led by Alh. Abbas. The incontestable reality is that the allegations of corruption against Dr. Ganduje with purported evidence has been in existence since 2019. The purported evidence is available in many media platforms. Sadly, it outlived the tenure of Dr. Ganduje as Governor of Kano State.
Without prejudice to the allegation and the case in court, all these may have contributed to APC’s electoral defeat in Kano State during the 2023 General Elections. It is quite unfortunate that, as a party, we must contend with this reality. Noting the high confidence President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu invested in the person of Dr. Ganduje, which accounted for his emergence as the National Chairman of APC, it is important that leaders of APC handle all the challenges surrounding the allegation of corruption against Dr. Ganduje with caution. On no account should APC as a party attempt to sweep issues under the carpet.
APC leaders must be reminded that one of promises in 2015 based on which Nigerians supported us and gave us the mandate to rule the country for the last nine years was the commitment to fight corruption. If there is any instance requiring us, as a party, to renew our commitment to fighting corruption, this is it. We must appeal to especially President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders not to consent to any action other than supporting Dr. Ganduje to take advantage of the current reality to clear his name. As much as Dr. Ganduje should be adjudged to be innocent until proven otherwise by a competent court of law, on no account must allegations of corruption against him be swept under the carpet.
If as Dr. Ganduje made the mistake, while serving as Governor of Kano State without defending himself and clearing his name of allegation of corruption, which cost APC the 2023 election, we must not repeat the same mistake by supporting him not to clear his name. A clear reality is the fact that unless Dr. Ganduje succeed in clearing himself of allegations of corruption, he will remain a moral and political burden and to that extent therefore will not be able to provide our party the needed leadership that could earn the confidence of Nigerians.
Without doubt, this situation presents an opportunity for President Asiwaju Tinubu to demonstrate his progressive and political dexterity. It is a low hanging fruit, which, if properly managed could also save the politics of Dr. Ganduje. The hard truth is that, somehow, the politics of Kano State was mismanaged and as it is, if we were unable to win election in Kano State when we were in control of Kano State Government, it will be foolhardy to imagine otherwise.
Being progressives require honesty, which given current political reality we must accept that Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his NNPP has stronger support base in Kano State. Noting that Sen. Kwankwaso was in our party up to 2018; and acknowledging that between 1999 and 2019 both Sen. Kwankwaso and Dr. Ganduje worked together, we need to revisit issues surrounding their disagreement. On no account should APC leaders limit the engagement of issues surrounding all the political challenges facing us as a party to only the issue of bribery allegation against Dr. Ganduje.
President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders must consider this as an opportunity of renewing the APC in Kano State and by extension North West and the entire North. If this means another round of negotiation for political alliance or merger with Sen. Kwankwaso and NNPP, our leaders should proceed to act accordingly. President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC must take the full advantage of the current reality to renegotiate the support base of the APC. Renegotiating the support base of the APC should also be about reigniting the progressive credentials of the APC.
It is very painfully disturbing that unless this kind of opportunity is utilised to the fullest, based on which new actors such as Dr. Kwankwaso with strong commitment to democracy based on principles are recruited into our party, the downward slide and retrogression towards conservatism and lawless management of the APC will continue. With due respect to President Asiwaju Tinubu, after pushing Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore to resign from the leadership of APC and nominating Dr. Ganduje to emerge as National Chairman, the culture of discretionary management of the party has continued under the leadership of Dr. Ganduje. All the organs of the party as provided in the APC Constitution have remained frozen. In short, all the wrongdoings of Sen. Adamu have continued under Dr. Ganduje.
As things are, it is very clear that APC require change of leadership because Dr. Ganduje has been unable to measure up to the confidence invested in him by President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders. Instead, he (Dr. Ganduje), with all the current allegations of corruption against him only constitute an embarrassment, which could only continue to erode the electoral viability of the APC. President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders need to urgently save APC from this embarrassment by easing Dr. Ganduje out the position of National Chairman of APC.
Perhaps, we need to also appeal to President Asiwaju Tinubu to also use this as an opportunity to correct the political imbalance in the leadership of the country by returning the North Central into the mainstream leadership of the country. It was quite unfortunate that the imbalance was allowed to happen. Certainly, the objective couldn’t have been to marginalise the people of North Central from the political leadership of Nigeria. I am confident that President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders will do the needful to renew APC and return APC to its founding vision of progressive politics.
Salihu Lukman
Re: Ganduje and the Legal Challenges Facing APC
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Twists and turns of events in APC surrounding the contestation in Kano State about the attempted suspension of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, APC National Chairman, by his Ganduje Ward of Dawakin Tofa Local Government is, to say the least, scandalously being mismanaged by both Dr. Ganduje and the APC National Working Committee (NWC). Noting a video in circulation, which showed Dr. Ganduje addressing his supporters in Hausa, claiming that President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu affirmed that he (Dr. Ganduje) remains the National Chairman of APC. Around the same time, while supporters of Dr. Ganduje were busy circulating the video, early on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, Justice Usman Mallam Na’aba of Kano High Court No. 4 Ordered Dr. Ganduje to stop parading himself as a member of APC.
In a swift reaction, the APC NWC was reported to have dismissed the order of the High Court as a nullity. This is very scandalously disturbing as it portrays the APC NWC as a lawless body, which is disrespectful of Orders of our Courts. Any law-abiding citizen or body ought to recognise that any Order given by our Courts is binding until it is vacated. It is quite embarrassing that the APC Legal Adviser, Prof. Abdulkarim Kana would contemptuously claim that the Court order is not enforceable, as according to him ‘it was obtained by fraud.’ To the contrary, it is only the disposition to be fraudulent that would push both Dr. Ganduje and the APC NWC to disrespect a valid order issued by a competent Court of law.
We must warn both Dr. Ganduje and the APC NWC to refrain from any act of disrespect to our judiciary. At the same time Dr. Ganduje should stop dragging Mr. President into a matter that clearly borders on his weak ability to manage relationships at local levels. With due respect to Dr. Ganduje, unless he can do the needful by repairing all political challenges he has back in Kano State, including with Kano State Government, his ability to continue to superintend as National Chairman of APC will be weak and his ability to provide the needed inspirational leadership to the APC to guarantee winning elections will be a fantasy.
Both Dr. Ganduje and the APC NWC, and indeed all leaders of APC must respect the current subsisting order of the Kano High Court that Dr. Ganduje is not a member of APC, until the order is vacated. To the extend that the order subsist, Dr. Ganduje is legally banned from acting as National Chairman. At this rate, perhaps, the APC NWC, is also demonstrating high level of incompetence, which calls to question their legitimacy. A competent NWC should be considering convening meetings of higher organs of APC to manage this delicate legal reality.
The reality is that, as it is, Dr. Ganduje is both a moral, political and legal burden. The big issue is whether the APC NWC has joined Dr. Ganduje to the extent that members, individually and collectively are equally moral, political and legal liabilities!
Salihu Lukman
Reinventing Progressive Politics in Nigeria
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Progressive politics means different thing to many people. With the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013, however, it is expected that activities of the party, its leadership and elected representatives would clarify or present a variant of progressive politics. To that extent, therefore, given the electoral successes of the APC, which moved progressive politics to the realm of being the ruling mantra, how has the APC been able to present what could be attributed as progressive politics? Based on all the characteristics of the APC in the last nine years, as the party in control of the Federal Government and at least twenty State Governments, have we validated progressive politics?
Without being academic, performances of APC, in every respect, has not presented any harmonised vision of development. It is a very disturbing reality that there is no common policy thread connecting governments produced by the APC at all levels since 2015. Noting that during the merger negotiations of 2012/2013, which produced the APC, the ideological thrust or proposition was oriented around social democracy, based on commitment to values of collective justice and individual freedom where citizen’s basic needs are expected to be met – food, shelter, healthcare, education, and the ability to actualise human capacities and endowment. Having succeeded in winning elections, what is APC’s scorecard with respect to probable ideological commitment to social democracy?
The reality is that experiences since 2015 highlighted wide gap or weak commitment to the founding vision of the APC. Without prejudice to some initiatives, such as social investment programme, anchor borrower, etc. which could be estimated to correspond to social democratic principles, the reality is that poor management of implementation have weakened impact. And against the backdrop of sixteen years of poor delivery of public services during the tenure of PDP between 1999 and 2015, the expectation of Nigerians is that APC, being an envisioned progressive party, elected leaders produced by the APC will change that and put the country on the pedestal of good governance. Integral to good governance is increased accountability based on which elected representatives produced by the APC are expected to be more responsive and representative to the interests of Nigerians.
Increased accountability requires the existence of functionally stronger political party. Prior to the emergence of the APC, virtually all political parties in Nigeria, including the PDP and the opposition parties that merged to form the APC were simply election platforms. Being election platforms, issues of vision and commitment to ideology as could have been outlined in the manifesto of political parties is simply non-existent. With such reality, culture of impunity and corruption became rampant, and Nigerians were highly contemptuous of political leaders in the country. Largely on account of widespread abuse of office, which is highly manifested by the sad incidences of elected leaders converting public resources to personal wealth, capacity of governments at all levels to spearhead national development shrunk.
The emergence of APC raised the hopes of Nigerians about potentials for change. Coming with the slogan CHANGE, part of also what justified the confidence of Nigerians that APC will produce a paradigm shift in Nigerian politics and governance was that the internal debate within the party during the merger negotiations aggregated national debate. Decisions taken by leaders of the party, at least up to 2015 when the party won the General Elections and formed the Federal Government under the leadership of former President Muhammadu Buhari could be adjudged to be representative of the wider interests of Nigerians. In many respects, the manifesto of the party and all the campaign promises before the 2015 General Elections resonated with the aspirations of Nigerians.
Expectedly and undisputedly, Nigerians voted for the APC in 2015. Immediately after winning the 2015 elections, the APC began to move away from its orientation of working as an organised group, holding meetings, debating issues, and taking decisions accordingly. Perhaps, largely on account of the towering political profile of former President Buhari, whose popularity especially in the Northern part of the country was the major electoral strength of APC, substantially contributing to the electoral victory of the party, gradually and systematically decisions and initiatives towards managing the APC government began to be personalised. Issues of appointments and policy priorities of the APC government became the prerogative of the President.
As a result, party leaders who were major stakeholders and equal partners before the electoral victory of 2015 became subordinates of former President Buhari. Consequently, most leaders were relegated to being lobbyists for appointments in APC controlled Federal Government. Once that is the case, issues of party management took the back seat. Meetings of organs, especially, National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Caucus became irregular. The NEC, which by the provision of the APC Constitution is required to meet quarterly, for almost a year after the 2015 General Elections did not hold. Similarly, the National Caucus, which before the 2015 elections was meeting almost weekly stopped. The Board of Trustees (BoT), whose membership was established before the 2015 elections was never inaugurated.
Unlike what emerged before the 2015 elections whereby leaders of the party debated and took decisions on virtually every issue, and those decisions became binding, a new reality emerged whereby responsibility for taking decisions became the privilege of the President. Ability to guide or influence the President was weakened by the aspirations of party leaders to become appointees of APC controlled Federal Government. Being aspirants for political appointments, no one want to risk expressing disagreement with decisions of the President. As a result, whether the President takes the right or wrong decisions, party leaders simply accept and rationalise virtually every action of the President.
Being the President of the Federal Republic, invariably, his priority were decisions about managing the government. Once that is the case, party management were left unattended. Critical issues such as issues of party funding, membership management, etc., which were not concluded before the 2015 elections were simply abandoned. Other obligations such as the requirement for organs of the party to initiate actions to influence policies of governments controlled by the APC at all levels in line with provisions of the APC manifesto and campaign promises were sacrificed. The first manifestation of this problem was the failure of the APC to manage the emergence of the leadership of the 8th National Assembly, which produced the rebellious leadership of Sen. Bukola Saraki, Senate President and Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of House of Representatives.
The emergence of the rebellious leadership was made possible largely because of the inability to hold meetings of organs of the party. Up to June 9, 2015 when the 8th National Assembly was inaugurated no meeting of any organ of the party hold. No decision was taken by any organ of the party in terms of influencing the emergence of leaders of the 8th National Assembly, which made it possible for the rebellious groups led by Sen. Saraki and Hon. Dogara to defeat the preferred candidates of APC leaders. Responsibilities such as the requirement for the NWC to develop electoral guidelines for the emergence of leaders of the 8th NASS in line with provisions of Article 13.4(vi) of APC Constitution was simply abandoned and progressively, the APC became a passive observer to activities of Governments it produced.
Being a passive observer weakened or inhibited the potentials of the APC and its governments to ‘develop and promote economic policies that guarantee public participation in and, where necessary, control of the major means of production, distribution and exchange’ in line with the aims and objectives of the party as contained in Article 7 of the APC Constitution. With the President becoming an imperial leader whose decisions are unquestionable, management of governments produced by the APC was limited to his (President) personal discretion. Unfortunately, with the best of intentions, often, the decisions of the President fall short of public expectations. In fact, capacity to resolve national challenges such as rising insecurity in the country as contained in the APC manifesto and campaign promises became problematic.
Sadly, after raising the hopes of Nigerians about producing accountable governments that could have been more responsive and representative of the wider interests of Nigerians, governments and elected representatives produced by the APC hardly distinguished themselves from previous governments. At state levels, APC governments were similarly unable to demonstrate stronger commitment to progressive politics. It is very doubtful if any APC state could be identified as an example of a progressive state based on its policies. The closest could be Lagos State largely based of its ability to mobilise higher revenue, which could have been made possible by developing stronger relations with citizens in the state. However, in terms of benchmarking the policies of the Lagos State Government with the APC manifesto, it is just like all the other APC States.
As it is, APC has demobilised itself from being a progressive political party. Many leaders of the party who would have enforce accountability, and to that extent therefore ensured that the party prioritises delivery of its campaign promises based on provisions of the APC’s manifesto have abdicated responsibility by making themselves candidates for appointments into government. Some of the leaders, almost immediately after winning the 2015 elections, began to manoeuvre for 2019 elections. The same monoevring continued after 2019 and now after 2023 elections. With that, gradually, the APC snowballed into leadership crisis in many states across the country. Weak internal party governance made it almost impossible to resolve many of the leadership crisis facing the party. And ahead of 2019 elections, at national level, the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun led NWC was replaced with the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole led NWC.
Leadership crises also consumed successive leaders, largely due poor party governance. Within three years, between 2020 and 2023, the APC has produced three National Chairmen. Disturbingly, virtually all the National Chairmen of the APC since 2020 when the leadership of Comrade Oshiohmole was removed turned out to be worse and unable to resolve the challenges facing the APC. Inability to convene meetings of organs of the party continued. The NWC continued to usurp powers of all organs of the party. Competence of members of the NWC in terms of being able to manage affairs of the party as provided by provisions of Article 13.4 of the APC falls below expectations. For instance, obligations such as presenting a proposed national budget for the party for the consideration and approval of NEC as provided by Article 13.3A(xiv) of the APC Constitution is left unattended. Similarly, requirement to present quarterly financial report on income and expenditure of the party as provided by Article 13.4(iv) of the APC Constitution is discarded.
Unfortunately, notwithstanding the change of leadership at national level, internal leadership crisis in many states was heightened, which affected the management of internal party primary to produce candidates for elections. The height of it was the judicial blockade in Rivers State, which disqualified the APC from fielding candidates in for the 2019 elections. Similarly, in Zamfara State another electoral disaster happened when after winning all the elective positions in the state, due to problems associated with the poor management of APC primary that produced candidates for the 2019 election, the court sacked all the APC elected representatives and handed victory to the PDP. In Bayelsa State 2020 Governorship, the Supreme Court nullified the election David Lyon barely 24 hours before his inauguration on the ground that his deputy, Sen. Biobarakuma Degi-Ereienyo presented false information to INEC.
All these highlighted how the problem of poor party governance have become entrenched in APC. Like all the other parties, the APC has collapsed and is another election platform. The vision of becoming a progressive party remained elusive. The only hope is that the advocacy for internal party reform is still very strong. The reality is that President Asiwaju Tinubu emerged to become the Presidential candidate of the APC for 2023 elections on the strength of the advocacy for internal reform. The truth is that without the advocacy for internal reform, the agitation for power shift to the Southern part of the country would have been defeated and the APC could have ended up with Sen. Ahmed Lawan as its Presidential candidate.
The emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, both as the Presidential candidate of APC and ultimately as the elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria revived the hopes of many party leaders and Nigerians about the prospects of returning the APC to its founding of emerging as a progressive political party in the country. Not just because of the person of President Asiwaju Tinubu but largely on account of his political struggles over the years, which in many respects is associated with the wider struggles of Nigerians for democracy and development. As a person, President Asiwaju Tinubu could have his limitation, but as a political leader, his strengths certainly outweigh his limitations.
No need to be specific here. However, it is important to acknowledge that the absence of a strong party organisation and the high political currency of business-as-usual are militating factors which every political leader would have to contend with. These are issues that no doubt destroyed the potentials of the administration of former President Buhari from measuring up to the high expectations of Nigerians, and invariable being unable to resolve many of the challenges facing Nigeria, especially the crisis of insecurity. In fact, the political currency of business-as-usual made it possible for the attempt to hijack the internal negotiation for leadership succession at the end of the tenure of former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu had to lead the resistance against attempt to impose a Presidential candidate for the APC.
Somehow, having succeeded in defeating the attempt to impose a Presidential candidate on the APC and emerge as the President of the Federal Republic, President Asiwaju Tinubu had to fight to assert his authority in the APC. Confronted with the leadership of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu that was unwilling to facilitate negotiation for the new government, President Asiwaju Tinubu had to take up the responsibility of facilitating negotiation to produce leaders of the 10th National Assembly. And thereafter, he had to respond to the challenge of reforming the APC. Central to that is the question of responding to the agitation against Sen. Adamu’s leadership.
The rest, as it is often said, is history. With the exit of Sen. Adamu, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje emerged as Chairman. The emergence of Dr. Ganduje however deviated from the agreed zoning formula of the party, which ceded the position of National Chairman to Nasarawa State, North Central. Consequently, with Dr. Ganduje emerging as APC National Chairman, the North Central turned out to be shortchanged from the new political leadership of the country. Perhaps, the only strong qualification of Dr. Ganduje is his close relationship with President Asiwaju Tinubu. Other than that, in terms of experience in party management as well as being a political leaders with strong commitment to progressive principles, however defined, is debatable. Unfortunately, he also has a bigger political liability of being someone that has poorly managed political relations back in Kano State. Some of the open political campaign against Dr. Ganduje, including allegations of corruption, which reflects the poor management of political relations.
The reality is that all these issues have turned out to hunt the leadership of Dr. Ganduje. Working with the currency of business-as-usual, Dr. Ganduje has proven to be the most incompetent National Chairman APC has produced since 2013. With all the confidence invested by President Asiwaju Tinubu in the person of Dr. Ganduje, organs of the party have remained frozen so much so that more than eight months after the emergence of Dr. Ganduje, the NEC, which is required to meet quarterly has not met. The National Caucus has similarly not met. The National Advisory Council, which is equivalent of Board of Trustees is yet to be inaugurated. The NWC has continued to usurp the powers of organs of the party. Issues of party funding and membership management are poorly handled. Internal leadership conflict has taken over many state branches especially states controlled by the APC. Above all, poor management of political relations back in Kano State by Dr. Ganduje has created a bigger moral burden with Kano State Government suing Dr. Ganduje for corruption charges.
With all these, President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC are faced with the burden of what to do to justify the emergence of the APC in 2013 and how it was able to galvanise popular support base in the country, which account for all the electoral victory since 2015. Responding to such a challenge is about whether beyond producing an election platform, APC leaders and in particular, President Asiwaju Tinubu would commit themselves to reforming the APC such that governments produced by the party could have a coordinated strategy of responding to governance challenges. Developing a coordinated strategy is about whether, for instance, substantive principles, however loosely defined could guide policies and decisions of elected representatives produced by the party.
Given all the political realities confronting the APC and its leadership, and especially against the backdrop of falling short of meeting public expectations and delivering on campaign promises in the last nine years, it is important that President Asiwaju Tinubu can push APC leaders to initiate processes of renegotiating the party. Renegotiating the APC should be about reinventing progressive politics in the country based on the acknowledgment that what we have in APC today is anything but progressive politics. It must be recognised that although in the beginning in 2013, APC presented a strong potential of becoming a progressive party, unfortunately, all that has been lost.
Being privileged to have President Asiwaju Tinubu should translate to an advantage to reform the APC to become a truly progressive party. That would require a complete overhaul of the structures of the party and total reorganisation of the leadership at all levels. It basically means total renegotiation of the party. In the context of the new negotiations, leaders of the party must be pushed to reconcile themselves and develop new framework of political partnership both at states and national levels. Problems of imperial leadership which has created animosity between serving and former governors must be rectified such that serving governors are able to work with all political leaders in their states based on the spirit of equal partnership. The new leaders of the party at both national and state levels must be oriented to facilitate the new orientation of stronger political partnership. What this means is that new APC leaders must, as much as possible, depart from the orientation of enforcing hegemony of power blocs, which is the major source of leadership disputes and is, in fact, the main challenge blocking the party and making it impossible to overcome the problem of being reduced to an election platform.
It will require the capacity to put in place the orientation of equal partnership in APC for the party to return to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. It is only through equal partnership that the APC can reinvent progressive politics in Nigeria based on which issues of accountability and being responsive and representative to the interest of Nigerians can be stronger. For this to be the case in APC, President Asiwaju Tinubu and leaders of the party need to renegotiate the party based on which all the structures of the party are reorganised and new leadership emerged. This is the significant reality before President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders.
Salihu Lukman
Perils of Bad APC Leadership
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
That APC is at another crossroad having to contend with the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje whose legitimacy is being battered by a moral crisis of corruption allegations is no longer news. This is a reality, which is a major source of concern for all party leaders and members. Ideally, if Dr. Ganduje is a selfless person who is committed to the progress and wellbeing of APC, he would have taken the path of honour and simply resigned. Regrettably, here we are stuck with Dr. Ganduje who brazenly want to remain as National Chairman of the APC with all the ethical problems it portends and the potential political and electoral misfortunes it can bring.
At personal level, I betray no emotion that in the first place Dr. Ganduje wasn’t the right person to succeed Sen. Abdullahi Adamu for three reasons. The first being that the position of National Chairman of the APC is zoned to the North Central and it was ceded to Nasarawa State at the APC March 2022 National Convention. Based on the provision of Article 31.5(i) of the APC constitution dealing with what needed to be done when there is a vacancy, which stipulated that ‘in the case of a National/Zonal Officer, the State Executive Committee shall propose a replacement to the State Congress and Zonal Executive Committee for endorsement. Thereafter, the name shall be sent to the National Working Committee, which shall forward same to the National Executive Committee for approval.’
If this provision of the APC constitution is to be respected, the Nasarawa State Executive Committee of the APC, where Sen. Adamu comes from, should have the right to propose a replacement, which the State Congress and the Zonal Executive Committee should endorse. The name of the nominee shall then be forwarded to the NWC for onward transmission to NEC and approval. Moving the position of the National Chairman out of Nasarawa State, North Central clearly violates this provision of the APC Constitution.
The second reason is that negotiations for the leadership of the National Assembly ceded the position of National Chairman of the party to North-Central on account of which the North Central was excluded from the political leadership of the National Assembly. Having been excluded from the political leadership of the National Assembly, the only position, which the North Central occupy in the political leadership of the country is the position of National Chairman of APC. Taking the position of the National Chairman of APC out of North Central therefore would mean outright and downcast political marginalisation of the people of North Central.
The third reason is the moral question given the problem of uncleared corruption allegation against Dr. Ganduje, which has now been escalated by the government of Kano State. Back in July 2023 when Dr. Ganduje was being nominated for the position of National Chairman, I have argued that if leaders of the North West are asked to nominate five people for consideration to serve in the capacity of APC National Chairman, Dr. Ganduje will not be one of the five nominees. We could debate this, but it is unfortunately a true reflection of the rating of Dr. Ganduje in North West. His biggest political strength was being a Governor of the most populous state in Nigeria, which he failed to utilize to improve his political relations with other political leaders, especially back in Kano State.
All these notwithstanding, one would expect that having emerged as the National Chairman against every rational political judgement, Dr. Ganduje will initiate actions to remedy the obvious political marginalisation of the people of North Central. The low hanging fruit at his disposal was to reopen negotiation for the leadership of the National Assembly and make it possible for the Deputy Senate President currently being occupied by Sen. Barau Jibrin, who is also from Kano State to move to North Central. This would have demonstrated that Dr. Ganduje is strongly committed to supporting President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to provide a balanced political leadership for the country.
As far as Dr. Ganduje is concerned, having emerged as the National Chairman of APC, everything should remained unchanged. Even the challenges facing the APC as a party, which were responsible for the resignation of Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Sen. Iyiola Omisore as National Chairman and National Secretary respectively should remain unattended to. Problems of not convening meetings of organs of the party continued. The National Working Committee (NWC) continue to usurp the powers of all organs of the party. Discretionary decisions by the National Chairman got worsened so much that one of the aides to Dr. Ganduje is being alleged to be imposing decisions on the party and sometimes reversing decisions of the NWC.
Problems of discretionary decisions, especially with respect to conduct of party primary are potential time bombs, which could further undermine the electoral viability of the APC. Beyond all that is also the fact that once Dr. Ganduje emerged as the National Chairman of APC, virtually all the APC leaders in Kano State relocated to Abuja. In fact, part of why Kano State Government was able inflict the kind of huge political damage on Dr. Ganduje is because of the absence of virtually all APC leaders in Kano. The reality is that since the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman, for about nine months, he did not visit Kano State more than twice.
With such reality, and operating as an opposition party, it begs the question about whether he is at all interested in getting APC to win back Kano State. If President Asiwaju Tinubu with all his busy schedules could find time to go back to Lagos State on more than five occasions, it is certainly scandalous that Dr. Ganduje will use his position as the APC National Chairman as an excuse for political truancy. Being a political truant could only produce electoral failure back in his home state. And given the importance of Kano State to the politics of the North, especially North West, President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders need to recognise the risk of keeping Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman of APC.
In simple terms, the risk is potential electoral disaster. Unless our objective in APC is to rig the 2027 elections, the earlier we relieved Dr. Ganduje from the position of National Chairman of the APC the better. At this crucial point in the life of APC, the best job for Dr. Ganduje is to send him back to Kano State to facilitate reconciliation of all political leaders in the state and reorganise the party. Being a party envisioned to be progressive, we must appeal to all our leaders at national level, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu to take every step needed to bring back North Central to the mainstream political leadership of the country by taking back the position of APC National Chairman to North Central.
In nominating a new APC National Chairman from North Central the priority should be about choosing a competent political leader who can initiate processes of rebuilding the APC. Rebuilding the APC should be about restoring constitutional order in the party. Given the fact that the current members of NWC are in their third year now and have so far appear to be comfortable with running affairs of the party without reference to APC Constitution, the question of their political and administrative competence to manage the APC needs to be reviewed. Beyond changing Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman, perhaps it is the whole NWC that should be changed.
The additional reality is that the requirement of rebuilding the APC should push us to reorganise all the leadership of the party from Ward to Local Governments, to States, and National level. Integral to that is the need to inaugurate all structures of the party. For instance, our National Advisory Council should be inaugurated without any delay. Women, Youth and Persons Living with Disabilities Wings should be organised and inaugurated in lines with provisions of Article 12.19, 12.20 and 12.21 of the APC Constitution.
Inability to manage affairs of APC as provided under the Constitution of the party is symptomatic of bad leadership, which in every respect the leadership of Dr. Ganduje represent. Being saddled with bad party leadership has made APC leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu complicit of marginalising the people of North Central from the political leadership of the country. APC must urgently take steps to correct that by electing a new leadership for the party. This is an irreducible minimum for APC to recover and regain all its electoral strengths across Nigeria.
Salihu Lukman
Illusive Politics: What is to be Done
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
In the next few days, the Fourth Republic will be 25 years. In the same vein, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be one year in office and APC will mark its nine years as a ruling party in Nigeria. The indisputable reality is that it is difficult for any rational thinking Nigerian to celebrate where we are today as a nation. If anything, our experience in the last 25 years reechoed Amartya Sen’s warning in the book Development as Freedom when he cautioned that ‘Democracy does not serve as an automatic remedy of ailment as quinine works to remedy malaria. The opportunity it opens up has to be positively grabbed in order to achieve the desired effect. This is, of course, a basic feature of freedoms in general – much depends on how freedoms are actually exercised.’
Interestingly, Amartya Sen’s book was first published in 1999, the very year Nigeria’s Fourth Republic was inaugurated. Although many Nigerian’s read the book and admired his deep intellectual insight, and foresight, but the cautionary note about the prospect or potentials of democracy to cure societal ailments was simply overlooked. Perhaps, in 1999, when Nigerians welcome democracy with very high expectations, most citizens, across the nation were more absorbed by the relief of having to bid goodbye to military rule. Having spent close to fifteen years uninterrupted and more than thirty years of our life as an independent nation at the receiving end of successive military governments, with the attendant consequences of loss of freedoms, helplessly reduced to being distant observers of poor management of Nigeria’s resources, the expectation was that democratic dispensation will change all that.
Unfortunately, here we are, twenty-five years after, welfare condition of Nigerians is unarguably worse. Unemployment and poverty incidences have increased. Poor management of national resources has continued so much so that crisis of insecurity and threat to human lives is the new normal. Worse part of it is that we have elected governments, virtually at all levels performing worse than military rulers. Although theories of democracy and politics have unquestionably proven that elected leaders will be more accountable, twenty-five years of democratic rule in Nigeria is yet to produce leaders that are predisposed to accommodating the interests of citizens. Instead, we keep moving almost in opposite direction to whatever could be estimated as the interest of Nigerians, no matter how narrowly defined. Is it that Nigeria’s democracy is yet to open the expected opportunity? Or is it that majority of Nigerians are unable to ‘positively grab’ the opportunity, which democracy presents? What is the opportunity, which democracy presents?
These are fundamental questions, which we must interrogate to be able to come to terms with our Nigerian reality and perhaps develop creative initiatives on how to exercise the freedoms that comes with democracy based on which the opportunities it presents can be ‘positively grabbed in order to achieve the desired effect’ of resolving our national challenges. First, while interrogating this issue, I want to affirm my membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and recognise that the last nine years disappointingly dashed the expectations of Nigerians. I make this admission as someone who is committed to progressive politics based on the conviction that the first thing that qualifies anyone to be a progressive is the capacity to recognise challenges based on correct assessment of realities. Correct assessment of reality is about honest criticism and taking responsibility. It is not about rationalising choices or denial of challenges and realities.
When leaders of opposition parties in the country successfully merged in July 2013, the expectations of Nigerians were that APC will produce more responsive leaders both in terms of ability to undertake honest criticisms as well as take responsibility in a direction that pulls the nation out of its development challenges. Without going into details, these are unanswerable expectations, which are today sources of frustrations for Nigerians with both the APC, as a party, the leaders it has produced, and democracy as a political system. The heartbreaking reality is that anytime some glimmer of political hope presents itself, even when supported by popular votes, it turns out to be moonlighting, basically a case of being stuck with illusive politics. APC is one glimmer of political hope, which emerged in 2013, elected as the ruling party since 2015, but emerging, so far, as another moonlighting phenomenon.
Being a party founded with the vision of becoming a progressive party, it has crashed below whatever a political party represents, not to talk of being progressive. As it is today, its leadership doesn’t obey its own constitution, it doesn’t hold meetings and it is accountable to no one. Since 2015, when the party was elected as a ruling party, with former President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated as President of the Federal Republic, the manifesto of the party has been virtually abandon and leaders of the party have little or no say in the management of governments it produced at all levels. Processes of appointments into government and policy decisions have been made prerogative of the President at national level and Governors at state levels. Like under military rule when citizens were reduced to distant observers, under the APC, party leaders and members have also become distant observers.
Because leaders of the APC are not obeying the rules of the party, we have produced several electoral disasters whereby the courts have to intervene to nullify electoral victories of the party. These are issues bordering on culture of impunity in the process of candidates selection. A situation, which invariably forsaken the commitment of the party to change Nigerian politics, instead further entrenched politics of godfatherism with the attendant consequences of widespread rigging of elections. So far, culture of impunity is pervasive in APC. A glimmer of hope that the party may overcome the culture of impunity emerged when ahead of the 2023 elections, President Asiwaju Tinubu led the struggle against imposition of a so-called consensus Presidential candidate.
The emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the Presidential candidate of the APC for the 2023 election rekindled the hope of many party leaders and members about the possibility of returning the APC to its founding vision and engendering progressive governance in the country. After one year in office, the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu has turned out to be another experience replicating reality of illusive politics, which has reduced citizens, party leaders and members to being distant observers. Painfully, against every expectation that President Asiwaju Tinubu will reignite the Lagos success story at national level, his government is more and more creating doubts in the minds of Nigerians about the prospect of resolving the country’s challenges with incidences of policy missteps and reversals.
As a result, crisis of insecurity has remained. Problems of inflation, unemployment and poverty are on the increase. Politically, the APC has continued to follow the track of being disrespectful to its own rules so much so that we have shamelessly produced a serving Governor who is using his immunity to block law enforcement officials from undertaking their responsibility to investigate corruption allegations against his predecessor. The bigger disappointment is the troubling reality whereby political mercenaries who fought against President Asiwaju Tinubu’s election during the 2023 elections are now his strongest allies with free access and party loyalists who campaigned and stood by him have been denied access and are being held in contempt.
To make matters worse, illusive politics would appear to have been adopted with the emergence of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the National Chairman of the APC. So far, since his emergence, he basically confirmed all the fears against him. He has managed or mismanaged affairs of the APC blindly without respect to the provisions of the party’s constitution. Almost ten months since his emergence, with the possible exemption of the National Working Committee (NWC), no meeting of any organ of the party at national level has taken place. With elections in Edo and Ondo States coming up, the risk of reproducing another electoral disasters are high if the party fail to convene appropriate meetings of organs such as the National Executive Committee (NEC) to ratify some of the decisions taken by NWC, which were outside its mandate.
The other reality is whether the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu will continue moving in the path of illusive politics based on which Nigerians, inclusive of APC leaders and members, will remain distant observers, unable to influence decisions and directions of the President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government. As things are, the body language of President Asiwaju Tinubu is disrespectful and contemptuous to many party leaders and members, especially those that are outspoken and critical of his decisions. So long as this remain the case, the prospect of returning APC to its founding vision and engendering progressive governance will be weak. Inability to return APC to its founding vision and failure to engender progressive governance could mean inability to positively grabbed the opportunity, which democracy presents. This could also mean that the crisis of insecurity, unemployment, poverty, etc. could remain with us and become worse.
Given all these danger signals, it is important that APC leaders and members who are truly committed to developing Nigerian democracy based on progressive principles take up the challenge of organising themselves to reverse the current decline towards illusive politics in the country. Achieving that will require APC leaders and members who are truly committed to progressive politics to demand immediate reform of both the party and all governments at all levels controlled by the APC. To mainstream the reform so that it conforms with the statutory requirement of reviving the structures of the party and enabling them to affirm the supremacy of the party, processes of consultations to re-organise the leadership of the party so that respected party leaders with unblemished records of integrity emerge.
Certainly, with persons like Dr. Ganduje with all the many controversies around him vested with the responsibility of leading the party makes nonsense of all the sacrifices made by party leaders to ensure successful merger and the defeat of PDP in 2015. A clear message therefore must be sent to President Asiwaju Tinubu that as much as, being party leaders and members, we are committed to supporting his leadership and just like we have worked hard to produce the victory of 2023, which crowned him the victory of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, under no circumstances must he take for granted our support and the support of Nigerians. We must, in strong terms, remind President Asiwaju Tinubu about the power of possibility, which in fact was the main propelling factor that made the merger negotiation that produced the APC in 2013 successful. It was also the propelling factor that made the electoral victory of 2015 possible.
In fact, more than anything, it was the same factors that made the defeat of so-called consensus Presidential candidate possible. The point must be made that on no account must any leader of APC, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, be allowed to live with the illusive reasoning that Nigerians will continue to tolerate a situation whereby their hopes and aspirations are constantly being dashed by political leaders. If the hallmark of the tenure of former President Buhari is the trauma of dashed hopes for citizens, we must, as Nigerian citizens and as committed progressive politicians wake up and remedy the ugly and despicable experience of illusive politics. After one year in office, the unmistaken message must be conveyed to President Asiwaju Tinubu and by extension all APC leaders that the democratic future of Nigeria is not negotiable.
Just like Nigerians were able confront military rulers and PDP leaders when they trampled on the rights and freedoms of citizens, if APC leaders tow the same path, it is incumbent on all true progressives and patriots to organise themselves and arrest any further drift towards illusive politics. However, first thing first, the message must be communicated in unmistaken terms that President Asiwaju Tinubu should come clean and truly demonstrate that he is indeed both a democrat and a progressive politician by initiating deeper political reforms of both the APC and all governments controlled by the APC at all levels. If truly President Asiwaju Tinubu is a democrat and a progressive politician, the current lawless disposition of APC leaders must be ended. Also, inattentive conduct of President Asiwaju Tinubu, which hold APC leaders and members in contempt must change.
Failure of APC and its leadership since the time of former President Buhari to meet the expectations of Nigerians by delivering on our campaign promises has debase our democracy and made a mockery of all the gains we have made as a nation. It is not enough to change leaders. Once change of leaders doesn’t come with increased capacity to respond to national challenges, the value of democracy will be questionable. As patriots who fought for democracy, we have the responsibility to continue to engage our leaders to ensure that our democracy opens the ‘opportunity’ which should ‘be positively grabbed in order to achieve the desired effect’ of improving the lives of citizens. Anything short of that is unacceptable and is not the democracy Nigerians want. Our democracy must serve as remedy for all our societal ailments!
Salihu Lukman
Reckless Pointers of Political Suicide
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Unfolding events in Kano following the reinstatement of His Royal Highness Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the 16th Emir of Kano on Thursday, May 23, 2024 by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf is, to say the least, very alarming. The way and manner politics is being played, is not only recklessly insensitive to the dangers being posed to human lives in Kano, but frighteningly disgraceful and inconsiderate to whatever could be the choices of people of Kano State. If anything, it is the kind of abrasive politics that can only be associated with military governments or leaders who come from military background. That it is being championed by an APC-led Federal Government is very shocking.
Given that APC is a party envisioned to be progressive, what could have been the objective of such a reckless show of power? To protect the traditional institution and returned the dethroned Alh. Aminu Ado Bayero back as Emir of Kano? How is that a progressive or even democratic mission worthy of risking the lives of thousands of citizens? That the Federal Government is using its might because of the control it exercises over security agencies in a partisan manner to trample on the constitutional authority of Kano State Government over traditional institutions highlight the crisis of impunity in the country. Why President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu will approve such reckless mission, which is incompatible with both the founding vision of the APC and every principle of democracy is worrisome. If this had come from former President Olusegun Obasanjo or former President Muhammadu Buhari, given their military background, it will be understandable.
As a member of APC from the North-West, I am scandalised that my party has degenerated to a level below any democratic standard. The only rationale so far is to restore the old abrasive politics of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje in Kano State by undermining the Kano State Government led by Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf. We must remind leaders, President Asiwaju Tinubu in particular, that the fundamental reason why APC lost Kano State to NNPP was the reckless way Dr. Ganduje managed politics in Kano State. The dethronement of Emir Sanusi in 2020 on account of the disagreement between Dr. Ganduje and the Emir was very unnecessary and unfortunate. For Dr. Ganduje to have descended on the Kano Emirate the way he did in 2020, only created the basis for politicising the Kano Emirate, which is now reducing the tenure of Emirs to correspond with the tenure of Governors.
Could the objective of the Federal Government’s intervention be to restore the revered status of Emirs? How is that possible given the reality that, however considered, the Kano State Government has the legitimate constitutional authority to manage affairs of traditional institutions? If as is being claimed that the directive of the Federal Government to security agencies is to enforce the court order stopping the reinstatement of Emir Sanusi, how is that going to be possible? Except if the mission is to create lawlessness based on which we return to the old garrison politics of former President Obasanjo era when cheap political excuses are used to impose state of emergencies and remove sitting Governors, it is very difficult to understand the possible mission of the Federal Government in Kano State with respect to the unfolding politics around the reinstatement of Emir Sanusi.
As things are, the action of the Federal Government in Kano State can only lead to further destruction of the APC in the State and by extension in the whole North. Let no one be deceived, already the APC has been weakened both in Kano and the whole North by several factors, the most important of them is the fact that we have not lived up to our campaign promises to Nigerians since 2015. Unfortunately, given the way we have rolled out policies that crashed standard of living of citizens under the current administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the support base of the APC in the North has further shrank. Perhaps, President Asiwaju Tinubu and all those behind the reckless attempt to trample on the constitutional authority of Kano State Government should be reminded about the fact of our poor electoral performance in Kano State and the North-West during the 2023 Presidential elections.
In 2015, APC won 89% of the votes in Kano State with 1,903,999 as compared with PDP’s 10% or 215,779 votes. In 2019, APC votes in Kano State reduced to 77.5% or 1,464,768, but PDP’s votes increased to 20.7% or 391,593. In 2023, APC’s votes in Kano State for the Presidential election reduced to 517,341, PDP got 131,716, while NNPP got 997,279 votes. For the seven states in the North-West, although President Asiwaju Tinubu won majority votes in the region with 2,652,235 across the seven states as compared to PDP’s vote of 2,329,540, this sharply contrasted with the votes the APC got in 2015 and 2019 of 7,115,199 and 5,995,651 respectively as compared with PDP’s votes of 1,339,709 and 2,280,465.
This means APC got less than 30% of the votes it had in 2015 and less than 50% of the votes it got in 2019 during the 2023 Presidential elections. With such reality, our leaders should be more interested in making amends by reorganising the party in the region and make it more attractive to citizens, if we want to return to the old electoral glory of enjoying the mass support of citizens from the North-West. From all indications, given the response of the Federal Government to the politics being played out in Kano State around the reinstatement of Emir Sanusi, the question of reorganising the APC to make it popular in the North-West is not being considered.
In fact, the mere fact that we are retaining Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman of the APC with all his baggage and poor record of performance since his assumption of office suggest that, as a party, we are in denial of all the challenges facing us. With such denial, President Asiwaju Tinubu risked being considered as a leader who may have already conceded his election for second term within one year of his first term tenure. Why should this be so? Many of us in APC who fought for the emergence and victory of President Asiwaju Tinubu with the firm belief that being a dedicated democrat and progressive politician who has demonstrated unwavering commitment to the growth and development of democracy in Nigeria, he will make a fundamental difference in terms of providing what could be estimated to be a more responsive and representative leadership, the last one year since his emergence as President of the Federal Republic is like a nightmare.
To be candid, it is depressing that both the APC as a political party and its governments, especially at Federal level, but also in many states controlled by the party have not lived up to the expectation of being responsive and representative governments. With party organs not meeting as provided by the APC constitution, capacity of leaders and members of the party to intervene and influence changes in the direction of returning the party to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party has been weakened if not eroded. Given such circumstance, party leaders and members are reduced to being distant observers.
It is quite troubling that an elected government under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu will be deaf and dumb and insulate itself from all the appeals of party members and leaders regarding the situation facing the party. This was exactly the kind of situation, which confronted late Chief M. K. O. Abiola after the annulment of June 12, 1993 election, that made him to lament about how his efforts to engage military leaders in dialogue to reclaim his mandate were ignored by the military regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha as the military leaders ‘remained like stones, neither stirred to show loyalty to the collective decision of the people of their own country, nor to observe Allah’s injunction that they should exhibit justice and fair play in all their dealings with their fellowmen.’
It is heartbreaking to admit that since the inauguration of President Asiwaju Tinubu, he ‘‘remained like stone, neither stirred to show loyalty to … the people …nor to observe Allah’s injunction …(to) exhibit justice and fair play.’ Some of us in APC who made our modest contributions towards the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu, both as the candidate of the party and as the President of the Federal Republic are being treated almost as offenders. The only justification for that could be our outspokenness. Is President Asiwaju Tinubu such a gullible leader to the extent that he only wants praise singers around him? Is that the way he wants to reproduce the Lagos success story? Did he surrounded himself with praise singers when he was Governor of Lagos State? The evidence suggests to the contrary. Why then is he handling the responsibility of serving as the President of the Federal Republic in ways that compromised his democratic and progressive credentials?
Is this not the same Asiwaju Tinubu who was in the frontline of the struggle for democracy in Nigeria in the 1990s on account of which his life was threatened and he had to go on exile? Was this not the same Asiwaju Tinubu who as Governor of Lagos State had to stand up to the Federal Government of former President Obasanjo when they attempted to trample on the constitutional right of the Lagos State Government? The inspiringly successful legal battles of the Lagos State government against the Federal Government between 2003 and 2007 are still very fresh in the memory of Nigerians. Why is President Asiwaju Tinubu undoing all his achievement as a committed democrat?
If allowed to continue, Nigeria is gradually moving back to the dark ages of garrison politics under an APC-led government, which is envisioned to be progressive with Asiwaju Tinubu as President who was undisputedly a fighter for democracy. With APC almost disbanded given that its organs are no longer functional and handed over to Dr. Ganduje who is everything but a progressive and acting more like someone with a mission to destroy the party, the prospect of reforming the APC and return it to its founding vision is more and more becoming unreal. All these combined, winning elections in Kano State, the North-West and by extension, the whole country for APC will almost be impossible. If care is not taken, very soon, we will start having incidences of elected APC leaders moving to other parties in preparations for 2027 elections.
In the specific case of Kano State, the damage is already done. Give or take, whatever is the outcome of the current power struggle around the Kano Emirate has the potential of negatively affecting the electoral fortune of the APC. Does all these then suggest that APC is lost? Even before the Kano State debacle, the APC is lost to the extent of its derailment from its founding vision of being a progressive party. The emerging scenario whereby APC-led Federal Government of President Asiwaju Tinubu is using garrison politics to trample on the constitutional powers of Kano State Government would have damaged the democratic credentials of both President Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC beyond repairs, not to talk of returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party. The truth must be told that once the APC-led government of President Asiwaju Tinubu find garrison politics attractive as a means of resolving political disputes, its commitment to rule of law and respect for principles of federalism will prioritise the use of force. Democratic rudiments promoting negotiations and consultations aimed at contracting agreements around interests would be sacrificed and undermined.
What then should we do given such an ugly reality? There must be creative way to return to the struggle for democracy in Nigeria. Beyond elections, patriotic Nigerians must organise themselves and begin a new political initiative to build a strong political party, which must be functional with competent and credible leadership that should enjoy the confidence of Nigerians. Such leadership should have the skills to manage and reconcile internal disputes and regulate the conduct of elected representatives such that they are able to meet the expectations of Nigerians in lines with campaign promises as provided in the party’s manifesto.
As a member of APC, I must admit, I have lost hope about the prospect of reforming the APC to return it to its founding vision given the way President Asiwaju Tinubu and many APC leaders are conducting themselves. Unfortunately, given that all other political parties in the country are also not functional and only serve as special purpose vehicles for elections, the challenge of developing Nigerian democracy is beyond just changing political parties. To build Nigerian democracy, we need at least a political party, which will respect its own rules, guarantee that its organs as are meeting as enshrined in the party’s constitution, it has credible leadership that will be accountable to party members, and above all have the tolerance to accommodate divergent opinions and interests of party members.
Nigerian democracy must grow beyond just elections. Democracy is as good or bad as any dictatorship when it is incapable of regulating the conduct of elected representatives. The legal framework for the operations of political parties in Nigeria must be strengthened to compel strong compliance to internal rules of political parties. A situation whereby in the name of democracy we end up producing emperors who operate more as garrison commanders is unacceptable and all patriots and genuine democrats should be called upon to join the crusade to change it and build a truly strong democracy in Nigeria. The reality whereby democracy is reduced to a comedy of electoral circus must give way to one which promotes veritable consultations and negotiations driven by functional structures of political parties. And agreements or decisions of parties should be binding and enforceable based on compliance to internal rules of parties. That is the democracy Nigerians wanted and is the democracy we struggled and campaigned for, which we must return to!
Salihu Lukman
Failure of APC
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Chief John Odidie-Oyegun, APC National Chairman (2014 – 2018), in the Foreword to the Manifesto of the party, with the title Our Vision for a New Nigeria, observed that ‘When this democratic dispensation commenced in 1999, the federal government that emerged did not tell Nigerians what its vision was for the country; because the party that formed the government had none. And without a vision, that party at the centre has led Nigeria from one crisis to another, lurching deeper into political anarchy, economic decline and social disillusionment. A decade and a half later, nothing has changed. That ruling party has neither concrete plans for security and advancement of Nigerians, nor the wherewithal to do so even if it had one. Suffice to say that it had thrived on the maxim; Promise nothing, do nothing.’
Very ironic how, almost word for word, a decade since the emergence of APC as the ruling party in Nigeria, this aptly described political situation in the country. The only slight amendment is, APC came with a vision, which was well articulated in the manifesto of the party. But having won the 2015 elections, the first casualty was the APC manifesto. It was discarded and like the PDP, the APC continue to lead ‘Nigeria from one crisis to another, lurching deeper into political anarchy, economic decline and social disillusionment.’ Nothing changed as the APC, despite all the plans it had ‘for security and advancement of Nigerians,’ lacked ‘the wherewithal to’ implement its vision. With that, sadly, the APC ‘thrived on the maxim; Promise (everything), do nothing.’
Many of us in APC who supported the emergence of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu believed that the exit of former President Muhammadu Buhari will provide the opportunity to recover the vision of the APC and return to the project of instituting progressive governance in the country. We did so with the full conviction that, at the minimum, President Asiwaju Tinubu will make Lagos success story a national reality. What is Lagos success story? For many of us, more than physical development, the Lagos success story is about being able to assemble a team of competent and visionary people who would manage the business of government. It is to the credit of President Asiwaju Tinubu that, as Governor of Lagos State, he recruited the team of successive leaders of Lagos State who have been able to develop the state.
The desire to have a leader who can prioritise the recruitment of competent and visionary Nigerians to manage the affairs of government was necessitated by the recognition that under former President Buhari that wasn’t a factor in the selection process of those who served as appointees of the Federal Government. Arguably, some of the appointees of former President Buhari couldn’t have been considered for appointment in States and Local Governments by visionary leaders. Without mincing words, certainly former President Buhari wasn’t a visionary leader. His main strength, which made him popular with ordinary Nigerians, especially in the North, was his assumed record of being intolerant to corrupt politicians. Without belabouring the issue, certainly, the tenure of former President Buhari between 2015 and 2023 didn’t come anywhere near meeting the expectation of his diehard supporters in the North with respect to fighting corruption.
Beyond the issue of being unable to recruit competent team of visionary Nigerians into government, the reality also was that former President Buhari wasn’t a team player. This is one reality that his military colleagues highlighted as far back as August 27, 1985, when they overthrew his government. The only time perhaps former President Buhari pretended to be a team play was during the merger negotiations that produced the APC and during the internal contest to elect the Presidential candidate of the APC in 2014. But once he became the Presidential candidate of APC in December 2014, he returned to his normal self, stubbornly resisting consultations and even violating some agreements he was alleged to have had with fellow party leaders to secure their support to emerge as the Presidential candidate of the APC.
One of such alleged agreement that has been a subject of public debate was the issue of his running mate. There are documented positions presented by leaders of the APC, including Chief Bisi Akande about agreement to nominate President Asiwaju Tinubu as former President Buhari’s running mate. But the dynamics that played out immediately after the emergence of former President Buhari as the Presidential candidate of the APC for the 2015 elections jettisoned such agreement based on the consideration not to present a Muslim-Muslim ticket. The compromise was that President Tinubu was allowed to nominate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo as running mate to former President Buhari ahead of the 2015 elections.
Nominating Prof. Osinbajo as former President Buhari’s running mate would appear to be perhaps the only thing President Asiwaju Tinubu was able to win from the tenure of former President Buhari. Attempts by President Asiwaju Tinubu to nominate people into the cabinet led by former President Buhari was rejected. Even the appointments of Mr. Babatunde Fashola, and Dr. Kayode Fayemi into the cabinet, who were close associates of President Asiwaju Tinubu, was done against the wishes of President Asiwaju Tinubu. Beyond President Asiwaju Tinubu, the truth was that hardly any leader of the APC had the privilege of influencing the decisions of former President Buhari both with respect to appointments into government and deciding on policy priorities of the Buhari Presidency. Individual leaders of APC were relegated to backseats and suddenly close friends of former President Buhari, who were not party members and were not even part of the election campaign that brought APC to power became the main drivers of the Buhari Presidency. With that, APC and its leadership simply became shadow partners.
Given such circumstance, the party structures were rendered idle. The only thing that couldn’t be taken away from the party was the responsibility of nominating candidates for elections. Since former President Buhari was the main electoral asset of the party given his popularity in the Northern parts of the country, electoral permutations had to take its bearing from that. That made him to command both legal and moral authority. Unfortunately, being someone who is not a team player, ability of party leaders or its organs to influence his decisions and get him to take the right initiatives became remote. And gradually, meetings of party organs became irregular even when the rule of the party outrightly designated time frame for the meetings.
Consequently, the task of ensuring that elected and appointed representatives of the party deliver on campaign promises were simply left to discretion of individual office holders. And under former President Buhari whether individuals perform or not, they continued to remain in office. Some of the appointees inherited from the PDP government of former President Goodluck Jonathan were left in office. One of them, Mr. Godwin Emiefele, remained in office up to the end of the administration. Combined with poor selection of appointees, disregard for the party manifesto, all the three key campaign promises that made Nigerians to vote for the APC in 2015 were at best implemented based on what can be described as window dressing initiatives. The three campaign promises were addressing the problem of insecurity, which as of 2015 was predominantly the fight against Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East; fighting corruption; and rebuilding the Nigerian economy.
While acknowledging that some initiatives were certainly taken by the administration of former President Buhari in these areas, it must be recognised that they fell short of meeting the expected outcomes. For instance, even though during the tenure of former President Buhari huge public investment were undertaken in procurement of weapons and military hardware, the desired outcome of defeating Boko Haram wasn’t achieved. Instead, in addition to Boko Haram in the North-East, crisis of insecurity spread to the North-West and North-Central with bandits running amuck kidnapping innocent citizens including young school children in their hundreds. Problems of farmers – herders clashes spread to the South-West. And in the South-East, there is the return of secessionist agitations by groups such as MASSOB attacking security personnel and innocent citizens. Since 2017, the situation has gotten worse resulting in wanton destructions and loss of lives of innocent citizens.
It is quite painful to admit that crisis of insecurity in the country today, is worse than it was in 2015. It has further deepen the economic crisis because many farmers have abandon their farms. Some of the gains achieved in agricultural production because of some of the policies of the Buhari administration such as Anchor Borrower and ban on importation of food items, which helped to incentivise agricultural production were eroded by the crisis of insecurity. The bigger disappointment was that most Nigerians, including many APC leaders expected that the campaign for restructuring the country, which was very popular in the country before 2015, especially in the Southern parts of the country, would be escalated to the level of debate around constitutional amendment. During the sixteen years of PDP rule, leaders of the party and elected representatives shied away from engaging the debate. Many APC leaders, especially those who came from the ACN bloc led by President Asiwaju Tinubu were very strong advocates for restructuring.
Besides, there are instances in the APC manifesto where the campaign to restructure the country was acknowledged, which convinced Nigerians that an APC led Federal Government could develop the needed initiatives to change the country. The closest APC came to with respect to meeting the expectations of Nigerians about restructuring the country was the recommendations of the APC True Federalism Committee led by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in 2017. After generating what could have been regarded as internal consensus among APC leaders about initiatives required to address national challenges and reposition governments at all levels in the country, the party simply crashed and was unable to give life to the report of the Committee.
Simply put, after winning the confidence of Nigerians, the APC ended up not measuring up to the expectations of delivering the needed services to address national challenges. The general belief among Nigerians, including many APC leaders was that former President Buhari was the problem. Leaders of the party were unable to assert themselves and subordinate him to the control of the party, which was the big failings of the APC. However, it also needs to acknowledge that, clearly, the priority of most leaders of the APC would appear to be limited to simply winning election. The question of commitment to deliver services to address national challenges is never a priority. The only thing within APC that kept the hope of many party members about the potential to return to the founding vision of the party was that internal contest was very strong. With that, the advocacy for internal reforms to make the party stronger and leaders more responsive to national challenges was very robust. The advocacy for reform within the APC was responsible for virtually all the change of leadership that took place in APC.
With the tenure of former President Buhari coming to an end in 2023, the question of who will succeed him became the major issue. Some of the associates of former President Buhari attempted to manipulate the party into adopting a so-called consensus Presidential candidate. Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, as National Chairman supported the plot to impose a Northern candidate, Sen. Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan. Perhaps, the problem of imposition of candidates became a major challenge in the party since the 2019 elections when practically serving Governors became overbearing and the situation got out of control especially in Imo, Ogun and Zamfara States. Although not having a serving Governor, the situation also got out of control in Rivers State. As a result, except for Ogun State, the APC lost the election in these States.
The post-election dynamics that followed the 2019 elections created uneasy atmosphere in the party. Inability of the party leadership to prioritise issues of reconciliation among party leaders was largely responsible for the dissolution of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole led National Working Committee (NWC) in June 2020. In place of the NWC, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of June 25, 2020, appointed a 13-Member Caretaker/Convention Working Committee led by a serving Governor of Yobe State, His Excellency Mai Mala Buni with the sole mandate of organising a National Convention to elect new leadership within six months. The Caretaker, however, once it settled down began to scheme and manipulate the extension of its tenure. It took some hard-fought internal contest to force it to organise the National Convention that elected the leadership under Sen. Abdullahi Adamu in March 2022, more than eighteen months after the dissolution of the Comrade Oshiomhole’s NWC.
Part of what must also be acknowledged as a very big challenge, which is responsible for the current reality facing the APC, or if it is to be put correctly, the failure of APC, is the overbearing control of the Governors over the party. It must be admitted that at the formative stage of the APC, the conception of having an organised bloc of Governors was more about ensuring the programmatic development of policy synergy among APC states. The thirteen Governors who were the founding members debated this in Lafia, Nasarawa State on August 14, 2013, and resolved to formalise the Progressive Governors Forum with established Secretariat that would facilitate programmes to engender the needed policy synergy among APC States. With that activities of the Secretariat became the fulcrum driving the Forum. The challenge of developing policy synergy among APC states, ordinarily should be the responsibility of party leadership and its organs.
To achieve that, effort was made to develop supportive initiatives, which include a monthly meeting between Governors and the party’s NWC. That was relatively successful under the leadership of Chief Oyegun. For instance, the decision to setup the El-Rufai Committee on True Federalism came out of the initiative of the PGF Secretariat, which was deliberated by the monthly meeting of Governors and APC NWC resulting in the decision of APC NEC to setup the El-Rufai Committee. Although all these certainly are part of the positives of having a strong organisation of Governors within the party, the politics of asserting the hegemony of Governors however became the dominant reality. To the extent that the hegemonic control of Governors within the APC was used negatively to produce the reality of imposition of candidates, which became the source of endless conflicts among party leaders, represent one of the failings of APC given that part of the logic of the change campaign associated with the party is to end imposition of candidates.
Of course, it also needs to be recognised that the hegemonic control of Governors bloc in APC was made possible due to the inability of other interest groups within the party to organise themselves and effectively contest the rising authority of Governors in the party. One of such interest that could have done that and effectively checked the influence of Governors in the party is the bloc of National Assembly members. Achieving that would require complementary initiatives beyond the legal structures provided in the National Assembly. It is doubtful if that was given any consideration.
Other interests that needed to be organised are blocs of women, youth and persons living with disability. Although even in APC Constitution, these groups are formally recognised, the capacity to function as organised groups based on which they make demands around policy issues, appointments into governments controlled by the party and sponsor candidates for elections is weak. One of the obstacles hindering capacity to organise these groups is often argued to be funding. Part of the drawback in Nigerian politics is the inability to creatively mobilise finances for political activities. In fact, this is also a major challenge, which the APC as a political party has been unable to resolve. The major source of funding for the APC is the high cost of nomination forms for elections.
Related to the problem of funding is the issue of accountability. Apart from meetings of statutory organs of the party not taking place, financial accountability in APC is zero. The party doesn’t operate a budget and leaders don’t have clearly defined conditions of service. The party doesn’t have campaign funds and make almost zero contributions to campaign finances for candidates of the party, except for what was done in 2019 under the leadership of Comrade Oshiomhole. During the 2019 general elections, candidates of the party at all levels received financial support from the party.
The reality, however, is that party leaders function more as surrogates to candidates and elected representatives. Problems of party leaders extorting candidates and aspirants is also very entrenched in APC so much so that elected representatives produced by the party turned out to be emperors. Instead of party leaders regulating elected representatives, elected representatives are the lords and masters of the party.
It is not by accident that meetings of party organs are not taking place. It is deliberately designed to ensure the hegemonic control of elected representatives over the party. And it is just to get the party to continue to serve as a special purpose vehicle for elections. Issues of policy negotiations to meet the expectations of citizens is not a priority. The expectation of many of us in APC is that President Asiwaju Tinubu being a seasoned politician and someone who was in the frontline of the campaign for democracy in Nigeria will provide the needed leadership to respond to our national political challenges. The expectation is that being one of the leaders who led the merger negotiations and as someone who has been consistent with the claim of being an Awoist, he will prioritise building the party.
Again, President Asiwaju Tinubu’s claim of being an Awoist convinced many Nigerians that he is a liberal politician. The consideration of ideological leanings of political leaders is certainly taken for granted even in APC. Although during the debate around the party’s manifesto, there was the understanding that the APC will be a social democratic party and the thrust of the party’s manifesto is oriented based on that, the reality is that the party was unable to orient its leaders and its governments to implement social democratic initiatives. If APC governments were to be social democratic, the priority will be on Education, Health and Social Services. That being the case, it would be reflected in the budgetary allocation to these sectors. The closest is the initiative to introduce the Social Investment Programme under the Buhari administration.
The crisis of corruption associated with the Social Investment Programme and clear lack of commitment to anything close to social democracy by all APC governments at all levels represent one of the failings of the party. Instead, with hardly any exception, since 2015, all governments at all levels controlled by the APC operated based on the practice of business-as-usual. Problems of corruption, insecurity and economic crisis have gotten worse. Crisis of high cost of living, rising unemployment and high level of poverty are becoming unbearable. The nation is on the edge of social outburst. Unfortunately, the APC, even under President Asiwaju Tinubu is turning out to be unable to respond to the problem of high cost of living, rising unemployment and higher levels of poverty and mitigate the hardship facing ordinary Nigerians.
The bigger calamity is that President Asiwaju Tinubu is turning out to be an extreme right-wing leader and not a liberal capitalist. The speed with which he declared that petroleum “subsidy is gone” even before settling down as President and the inability to have a clear policy plan to cushion the effect for vulnerable Nigerians clearly highlighted the ideological leaning of President Asiwaju Tinubu. Combined with the policy of floating the exchange rate of the Naira against major international currency clearly defined the extreme right-wing credentials of the Tinubu administration. For an import defendant nation to withdraw subsidy and float the exchange of the Naira without any clear responsive policy plan to boost local production is simply decidedly anti-poor. The reality whereby the value of incomes of citizens has been eroded should have been expected and at least some initiatives to grow the earning capacity of citizen should have been introduced.
Unfortunately, all we have is grandstanding by the government so much so that they are now trapped back in the subsidy debate. The reality is, given the value of the Naira today, the landing cost of one litre of imported petroleum motor spirit is certainly more than N700. Given the relatively low income of citizens any attempt to increase it beyond N700 could trigger social unrest in the country. Involuntarily therefore, the government is taking the additional cost without being able to admit that its decision to withdraw subsidy on petrol has failed. Desolately, the President Asiwaju Tinubu government is living in denial. How long can it continue to deny that subsidy is back?
The worse case is also taking citizens for granted, which is responsible for the current foot-dragging over minimum wage negotiations. For a government whose leader, President Asiwaju Tinubu, who is on daily, if not hourly, appearing on national TV stations to declare commitment for “living wage”, it is simply unbecoming to allow any stalemate in minimum wage negotiations with organised labour. Quite worrisome is the fact that the government recklessly allowed a strike action without being able to pre-empt it. The government should have taken every necessary step to win an agreement with organised labour before the expiration of the ultimatum. Given worsening condition of living in the country, the last general strike must have been the easiest strike organised by labour in the country. In fact, the government should thank its stars that organised labour was able to limit the strike to only work stoppages. Had it been escalated to street protests; the story would have been different.
Somehow, developments of the last one year since the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu highlight the crisis of our democracy. As it is, there is no need to pretend, APC as a political party capable of aggregating the interest of Nigerians has been lost. Like the PDP and all other parties in the country, membership of the APC doesn’t confer any advantage of influencing decisions of elected representatives and governments it controls. Painfully, the APC is now implementing extreme right-wing policy and President Asiwaju Tinubu has turned out to be a leader who is intolerant to those who could disagree with him. If after one year, President Asiwaju Tinubu could succeed in shielding himself from being accessed by people who could tell him the hard truth, it is only logical to conclude that he is intolerant. Combined with the way and manner he subverts internal agreement to impose Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje as the National Chairman of APC, it simply means that he is not committed to the democratic development of Nigeria.
With such reality, it behooves on patriotic Nigerians to return to the trenches of the campaign for democracy and pick 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 for the purpose of grabbing 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 questions, 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 are serial contestants and aspirants to every election since 1999. The arrogance about having access to financial resources must be redressed based on skillful fund-raising strategy. In any event, how much money did former President Buhari had for APC to defeat the PDP in 2015.
No doubt, President Asiwaju Tinubu has challenged Nigerians to think outside the conventional political box. APC members and leaders, and indeed all patriotic Nigerians committed to democratic development of the country, are being challenged daily to ask the question what is the value of being associated with a political party if all that it does is only to field candidates for elections. The way and manner both former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu have managed affairs of the country without consulting party leadership and structures in the last nine years made a mockery of democracy. The survival and further development of Nigerian democracy must not be allowed to be limited to the discretion of individual leaders, no matter how powerful they are. 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. The beauty of being a democracy is the freedom it offers to engage in political contest. Patriotic Nigerians must practically and loudly convey the right message to President Asiwaju Tinubu, the APC leadership and Nigerian politicians that our 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.
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. 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!
Chuks Erhire
--
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CSO-APC Engagement" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cso-apc-engagem...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cso-apc-engagement/LO3P265MB182043BAC8AE44C934E9EEC9AEFB2%40LO3P265MB1820.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.
Salihu Lukman
Explosive North
Open Letter to Northern Politicians
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
The living reality in Northern Nigeria is very explosive. If anyone is interested in finding the practical meaning of the Hobbesian description of life being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’, just look at what life is in Northern Nigeria. Indices of poverty, unemployment, inequality are beyond description. Conditions of schools and hospitals is, to say the least, depressing. The civil service, in virtually all the nineteen states, is only a shadow of itself, with hardly any public service activity taking place. Our illustrious and respected traditional institutions have been devalued and reduced to state of hopelessness. Most of our religious leaders and centres are far removed from God’s way of life. Few industries exist in the region. And on account of insecurity, agricultural activities, which is the main stay of the economy of the region, is highly on the decline.
No need to go into conventional statistical analysis of out of school children, number of people living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps. Not to talk of problems of drugs and substance abuse. Problems of broken homes and abandoned children is quite alarming. As it is, the North is an explosive waiting to explode. We have lost virtually all our homes, our families and our children. Every person with human feeling should be saddened with the reality of what the Northern part of Nigeria has become. Sadly, even the one strength the North is known for, which is strongly united political leaders, has been lost.
More than anytime in the political history of Nigeria, the North has never been disunited without any semblance of political leadership like we have in today’s Nigeria. Partly, on account of lack of unity, the quality of political leadership in the North is sharply on the decline. Many so-called politicians are Internally Displaced Persons/Politicians (IDPs), especially once they are out of office. Those in office today are potential IDPs. Consequently, the worst among us, with hardly any commitment to resolving the challenges facing the North, find their way to political leadership in the North simply because they can cheaply access elective and appointive offices and control public resources, which is largely mismanaged and privatised.
Perhaps, the opportunity for Northern political leaders to redeem themselves and return the North back to rational order with committed leaders capable of responding to the challenges of the region was blown away during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari. The painful reality was that no leader in the political history of Nigeria gained the kind of national acceptability former President Buhari had at the beginning of his tenure. The closest was Chief M. K. O. Abiola whose election was annulled by the military regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. More than any Northern political leader, former President Buhari undisputedly won the votes of people from both Northern and Southern Nigeria, which could have been used to produce new crop of selfless leadership for the country. Selfless leadership is required to put every part of Nigeria on the roadmap to national development.
Golden eight years between 2015 and 2023 was lost. Instead, the country, especially the North became worse off with crisis of insecurity taking over everywhere. Problems of poverty, unemployment, drugs and substance abuses, etc. becoming almost peculiar characteristics of the Northern region. Unfortunately, here we are under President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who got majority of the votes that won him the Presidency from the three regions in the North but seem to be only interested in taking advantage of the lack of unity among leaders in the region. Certainly, not his fault and if he is uninterested in challenges facing the region, no one, especially Northern political leaders, should complain.
Partly, on account of lack of unity among leaders in the North, President Asiwaju Tinubu has marginalised the people of North-Central in the political leadership of the country. It is quite depressing that President Asiwaju Tinubu could marginalise the people of North-Central in the manner he did without leaders in the North showing any concern. In addition to marginalising the people of North-Central, he imposed Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje from North-West as National Chairman of APC, which is the ruling party. Out of all the political leaders of North-West, he finds no one who is better qualified but Dr. Ganduje with all the baggage of corruption allegations and poor political relations with other leaders in Kano State, including the Kano State Government. Partly, because of the poor relations between Dr. Ganduje and Kano State Government, the revered Kano Emirate Council has been plunged into avoidable crisis with no end in sight and President Asiwaju Tinubu is pretending to be uninterested.
So far, one year has pass into President Asiwaju Tinubu administration. No doubt, Northern political leaders are becoming weaker and more disorganised. Even the Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima GCON, who is the highest office holder and by virtue of that should have served as the needed rallying point for Northern politicians, is anything but a political leader. With every respect, hardly any official of the current administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu from the North, including Sen. Shettima, is willing and able to take the needed risk to defend the interest of the North. Painfully, what is emerging is that most leaders from the North are more concern about self-preservation in the government.
Because of self-preservation, already scheming for 2027 has commenced. Within the Presidency there are indicative cold war dynamics and positioning, which is alleged to be responsible for the praise-singing disposition of Vice President Shettima. The National Security Adviser (NSA), Mal. Nuhu Ribadu has devalued an exalted office almost to the status of a Protocol Office to President Asiwaju Tinubu. Virtually all other Northern politicians holding offices in this government, including the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. George Akume are absentee public servants who have been reduced to members of a choir group poorly singing ‘on your mandate we stand’ irrespective of the shaky and staggering reality being demonstrated by the mandate holder with reference to poor service delivery and crashing living conditions in the last one year.
Despairingly, opposition political leaders are hardly any better. With hardly any exception, they seem to be only interested in their narrow ambition to contest for office in 2027. The question of uniting political leaders and developing the needed political framework to respond to national challenges is hardly given any consideration. It is quite worrisome that we have crashed, both as politicians and as a region, beyond rational reasoning. More worrisome is the fact that we imagine that we can continue like this, and perhaps current leaders impose themselves on Nigerians in 2027.
We need to caution political leaders in the country that things are about to get out of hand any moment from now especially in the North. If care is not taken, hungry people who are everywhere in the North will start breaking into homes and looting properties of innocent citizens. The other danger is that innocent citizens going about their normal businesses could be attacked on the streets by hungry people. Regrettably, all we do as politicians is to go about doing things the old way and most times promoting the primordial sentiment around ethnicity and religion as reasons for our failings. The truth is that Northern politicians are the problem of the North and by extension the country. Certainly, Northern politicians hold the remote control for the explosive in the region.
Until the North wake up and get its politicians organised, united and committed to providing the needed leadership to resolve the challenges of the region, the explosive, which the region has become may go off anytime soon. It may go off largely because of the default mindset of an average Northern politician of today’s generation who only think about himself/herself alone. Any other thing, including public service and responding to societal challenges is not his/her business. For the North to wake up and change this default mindset, conscious effort must be made to develop new frontiers of political organisation in the region and in the country. Such new frontier of political organisation must be strategically about building a formidable team of respected Nigerians who could deploy themselves within the structures of a political party based on the commitment of mobilising human and material resources to resolve challenges facing the North and by extension the country.
The mistake of the past, especially with reference to former President Buhari and now President Asiwaju Tinubu whereby frontiers of political organisation was development based on individual ambition to contest election must be avoided. Developing frontiers of political organisations based on the ambitions of former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu has only produced the current monstrous reality of electing emperors and overloads who are succeeding in disintegrating the foundation of Nigerian democracy.
As it is, there is now a prevailing atmosphere of fear among political leaders. Structures of virtually all the registered political parties have been demobilised. None of the parties is organising meetings and none is recruiting members. In fact, hardly any of the registered parties and its leaders are debating what is to be done to resolve our current national challenges, especially the explosive waiting to explode in the North. Most political leaders and parties are afraid of taking initiatives that could begin to mobilise Nigerians in a different direction. And as far as the APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu are concerned, they believed they could deploy the advantage of being the so-called ruling party to win the 2027 elections even as they have failed or are failing to respond to challenges facing the country.
Remarkably, this is a complete contrast of the records of President Asiwaju Tinubu in Lagos State. Some of us who supported the emergence of President Asiwaju Tinubu did so with reference to what he did in Lagos, notably being able to recruit generation of successive visionary leaders for the State and putting in place the development blueprint that gave birth to modern Lagos State. So far, the Lagos reality is no where near what is emerging under the Asiwaju Presidency. Given the absence of any plan, governance by impulse seems to be the order with wide range of speculations all over the political landscape.
Yet, Nigerians expect our democracy to perform miracles. So long as political leaders are not willing to take the needed responsibility to start organising the new frontier of political organisation, which can hold elected leaders accountable based on which they are able to respond to societal and national challenges, our democracy will continue to produce emperors and overloads and our challenges will continue to get worse. Worsening situation will continue to spread across every part of the country. Nigerians must be reminded that the crisis of insecurity in the country was predominantly located in the North-East and some parts of North-West in 2015. Sadly, it has now covered the whole of the nineteen Northern States, South-East and parts of South-West in different ways.
Above all, it has become an explosive in the whole North waiting to explode. If care is not taken, like the problem of insecurity, the explosive in the North, which is largely a product of hunger, unemployment and collapse of economic activities may spread to other parts of the country. It will be tragic if that is allowed to happen. Nigerian politicians must wake up and do the needful. Northern political leaders must make the needed sacrifices and begin to work for the detonation of the explosive in the North. Such sacrifices must be reflected in the willingness and commitment of leaders to participate in the development of new frontiers of political organisation in the country, which should subordinate elected leaders and make them accountable. Anything short of that could make the explosive in the North to explode and spread to other parts of the country.
May God Almighty touch the hearts of all our political leaders in the country. May He also strengthen the capacity, drive and wisdom of patriotic Nigerians across every part of Nigeria to unite and develop the vanguard for the formation of the new frontiers of political organisation in the country. May God Almighty make the new frontier of political organisation successful in Nigeria capable of reforming and transforming Nigerian political parties to produce new generation of accountable and responsive political leaders across every part of the country. And May He crown the new frontier with victory in 2027 and even before 2027 immediately detonate the explosive in North. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Importance of Legislature to a Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
In the last one-week, since the protest of Tuesday, June 25, 2024 by young people against the Kenyan Finance Bill submitted to Kenyan parliament by President William Ruto, Nigerian social media platforms have been abuzz with posts and video clips of issues around the Kenyan protests. One of them is a clip of Sen. Crystal Asige, who within about 10 minutes eloquently and succinctly captures both the essence and connection of democracy as the guardian of the people. Central to that is the legislature or parliament, which makes laws and perform the function of oversight or being the watch dog over the Executive and the Judiciary, through which it depends public interests. This is not an easy task. Being able to discharge such task require high moral standing, which is about sacrifices and ability to resist temptations, in other words capacity for self-denial.
The video clip of Sen. Asige went viral in practically all media platforms in Nigeria, with many interpretations, including calling on Nigerian legislators to emulate the Kenyan Senator. This is a tall order, which may simply just bury or dismiss the salient points made by Sen. Asige, which are not only valid in Kenya but in every country of the African continent. What is the salient points Sen. Asige made, which must not be lost? I will attempt to present the highlights of the salient points and how they manifest or negatively impacted on the performance of the legislature in our context in Nigeria. More importantly, attempt will be made to highlight what needs to done to reposition Nigerian parliament or legislature in order to make our democracy functionally representative of the interests of citizens.
While expressing opposition to a motion for the Kenyan parliament to go on recess, Sen. Asige drew attention of her colleagues to, as mark of respect for the innocent lives lost, recognise that ‘Parliament stands to represent its people, parliament does not close to run away from its people’ as ‘respect for young men and women who have lost lives who are now muted because they cannot speak due to …horrifying scenes’ witnessed by the killing of Tuesday, June 25, 2024 of more than 20 people. Without repeating all the valid justifications, Sen. Asige provided for opposing the Finance Bill submitted to parliament by President William Ruto, which among others aimed at generating additional $2.7 billion in domestic revenue by introducing wide range of new taxes on Kenyans, Sen. Asige made the point that ‘darkness fear democracy’.
This is more of a hypothetical statement highlighting what ought to be especially if democratic institutions, such as parliaments or legislative bodies are able to competently and effectively serve as the voice and representatives of the people. In fact, the parliament or legislature represent the most distinguishing feature of democracy, and to that extent the main reason why ‘darkness will fear democracy’. Darkness are clearly all the wrong policies and initiatives taken by elected governments and leaders, which come under the searchlight of very clear and well-informed representatives in the legislative arm of government who perform the oversight function of regulating the conducts of elected governments and leaders and ensuring that they are aligned with the overall interests of citizens.
The video clip of Sen. Asige went viral in Nigerian social media platforms largely because of considerable feelings of envy by many aspiring Nigerians who feel a sense of loss with the quality of legislative business in Nigeria. There is no doubt that these are legitimate expressions, which needs strategic initiatives to domesticate realities whereby ‘darkness’ could fear ‘democracy’. Perhaps, it is also important to acknowledge that there are instances in this Fourth Republic whereby the National Assembly, which is the legislative body at Federal level in Nigeria truly rose and defended the interests of Nigerians against attempts by sitting Presidents to railroad their way with bad policies or initiatives that conflict with wider interests of Nigerians. Some of those instances include the landmark victory of the 5th National Assembly against the Third Term agenda of former President Olusegun Obasanjo under the leadership of Sen. Ken Nnamani and Rt. Hon. Aminu Bello Masari. There is also the ingenious doctrine of necessity passed by the 6th Senate, which resolved the stalemate and confirmed Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President in February 2010 during the sickness of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua under the leadership of Sen. David Mark.
Beyond these two instances, there are other cases of interventions by many courageous members of the two chambers of the National Assembly in Nigeria. However, there is deep feeling of concerns among Nigerians that courageous voices of individual legislators in both the Senate and the House of Representatives is fading away and both chambers are becoming more like rubber stamps. Partly because of the faint or almost complete absence of courageous voices in the National Assembly, the President and the members of the Executive body of Government are practically getting away with virtually every wrong decision that are injurious to the wellbeing of Nigerian citizens. A good example is the impulsive declaration of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to end petroleum subsidy without any clear plan. Followed by another impulsive decision to float the Naira exchange rate against other international currencies with hardly any plan.
The consequence of this reality is rock-bottom crash of living conditions in the country as a result of unimaginable decimation of value of incomes. Now more than one year after, there doesn’t appear to be any logical response from the government and hardly any dedicated debate in any of the two chambers in the National Assembly around these issues. Not even during the debate for the passage of the 2024 budget. It is no secret that Nigerians are in shock and highly disappointed by the performances of the 10th National Assembly that so far hold the most expeditious record of passage of executive bills, including the scandalous reversal to an old National Anthem that hardly makes any sense without any public hearing. As it is now, thanks to the 10th National Assembly, the President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government is operating three budgets concurrently – 2023, 2023 Supplementary and 2024 Budgets. There are speculations that a fourth – 2024 Supplementary Budget is on its way, which, if that happens, will be expressly passed and accordingly makes it the fourth concurrent budget running.
How did we get to this abysmally low level of legislative practice whereby it can almost be said that in Nigeria, democracy equates darkness? Without going into details, combinations of many factors, which have taken place over the last 25 years are responsible. Some of the factors include the reality whereby systematically the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly have been downgraded to the status of appointees of the President. That was largely made possible by the fact that the party machinery or organs, which are supposed to serve as the platforms for negotiations have been weakened and also subordinated to the President.
Consequently, beyond having a democracy that equates to darkness, like in the Kenyan situation described by Sen. Asige ‘unity’ is being ‘violently gunned down in the streets, not by men, but by monsters who have no concern for human lives’. Unlike in Kenya whereby the monsters are only associated with nefarious activities of trigger-happy overzealous police officers, in our context in Nigeria they are also amorphous operating as Boko Haram, bandits, kidnappers and other variants of terrorist groups in the country. And unlike what Sen. Asige observed with respect to Kenya that ‘although this government has demonstrated that lifeless Kenyan bodies are not to take precedence over their punitive finance bill, young Kenyans have looked their oppressors in the eyes and shown them that when it comes down to the wire, there are only two times to be brave – when you feel like it and when you don’t’, Nigerians only wish the same could be said here in our context.
Punitive policy decisions of successive Nigerian governments, including the present one are taking precedence over the life of citizens. Fifteen trillion Naira is being expended on a costal road from Lagos to Calabar, Billions have been expended on a Presidential Yatch, Vice President accommodation, purchase of luxury vehicles for elected and appointed government officials, including members of the National Assembly, a new Presidential aircraft is about to be procured, etc. The list is almost endless and keep growing and the cost is simply punitive.
Although young Nigerians are making every effort to engage these issues, absence of organisational strategy, compounded by lack of inclusiveness have blocked opportunities for young people in Nigeria to effectively confront our today’s forces of darkness. As a result, many are asking the question, ‘when will young Nigerians stand up and look their oppressors in the eye and show them that when it come to the wire, there are only two times to be brave – when you feel it and when you don’t’? When that time come, will Nigerians have a strong voice in the two chambers of the National Assembly to echo their grievances and speak on their behalf like Sen. Asige did for the Kenyan youth?
From all the social media discussions in Nigeria around Sen. Asige’s intervention in Kenya, there is strong agreement with the point she made expressing ‘profound disappointment with the current government and its forceful assault on crowd of innocent youth …by its nefarious police officers who have got raw guns on unarmed young citizens peacefully exercising their constitutional right towards an uncaring corrupt and wasteful government in their eyes that has turned its back on them’. The fact is that the perception of majority of Nigerians is that Nigerian government is uncaring, wasteful and has turned its back on citizens. It is a painful reality, which unfortunately doesn’t elicit the kind of debate expected in the two chambers of the National Assembly.
In other words, there is a complete failing on the part of the two chambers of the National Assembly and its members to serve as a check on the President and members of the Executive. This has created an atmosphere of denial corresponding to application of ‘brute force … against’ citizens, which means ‘brute force’ is ‘the operating system’ ‘built into the fabric of today’s government’. Given such unfortunate reality, innocent and law-abiding Nigerians are daily and hourly losing their lives. And like Sen. Asige rightly captured, ‘when they kill us, they are killing themselves …the arrogance from some of these top government officials has been outrageously condescending to young people, disgusting and reminiscent of narcistic abuse’.
It must be admitted that Sen. Asige was not only a representative of Kenyans, but she is also indeed a representative of Africans. Nigerians, and indeed Africans, are proud of her courage, vision and foresight to make those historic interventions at a time when democracy is receding in the African continent and forces of darkness becoming more and more arrogant and outrageously condescending against citizens. One of the messages, which must be reechoed to all our political leaders in Nigeria, especially leaders and members of the two chambers of the National Assembly is the point Sen. Asige made to the effect that ‘Clinical psychologists will tell you that narcissist will first love you, then they will manipulate you, then they will gaslight you into believing their lies, then they will devalue you and finally…they will discard you once they have what they want’.
This aptly describe the fate and circumstances that awaits the leaders and members of the National Assembly and has been the reality, which account for the problems of high turnover of members, including leaders of the National Assembly. Certainly, the 10th National Assembly is not going to be different. To get this seemingly current pliant and willy-nilly leadership, President Asiwaju Tinubu courted members of the National Assembly in both chambers. Now, with all sorts of incentives to leaders and members of the two chambers, including 74% budgetary increase in the 2024 allocation both the leadership and members of the 10th National Assembly are being manipulated to approve every proposal of the President.
Note that the 74% increase in the Budget of the National Assembly raise the allocation to N344.85 billion from the initial proposal of N197.93 billion. The other additional incentive border on some of the allegations surrounding activities of Committees of the two chambers during oversight supervision of governmental agencies. Committees are being alleged to reduce oversight functions to business of extorting money from agencies of government. Related to that is the fact that management of budgetary allocations by leaders of the National Assembly is shrouded in confidentiality. Even remunerations of members are similarly shrouded in confidentiality with many claims of rooftop salary payments. There are also allegations of budget padding, which is more like slush funds in the name of constituency projects controlled by members.
Part of the challenge of our democracy is that the two chambers of the National Assembly are only accountable to themselves. The Public Accounts Committees in both chambers are expected to oversight management of funds allocated to the National Assembly. Somehow, these are issues that contribute to the current reality whereby the National Assembly, its leadership and members lost the moral authority to regulate the conduct of the Executive Arm of government. With that, they function practically at the mercy of the President and members of the Executive Arm, almost as if they are employees of the Executive. Using all these incentives, the President and members of the Executive arm seamlessly turned on the ‘gaslight’, which leaves members with no option but to believe and approve every proposal submitted even when they are injurious to public interests. Having served as the machinery that hurt the people, they become liabilities and therefore eventually got discarded.
Noting that there are certainly many credible, experienced and very patriotic members in the two chambers of the National Assembly, the question must be asked about when can such members of the Nigerian National Assembly regain or recover their human and democratic souls and begin to show up and promote national debates on the floor of the Nigerian parliament capable of reawakening the confidence of Nigerians about our democracy? When are we going to have truly Nigerian patriots, who are selfless, visionary and forward looking in the Nigerian parliament, whose moral standing is unquestionable and could serve as the political hard currency required to illuminate our democracy? When will Nigerian democracy grow such that members of the National Assembly will earn the respect of not just the Executive Arm but also citizens on account of which the current travesty of operating at the mercy of narcissistic reality, which both destroys leaders in the Executive and Legislative Arms is overcome and new era of accountability and transparency enthroned in the management of public resources?
The point is, Nigerian democracy, as it is, is not functionally representing the interest of citizens largely because the parliament represented by the two chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives – have involuntarily submitted themselves to the narcissistic control of the President. Until and unless the parliament can free itself from the President, it will almost be impossible for it to develop the capacity of defending and protecting the interest of Nigerians. That will require holistic approach of undertaking deeper reforms of Nigerian politics such that the survival of Nigerian politicians is not a function of the ‘benevolence’ of the President. This will necessarily require that political parties in Nigeria are transformed beyond the status of being shadow partners to the President. If that is to be achieved, the organs of political parties must not only be allowed to function, but their decisions must be binding on every leader and member of the party, including the President.
Certainly, Sen. Asige must have acted based on the existence of a superior political infrastructure, which enables and affirms the independence of the parliament with strong political parties that protects and encourages members to serve as representatives of the people. We must renegotiate Nigerian democracy, based on which new framework of political party operations, management and operations are instituted to liberate our elected representatives from the clear narcissistic control of the President. It is only when that happens that Nigerian democracy can produce elected representatives, including National Assembly members who can guarantee that ‘Unity is our financier, liberation, passion, justice, anger, disillusionment and dissatisfaction are all our financiers’ as submitted by Sen. Asige. May God Almighty touch the hearts of all our elected representatives, including President Asiwaju Tinubu and leaders of the two chambers of the National Assembly to submit themselves to the process of renegotiating Nigerian democracy to produce truly elected representatives who can guarantee that ‘darkness will fear democracy’. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Future of Democracy in Nigeria
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
What is the future of democracy in Nigeria? Is there any prospect that it can produce leaders who are responsive to national challenges? Being responsive is basically about ensuring that public expenditures are oriented to tackle challenges facing citizens. What are the challenges facing Nigerians today? Poverty, unemployment, insecurity, drugs and substance abuse, millions of out of school children in the North, etc. Not to talk of the additional problems of inflation and the crash of the value of incomes especially in the last one year under the leadership of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Although some officials of the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu have attempted to explain the current hardship Nigerians are facing with reference to the bad economy inherited from the previous administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the reality is that both are APC Governments. If anything, APC became very popular in Nigeria on account of the failings of the PDP. What were the failings of the PDP? The failings of the PDP are reflected in the same way today’s challenges are manifesting. If the truth is to be told, whatever was the failings of PDP in 2015, it was less grievous than what it has become under APC in 2024.
No doubt, former President Buhari had his problem as a leader. However, whatever was estimated to be his failure should be the shared responsibility of APC leaders in varying degrees, including President Asiwaju Tinubu. No leader of APC should attempt to distance himself/herself from the failure of the Buhari era, certainly, not President Asiwaju Tinubu. In one way or the other, APC leaders, without exception, are ‘beneficiaries’ of the Buhari era, just as some of them could claim to be victims. On balance however, APC leaders benefited more from the Buhari era than being victims. At least electorally, former President Buhari made it possible for APC to defeat the PDP. Without former President Buhari, the defeat of PDP in 2015 would have been almost impossible, and by extension, arguably, would have been difficult, if not impossible for President Asiwaju Tinubu to become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Unfortunately, having defeated the PDP in 2015, APC failed to produce the needed collective leadership required to manage the machinery of governments produced by the party at all levels. Gradually, APC succeeded in turning democracy on its head. Instead of producing democratic leaders, elected leaders increasingly became emperors and overlords. State machinery became captured and privatised to almost exclusively only serve the interests of elected representatives. In other words, business of governments became monopolised to serve the vested interests of supposedly elected leaders. More than anything, state governments in Nigeria are best examples of the phenomenon of governance capture. Key institutions such as State Assemblies, Local Governments, State Independent Electoral Commissions and State structures of political parties, which should regulate the conduct of elected representatives, including Governors and make them accountable to citizens have been privatised and only serve private interests of these elected officials.
The reality is that Nigerian democracy has legitimised the problem of state capture whereby the machinery of government at all levels are being privatised and oriented only to serve the narrow interests of elected officials. Public resources and funds are allocated or diverted to benefit elected officials. The term, ‘state capture’ is, according to Wikipedia, ‘first used by the World Bank, around the year 2000, to describe the situation in certain Central Asian countries making the transition from Soviet communism. Specifically, it was applied to situations where small corrupt groups used their influence over government officials to appropriate government decision-making to strengthen their own economic positions’. This phenomenon of ‘state capture’ as described by the World Bank has virtually become the dominant characteristics of African democracy with hardly any exception. ‘Small corrupt group’ of elected leaders and appointed government officials have ‘appropriated government decision-making to strengthen their own economic positions’.
In Nigeria, from a situation whereby it is more the case with State Governments, under the APC, between 2015 and now (2024) it has become a national phenomenon and President Asiwaju Tinubu is building on that and perfecting it. For instance, although, under former President Buhari, the legislative arm of government at Federal level (National Assembly) has some semblance of independence with instances of disagreements with former President Buhari, it is now reduced to nothing more than an extension of the Presidency so much so that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio is turning out to be an uncommon embarrassment to Nigerians, shamelessly desecrating the institution of the Senate and his colleagues. His praise singing disposition to President Asiwaju Tinubu is certainly uncommon without any limit. As it is, with Sen. Akpabio as Senate President, the Senate chamber risk being held captive by President Asiwaju Tinubu as it will be unable to register any disagreement with the Executive Arm of government.
Already, the ruling party, APC, has gone beyond capture to the point of being disbanded. With Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje operating as the National Chairman, organs of the party have been frozen and President Asiwaju Tinubu has assume the over drive mode of disregarding both the constitution of the APC and gradually disrespecting the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended. To the extend that the people of North-Central stands marginalised in this Government, the provisions of Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution, which direct that ‘the composition of Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies’ is in breach.
Beyond the APC, other parties, including the PDP, Labour Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), which are today’s main opposition parties, are being manipulated into operating in crisis modes. Their capacity to moblise Nigerians and lead any political opposition against the APC is being undermined. Consequently, President Asiwaju Tinubu is having a field day, practically having his way even when he takes wrong decisions with devastating impact on the lives of Nigerians. It is almost as if another political reality like what we had in 1998 during the era of late Gen. Sani Abacha with parties aptly fitting the description of late Chief Bola Ige of being ‘fingers of a leprous hand’ is today’s Nigerian reality.
The risk of state capture in Nigeria extending to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is high given that the tenure of Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, current INEC Chairman will end before the 2027 general elections. And with the way President Asiwaju Tinubu betrayed any commitment to appointing competent people into his government, the possibility of appointing a new INEC Chairman who will facilitate the capture of INEC is high. Already, within just one year, President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government has moved into the 2027 electioneering mode. Instead of working to earn the support of Nigerians, President Asiwaju Tinubu seems to be leaned on recruiting political merchants whose stock in trade is limited to fanning embers of divisive politics in the country and blackmailing political opponents. Such disposition only lends credence to the prospects of rigging elections in the country.
So far, with the way President Asiwaju Tinubu has conducted himself as President of Nigeria in the last one year, he has deviated from any credential of being an Awoist. Given how he has mismanaged what could have earned him a legendary status as a leader who courageously ended the corrupt racketeering of petroleum subsidy, and unable to humbly find a way out of what has now become a national tragedy producing endless downward swing in the living conditions of Nigerians, the gap between him and the Chief Obafemi Awolowo is the contrast between darkness and sunlight. Chief Awolowo wouldn’t have contemplated to declare an end to petroleum subsidy in Nigeria without any plan. Chief Awolowo wouldn’t have floated the exchange of the Naira against other international currencies without a plan on how to develop local industries and boost local production as a remedy of the current highly import dependent economy. Chief Awolowo would have ran a government with a third tier team of Nigerians, many of whom only fit the description of being survivalists in politics.
Perhaps, it also needs to be put in context that Chief Awolowo will never have invested N15 trillion on the construction of 700 Kilometre Lagos – Calabar coastal highway, which is more than half of the annual budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria. If being Awoist is to be justified with reference to such humongous expenditure, it would have been allocated to the educational sector. Instead, we have President Asiwaju Tinubu, going against Awoist principles of high public investment in the educational sector and recklessly investing more than half of Nigeria’s annual budget on a highway with remote links to industries and the productive sectors of the economy. This is only made possible because President Asiwaju Tinubu has constituted a government that excluded true Awoists from being part of the government.
The danger with the way President Asiwaju is running affairs of the country is the potential destruction of the relative advantages of the economy of the South-West region, almost like the way former President Buhari left the Northern region worse off after his eight-year tenure. More than anything, the negative impact of the crash in the value of the Naira and rising cost of production for industries – small, medium and large scale – will be more devastating to the economy of the South-West more than any other region.
Without going into details, the South-Western region of the country is arguably more industrially advanced than any part of the country. The current downturn producing higher incidences of industrial closures and relocation of some of the large-scale industries out the country will have more negative impact on the people of the South-West. Part of the tragedy of Nigerian democracy is the absence of visionary leaders in the mode of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Sir Ahmadu Bello. These are leaders who prioritised public investment in human capital development at a time when Nigeria didn’t have the kind of resource endowment like we have today. Most of the foundational developments, which led to all our pioneer educational institutions such as University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, University of Nigeria Nsukka and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria were all created within less than ten years of Nigeria’s independence during the First Republic.
Now, more than twenty-five years since the commencement of the Fourth Republic, there is hardly any achievement that can be pointed at, both in terms of physical development of the country and human development. Instead, virtually governments at all levels have been captured by so-called elected leaders who operates more like Yahoo-Yahoo fraudsters diverting public resources and assets to their private use. Problems of insecurity in the country, which is a bye product of the crisis of poverty, unemployment, drugs and substance abuse among young people, etc. are hardly getting the deserved attentions of elected leaders. Instead of building schools, recruiting teachers and providing books and teaching materials to harness the productive potentials of our population, elected leaders are more disposed to outright embezzlement of government resources so much so that today there are strong speculations of state governors converting substantial parts of their monthly federal allocations to US Dollars at black market rates, which is responsible for why the value of the Naira remain weak.
As much as the issue of governors converting states monthly federal allocation is a speculation, there are instances whereby the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) accused one of the Governors of one of the states in North-Central of diverting more than N20 billion Naira of bailout funds to the state in 2021 to private account. That is the extent to which the incidence of ‘state capture’ at state level has ‘strengthen … economic positions’ of so-called elected leaders to the detriment of citizens. In fact, that is the challenge facing Nigerian democracy. If the phenomenon of ‘state capture’ is becoming a federal reality under the APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu, is Nigerian democracy moving to a stage whereby the resources of the Federal Government will almost become the personal resources of the President? Should that be the case, what will be the remedy?
From a situation whereby APC as the ruling party in Nigeria promised to provide the needed leadership to fight corruption, APC has legitimised higher level of corruption in the country, legitimising the phenomenon ‘state capture’ virtually at all levels. With ‘state capture’, democratic institutions such as the legislature, electoral bodies and political parties are emasculated. Even traditional institutions are increasingly being reduced to appendages of the executive arm of government. The executive arm of government is becoming more and more the problem of Nigerian democracy, undermining the capacity of elected leaders and governments to respond to challenges facing citizens. With high propensity to subvert laws that compels accountability, most Nigerian elected leaders operate with the corrupt mindset of ‘state capture’ thereby appropriating public resources and assets and converting them to private use.
Getting out of such a mess will require strong political parties, which are lacking in contemporary Nigerian politics. How can we get political leaders to commit themselves towards building strong political parties? Whether Nigerian democracy can have the kind of future, which could enable elected representatives and governments to competently and effectively respond to challenges facing Nigerians is contingent on the ability of political leaders to produce strong political parties. So long as the aspirations of Nigerian politicians is only limited to winning elections and producing new elected leaders, Nigerian democracy will be unable to reverse the phenomenon of ‘state capture’, which is now in the advanced stage of taking over the Federal Government.
Unfortunately, given the advanced stage of ‘state capture’ at Federal level, most political leaders, including the leading opposition leaders such as Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso are all operating in isolation to one another. APC leaders such as former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesole etc. who are more like political orphans on account of being excluded from the President Asiwaju Tinubu government have been pushed to the peripheral edges of Nigerian politics. Although, there are some indicative political activities taking place around some of these political leaders, it has not graduated to the level of commitment to build the kind of strong political parties capable of threating the APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu, which is needed to guarantee the future of Nigerian democracy.
Building strong political parties in the country capable of responding to the challenges facing citizens and reversing the phenomenon of ‘state capture’ at all levels is about political leaders agreeing to form a united front across all parties. Forming a united front is about recognising the shortcomings of individual leaders and being able to forgive misgivings of the past. Ability to forgive misgivings of the past is a fundamental requirement for political leaders to be able to orient themselves and provide the needed leadership for national reconciliation. Inability of APC, both under former President Buhari and now under President Asiwaju Tinubu to orient itself on the path of national reconciliation represent one of the big political failure ever experienced in the country.
Given the way the failure of APC has widen the country’s fault lines, it is important that considerations for developing united political front painstakingly aspire to unite political leaders across the country. For instance, the way, the people of the South-East rejected the APC since 2015 must be redressed. Any new united political front should gain some measure of high acceptability in virtually all parts of the country. The requirement for high acceptability from all sections of the country should humble all political leaders in the country, especially Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi not to exploit the need for such a united front by imposing their Presidential ambitions. In the same vein, other APC leaders such as Prof. Osinbajo, Chief Amaechi, Dr. Fayemi, Mal. El-Rufai, Sen. Amosu, etc. (APC political orphans) who in one way or the other have ambitions to become Nigeria’s President must bury such ambitions, at least not during the negotiation to form the united political front.
The point must be recognised that building the kind of united front capable of moving Nigerian democracy forward require selflessness on the part of Nigerian political leaders. Beyond the requirement of selflessness, to overcome the experience we had under APC whereby after producing the united front, individual leaders superimposed their ambitions to become President the way both former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu did, the negotiation for the new united political front should prioritise building a party that can serve as a collective platform for negotiations. Leadership of such a party must not be devalued and left only to political surrogates whose mission is only to return their godfathers as candidates of the party for elections.
If that is to be achieved, the National Chairman of the party must have the stature of a President in all considerations. Other members of the leadership of the party at all levels must have the stature corresponding to respective public servants. The party must be well resourced financially based on capacity to mobilise financial resources and invest in political work, including electioneering process in lines with extant provisions of Nigeria’s laws. These are fundamental preconditions for conferring dignity in the management of party work. Agreements reached based on decisions of party organs can be made binding on everyone and the turnover of party leaders moving take positions in government can be reduced. For that to be achieved, issues of funding must be resolved such that no leader of the new political front or party should be the main source of party funding. As much as possible, funding for election should be democratised. Candidates produced by the party must not be allowed to fund their campaigns.
It is quite disappointing that APC crashed from a situation whereby the party was responsible in mobilising all the campaign funds for former President Buhari in 2015 to a situation whereby the party negligibly contributed to President Asiwaju Tinubu’s campaign funds in 2023. Similarly, virtually all APC candidates funded their campaigns almost exclusively in 2023. Once issues of party funding and funding of candidates for elections are privatise, the capacity to reverse the phenomenon of ‘state capture’ will be weak, if not impossible. APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu can be defeated in 2027, but the problems of corruption in the country may continue to manifest in higher forms, may even go beyond the problem of ‘state capture’.
We must appeal to all political leaders in Nigeria, across all the political parties in the country to commit themselves in forging a new atmosphere of political unity in the country based selfless disposition, forgiving the misgiving of past and national reconciliation. If APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu are to have any considerable electoral strength in 2027 it will be on account of the current division, which characterise Nigerian politics and make it impossible for any form of cooperation by political leaders. Absence of cooperation among political leaders is responsible for the rising incidences of bad governance in the country and is eroding the basis Nigerian nationhood. Once democracy cannot respond to challenges facing citizens, Nigeria as a sovereign entity will be irrelevant and questionable.
Nigerian opposition political leaders, including the orphaned leaders of APC who are excluded in the APC government of President Asiwaju Tinubu, notably Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, etc. must unite to rescue Nigeria. Whether producing the united political platform can be achieved through merger of existing parties, forming a new party or rebranding any of the existing parties is a decision that can be determined if leaders agree to come together and unite.
First thing first, political leaders must recognise that rescuing Nigeria from its current slippery slope is about teamwork and partnership. It is only through conscious and committed teamwork that we can rebuild important democratic institutions such as political parties, legislatures, electoral bodies, and other institutions, which could hold elected officials accountable. Beyond holding elected officials accountable, it is only when we have strong political parties with leaders who run affairs of the party based on provisions of party constitutions that processes of leadership selection can be sanitised in the country.
Political leaders in Nigeria, notably Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, etc. must answer the question as to whether they want to allow their narrow political ambition to continue block the path for the democratic development of Nigeria? Or why shouldn’t they aspire to register their name as political leaders who were able to rise to the occasion in Nigeria’s hour of national need by coming together to forge a united political front, which could transformed Nigeria’s democracy and reverse the phenomenon of ‘state capture’ that produced ‘small corrupt groups’ of used ‘government officials’ who are appropriating ‘government decision-making to strengthen their own economic positions’?
May God unite all patriotic political leaders in Nigeria across all parties, including orphaned leaders of APC and strengthen them with the capacity to be selfless and commit themselves to building all the democratic institutions that can make elected leaders and governments at all levels accountable to citizens based on which Nigeria’s democracy is effectively capable of responding to national challenges and meeting the expectations of citizens. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Fanatical Mindset
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
On Wednesday, July 17, 2024, Sen. Ali Ndume was removed as Chief Whip of the Senate and replaced with Sen. Tahir Monguno following a directive contained in a letter sent to APC Caucus in the Senate signed by Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Sen. Basiru Ajibola, APC National Chairman and National Secretary respectively. In the letter, Sen. Ndume was alleged to ‘have been making uncouth and rabid outbursts against the government, before the international and before the global community is not only harmful to the government’s image alone but also undermines the party’s unity and cohesion and in addition, undermines the government’s efforts to bring in foreign direct investments to Nigeria’.
What is the ‘uncouth and rabid outburst’ made by Sen. Ndume? The letter referred to a televised interview with Arise Television where Sen. Ndume expressed the concern that the APC government of President Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is going down because according to him the government is being run by kakistocrats, which he explains to mean ‘a government run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens’. He went further to add that the ‘government is populated by kakistocrats and kleptocrats’, explaining that kleptocratic component refers to people ‘who are in government for what they can make for themselves’. Accordingly, the letter to the Senate requested Sen. Ndume to ‘honourably resign the membership of APC and join any opposition party of his choice formally instead of hiding behind the veil of grass activism to decimate the hard-earned cohesion and goodwill that …the APC is enjoying within and outside the country.’
In an ideal democratic setting where the organs of the party are functioning, a competent organ of the party would have been convened to deliberate on the issues raised by Sen. Ndume. In fact, if the organs of the party are functioning, instead of raising the issues in a television station, the issue would have been raised at a meeting of a competent organ of the party. Such a competent organ would have been the National Caucus, National Executive Committee (NEC) or National Advisory Council. Rule of fair hearing would have required that Sen. Ndume or anybody making such weighty allegations is invited and called upon to explain. The truth is, if organs of the party are functioning, the problem of lack of access to the President wouldn’t have arisen.
Somehow, the letter directing the removal of Sen. Ndume confirmed the allegations of a government of Kakistocrat. Dr. Ganduje and Sen. Ajibola and perhaps a small group of party leaders who have caged the President usurped the powers of organs of the APC and proceeded to pass judgement on Sen. Ndume. It is very doubtful if members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party are given the benefit of being part of those who took the decision to remove Sen. Ndume as the Chief Whip of the Senate. It is also doubtful if members of the APC Caucus in the Senate are consulted before the decision is taken to both remove Sen. Ndume and appoint Sen. Monguno as his replacement. It is simply an action taken by party leaders with fanatical mindset of blocking any attempt to scrutinise the President and actions being taken either directly by him or by his representatives, in whatever guise.
Beyond issues of fair hearing, the substantive allegation made by Sen. Ndume is that President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is inaccessible. Those he refers to as Kakistocrats and Kleptocrats have caged the President so much so that even Ministers are not able to access him. These are not new allegations. The way the government is being managed is quite worrisome. Anybody who knows Asiwaju Tinubu and how he has operated throughout his political life, will certainly know that it is unlike Asiwaju Tinubu to be insular. Many of the decisions taken betrays the true Asiwaju Tinubu. For instance, it is doubtful if Asiwaju Tinubu as Governor of Lagos State for eight years has had any instance of reversing any of the decisions he took. But as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the last one year, Nigerians are beginning to lose count of the number of decisions he took and ended up reversing them.
Unlike the true Asiwaju Tinubu who as Governor of Lagos State was surrounded by competent and visionary appointees, he is surrounded by third rated appointees or Kakistocrats as rightly described by Sen. Ndume. A vintage Asiwaju Tinubu, confronted by the kind allegations coming from Sen. Ndume would have publicly engaged Sen. Ndume and proved him wrong. It is debatable whether after proving him wrong he will call for his removal. By extension, therefore, it is also contestable if a normal Asiwaju Tinubu would have allowed the organs of the party to have been demobilised in the manner that is being done now. The truth is, President Asiwaju Tinubu has lost his credentials of being a democrat, a progressive politician and an Awoist. That is the main essence of the criticism made by Sen. Ndume.
The point is that there is a big difference between the old Asiwaju Tinubu, who was the Governor of Lagos State and was as an astute politician, constantly engaging and having strong relationship with people, from the Asiwaju Tinubu who is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the last one year who has become insular and inaccessible. Decisions taken in the last one year have betrayed the progressive orientation envisioned when APC was formed, or even any claimed Awoist credentials. In fact, it is very embarrassing that there is very weak correlation with even the campaign promise made by President Asiwaju Tinubu as contained in the Renewed Hope 2023, which was the campaign document of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
The way things are, it is almost as if President Asiwaju Tinubu has resolved that he will only be a one term President. Under his watch living conditions of Nigerians is continuously getting worse. Instead of making effort to develop clear plans to address the situation, the government is becoming more intolerant to criticism. In the last one week, the government has developed a fanatical mindset of condemning and criminalising criticism so much so that it is resorting to bribing religious leaders to declare that protests are ungodly. Everything is being done to suspend free speech in the country. It is almost as if we are back in the Abacha era, or even worse. As it is, personal liberties of citizens are being threatened. Fair hearing is no longer guaranteed. Sadly, we are having democracy without democrats.
All patriotic Nigerians must wake up to the responsibility of rescuing the country. How can we have a democracy that produce leaders who are intolerant to criticism? Why should we allow a situation whereby so-called leaders of the ruling party will behave like officials of military tribunals who operate with the fanatical mindset of condemning everyone accused of wrongdoing without the benefit of fair hearing? It is quite interesting that Dr. Ganduje and Sen. Basiru could ask Sen. Ndume to ‘honourably resign the membership of APC and join any opposition party of his choice formally’. Already, with nonfunctioning organs, the APC has basically dismissed all its members.
Nowhere in the Constitution of APC where the National Chairman, National Secretary, or any official, or even the National Working Committee is given the powers to summarily remove any principal officer of the National Assembly. It is a shame that the APC Senate Caucus will permit such an act of illegality. By so doing, they have set a precedence that will further erode the independence of the National Assembly. Already, with the way Sen. Godswill Akpabio has been conducting himself almost reducing the Senate Chamber to the status of a parastatal of government, the action of the APC under the leadership of Dr. Ganduje to direct removal of principal officers for criticising President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government highlight the fanatical mindset undermining Nigerian democracy.
Any democracy that cannot accommodate criticism is no democracy. A democracy that subverts fair hearing is a dictatorship. A democracy that permits a ruling party to demobilise its organs and inadvertently expels its members is worse than a military government. All patriotic Nigerian political leaders must unite to restore Nigeria’s democracy. Nigerian opposition leaders must unite to build a truly strong political party to rebuild Nigerian democracy. All our opposition leaders and orphaned leaders of APC must come together and unite. Sen. Ndume being the newest APC orphan is welcome to join the effort of political leaders in the country to restore and rebuild our democracy. So long as APC, its leadership and Asiwaju Tinubu’s government have taken the self-destructive path, which is equivalent to a declaration of working end their tenure in 2027, patriotic Nigerians must help them to ensure their defeat in 2027!
Salihu Lukman
Defense of the Indefensible
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
There is a saying in Hausa – shure shure bai hana mutuwa, which literally means ‘struggling to survive does not stop one from dying’. This, perhaps, is the reality facing the government of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. With a protest scheduled to take place on August 1 – 10, 2024, the government is desperately mobilising opposition to the protest. On Thursday, July 25, 2024, President Asiwaju Tinubu met Governors, Traditional Rulers and Religious Leaders and they all call on Nigerians to be patient with the government and appeal against the protest. On the same day, the Department of State Services (DSS) claimed that it uncovers plan by some criminal elements to hijack the protest. The Defence Headquarters also issued warning to protesters against any form of violence.
The truth is that these are old scripts, which have been used in the past to block attempts of Nigerians to legitimately express their dissatisfaction with government policies. All those who are in the forefront of the campaign against the protest have never been associated with any popular campaign in the country. Every time, Nigerians try to engage government through protests or other modes of contestations, these same groups are always there with the same messages and warnings against so-called violence. They always uncover plots by opposition, criminal elements, etc. to hijack protests and campaigns against governments. If anything, it would have been news if they say anything contrary. The reality is that, often the response of the security agencies through attempts to forcefully disperse protesters is the source of violence.
In all past experiences, irrespective of these so-called appeals, which threatened organisers of the protests, protests still take place and in varying degrees recorded success. As someone who is privileged to have organised protests in the country, one can say without any fear of contradiction that Nigerians, across every part of the country, have never been pushed to the wall like they are today. Within one year, virtually everything has crashed, all due to the impatience and arrogance of President Asiwaju Tinubu. If President Asiwaju Tinubu has turned out to be an impatient leader who is in a hurry to implement policies that has impoverish citizens, why should citizens be patient with him?
Here is a President Asiwaju Tinubu who even before settling down to resume work as President of the Federal Republic, declared an end to petroleum subsidy without any plan. At the same time, he proceeded to float the exchange rate of the Naira against other international currency. For an import dependent nation, why should any leaders be in a hurry to implement such policies without having any plan to boost local production? In the case of withdrawal of subsidy, does it require any counselling to time such policy with ensuring capacity for local refining? With all the talk of fixing the four refineries in the country and the beginning of production activity by the Dangote refinery, why is President Asiwaju Tinubu in a mad rush and unable to align his policy initiatives with these expectations? Instead, needlessly, Nigerians watch the shameless criminal dispute between NNPC and Dangote Refinery.
And having push the nation to a hopeless trajectory, which has worsened living conditions of all Nigerians, what plan has President Asiwaju Tinubu put in place to fix the problem? Even in terms of ameliorating the challenge facing Nigerians, the government has demonstrated lack of capacity to manage initiatives resulting in compounding the allegations of embezzlement surrounding initiatives to ameliorate worsening conditions of citizens. For more than one year, it’s been one explanation after the other, with hardly any clear blueprint or timeline when the downward slide of the Nigerian economy will end. Every day, the hopelessness of the government gets more exposed.
For those of us who were associated with President Asiwaju Tinubu and campaigned for him to become President, it is a big disappointment. We did campaigned for him with the conviction that he is a strategic politician who is an excellent talent hunter. The magic of how Lagos State was transformed under his leadership was our reference point. Sadly, more than one year at the helm of affairs as the President of Nigeria, it is a different Asiwaju Tinubu we have who is becoming an excellent hunter for political mercenaries. He has become more strategic in taking decision without looking at the problem, which could be why he promised Nigerian workers living wage, but his negotiation skills could only retain the old starvation minimum wage.
Terribly, President Asiwaju Tinubu has turned out to be a brash politician who is resistant to accountability and would destroy all the democratic structures that enforces accountability. If anyone doubt this, just check the state of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as a political party. When last did any of the organs meet? Being a brash politician, for the first time in the political history of Nigeria, we have a government that marginalises the people of North-Central. And with the way APC has been completely demobilised under his leadership, democracy is reduced to a mockery in Nigeria.
So far, President Asiwaju Tinubu is turning out to be the most inaccessible President in Nigeria’s political history. Even Gen. Sani Abacha wasn’t as much inaccessible. Beyond the APC, all the leading opposition parties, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NNPC) have been manipulated into leadership crisis. As it is, with the way things are happening, even the remote hope of using election to register citizens’ opposition against the reckless disposition of President Asiwaju Tinubu is fading away.
In addition, having reduced the National Assembly to a rubber stamp and made it incapable of checking the excesses of the executive, President Asiwaju Tinubu has crashed all available democratic structures capable of enabling Nigerians to influence decisions of his government. And in the face of all these, reckless illogical decisions such as expending more than N15 trillion Naira, more than half the annual budget of Nigeria is being expended on 700-kilometer Lagos – Calabar coastal road. Billions have been expended to acquire Presidential Yatch, Presidential Jet, luxury vehicles for political leaders, and construction of Vice-Presidential Lodge. But crisis of insecurity continues to ravage the nation. Crisis of education with more than 10 million out of school children in the North are never given any attention. Nigerian public hospitals have since degenerated from being consulting clinics to mortuaries.
Yet, President Asiwaju Tinubu and people around him want Nigerians to still regard him as a progressive politicians. Given all these, if President Asiwaju Tinubu is a progressive politician, then former President Donald Trump of the United States of America is a revolutionary. Any attempt to claim that President Asiwaju Tinubu is an Awoist will make Chief Obafemi Awolowo to turn in his grave. Even the way President Asiwaju Tinubu is failing to directly engage the organisers of the scheduled August 1 protest and mobilising traditional rulers, religious leaders and even the military high command against the protest confirmed his new conservative and repressive disposition. This was the same Asiwaju Tinubu who was part of the protest movement that birth this democracy, but having won democracy and he is President today is opposed to protest and responding exactly in the same way military governments suppressed protests.
It must be recognised that attempts to suppress protest by even military governments have never succeeded. Often, after all the attempts to suppress protests, previous governments end up granting concessions, much more than what they would have ordinarily given. The reality is, defending government in the face of a scheduled popular protest such as the coming August 1 protest amount to defense of the indefensible. It is inconsequential and will be incapable of stopping the protest.
While acknowledging that one is not in any way related with the organisers of the August 1 protest, they must be commended for summoning the courage to mobilise Nigerians and confront the administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu to change the way it is managing affairs of the country. The government must recognise that within one year, it has created more problems for Nigerians so much so that the hunger in the land has threatened virtually all citizens. If President Asiwaju Tinubu want to recover whatever is left of his democratic credentials, he should listen to the cries of Nigerians and respond by way of review his policy decisions especially withdrawal of subsidy and floating the Naira exchange rate.
Certainly, these two policies can be managed better. The speed with which they are being implemented is the problem. Instead of anyone asking Nigerians to be patient, it is President Asiwaju Tinubu that must be asked to be patient and handle leadership responsibility with compassion. He must not be allowed to continue to handle things as if he is on a mission to wreck the economy. One can say, again without fear of contradiction that the scheduled August 1 protest promises to be the most popular protest in the country since independence. The challenge before every patriot is to identify with the laudable objectives of the protest and support the organisers to succeed in providing the needed leadership required to humble President Asiwaju Tinubu and his government to come back to democratic order. Even if President Asiwaju Tinubu is unable to recover his progressive credentials, we need him to be a democrat who can at least be accessible and accountable to democratic structures as provided in the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended.
To that extend, all patriotic Nigerians must register disapproval about the politicisation of the military high command by drawing them into the plot to suppress the protest. By extension, the military high command must be told in unmistaken terms that protests are legitimate in a democracy. No one should attempt to criminalise legitimate initiatives of Nigerians to engage in any contestation with elected governments in Nigeria. For those who express the suspicion of political motives about the protest, they must be told very clearly, that protests by nature are political. The decisions that created the challenges, which makes the protest necessary, are political. The election of President Asiwaju Tinubu is political coming with so much political promises as contained in his Renewed Hope campaign document. If instead of producing Renewed Hope, his government is producing misery and hopelessness, citizens have every right to take up the political responsibility of contesting against his administration. In fact, faced with the reality confronting Nigerians, all genuine democrats must join the protest.
As a nation desirous of renegotiating our democracy, we must aspire to recruit the organisers of the protest to be part of the new political leadership of the country. If at all we are to succeed in rescuing Nigeria from the current travail of having people who operate more like Yahoo Yahoo fraudsters as our political leaders, we must aspire to recruit new sets of selfless leaders who will be organically connected and integrated with Nigerians in every respect. The August 1 protest provide a good opportunity to begin the process of recruiting new political leaders for Nigeria. Accordingly, therefore, we must appeal to the organisers of the protest to remain focused and vigilant and continue the path of honour by ignoring all the voices of doom who are only interested in subverting Nigerian democracy. In the same vein, the organisers must have a public face to serve as a rallying point for all Nigerians to relate and effectively participate in the protest.
Certainly, the future of Nigerian democracy is bright, and a new democratic Nigeria is possible!
Salihu Lukman
#EndBadGovernance Campaign: What Next?
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
#EndBadGovernance protest, which held from August 1 to August 10 has ended. The protests, which spread to many parts of the country has resulted in breakdown of law and order resulting in avoidable loss of lives and property especially in the North. Many states affected had to impose 24-hour curfew to bring the situation under control. The reality is that the protest created atmosphere of uncertainty across virtually every part of the country. Economic activities were brought to a standstill even in areas where the protest did not take place. It has also, in varying degrees, raise questions about the capacity of governments at all levels to be responsive to challenges facing citizens.
Without attempting to review the responses of governments at all levels to the #EndBadGovernance protest, certainly it fell short of public expectations. There was almost complete absence of initiatives at all levels to identify the organisers of the protest and seek to engage them with the view of attempting to end the protest. On the other hand, the organisers maintained low profile and didn’t fully disclose the identity of its leadership. Although some activists made public appearances in TV and radio programmes, there was nothing that can be used to validate the claims of those individuals. In the circumstance, therefore, the organisational structure, membership and scope of operation of the #EndBadGovernance protest organisers remained nebulous, and Nigerians can only continue to hazard guesses about who the organisers of the #EndBadGovernance campaign are.
As it is, there are information suggesting that the organisers have announced October 1 as date for the resumption of the protests. Every Nigerian should be worried about this development. With governments at all levels failing to engage the organisers, practically underestimating the capacity of the organisers to mobilise for the protests, ordinary citizens are left at the mercy an angry Nigerians. The truth is that virtually every ordinary citizen is a potential member of such an angry group simply because the condition of life in the country is harsh. Let no one be deceived, the situation affects virtually every living soul in Nigeria on a scale highly unimaginable and never experienced in the past.
Without doubt, the trigger for our current situation is the withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products and floating the exchange rate of the Naira against other international currencies. For an import dependent economy, it is predictable that the two policies will produce inflationary pressure. Unfortunately, so far, the government of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is unable to produce any clear definitive policy response to the situation. All that citizens hear government to be saying is calling on citizens to be patient without outlining how long it will take for the harsh reality to abate. Meanwhile, daily, Nigerians confront challenges of hunger and threats to daily survival. Many citizens die prematurely on account of hunger and preventable diseases. While acknowledging government explanations about how bad the economy has been mismanaged by previous administrations, it must be stressed that being an elected government, Nigerian political leaders should be more responsive. The minimum should be to acknowledge the reality facing citizens and demonstrate some measure of compassion and seek to ameliorate the harsh condition facing citizens by relaxing some of these policies.
Instead, painfully, elected leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu are grandstanding behaving basically as colonial overloads who have conquered Nigerians. With a conquest mentality, our leaders have proceeded to demobilise virtually all political structures in the country such that today Nigeria has earned the bad reputation of being a democracy without any functional political party. All the registered political parties are nothing but legal entities that only present candidates for elections. Partly, because of that reality there is none of the parties that is able to recruit the leaders of the #EndBadGovernance protest or at least publicly join the protest. Although individuals such as Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi have declared support for the protest, they were unable to contract any strong relationship with the protest organisers.
So long as political leaders and political parties in the country will be unable to contract strong relationships with veritable and energetic constituencies such as the #EndBadGovernance protest organisers, Nigerian democracy is imperiled. This could potentially increase the frustrations of Nigerians and may be responsible for the existence of high levels of desperations that produces the explosive realities associated with the last protest. We must caution that if this is left unattended to, and especially if the government continue with its grandstanding dispositions, doing nothing to either produce clear policy plans that will arrest the harsh realities facing Nigerians or produce functionally responsive measures that could ameliorate and unshackle citizens from the grip of hunger and starvation, the risk of the protest resuming any day before October 1 date is very high.
Part of the reality is also the associated exposure of virtually every Nigerian of becoming potential victim of the anger of hungry Nigerians is the high possibility of angry hungry protesters breaking into peoples’ homes and looting everything that is lootable. Already, in some parts of the North such ugly incidences have happened during the last protests. Given such possibility, it is in the enlightened self-interests of all well-meaning Nigerians committed to the democratic development of the country to step out and seek to engage young Nigerians, including the organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protest. All Nigerians committed to the democratic development of Nigeria must mobilise to give practical expressions to the aspirations of all Nigerians to guarantee that elected representatives and governments are responsive to challenges facing citizens.
A situation where government resort to cheap campaign of blackmails with argument of opposition sponsoring the protests should simply be ignored. In any event, it is legitimate for opposition to start working for the defeat of a ruling party once they are unable to justify the confidence of the electorates. In fact, ideally, if democratic structures of the country are functionally working such as political parties and the National Assembly, with what is going on in the country, President Asiwaju Tinubu and many state governors are candidates for immediate impeachment. The comatose reality, which has reduced the National Assembly to a rubber stamp with political parties that are nothing more than leprous fingers, is responsible for the current high levels of frustration and desperation of Nigerians to register their anger through protests. Combined with a reality whereby INEC seems to be unwilling to discharge its statutory responsibility of registering new parties that could produce veritable options for legitimate leadership contests in the country, all hopes of democratic change of leadership in the country are fading away.
While President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government can be allowed to indulge itself with the belief that its harsh economic policies are necessary responses to the bad economy it inherited, it must be told that the current hopeless political atmosphere, which has disbanded virtually all democratic structures in the country is the handwork of President Asiwaju Tinubu. If Previous administration had taken steps to disband democratic structures of the country, arguably, President Asiwaju Tinubu may not have succeeded in becoming the President of the Federal Republic.
Nigerians must rise to the challenge of rebuilding Nigeria’s democratic structures. All Nigerians committed to the democratic development of the country must join forces with young Nigerians who are legitimately angry with the harsh realities facing citizens. The objective must be to seek to direct the anger of Nigerians in building the structures of an identified political party and start working for the eventual defeat of President Asiwaju Tinubu and political leaders responsible for the current travails producing hunger and starvation on a mass scale in the country in 2027. Building the structures of an identified political party must be about developing clear initiatives that would translate into legislative and policy initiatives at all levels capable of effectively responding to all the current national challenges of mass poverty, unemployment and insecurity in the country.
Given all our recent experiences with the APC, which emerged in 2015 with captivating promises but collapsed and ended up betraying most of the promises it made and produced elected leaders who operate basically like emperors, building structures of an identified political party must be about producing collective leadership at all levels in the country. It must be about producing new generation of leaders who will not only be accountable but will have the humility to acknowledge mistakes committed and take steps to correct them. It is also about restoring dignity and pride of political leaders across every part of the country based on which strong political negotiations driven by abiding recognition and respecting the interest of all constituent parts of the Nigerian federation are guaranteed.
A situation whereby political leaders undertake monumental projects such as the Lagos – Calabar coastal highway, running into trillions of Naira, more than half of the federal budget without the input of political leaders from any part of the country is dangerous and inimical to the growth and sustainability of Nigerian democracy. How can a country with close to 20 million out of school children justify such a high expenditure with practically zero initiative to develop the educational sector and perhaps create capacity to start mopping the out of school children from the streets? With the current high level of insecurity in the country, wouldn’t it be more sensible and logical to invest in strengthening all the arms of security agencies in the country?
As it is, the President Asiwaju Tinubu’s administration seems to be on a roller coaster aggrandised spendings amid mass hunger and poverty in the country, which is partly responsible for the highly volatile situation in the country. Every committed democrat in the country must wake up to this challenge and seek to mobilise Nigerians to direct their anger creatively and positively towards reformation of democratic structures in the country. Given that majority political leaders are already aggrieved and with the way the government has rendered virtually all registered political parties comatose, the process of uniting aggrieved political leaders across all parties must earnestly commence. This is the point when ideally, opposition leaders such as Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso should step forward to provide the needed leadership to reform our democracy and ensure the emergence of a functional political party capable of rescuing Nigeria.
In addition to opposition leaders, other political leaders in APC who have been edged out of the party should join forces with opposition leaders to rescue the country and put Nigeria back on the path of democratic development. These leaders include Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Sen. Ibukunle Amosun, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and many others. While acknowledging that there are already unfolding initiatives in this direction, the rising anger in the country must be utilised and directed to strengthen the emergence of a veritable functional political party different from APC, PDP, LP and NNPP. As it is, it must be acknowledged that these parties cannot serve as the platforms to rescue Nigeria from its current unfortunate self-inflicted downward spiral producing mass poverty and starvation.
The restlessness of Nigerian youth must be mobilised and directed appropriately to push INEC to register all new parties that meets every statutory requirement for registration. Whether by design or default, there seems to be undeclared moratorium for registration of new parties by INEC. Once that is sustained, it will embolden governments at all levels to continue with the current arrogant disposition of behaving like a colonial administration, which has conquered Nigerians and has no obligation to be responsive to the plight of citizens, not to talk of being accountable to Nigerians. Being able to produce a functional political party capable of mobilising Nigerians to defeat current leaders is a fundamental precondition to douse tension in the country and revive the hopes of Nigerians about the possibility of a better and prosperous Nigeria.
Inability to produce a functional political party is partly responsible for why the leaders of the #EndBadGovernance campaign will remain amorphous largely because of the current repressive disposition of the government. Already, there are indications of some clampdown activities by security agencies against some Nigerians alleged to be linked to the last protest. The danger is, if care is not taken it can lead to full blown crack down against political opposition in the country with the possible subversion of legally guaranteed rights of citizens. There is therefore the urgent need to develop the appropriate political strategy for citizens, especially Nigerian youths to organically connect with democratic structures in the country and use them to negotiate effective responses to challenges facing the country.
The point must be made, for any political party to develop the needed capacity to rescue Nigeria and put the country back on the path of national democratic development, it must appropriately and organically connect with the current #EndBadGovernance campaign. In fact, it must be capable of recruiting the leaders of the campaign as potential candidates for 2027 elections at different levels. The point must be made, if the government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu has failed to connect with Nigerians who are legitimately angry and in need of opportunity and platform to negotiate their future, opposition and orphaned political leaders in the country must join forces and create the desired democratic alternative openings to start negotiating a prospective and prosperous future for Nigerians.
Achieving that may require strategic initiative of setting up a contact team of multi political leaders to initiate the process of engagement with our teaming young population who are legitimately angry. The contact team and its terms of reference must be made public, and they must within the shortest time possible develop a framework of engagement at all levels with legitimately angry Nigerian youths. The objective must be to seek to strengthen the capacity of Nigerian youths to have a strong voice, which must be respected by governments at all levels. In the event of compelling needs to resume the #EndBadGovernance protest in the country, every step must be taken to guarantee peaceful conduct.
The point is, under no circumstance should political leaders sit back and just watch Nigerian youths with legitimate grievances ignored and left with their frustration. Once that is the case, the predictable outcome will be violence and breakdown of law and order with high potentials for collateral loss of lives and property. If opposition political leaders are to earn the trust of Nigerians, they must begin to develop all the requisite democratic structures guaranteed by Nigerian laws to connect with Nigerians represented by all interests.
The #EndBadGovernance campaign is certainly an important interest which must be recruited and mainstreamed in the structures of any political party, which promises to rescue Nigeria and put it back on the path of national democratic development. Inability to do that would spell doom for any prospect of challenging and defeating the current APC government of President Asiwaju Tinubu. If by October 1, the #EndBadGovernance protest resume in its amorphous nature without at least the contact team of opposition political leaders being able to intervene and strengthen the organisational nature of the protest, Nigerians should simply write off opposition political leader as either incompetent, unwilling or not interested of developing the requisite democratic structures to produce truly responsive elected governments and leaders in the country. May God Almighty endow Nigerian political leaders with the wisdom and courage that will produce the desired alternative functional political party in Nigeria. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Looming Danger of Docile Political Opposition
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
It has become necessary to draw the attention of opposition political leaders in the country that the current care-free or unserious disposition could produce the disastrous outcome whereby Nigerians may be unable to change the government of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. Opposition political leaders is being used loosely to refer mainly to Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, leaders of PDP, LP, NNPP and all the stranded APC leaders who are being deliberately, arrogantly and absurdly rendered idle by President Asiwaju Tinubu. As it is, although it is a shared concern among these leaders that the situation in the country has deteriorated and is still further deteriorating, there is hardly any definitive engagement with the clear objective of mobilising Nigerians to effect a change in 2027.
Acknowledging that there are isolated ongoing discussions about what needs to be done in 2027, it is very worrisome that those discussions are yet to graduate to structured political engagements on the platforms of any of the existing opposition political parties. Unfortunately, if anything, it is almost a case that all the existing registered political parties are decidedly in support of President Asiwaju Tinubu and to that extent therefore working covertly for his second term victory in 2027. So far, arguably, none of the parties, which ordinarily should be leading the opposition to President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government is making any effort to recruit and unite opposition political leaders in the country. Instead, all the leading opposition political parties are embroiled in some embarrassing internal crisis, which has pitched leaders of the parties against each other.
It is quite appalling, for instance, that PDP leaders are antagonistic to Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi is in the midst of a helpless survival leadership battle in LP and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso is oversighting a directionless NNPP whose roof is being torn apart by no other than its own so-called leaders. And all the other parties, including SDP and PRP have adopted a monarchic behaviour, sitting in their comfort zones waiting for disgruntled and aggrieved opposition political leaders to come to them for some ‘royal’ covers. Perhaps, it could also be a case of waiting to harvest good political businesses through dealmaking in 2027, which is the standard political practices in Nigeria since the commencement of the current Fourth Republic.
All these have contributed to emboldening President Asiwaju Tinubu and his APC. Insensitive and reckless decisions, which further worsen citizens’ conditions of living are being taken on daily basis. On a scale never imagined in the country, Nigerians across all divides are living in agony on account of harsh living reality created by avoidable circumstances due to reckless policy decisions of the government. And with hardly any sense of humility or remorse, President Asiwaju Tinubu and people in government audaciously continue to ask Nigerians to be patient while the government continue to indulge in some illogical luxurious public expenditure without recourse to due processes. Yet, all that opposition leaders could do is to issue individual press statements. This is quite unacceptable.
Part of the reality is that opposition political leaders in the country are stuck to old political ambitions and, to that extent, therefore, only strategising to manipulate their emergence as candidates for election in 2027. This has become the singular determining factor for political consultations in the country. Consequently, there is almost zero trust among opposition political leaders, which has become a thick barrier to political consultations in the country. Despite the dangerous situation in the country whereby Nigerians are not only hungry resulting in malnutrition among millions of children, but also that many Nigerians are daily dying on account of hunger and curable diseases, opposition political leaders continue to live in their comfort zones unable to open lines of consultations, which expectedly should produce the roadmap for political mobilisation towards 2027. It is almost a case that our opposition political leaders and opposition political parties are not troubled by the realities facing Nigerians.
The nonchalance and isolationist disposition of opposition political leaders in the country is quite disturbing. It is not enough to complain that President Asiwaju Tinubu is bad without corresponding initiative to ensure that 2027 result in the defeat of APC at all levels. If APC is defeated in 2027, what is the guarantee that the new government to emerge post President Asiwaju Tinubu will not be worse. As Nigerians, we are witnesses of how governments at all levels progressively become worse. With all the confidence many of us had in former President Muhammadu Buhari, arguably his performance failed to meet public expectations, perhaps worse than former President Goodluck Jonathan. Certainly, President Asiwaju Tinubu is on track of becoming worse than former President Buhari.
Given all our experiences in this Fourth Republic, no opposition political leader in Nigeria should expect citizens to blindly trust him/her. Opposition political leaders must work hard to earn the trust of Nigerians. With the way President Asiwaju Tinubu is undermining and destroying all structures that should ordinarily enforce accountability and make government responsive to the needs of citizens, it is necessary for Nigerians to relate with all political leaders with caution and suspicion. Citizens have every right to be strongly suspicious and worried that successive governments will be worse than preceding ones. It is incumbent on all opposition leaders to therefore prove otherwise and convince Nigerians about the prospect of a better future. Arguably, the best signpost for a better future will be indicative by the quality of relationship among opposition political leaders.
So long as relationship among political leaders in the country is limited to support for personal ambition to emerge as candidates, it signposts a looming danger and prospect of producing a government worse than the current one. No need to make any deeper enquiry. Experiences under former President Buhari and now under President Asiwaju Tinubu are enough warning, which if ignored could destroy any prospect of guaranteeing that an Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso or any other president produced by any of the opposition leaders (including the orphaned APC leaders) becoming a better responsive government. In any case, part of the reasons that account for the failure of former President Buhari’s administration is the fact that relationship between him and other APC leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu was dictated by consideration to produce candidates and win elections.
Short of that nothing is important, which invariably produced an imperial former President Buhari, which is now inherited by President Asiwaju Tinubu and progressively being transformed into Emperor Asiwaju Tinubu. With that, culture of impunity has become more entrenched and sadly corruption has become worse in every respect. Selflessness is no longer public service requirement. One of the strong success factors for the emergence of a better, more responsive government, capable of effectively responding to the challenges facing Nigerians is level of selflessness of opposition leaders. Once opposition leaders are only relating with each other based on agreements around personal ambitions to emerge as candidates for 2027, being selfless will never be a consideration. To be selfless would require that all opposition political leaders set aside personal ambitions and work for the progress of Nigeria.
For opposition political leaders to prove that they are selfless they should demonstrate strong commitment to rescue Nigeria from the current state of hopelessness by opening and relating with each other unconditionally. If truly opposition political leaders are committed to rescuing Nigeria from bad government, why must relationship with other opposition political leaders be limited to only guaranteeing their emergence as candidates for elections? Largely because relationship is narrowed to guarantee emergence of candidates, negotiation to contract agreements in terms of policy directions of governments is completely absent. So long as issues of policy direction of government are taken for granted, the risk of producing government that abandoned its campaign promises will be high. Which means that just like former President Buhari government jettisoned the APC manifest, and current President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government shove aside the Renewed Hope Agenda, any successor government promising better future for Nigerians will end up only making empty promises to Nigerians and abandon them once elected.
Proving otherwise will be for opposition political leaders to demonstrate stronger commitment for stronger relationship among themselves devoid of personal ambitions, which should inadvertently lead to structured negotiations to produce stronger political platform capable of not just defeating President Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC but also contracting alternative policy agreements that are needed to resolve critical national challenges. Issues of policy negotiations around alternative policies are not matters for occasional press statements by individual opposition political leaders. These are issues that require deeper scrutiny, consultations and engagements producing resolutions that commit opposition leaders to sets of actions to mobilise human and natural resources to produce targeted deliberate outcomes.
The current isolationist disposition of political leaders is quite worrisome. With such isolationist disposition, commitment to produce the needed alternative political platform capable of both defeating the APC and putting Nigeria on the path to recovery and national development is weak. Nigerians must hold all political leaders – both the ruling and opposition political leaders – responsible for the current bad situation in the country. We must honestly acknowledge that all the factors that are responsible for the failure of APC and its leadership since 2015 are dictating the behavioural conducts of opposition political leaders. Unless opposition political leaders move away from their current disposition of contracting relationship based on individual ambitions to emerge as candidates, the prospect of producing another government that will be worse than President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government will be high.
Nigerians therefore must call on Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and all the orphaned APC leaders to wake up to the responsibility of rescuing the country from bad governance by commencing structured negotiations devoid of personal ambitions aimed at producing alternative political platform in the country. Negotiation to produce the alternative political platform must necessarily include negotiation to contract new policy commitments to resolve challenges facing the country. For instance, beyond lamentations and condemning current government whenever the problem of insecurity result in avoidable loss of lives and property, what is it that opposition political leaders propose to undertake when elected to recruit enough security personnel and equip them adequately to secure the nation? Given the crisis in the educational sector at all levels resulting in more than 15 million out of school children, what are the specific proposals of opposition political leaders? How does the opposition political leaders intend to manage the economy differently to produce the desired outcome of reducing poverty, unemployment and developing the productive capacity of the country?
If Nigeria is to come out of the current mess, we found ourselves in, aggressive human development policy to replace the current avaricious disposition, which has damaged psyche of leaders so much that management of government and public policies is reduced to permutations that invariably makes public resources personal wealth of government officials. Consequently, road constructions and phantom projects with hardly any direct impact in developing the productive potentials of citizens are now the priority. Unlike in the early period of our independence especially in the First Republic when leaders prioritise building schools, hospitals, processing industries, etc., as leaders of today, we have lost capacity to take these initiatives, which are compellingly necessary to harness the productive potentials of our citizens.
With such reality, our population has exploded without corresponding capacity to expand public schools to absorb all our children. The consequence is the estimated more than 15 million out of school children, which are largely in the North. Expanding the capacity of public schools to absorb children being born is about building new schools. While acknowledging that many tertiary institutions such as state universities have emerged in the last 25 years, sadly, the most important, which is about building more primary and secondary schools have been neglected. In fact, without fear of contradiction, in the last 30 years, it is doubtful if any new public primary school or secondary school has been built by any state government in the country. At best, may be additional classroom blocks and renovation of existing ones could have been executed. The fact of the existence of millions of out of school children reflect this reality of complete neglect.
How are the opposition political leaders strategising to re-orient political leaders in the country to address these challenges? Beyond individual press statement, Nigerians legitimately expect political leaders to be meeting and debating proposals around all the country’s challenges. In addition, given all the confidence invested in APC, former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu, and in the end betray the expectations of Nigerians, what is Nigerian political opposition doing to guarantee that when elected they will not jettison their campaign promises? This is largely a function of how much commitment opposition political leaders are willing to demonstrate to build structures of accountability, which will regulate the conducts of all political leaders. For instance, to what extent are opposition political leaders committed to building structures of political parties?
Once commitment of opposition political leaders is only about supporting their personal ambition to become candidates for 2027 elections, it only means that opposition political leaders are not committed to building the structures of political parties. Weak commitment to building the structures of political parties is responsible for the current tragedy whereby Nigeria is a democracy that despises meetings. We are a so-called democratic nation that undermine and destroy all structures that promote negotiations. Because of our inability to negotiate our differences, we have been unable to convert our diversity into resources and assets for nation building. Consequently, political opportunism has taken centre stage and political leaders, including opposition politicians, cheaply use our differences to hoodwink citizens.
The political challenges facing our dear country are very clear. What is required to develop alternative political platform to rescue the country is also very clear. It is all about whether opposition political leaders in the country are willing and committed to developing stronger relationship based on disposition to be selfless. Being selfless is all about capacity to invest higher levels of trusts among all opposition political leaders without limiting it to personal ambition to emerge as candidates. The other related issue is the question of negotiation to produce alternative policy proposals, which opposition political leaders will be committed to implementing if elected.
No doubt, Nigerians are going through very harsh excruciating conditions. Since the commencement of the Fourth Republic, it is a case of progressive degeneration that invariably brought the country to its knee whereby public resources are now practically the private resources of so-called elected leaders. Developing alternative political platform in the country should be about restoring the virtue of selflessness among political leaders in Nigerian politics. Opposition political leaders must recognise the urgency requiring strategic initiative to produce the alternative political platform to rescue Nigeria.
The reality is that if by the end of December 2024, no structured engagement has commenced based on strategic initiative to develop the alternative political platform, oriented based on selfless disposition of opposition political leaders, it simply means that any opposition to APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu in 2027 will be based on personal ambitions of individual political leaders. If that is the case, the risk of producing a government that is worse that the current one will be high. Irrespective of whether the government is led by Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso or any of the orphaned leaders of APC, any successor government that emerged based on personal ambition of political leaders risked being worse. The challenge is whether opposition political leaders will prioritise the safety, wellbeing and progress of Nigeria as a nation over and above personal ambitions.
May God Almighty touch the hearts of all opposition political leaders in Nigeria and endow them with the virtue of being selfless and strengthen them to deploy it to negotiate a new alternative political platform for Nigeria capable on contracting agreements around new policy orientation for the country to be implement by a successor government to be elected in 2027. May the new alternative political platform to be produced by opposition political leaders in Nigeria gained national acceptability across every part of the country. May the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu be the last bad government in Nigeria. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Building Nigerian Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Somehow, unknown or unaware to key political opposition leaders, the strength or confidence of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is derived from their inability to open themselves and honestly commence negotiation to build a united front ahead of 2027. Key opposition political leaders refer mainly to Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwasau. These are leaders who have paid their dues and are still actively nursing ambitions to become President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They were Presidential candidates in the last 2023 election. If anything, President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC won that election on account of their failure to unite under one political platform.
To be fair to them, they all agree that the performance of President Asiwaju Tinubu in the last one year since his assumption of office has been disastrous. Unfortunately, their agreement fails short of making them to accept to work together towards building a common platform, capable of mobilising and uniting Nigerians towards defeating President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC in 2027. Their inability to commence proper political negotiations is emboldening President Asiwaju Tinubu to continue with his crazy impulsive visionless governance experiment, unperturbed with the harsh reality it has created for Nigerians. It is quite worrisome that notwithstanding the dangers before the nation, our key opposition leaders believe in business-as-usual approach to politics whereby the most important thing in politics is the management of their personal ambitions to become President.
At this point, it is important to appeal to our key opposition leaders to wake up and try to be compassionate and appreciate the gravity of the dare heart situation facing citizens. The big question is whether on account of personal ambitions, we want to continue to mismanage our reality and sacrifice every opportunity, which ideally democratic system offers. The opportunity that democratic system offers is that any government, which fails its citizens should be voted out. No doubt, by any standard, both President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC have failed Nigerians. It is quite disheartening that a party, which has come with all the promises of changing Nigeria for the better has ended up ruining the country. From the economy to problems of insecurity and corruption, which were the three cardinal challenges APC and former President Muhammadu Buhari promised to tackle in 2015, what we had in 2015 is a child play today.
If with all the trust Nigerians invested in former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu ended up producing the disastrous outcome of today’s reality whereby across all shades and divides, we are faced with the current existential crisis, why should any leader be trusted? The hard truth is that both former President Buhari and President Asiwaju Tinubu have turned out to be self-centred and unable produce the needed leadership to pull the country out its current challenges. Certainly, all of us who were actively in support of these leaders never emerging they will be such colossal failure. With such poignant experience, it is very troubling. Troubling, largely because the basis of political relations with these leaders was limited to supporting their personal ambitions to become President. Once they achieve that they turn out to lack the humility and respect for subordinates. They fail to consult and even destroyed all structures for consultations, including demolishing structures of the party that made it possible for them to achieve their personal ambitions.
We have moved from being opposition politicians to becoming a ruling party since 2015. Sadly, as a ruling party, we have become worse than the PDP we defeated in 2015. Unlike in the days of the PDP that allowed for opposition parties to function, we are today confronted with the ugly and depressing reality whereby all the opposition parties are being manipulated into deeper crisis of existential nature. For instance, the PDP has a trojan horse in former Governor Nyesom Wike who is holding the party by juggler and is ready to pull the party down to its political grave of irrelevance. The Labour Party is marred with internal leadership problem with no end in sight. Although stakeholders of the party met to appoint a caretaker committee, the legality of the action is suspect. The NNPP is having its own share of leadership challenges and somehow only hoping to survive what is clearly an orchestrated attempt by the invincible APC forces to muscle it out of Kano State, its only political hold.
In all these, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, acting through the PDP Governors hope to reclaim the PDP. Mr. Peter Obi and the Labour Party stakeholders with no legal foot want to take control of the Labour Party. Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwasau is hopeful that he can overcome the APC onslaught against him in Kano. While the common enemy of all of them is the APC, and although conscious to all these leaders, alarmingly, the three leaders still think that they can succeed individually. I hope I am wrong. But I am increasingly becoming agitated that these leaders will, if not moderated, take us on the same old route of mismanagement due to personal ambitions. The hard truth is that if we allow them to lead us on that route, they have little or nothing to lose. But as Nigerians, we have everything to lose. What is it that we can do to divert these leaders away from the old route of mismanaged personal political ambitions?
Beyond the key opposition leaders, we may perhaps need to put more focus on the second-generation opposition leaders. Who are these second-generation opposition leaders? These are the Yomi Osinbajos, Rotimi Amaechis, Kayode Fayemis, Nasir El-Rufais, Rauf Aregbesolas, Aminu Waziri Tambuwals, Ibikunle Amosuns, etc. There are also the tendencies of old political leanings such as the old CPCs, the PRPs and the increasingly resurgent SDP. Part of the reality of all these tendencies is their strong loyalty and unpremeditated loyalty to old block of leaders, which the key opposition leaders are part of. Their unpremeditated loyalty to the old block is limiting their capacity to initiate organisational drive towards the emergence of an alternative political platform. More than anything, getting these second-generation of opposition leaders to vacate the current disposition of unpremeditated loyalty is the key to unconstrained growth of Nigeria’s democracy.
The challenge is how can Nigerians push these second-generation of opposition to work together and unite to produce the desirable alternative political formation that can give and embolden confidence that a better Nigeria is possible once President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC is defeated in 2027? Part of the big hurdle is also that these second-generation of politicians are contemptuous with themselves and aggrieved with each other. To that extent, they prefer to live in isolation even if it means living with the danger of continuing the old route that has failed Nigerians. Like the key opposition politicians, somehow, the second-generation are also insulated by the consequences of failure. Whether President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC remain in power in 2027 is not as threatening to the second-generation of opposition politicians.
This simply highlight the fact of lack of organic connection with Nigerians. Both the key opposition politicians and the second-generation opposition politicians seems to be unconnected with Nigerians, which perhaps is the main reasons why despite the realities and dangers facing the nation today, docility is the hallmark of politics in Nigeria. How do we get out of this docile reality? How do we force our opposition leaders to start negotiating a new reality that will unite them and unite Nigerians toward bringing about a new prosperous nation is the big question? From our experience with the APC, Nigerian are not interested in just the defeat of APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu in 2027. Clearly, what Nigerians are interested in is for the defeat of APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu to produce a strongly democratic nation that is responsive to the needs of Nigerians.
For that to be achieved require the emergence of a strong political party that can regulate and direct the conduct of all elected representatives, especially the President of the Federal Republic. Nigerians are wary of just supporting the ambition of any person simply because we are unhappy with the performance of a serving President. What is it that account for the failure of APC, former President Buhari and now President Asiwaju Tinubu? What is absence in the organisation of APC that made it worse than PDP? How can we produce a new party that can overcome the weaknesses of APC and guarantee that elected representatives produced by the new party, including the President will not turn out to be emperors and overlords?
How can we have a party that would have the mechanism to manage political competition such that political rivalry is transformed into partnership and team building credentials? Because political competition and rivalry are taken for granted, leaders, including opposition politicians are indulging themselves with the destructive mindset of relating with each other based on Godfather and Godson mentality. Sadly, that is becoming a big albatross even to personal security and safety of political leaders. The second-generation of opposition political leaders are the worse off this reality. The key opposition leaders have had enough dosages of sabotages. The fact is, so long as political relations is solely based on personal political ambitions, the capacity to build Nigerian democracy will be weak and the potential to build a political party that can mobilise Nigerians to defeat President Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC will be a far cry. Above all, Nigeria’s so-called democracy will continue to produce leaders whose worse credentials will only surface after they assume office just like what President Asiwaju has turned out to be.
It is therefore incumbent on both the key opposition leaders and the second-generation opposition leaders to demonstrate some measure of selflessness by commencing open and sincere negotiations towards building an alternative political platform that will change the route of politics in Nigeria. Once, with all the traps, political and legal experience before the current leading opposition political parties, our key opposition leaders continue to imagine that they can achieve their personal ambitions to win election, it simply means they are incapable of developing Nigerian democracy and make it capable of resolving the nation’s challenges. And so long as the second-generation opposition remained beholding with their unpremeditated loyalty to the key opposition leaders, they are as complicit as the key opposition leaders.
The incontestable truth has to be told, if President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC are to be defeated in 2027; if the defeat of President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC is to produce a new good beginning for Nigeria; if the new beginning being envisioned is about harnessing the potentials of our diversity as a nation; above all, if it is about building a party that can have the capacity to overcome the shortcomings of the past; then it has to be based on the strong acceptance of our difference, which is a function of the capacity of the key opposition leaders and the second-generation political opposition to work together irrespective of personal ambitions. This is a function of capacity to reconcile with each and put the nation ahead of personal ambitions. Building a political party that can regulate the conducts of elected representatives, including the President, can not be achieved through unpremeditated loyalty. Nigeria’s democracy has produced disastrous leadership reality whereby the worst and unimaginable persons have become leaders. Is it what our key opposition leaders want to allow to continue? Is it what the second-generation opposition leaders want? Certainly not. But will they work to change the course of history?
How the key opposition leaders manage themselves and perhaps seeks to unite and work together is a key determinant of a ground shift in building a new united front for the country is the task ahead. Whether the second-generation opposition politicians will remain beholden, or they will seek to reconcile with themselves and force the key opposition leaders to unite and build a strong political party capable of transforming Nigerian democracy to produce a responsive government that can meet the expectations of Nigerians in every sense is the critical issue. However defined, this is a function of negotiations, which opposition political leaders, whether it is Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen, Rabiu Musa Kwankwasau or the second-generation opposition leaders are expected to meet is the challenge. Will they live up to this expectation?
Time is of essence. If no public negotiation commences to produce the desirable alternative political platform capable of guaranteeing a new democratic dispensation, then it is as good as signing off for this democracy in Nigeria! May God touch the hearts of our key opposition leaders and our second-generation opposition leaders to accept to reconcile with themselves, forgive each other and work together for the development of Nigeria’s democracy. May God Almighty make Nigeria’s democracy to deliver a strong nation with selfless leaders who can manage our diversity and transform it into strong responsive system! Amin!!!
Salihu Lukman
Nigerian Democracy in ICU
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
There were media reports that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, former Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar and Retired General Aliyu Gusau met in Minna on Sunday, September 15, 2024. Although former President Obasanjo was reported to explain that he was in Minna to celebrate the 83rd birthday of General Babangida, a section of the media highlighted that their ‘meeting might not be unconnected with pressing national issues that bordered on the current economic challenges.’
About a month ago, on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, the National Council of State met and passed vote of confidence of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The National Council of State, which comprises the President, Vice President, all former Presidents and Heads of State, all former Chief Justices, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, all 36 State Governors and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation has the function of advising the executive body on policy matters.
Except for General Gusau, former President Obasanjo, former Military President Babangida and former Head of State General Abdulsalam are members of the National Council of State. From the report of the August 13th meeting both former President Obasanjo and former Military President Babangida were absent. But former Head of State General Abdulsalam was in attendance. Being members of the National Council of State, whose decisions are binding on all its members, does the September 15th Minna meeting suggests registering any form of disagreement with the confidence vote passed on President Asiwaju Tinubu on August 13th?
Predictably, these leaders may not want to come out publicly to confirm any form of reservation to the so-called vote of confidence passed on August 13th. To some extent, it can also be argued that the absence of former President Obasanjo and former Military President Babangida with any explanation is itself suggestive of vote of no confidence. This is largely because, given the unreserved commitment of these leaders to Nigeria’s development, they are most likely to suspend any other engagements and attend the meeting. Nothing could have been more important than the opportunity for them to influence policy decisions of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
Although former President Obasanjo openly opposed the election of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the reported Sallah visit to First Lady, Sen. Remi Tinubu on June 17, 2024 indicates that the former President has reconciled himself and accepted to support President Asiwaju Tinubu. No need to belabour the issue. Certainly, as Nigerians, we are faced with the very unfortunate situation whereby an elected government is taking all the wrong decisions and all democratic structures that could facilitate consultations, enforce accountability, and to that extent regulate the conducts of elected leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu, are being systematically demobilised and demolished. And like Chidi Amuta has warned, in his recent article, Pharaoh in Trouble, before our very eye, Nigerian democracy is sadly breeding an authoritarian leader in President Asiwaju Tinubu.
Chidi Amuta rightly observed that ‘Nigeria is beginning to look more like a training ground for cruelty and practice field for apprentice authoritarians.’ The mere fact that we are gradually relapsing back to the era of arbitrary arrests and detentions of journalists, labour leaders and innocent citizens who expressed disagreements with governments at all levels is a strong indicator that Nigeria is now a training ground for authoritarian leaders. It not just President Asiwaju Tinubu, there are many reports of state governors ordering the arrest of citizens for expressing disagreements.
Part of the disturbing reality highlighting the mismanagement of public policy in Nigeria is the current avoidable and embarrassing dispute between Dangote Refinery and the NNPC and how citizens are being pushed to swallow bitter pills of higher prices of petroleum products in a manner that simply devalue local production. The econometrics of petroleum pricing since the commencement of production of Dangote Refinery is more about manipulative control and imposition of a parasitic monopoly, which the NNPC represents.
Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, that appears to be the preference of the government. As it is, the issue of welfare of citizens is not the priority of President Asiwaju Tinubu. It is almost as if President Asiwaju Tinubu doesn’t give a damn about whether Nigerians are dying on account of government’s heartless and mindless policies. Rather than push public policy in a direction that relieved the economic burden of harsh living conditions, the Federal Government is more bent on imposing more stringent measures that drains and devalue the resources of citizens.
More than anytime in the history of Nigeria, citizens are being impoverished on an alarming scale. Since May 29, 2023 when President Asiwaju took over, it has been a downward slide for Nigerians. Being a democratic government, the expectation would have been that President Asiwaju Tinubu will be more accessible. Alas, he is proving to be the most inaccessible leader of Nigeria. Even late General Sani Abacha was by far more accessible. All previous military governments are turning out to be much more open to consultations and receptive to recommendations from Nigerians than the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
As President of the Federal Republic, President Asiwaju Tinubu is showing his worst side. Some of the key projects of the last government have been abandoned. A good example is Kaduna – Abuja Road, which is becoming a death trap. But without any budgetary provision, a new project of more than N15 trillion Lagos – Calabar Coastal highway started. Meanwhile, public investment towards addressing the challenges of insecurity is at best business-as-usual. And the crisis of insecurity is reduced to ceremonial show of shame and public lamentations by leaders.
Under a so-called regime of Renewed Hope, citizens are rendered helpless. A supposedly progressive government and party is taking Nigeria back to Hobbesian state where life is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.’ Human life has very little value so much that it is arguably not the priority of government to guarantee survival and protection of citizens. Existential crisis has caught up with even income earning population and governments at all levels are demonstrating both lack of commitment and inability to respond to the urgency of rescuing the country.
No doubt, Nigerians are faced with the hardest of times. In the circumstance, it is legitimate for all leaders who mean well for the country to be worried. Ideally, if President Asiwaju Tinubu is accessible and receptive to recommendations, leaders such as former President Obasanjo, former Military President Babangida, former Head of State General Abdulsalam and General Gusau would have prioritise meeting him. Perhaps, the fact that they are meeting just about a month after the meeting of the National Council of State where a vote of confidence was passed on President Asiwaju Tinubu is suggestive of possible disappointment arising from the seeming inability of the government to reverse the current downward slide and protect the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians.
It also needs to be stressed that the mere fact of a so-called vote of confidence by the National Council of State is indicative and suggestive of growing legitimacy crisis facing the government. In many respects, it is disrespectful and demeaning for a critical constitutional body comprising former Presidents, former Heads of State and former Chief Justices to be reduced to moving confidence votes when the country is faced with existential crisis. Clearly, the September 15th meeting of these leaders could have been to fill gaps, which the August 13th National Council of State meeting would have inadvertently created. What could have been the gaps?
One of the big gaps that is there constantly starring Nigerians in the most uncomfortable way is the demobilisation and destruction of democratic structures in the country, which would have ordinarily facilitate consultations with elected leaders and influence policy decisions of governments at all levels. The absence of any functional party, whose structures are meeting as provided by their constitutions is enough evidence. All the so-called big parties don’t hold meetings of their organs. The APC is now more of a private limited liability company owned by President Asiwaju Tinubu. PDP, LP, NNPP and many of the registered parties are all faced with avoidable leadership crisis that has strangulate them and is blocking them from holding meetings.
With all these, citizens are denied options and capacity to produce alternative choices. Even the right to register new parties is being blocked seamlessly by INEC. With meetings not holding and opposition political leaders manipulated into terminal crisis, Nigerian democracy is in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with no Doctor to attend to. Could former President Obasanjo, former Military President Babangida, former Head of State Abdulsalam and retired General Gusau be the ‘Doctors’ needed to get Nigeria out of the ICU? If so, how can they achieve that?
Former President Obasanjo, former Military President Babangida, former Head of State Abdulsalam and retired General Gusau are certainly leaders in their own rights who have paid their dues. At different times in the political history of Nigeria, they were able to intervene. Arguably, their interventions may have in one way or the other contributed to getting Nigeria to its current messy situation. For instance, the political practices that are responsible for the erosion of political competition in political parties in Nigeria could be traceable to the tenure of former President Obasanjo. The policy of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) under former Military President Babangida could have been the source of inspiration for President Asiwaju Tinubu’s impulsive and unplanned policies. Although, to be fair to former Military President Babangida, to use Chidi Amuta’s words he ‘balance compassion and hard policy choices.’
To the extent of contributing to get Nigeria to the current messy situation, these leaders owe a responsibility to the nation to take it out of the ICU. Getting Nigerian democracy out of ICU is a function of ability to revive, restore and strengthen democratic structures in the country, which is dependent on ability to create at least a functional political party that would allow for political competition within its structures and by extension in the country. This should not just be about identifying and promoting a candidate who will emerge as a candidate in any of the registered parties. Once the approach is limited to producing a candidate, the potential of falling in a legal booby trap imposed by the manipulative activities of President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC is high. Part of the legal booby trap is that the potential candidate may be produced by a leadership faction of political party, which will throw the party and the candidate in court cases that will undermine electoral viability.
The other challenge is that producing a candidate may not guarantee corresponding commitment by elected leaders to honour their campaigns promises and be accountable to Nigerians. For elected leaders to come with corresponding commitment to honour campaign promises and be accountable to Nigerians require the existence of a strong political party whose organs will meet as prescribed by the party’s constitution. Above all, the profile of the leadership of the party should be at the minimum equivalent to the elected leadership of the country. A situation whereby party leadership are below the profile of elected leaders is injurious to Nigerian democracy and will retain it in the ICU.
Therefore, if former President Obasanjo, former Military President Babangida, former Head of State Abdulsalam and retired General Gusau are truly committed to rescuing Nigerian democracy and get it out of ICU, they should facilitate a deeper engagement of opposition political leaders in the country. Part of the goal of the deeper engagement of opposition leaders should be to rebuild structures of political parties in the country and restore some minimum internal political competition within the structures of political parties. Beyond anything, this will help to reset Nigerian democracy, restore the confidence of Nigerians about surviving the current hard times imposed by the impulsive, unplanned and undemocratic policies of President Asiwaju Tinubu.
No doubt, the challenge facing Nigerians is about outliving this harsh President Asiwaju Tinubu era; it is about doing everything possible to begin to organise the needed political structures to guarantee the defeat of APC and President Asiwaju in 2027. The first step in achieving that is about building a strong political party that can produce not only candidates but would have the capacity to regulate the conducts of candidates and push them to be both accountable to citizens and deliver on campaign promises. Could former President Obasanjo, former Military President Babangida, former Head of State Abdulsalam and retired General Gusau, and by extension all statesmen, women and patriots make this their priority? If they do, then, they will truly qualify as the ‘Doctors’ needed to take Nigerian democracy out of the ICU. May God strengthen the capacity of all Nigerian statesmen, women and patriots to serve as the ‘Doctors’ needed to get Nigerian Democracy out of ICU. Amin!
Salihu Lukman
Recommended Outlook for the New Political Opposition
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Many Nigerians believe that the situation in the country is hopeless. Our problems are so entrenched and deep-seated. Politically, economically, socially, culturally and even religiously, the problems are overwhelming and all encompassing. The belief of citizens is that it is almost practically impossible to produce leaders who can pull Nigeria out of its present quagmire. This belief is further re-enforced given that the opposition political leaders as presently constituted are part of the political leadership of the country who brought the country to its present state of hopelessness. In virtually every respect, however one wishes to consider challenges confronting us as a nation, negative and overwhelming interpretations are most likely to dominate assessments. Given such ugly daunting reality, what is the future of Nigeria? What is it that Nigerian political opposition can do to develop a new outlook that can make it to measure up to the responsibility of rescuing the country?
The challenge of responding to such basic practical questions in these contemporary times is quite troubling given the fact of progressive degeneration of realities facing citizens. Conditions of life just keep getting worse with every passing day. The expectation that democracy will produce better leaders who can be selfless and honest in managing public affairs has been a far cry. Even when popular leaders win what could be adjudged as free, fair and credible elections, as was the case with former President Muhammadu Buhari and APC in 2015, they end up falling short of public expectations.
Admittedly, as it is, the reality is that bad as former President Goodluck Jonathan was, former President Buhari turned out to be worse and, in every respect, failed to justify the confidence of Nigerians. And now President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is proving to be worse than former President Buhari. Within less than two years, President Tinubu has made lives unbearable for all Nigerians in a magnitude never experienced in the history of the country. Beyond making life unbearable, President Asiwaju Tinubu has also created the political paradox of being an elected leader who has succeeded in weakening structures of his party. Under his leadership all political parties have been similarly weakened. Consequently, Nigeria is a so-called democracy without any functional political party.
Interestingly, contrary to being a progressive democrat, President Asiwaju Tinubu is about the most insensitive political leader Nigeria has seen. Insensitive both in terms of being unconcern about the consequences of the policies of his government on the welfare of citizens as well as being inaccessible to engagement and demonstrating any commitment to accommodate and mobilise citizens to support his government. As a result, virtually, all democratic structures that are expected to facilitate engagements with governmental structures are systematically and deliberately being weakened. For instance, the structures of the APC, which is the ruling party that produced President Asiwaju Tinubu are being demobilised. Except for the NWC, none of the organs of the party are functioning.
All the other registered parties are in one way or the other being held to ransom with syndicated leadership crisis. The two chambers of the national assembly have been debased to the status of parastatals of the Presidency. INEC is sadly regressing back to the Maurice Iwu days and elections are becoming more and more predictable circus shows. All the progress made following the Justice Mohammed Uwais’ Electoral Reform work of 2009 have been jettisoned. Even basic function of conferring legal recognitions to political associations with legitimacy to participate in electoral contests are being sacrificed or blocked.
It is such a big irony that it is under APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu that Nigerian democracy is being undermined on a scale almost equivalent to what a military regime would have done when it overthrew an elected government. Perhaps, the only difference is the symbolic retention of the constitution, the legislative arm of government and INEC without the corresponding statutory powers that organically subordinates these potentially veritable democratic structures to Nigerian citizens on account of which sovereignty will truly lie with the people.
Partly because of this reality, political competition in the country is eroded. We are having elections without contests, which are producing emperors at all levels whose mission is simply to conquer Nigerians. From President Asiwaju Tinubu to Governors, down the line, the average mentality of politicians is to manipulate so-called elections and be returned as so-called winners of stage-managed elections. Across board, Nigerian politicians are characterised with high levels of intolerance, with basically zero capacity for debates and engagements. This is largely responsible for the current unfortunate reality whereby Nigerian politics is distanced or remotely associated or connected with the interests of Nigerians.
Part of the challenge that must be responded to has to do with the big question of what to do to address all the multifaceted deep-seated problems of citizens. The legitimate question being asked is about whether politicians are only interested in taking advantage of the problems created by the APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu to capture power and basically replicate what previous governments have done and end up becoming worse than the APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu. Bearing the experiences of Nigerians with APC, former President Buhari and now President Asiwaju Tinubu, these are very legitimate questions.
Unfortunately, as it is, most Nigerian politicians, including opposition leaders take these issues for granted. Many believe that they can continue to manipulate their way to so-called electoral victory. A note of warning may be important at this very early stage of political organising for the new political opposition. The only thing that can guarantee the defeat of APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu in 2027 is if an opposition political platform can be created, which will have strong relationship with Nigerians. Capacity to have strong relationship is a function of developing the new orientation or outlook.
This is not going to be easy to achieve. The hard truth is that, if APC with all the promises of CHANGE before 2015 ended up producing the current disappointment, why should Nigerians trust any politician who will come with similar promises of producing a better future for Nigerians? And noting that in any case most of the opposition politicians were part of the 2015 APC campaign, which promises Nigerians CHANGE, why should Nigerians trust the newly re-organised opposition politicians?
The point is, there is the need to acknowledge these legitimate issues. The campaign to rescue Nigeria must not be founded on the cheap sentiment of defeating the APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu in 2027. It must be founded on a clearly well thought out vision of moving Nigeria forward. Accordingly, the first vision should be about the kind of political platform the opposition want to create. Are we going to have another party whose business will only be about producing candidates for elections? In which case, are we just looking at a party that will produce XYZ as the Presidential candidate and down to Governorship, Senatorial, House of Representatives and House of Assembly candidates?
Once that is the focus, we will end up with a new opposition party that is weak and unable to be different from APC, PDP, LP, NNPP and all the current parties. In fact, the new opposition parties may even be weaker than the existing parties. The first indicator that this will be the result is when opposition leaders reduce negotiation to produce the new opposition party to installing their surrogates as party leaders. This will result in hegemonic struggles to plant so-called loyalists of aspiring candidates as leaders of the new party at various levels. The consequential outcome will be the emergence of worse leaders who will continue the political culture of elected leaders functioning as emperors and overlords, irrespective of whether it is Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Kwankwasau or any of the leading opposition leaders as the Presidential candidate.
There is therefore the need to challenge opposition political leaders to demonstrate stronger commitment to break away from these destructive practices that reduces political parties to only serving as election platform for electoral contest, which is at the root of the crisis of Nigerian democracy. The best way to break away from these practices is to ensure that leaders of the new opposition party are frontline members of the opposition, not surrogates. This will require, for instance, that at the least some of the frontline opposition political leaders, notably, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwasau, Sen. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, etc. should be among the leaders of the new party serving as National Chairman, Deputy National Chairman, National Secretary, etc. And of course, the frontline leaders should also include the alienated leaders of APC who will commit themselves to building the new political opposition party. These alienated APC leaders include Prof. Yomi Osinbajo, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the old CPC tendencies, etc.
The point is that the profile of the leadership of the new opposition party being formed will confirm whether the political agenda of rescuing Nigeria is reduced to only winning elections without the corresponding commitment to ensure the emergence of strong party capable of regulating the conducts of elected representatives. Once the profile of leaders of the new party excludes the frontline opposition leaders, it simple means business-as-usual. That was what happened in the case of APC, which was why some of the critical issues related to party funding remained ad hoc till today.
If at all opposition leaders are seriously commitment to rescuing Nigeria, resolving the challenge of party funding must be prioritised. Associated with issues of funding is about ensuring proper budgeting that should cover remunerations and conditions of service for party leaders at all levels. This should be benchmarked with public service conditions such that party leaders enjoy the same privileges with elected representatives on account of which the needed funding is mobilised appropriately and accordingly based on compliance with subsisting legal requirements. The other issues which the budget must cover include making adequate provision to meet operational cost especially election financing.
The absence of budgeting and clear funding framework is responsible for the current exploitative and extortionist high cost of nomination forms across all parties. This has created the sad reality of highly skewed exclusivist orientation whereby only the super-rich in Nigeria can participate in election across all parties. There is also the urgent need for the new opposition political platform to be strongly commitment to engendering new inclusive and people friendly orientation, which can open Nigerian elections to broader participation by citizens across all sections of the country. Guaranteeing inclusivity would require that the new party is popular in every part of the country and across all diverse groups.
Broader participation by citizens across diverse groups has the added advantage of strengthening the support base of the new opposition party. Beyond that, it also has the potential of broadening the scope for leadership recruitment beyond the current narrow base of old politicians. If anything, the distrust of Nigerians with the current narrow base of old politicians is very strong. In fact, as it is Nigerians are very suspicious of all the campaigns about defeating APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu in 2027 largely on account of the distrust Nigerians have for old politicians. This will most likely change once opposition political leaders are able to demonstrate strong commitment to broaden the scope of leadership recruitment in the country beyond the narrow scope of old politicians.
The issues of governance and how much commitment is demonstrated in terms of responding to concrete challenges facing citizens are the other factors. Again, given the poor records of APC in terms of being unable to deliver on campaign promises, Nigerians would expect more practical approaches that demonstrate both humility and experiential knowledge of initiatives required to respond to existential challenges facing citizens in the country. For instance, proposals around economic management must go beyond doctrinaire prescriptions, which for decades hold the economy at stand still. Ability to create jobs and expand the earning capacity of citizens should be well outlined in clearly unambiguous terms.
Hydra headed challenges of guaranteed security of lives and property must be resolved with references to recruiting more security personnel, training and equipping them adequately in line with international standards. Mobilising all the necessary funding to achieve that must be given all the priority required. For opposition leaders to demonstrate strong commitment to resolving Nigeria’s security challenges would require visionary and highly ambitious plans of mobilising large-scale funding into the Nigerian security sector.
The other sectors, which large-scale funding will be required are education, health and agricultural sectors. Specifically, Nigerian political opposition must prioritise construction of new primary and secondary schools, expanding existing ones through construction of additional classroom blocks, recruiting teachers on a mass scale, making adequate provisions for teaching materials, including making provisions for accommodations for teachers and staffs. With reference to the health sector, there must be strategic initiatives to ensure the existence of primary healthcare centres, hospitals and access to healthcare services across every part of the country. Nigeria must aspire to meet the healthcare needs of Nigerians and within the shortest possible time end the current brain drain of medical doctors and health service workers in the country. In addition, medical tourism by Nigerians, especially political leaders must discontinue immediately.
With respect to the agricultural sector, clear production targets should be set for agricultural outputs based competitive advantages. In addition, initiatives for processing activities to add value to agricultural products should be envisioned and plotted as part of the drive towards industrialisation in the country. The reality is that these four sectors, security, education, health and agriculture hold the key in terms of whether Nigeria will make progress as nation or not. In fact, arguably, the inability to develop these sectors are the root of all the crisis facing the country. The reality that human life in Nigeria is going back to Hobbesian state of being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’ has to do with the deepening crisis in these four sectors on account of which human life is more and more becoming meaningless in the country. Inability of governments at all levels to effectively respond and transform the lives of citizens is at the centre of all the frustrations of Nigerians.
Achieving all these require strong synergy among governments at all levels. Developing such synergy is more about the orientation of relationship between Federal, States and Local Governments. As it is, synergy and orientation are very weak and often taken for granted. Painfully, although during its formation, APC had some robust debates around what is to be done to resolve the security challenges, once it won the election in 2015, all the campaign promises made were abandoned and were not used to guide policy orientation for governments at all levels. The same disposition of abandoning campaign promises has continued under the current administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu as the campaign promise of Renewed Hope has been similarly abandoned and is hardly a guide for the policies of President Asiwaju Tinubu government.
Nigerians will want to see opposition political leaders honestly committing themselves towards developing a new marshal plan for the country around these issues. Based on the envisioned marshal plan, the opposition political leaders should demonstrate commitment to raise annual national budget of the country at least N150 trillion from the current unambitiously less than N40 trillion. Similarly, the new reorganised political opposition in the country should commit itself to raising the annual budgets of all states’ governments in the country to not less than N1 trillion. Now, only Lagos State operate an annual budget of more than N1 trillion.
A good indicator that Nigerian opposition leaders are engaging these issues honestly with strong commitment to rescue Nigeria will be first determined by the nature of political organisation being formed. Beyond ensuring that frontline opposition leaders are part of the leadership of the new opposition party, is the leadership of the new party able to mobilise enough funding to guarantee smooth operations of the party, including engendering deeper consultations with party members and by extension Nigerians to secure the support and buy in of Nigerians? Do the activities of the new party include organisation of basic orientation, mentoring and coaching sessions for leaders of the party and by extension aspiring candidates at all levels to facilitate new political orientation and culture in the country? In other words, is the new opposition political party going to be limited to being an election platform or will it serve as a broad political platform capable of expanding the recruitment base for competent political leaders in the country?
Will Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwasau and all the prospective opposition leaders submit themselves and serve as the agents that will midwife the emergence of the envisioned broad opposition political platform in Nigeria? Or will they remain only fixated with their narrow ambitions of emerging as candidates for 2027 elections? Based on all the ongoing consultations among opposition leaders in the country, although all these leaders have ambitions to contest elections, in varying degrees, they all are commitment to the progress of Nigeria. The big challenge is whether negotiations among opposition leaders will be broadened to the level of inviting wider participation of Nigerians, which can challenge Nigerian politicians to prioritise taking up the responsibility of party leadership.
Taking up the responsibility of party leadership boils down to the question of whether opposition leaders will prioritise being part of the political team that could midwife the emergence of good leaders in the country. The alternative will be whether opposition leaders will reduce the current initiative to organise a new political platform to imposing themselves and emerge as candidates for 2027 elections with all the high probability that they may become worse than current leaders. While for many who are gripped by all the attractions of static analysis, the temptation is to dismiss opposition leaders and condemn them as incapable of being part of the political team that can midwife good leaders in the country, one can say with all the benefit of relationship with opposition political leaders that they all are quite worried and disturbed by realities facing the country. In varying degrees, these leaders want qualitative shift in the politics of Nigeria and to that extent therefore would prioritise the emergence of distinctively broad political planform in the country.
As Nigerians, we must also commit ourselves to make the emergence of the new broad political platform possible. We must, as Nigerians have the belief, courage and determination to compel leaders to act in the direction that can produce the desired result. It is all about being positive. One can say, with all the confidence, that so far so good; the disposition of Nigerian political opposition leaders is to unite and overcome the current challenges of Nigerian democracy. A good section of the opposition political leaders is already focussed on ensuring that the unity of opposition leaders produce the needed distinctive political platform capable of engendering wider participation of Nigerians. God willing, it shall succeed, and Nigerian democracy will be reborn, and Nigeria’s greatness will be achieved. In our lifetime, Nigeria shall be great!
Salihu Lukman
Satanic Leadership and Nigeria’s Boiling Point
Open Letter to former President Olusegun Obasanjo
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Your Excellency, I am inspired to write this open letter to you after reading the newspaper report about an interactive session you featured on Sunday, December 8, 2024, which was tagged ‘Boiling Point Arena’. The newspaper report quoted you to have said that ‘leader made by Satan is bound to fail, while God’s chosen one will thrive’. You were reported to have expressed your disagreement with the notion that all leaders are made by God, arguing that ‘just like God, Satan has power to enthrone a leader, but he lacks salvation.’ Sincerely, I must declare my limited religious knowledge and will not be able to engage your assertions with reference to any religious understanding. However, being a very keen Nigerian who is committed to the democratic development of our dear country, and who has made his modest contributions, it is important to ask the question, is Satan not also created by God?
This question is being asked not because I want to disagree with you, but largely because I want to appeal to you to kindly have the needed broad mind to take responsibility as one of the privilege leaders of this country. We must not shield mistakes of the past with some imaginary explanations of leaders created by Satan and those created by God. While appealing to Your Excellency to take responsibility, may I also respectfully use you as a point of contact with all our past surviving leaders of this great nation called Nigeria. Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, former President Goodluck Jonathan and former President Muhammadu Buhari are past leaders of this country who God in his infinite mercy has blessed with long life. Without resorting to any blame game, whether today’s leaders of this country are made by Satan or God, all of you put together, individually and collectively, are the parents of today’s Satanic leaders of Nigeria.
I am making this point very cautiously, and advisedly. It is never intended to disrespect any of you, but to emphatically make the point that today’s Satanic leaders are produced because of the shortcomings and mistakes of past leaders. A decisive factor in all of these is the attempt to manipulate the emergence of successive Nigerian leaders. All the major challenges faced by Nigeria since independence is the result of attempts by all past leaders, including Your Excellency to produce anointed successors. In varying degrees, this is responsible for all the political crises facing Nigeria and the derivative social and economic crises, which progressively got worse under all successive leaders. That Nigeria’s challenges are getting worse might be confirmation of Satanic leaders. To the extent that human life in Nigeria is no longer secure, which basically means returning to Hobbesian state with life becoming ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’.
As a nation, we live in a state of permanent fear with insensitive and incompetent leaders. Unfortunate, the problem of leadership keeps progressively getting worse so much that citizens are increasingly giving up any prospect of producing a better leader, or, if you like, a leader made by God. At the risk of making blasphemous statement, so long as current leaders are allowed to influence the emergence of successors, only Satanic leaders can emerge. The challenge of leadership in Nigeria with reference to the Satanic analogy is akin to having only couples with the Satanic genotype exercising monopoly of producing successive Nigerian leaders, which may be the only logical explanation of why we are stuck with Satanic leaders. How can we as a nation break this cycle of Satanic leaders? This may perhaps depend on what we do to stop giving birth to leaders with the Satanic genotype.
Capacity to stop giving birth to leaders with Satanic genotype may be a function of ability to re-engineer our politics and democracy. This is only possible if leaders like Your Excellency can remorsefully look at the political realities facing the country and acknowledge the mistakes you all committed. In acknowledging the mistakes of the past, it will be incumbent on all past leaders to recognise Your Excellencies’ contributions. No matter how small those contributions may be, they are significant in getting Nigeria enroute to its current Hobbesian state. Such acknowledgement are important moral qualifiers to influence a fundamental shift in the makeup of new political makeup that can stop the birth of leaders with Satanic genotype and lead to the emergence of leaders with Godly genotype.
The big question is whether Your Excellencies want to consider engaging these issues based on the strategy of acquiring the needed moral qualifier to influence the fundamental shift to lead to the emergence of leaders with Godly genotype. This is not to question Your Excellencies’ competences, commitments or outstanding contributions to the difficult and near impossible task of nation building. Every patriotic Nigerian will recognise your selfless dispositions and the sacrifices you made throughout your lives for the country. You surrendered your lives for the country and therefore will be very much justified to be worried about the state of the nation today. That you are alive today, witnessing the downturn of our national life could only be interpreted based on the fact that God expect you to play a crucial role in producing leaders with Godly genotype for Nigeria.
If you are to succeed in discharging such a crucial assignment, it is important you also recognise the unintended role you could have played in producing the current Nigerian leaders with Satanic genotype. One of such unintended roles is how Your Excellency inadvertently institutionalised the practice of imposition of candidates in our political parties. Without going into details, you will recall how in PDP, ahead of the 2007 elections, under Your Excellency’s leadership, the practice of imposition of candidates became the political robe of the PDP. Eventually, being the ruling party for sixteen years, imposition of candidates became acceptable political rule. With imposition, basically, our democracy lost its bearing and became a shadow of the worst authoritarian system. Related to imposition is the problem of rigging. Again, without trying to indict you, you will recall how INEC under Prof. Maurice Iwu during your tenure rigged the 2007 elections in favour of PDP. It is a sad reminder that at that time, INEC declared result of Presidential election before collation of results were concluded.
Like I said, Your Excellency, I don’t intend to bring all these to indict you. I am only citing them so that you are able to acknowledge your own mistakes. There is no way we can engage in any meaningful debate about how you can play a crucial role in producing leaders with Godly genotype for Nigeria without coming up with valid recommendations on how to deal the twin political monsters of imposition of candidates and electoral rigging in Nigeria. In fact, these are two-headed political cobras that have destroyed all political parties in Nigeria today. As it is, Nigeria is a democracy without a functioning political party, which is why the country is failing and all elections marred in credibility crisis. There is no way under such atmosphere, a different leader other than Satanic one could emerge. Whether Nigeria can produce leaders with Godly genotype and not Satanic genotype depends on whether we can re-engineer our politics to produce at least one political party with potential to produce leaders with Godly genotype.
Sadly, it would appear that the national mindset is uninterested about producing a functional political party. Part of the big drawback is the fact that almost everyone is preoccupied about candidates for elections, which has produced a fixated mentality across all shades of opinions in the country that is keeping the country in a permanent state of equilibrium that motivates politicians to operate based on capacity to impose candidates and rig elections. This has woefully reduced almost all politicians to anything but democratic. Consequently, very few politicians prioritise building relationship with citizens as basis of electoral victory. In other words, almost every average politician operates with a conquest mentality. As a result, the business of politics and governance is diminished to an assemblage of cheerleaders.
These are the fundamental issues. So long as politics and governance are being diminished to the status of assemblage of cheerleaders, Satanic genotype will continue to be Nigeria’s leadership makeup. With such makeup, acts of impunity will continue to drive politics and even if we produce new parties with different names, such parties will at best be PDP and APC cloned. That is exactly what destroyed APC with all the potentials it had in 2015. How can we as a nation change that? Is there any prospect that within the shortest time possible the process of political re-engineering to produce a functional party that can be activated to serve as the harbinger for the emergence of leaders with Godly genotype?
Your Excellency, this is the crux of this open letter. I believe that within the shortest time possible the process of producing a functional political party, which can be the harbinger for the emergence of leaders with Godly genotype is possible. In fact, it has already commenced. However, there are risk factors that if left on their own can pollute the process and take us back to square one and end up with another cloned PDP/APC. Once that is the case, we may end up with worse leaders based on the Satanic logic. The biggest risk factor is the failure to humble all opposition political leaders and get them to unite under one political platform. Already, some opposition leaders are resisting efforts to form a united political platform largely because of their subsidiary ambitions to contest elections. On account of such subsidiary ambitions, some are already playing the old hegemonic games of assembly loyalists or cheerleaders. Three of them are former state Governors. There is also a group associated with one of the legacy parties that merged to form the APC. This group is already drawing so-called leadership lineup for an imaginary party to be formed by opposition leaders. In many states, they have already chosen so-called Governorship candidates. With such outlook, it logically means they already have their Presidential candidate.
There are some that are hiding behind some so-called consultation shuttle mission to some of you, notably Your Excellency and other past leaders such as Gen. Gowon and Gen. Babangida. Some of them are springing up regional and ethnic debates in the country and are forming so-called regional ‘democratic’ bodies that are nothing more than aristocrats with the mission of hoodwinking innocent citizens and end producing another assembly of Satanic leaders for Nigeria in 2027. A refutable Nigerian associated with one of the global financial institutions is being alleged to be the financier of one of the so-called regional ‘democratic’ bodies. The old card of imposition and potential strategy to rig 2027 is already rearing its ugly head.
The point is many political leaders who are expected to team up as a united body committed to producing a functional political party in the country capable of serving as the harbinger for the emergence of Godly leadership in Nigeria are refusing to accept to join forces with other political leaders in the opposition camp. Interestingly, many of them are adjudged to be close to Your Excellency and there are public speculations that you are encouraging them. I was privileged to be in the leadership of APC during the 2023 elections and I can say without fear of contradictions that APC won the 2023 elections on account of the division within the opposition. Although I have withdrawn my membership of APC, I can say authoritatively that the current mindset of President Tinubu and APC is to keep the opposition divided as basis for winning the 2027 elections.
I will emphatically therefore make the point that any political leader in disagreement with the current sad reality or what Your Excellecy correctly described as Nigeria having leaders made by Satan who refused to work with other opposition leaders, such a leader is inadvertently working for the electoral victory of APC and President Asiwaju in 2027. And anyone who indulges or support such leaders is also inadvertently working for the electoral victory of APC and President Asiwaju in 2027. Many of those inadvertently working for the electoral victory of APC and Asiwaju in 2027 have little or nothing to lose. If anything, these are people whose elasticity for survival is very high, their capacity to make personal adjustments to any situation they are confronted is limitless. They can continue to mismanage politics of the country, and by extension governance on accounts of narrow personal ambitions even if the country is to destoroyed. Some of them have citizenship of other countries and those of them who don’t have citizenship of other countries can easily acquire one given their profile, which is partly why they could afford to be reckless and unconcerned about whether Nigeria is held in the grip of Satanic leaders.
Everything must be done to put Nigeria on the roadmap of producing Godly leaders. Leaders such as Your Excellency, together with Gen. Gowon, Gen. Babangida, Gen. Abdulsalam, former President Jonathan and former President Buhari have the huge moral obligation of engaging all opposition political leaders in the country to unite in order to produce a functional political party that can serve as the harbinger for the emergence of Godly leaders in the country. It is not enough to lament about the fact of Satanic leadership in the country. So long as Your Excellency and other past leaders failed to assert their moral authority in ways that can lead to the emergence of Godly leaders, it is as good as working for the second term of President Asiwaju and his team of failed leaders at all levels with all the problems they created. Of course, it simply means preference for Satanic leaders.
My appeal therefore is for you and all past leaders of the country to unconditionally declare support for the emergence of Godly leaders in the country. This is only possible if mistakes of the past that led to the current sad reality of having Satanic leaders at all levels are corrected. One way of achieving that is through working to produce a functional political party. Remember how patriotic Nigerians worked to form the PDP in 1998. And having formed the PDP made it functional and use it to negotiate a national agreement leading to Your Excellency’s emergence as the Presidential candidate and your eventual electoral victory in 1999. The reality is that Satanic leaders took over at all levels of Nigeria largely because all the structures that are required to facilitate emergence of Godly leaders as candidates for elections were weakened, if not destroyed. Therefore, if we want to produce Godly leaders, Your Excellency, all past leaders and all patriotic Nigerians must apply themselves towards rebuilding Nigerian politics to facilitate effective negotiations towards the emergence of candidates with Godly genotype.
The unity of all opposition political leaders is the first precondition. The second precondition is that negotiation to produce the political platform that will lead to the emergence of functional political party must not be driven by the ambition of any of the opposition leaders. In other words, all opposition leaders must set aside their personal ambitions. The third is that all opposition leaders must prioritise building strong relationship with each other, which is itself a function of high respect for one another. Any opposition leader working to outsmart others and impose his/her ambition has the Satanic genotype and is adversorial to the emergence of a functional political party in the country.
We must appeal to Your Excellency, and through you to all past political leaders of the country, and by extension all patriotic Nigerians to stop encouraging the current divisive orientation of political opposition in the country. Anyone who truly want Nigeria to produce Godly leaders must go beyond lamentations and take all the necessary step to correct the mistake of the past, which on account of acts of commission or omission made Nigeria to end up with Satanic leaders at all levels. Simple statement to all our opposition political leaders, many of whom are candidates for Satanic leadership, to drop their ambitions and join forces with other opposition leaders may be enough to create a new humbling political reality in the country. If all our past leaders can discharge such a responbility leading to new political engineering in the country, they could have justified God’s wishes and blessings of long life. No doubt, this could be one important mission God has reserved for Your Excellencies.
Like other successful missions to your credits, if you add this to your records of achievements, it will further engrave you and all patriots who works to rebuild Nigeria’s democracy from its current despicable state, as the architects of new Nigeria. May God Almighty continue to strengthen Your Excellency and all past leaders with wisdom, courage and large heart to intervene and correct all the mistakes of the past. Getting Nigeria out its current boiling point and producing Godly leaders at all levels is very necessary and urgent. Nigeria urgently need God chosen leaders that would succeed at all levels!
Salihu Lukman
Political Competition Should Define New Nigeria
2025 New Year Message
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Happy New Year to all Nigerians. Our challenging times have remained with us and have become even more challenging. Perhaps, these challenging times defines the reality of our life and our existence as Nigerians. Its severity calls to question whether indeed there is any chance of life getting better, now or in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, with self-centred leaders at all levels, whose mission has remained suspect, these challenging times continued to push us into almost permanent state of misery, disbelief and negativity.
So long as we continue to live in state of misery, disbelief and negativity, our capacity to apply ourselves and produce positive outcomes in anyway possible will continue to elude us. This will mean that we will continue to produce bad leaders whose mission will remain suspect. Such leaders will lack the needed initiatives to address Nigeria’s challenges.
Therefore, as we enter 2025, and as Nigerians, we need to ask ourselves the fundamental question of what is it that we must do to begin to turn things around? The simple but also very difficult answer is that we should as Nigerians believe in ourselves in a positive way. Nigerians must remind themselves about the power of possibility and once again seek to engage leaders with a positive mindset. Engaging leaders with a positive mindset should be about emphatically calling on leaders to be responsive to the needs of citizens.
Ideally, this is a very simple calling, which is logical with any democratic setting. However, it is also difficult and complicated given that our democracy has been turned on its head in Nigeria with so-called elected leaders turned emperors. Structures required for political consultations and consensus building are being undermined. Political party structures are anything but democratic. In fact, so-called political parties have become the catalyst and sources of national disappointment.
With hardly any exception, Nigerian political parties have disappointed Nigerians on the same scale. And it is predictable, things being equal, as we move towards 2027, Nigerian politicians and political parties will disappoint Nigerians on a bigger scale. The expectations for free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria may elude Nigerians once more. Or as was the case in 2015, we could have relatively free, fair and credible elections in 2027, which may only result in the defeat of APC and President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with the attendant danger of retaining the status quo of producing leaders who are emperors, who would only pretentiously be committed to resolving Nigeria’s challenges.
As Nigerians, we must rise to this challenge and make the defeat of APC and President Asiwaju not only possible in 2027 but most importantly guarantee the election of truly democratic leaders and not emperors. The only way that could be possible is if as Nigerians we are able to focus ourselves to produce a functional political party that will respect its own rules. Certainly, such a functional political party must be distinctively different from APC, PDP, LP, NNPP and all the existing registered political parties in the country.
There in lie the difficult challenge. How can such a party be produced and by who? Is it a new party, which will apply for registration with INEC? Will it be registered? If not, what are the options? The other related question is whether such a party will be formed by the same politicians who were associated with APC and PDP, and in many respects, people who could be adjudged to be responsible for getting Nigeria to this messy situation.
The hard truth is that Nigeria’s challenges can only be addressed by Nigerians. It will not be angels that will descend from heaven to help us resolve our challenges. The other hard truth is that we all have our good and bad sides. So also, our politicians have their good and bad sides. The unfortunate reality is that our political structures now only make it possible for politicians to present their negative sides, which is largely because political competition is completely compromised.
In such a circumstance, being positive is about taking the needed steps to restore political competition as integral to our democracy in the country. This should be about properly organising a political party that could allow for the emergence of party leaders at all levels through internal competition. The practice whereby prospective candidates for election impose leaders of the party, who will in turn crown them as candidates, must change. Once the process of forming the new party failed to guarantee internal competition and use it to produce leaders of the party, it simply means retention of the status quo.
While acknowledging that opposition political leaders, including alienated APC leaders have commenced negotiations towards producing alternative political platform, it must be also recognised that most Nigerian politicians are not disposed to competitive political culture. Largely because most politicians are driven by personal ambitions to contest elections, the default mindset is about imposition and manipulating processes to achieve personal ambitions. This must stop. We must remind all our political leaders that if they want to prove their altruistic value and demonstrate strong disposition towards rescuing Nigeria, therefore beyond the pretentious claims of subordinating personal ambitions towards the emergence of the new platform, opposition political leaders in the country should commit themselves to allowing political competition in the country as basis for the emergence of political leaders at all levels.
Opposition leaders must be reminded that so long as they also approach process of leadership selection in the country based on strategy to impose themselves, they are also part of Nigeria’s problem. Opposition leaders can continue to delude themselves with the false belief about imposition through fair or unfair processes, so long as political competition continue to be undermined, the propensity to remain in state of misery, disbelief and negativity may continue.
To Nigerians, we need to all wake up and seek to take our destiny in our own hands. The source of strength and audacity of Nigerian politicians is derived from the docility and passivity of ordinary Nigerians. Once majority of Nigerians concedes politics as the monopoly or exclusive vocation of so-called politicians, the risks of undermining political competition and producing bad leaders with the attendant consequences of remaining in permanent state of misery, disbelief and negativity will be high.
Nigerians need to move into 2025 with a positive disposition that it is indeed possible to produce a new political reality in the country. It is indeed possible to produce a political party that can guarantee political competition in Nigeria as basis for leadership selection at all levels. It is possible to rebuild democratic structures in the country, including political parties, and get them to challenge political leaders in Nigeria to produce their positive side and put the nation on the roadmap of joining the comity of developed nations.
It is possible for Nigeria to rise in our lifetime and produce political leaders that will be source of pride to citizens. Through the right political alignments, re-organisation and new refreshing initiatives, our resourcefulness, productivity and innovative disposition will be the new defining orientation for a new Nigeria. As a nation, the search for happiness, belief in our capacity to have all the goodness life can guarantee and above all produce positive disposition that should define our orientation. This has capacitate us to overcome our challenges, which endowed us to remain resilient and survive all odds.
Like in past cases, Nigerians will survive current challenges. The same way Nigerians outlived military rule, we shall outlive this era of emperors and in 2025 produce a truly democratic political party, which could guarantee internal political competition as foundation for the restoration of national political competition. Through political competition, Nigeria shall produce truly democratic leaders in 2027 who will render selfless services to Nigerians, based on which the country can achieve all its national potentials. May God bless Nigerians with the strength of character to engage Nigerian opposition politicians so that Nigerian democracy will be on its feet once more and Nigeria will be blessed with democratic leaders who will be responsive to the needs of citizens. Amin!
Happy New Year 2025!!!
Salihu Lukman
Re: Early Outline of the Permutations for 2027
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
Just read the postscript by Mr. Waziri Adio at the back of today’s Thisday, February 2, 2025. First, it is quite commendable that Mr. Adio is able to establish the connection between the initiative to organise the Conference with the theme Strengthening Nigeria’s Democracy: Pathways to Good Governance and Political Integrity and permutations for 2027. Perhaps, on account of the strong participation of many leading opposition and displaced politicians at the conference, there are wrong perceptions about who the true organisers are. As a privileged member of both the opposition and displaced politicians, one can say very clearly that the conference was purely the initiatives of the civil society groups led by the Centre LSD and their partners. What we only did was to take full advantage of the platform of the conference to advocate for political reforms in the country. Once we are fortunate to have the information about the conference, we took every necessary step to mobilise ourselves and take full advantages of the conference to begin to influence public debates and national conversations to advocate for political reforms in the country.
In doing that, two issues were considered fundamental. These were electoral and political parties’ reforms. Both in terms of the interventions by many leading politicians and the resolutions of the conference, this was achieved. The sad reality is that the APC, instead of engaging the issues, both as a party and government in power became contemptuous. This further exposes the reactionary and authoritarian orientation of the APC. In fact, the mere fact that the APC and many officials of the government were invited but failed to honour the invitations is indicative that the APC is no longer the envisioned progressive party, which Nigerians rally behind in 2015 to get the PDP out of power. Being a party and a government that is completely alienated, just like the PDP in 2015, it despises initiatives that seeks to mobilise Nigerians to address national challenges.
If the truth must be told, the APC is in fact frightened by such initiatives, which is why their spokespersons at all levels made venomous public statements, almost as if we are in military governments. Many statements issued by both Mr. Bayo Onanuga and Mr. Felix Morka were sad reminders of the kind of statements by our late Comrade Uche Chukwumereji during the General Babangida era. Messrs. Onanuga and Morka’s statements in recent times are almost like plagiarised statements of Comrade Chukwumereji who was the spokesperson of the government of Gen. Babangida.
Coming back to the conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria and the issues raised by Mr. Adio, somehow, Mr. Adio also made the fundamental mistake of engaging the issues with the prism of an average Nigerian politician. When, for instance, he reduced the issues based on the question of whether opposition politicians can unite to produce a candidate who can defeat the APC, he unfortunately misses the fundamental issue, which is the need to change our current political framework to ensure that at the minimum we have a functional political party that can at least guarantee political competition in the country. The functionality of the party must translate to being able to set the right rules and enforce them through competitive negotiations and contracting the appropriate agreements. A major political travesty is that we have a so-called democracy that is adversary to political competition.
In the last one year, or so, I have had the privilege of engaging virtually all leading opposition and displaced politicians. The discomforting reality is that while all opposition and displaced politicians agree on the need to work together to defeat the APC and President Tinubu, many want to do so on the conditions that they will emerge as the successors to President Tinubu. The question of building a functional party that can have the capacity of subordinating them is never part of their consideration. Instead, the same issues about North/South permutations, which Mr. Adio highlighted are the focus. Across the North/South divide, many of the leading politicians, especially those with ambitions, both expressed and implied, use the issue of where the most likely candidate will come from as the primary consideration.
The worrying reality is that many of these opposition and displaced politicians with ambitions are highly complicit and have little or no evidential credentials of emerging as better political leaders. Based on laypersons legal knowledge, many of these politicians would be adjudged to being accessories, whether before or after, to our current political travesty. Given their records of service, they are most likely to be worse than former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari and now President Tinubu. Based on their records, they exhibit intolerant dispositions and poor relationships on accounts of which they have mismanaged their transitions and are today hardly in control of political structures in their states. Some of them, on account of their influential roles in past administrations and the failures of those administrations should be humble enough to take a backseat in effort to build a strong coalition to strengthen Nigerian politics. Instead, it is more like a case of unrepentant show of shame.
It is quite troubling that politics in Nigeria is being reduced to discussing personalities at the expense of critical political institutions that should regulate the conducts of elected leaders. Even when assumed popular leaders such as former President Buhari and President Tinubu shortchanged citizens and the nation, we overlooked the fundamental issues that undermines the capacity of these leaders to meet the expectations of Nigerians, which is about building a veritable and functional political party, whose absence is responsible with why we end up with leaders who are emperors.
Once that remains the case, it should be clear to all that even when opposition and displaced politicians unite to defeat APC and President Tinubu in 2027, the country may end up with another bad, if not worse, leader. Given that in terms of guaranteeing political competition, the situation we are confronting as a nation today is worse than what we had in 2015, we must summon the courage to go beyond the sentiment of just defeating APC and President Tinubu in 2027. In many respects, I am in full agreement with Mr. Peter Obi when he addressed the press after the opening session of the conference that he will not support any coalition of opposition to APC if it is just for power grab.
Any analysis of permutations for 2027 must therefore address the big challenge of what must be done to ensure that anybody who succeeds President Tinubu in 2027 must work to meet the expectations of citizens. Even in the context of power shift, of what use is power shift to any region if in the end citizens of the same region where the President comes from are shortchanged? What has South-West got to show for the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo? What has South-South got to show for the tenure former President Jonathan? The same could be asked in relation to the North and the tenure of both former Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Buhari.
What will be different if another President emerged whether from the North or South in 2027 to succeed President Tinubu? Many of us are engaging these issues with the objective of changing the reality of our democracy. Of course, we must also acknowledge that many leading opposition and displaced politicians are engaging the issues with the old mindset of power grab. So long as that is the case, we may succeed in producing a new party and end up with a dysfunctional party, which will be reduced to being a platform for aspiring candidates. The first indicator will be that the new party will be handed to preferred aspirants who will proceed to appoint leaders of the party and emerge as candidates for 2027. Already, one of the tendencies among the displaced politicians, which is closely associated with former President Buhari is working to impose itself as the leaders of the new opposition party. That tendency is already syndicating media reports about the new party. Painfully, the tendency lacks the needed humility to have the required self-appreciation and recognition of its poor electoral prospects. Some of the opposition and displaced leaders are also similarly restlessly positioning themselves to control any emerging party that could be the platform for the contest against APC and President Tinubu without humbly recognising their poor electoral prospects.
I wish Mr. Adio’s assessment of permutations for 2027 has gone beyond the superficial realm of potential North/South debate. We must avoid indulging Nigerian politicians, whether North or South, opposition or displaced, whatever, on their flimsy narrow ambitions without relating it with their capacity to develop the right relationship, which is required to guarantee electoral prospects. To what extent could any prospective coalition produce a political shift in the right direction towards building a functional party, which have the capacity to regulate the conduct of elected representatives to meet the expectations of citizens?
Some of the restless opposition and displaced leaders can only emerge as candidates through imposition because they are incapable of developing strong relations. Many of them are not interested in developing the needed relationship with their peers on account of which they can win primary elections. So long as the emergence of candidates for 2027 in the new opposition party is based on imposition, then the potential of producing a President who will be different from former President Buhari and President Tinubu will be weak and therefore the prospect of producing a worse President will be very high.
The challenge is to begin to produce a new reality. Producing a new reality is about focusing on producing a new party that will be oriented to produce its leadership through competitive practices. Two important preconditions are necessary. These are that all opposition and displaced politicians must subordinate their ambitions to the bigger task of party building. On no account must anyone of them seek to entrench themselves in the new party based on strategy of imposing leaders of the party at any level in order to gain advantage and emerge as the candidates of the party. Anyone who violate this condition should be disqualified from contesting party primary.
The second condition is that the orientation of the new party must be rule based. The organs of the party and its leadership must not be subordinated to elected representatives. For this to happen, it simply means that the funding challenge of the new party must be clearly defined. The party must have its independent sources of funding. For this to happen will require that the new party produce credibly respected leaders who are not surrogates of elected representatives who will reduce the party to a parastatal of government. For this to happen would require that some of the leaders with the ambition to emerge as Presidential candidates for 2027 elections drop their ambitions and become leaders of the party. This is the big test of the commitment of many of these leaders to strengthening Nigerian democracy. So long as the commitment of politicians is only straightjacketed in their personal ambitions to emerge as candidates for general elections, it simply highlights weak or absence of commitment to democracy. This highlights the point made by His Excellency, Dr. Mahamudu BAWUMIA,former Vice President of Republic of Ghana, in his Keynote Address to the Conference when argued that the ambitions of politicians to the country superseding their personal ambitions.
How many opposition or displaced politicians will make the sacrifice to substitute their ambitions to emerge as candidates for 2027 with being leaders of the party. How many opposition and displaced Nigerian politicians can truly say that their ambition to develop or strengthen Nigerian democracy is superior to their personal ambition to contest elections? Inability to make sacrifices reduces many political leaders in Nigeria to the status of former President Buhari and President Tinubu. It is not by accident that neither former President Buhari nor President Tinubu consider it important to lead the APC in 2015 and subordinated the party to only serving their ambitions to become Presidents of the Federal Republic. Now that they have achieved their ambitions, they have exhibited their true undemocratic credentials and have taken the APC to its political grave. The big challenge is whether the funeral rites of APC in 2027 will be reduced to celebration of new leaders with similar credentials.
As Nigerians, we must stand up to Nigerian politicians, especially opposition and displaced politicians and tell them enough is enough. Notwithstanding the fact that, thanks to the civil society organisations that organised last week’s conference, there are renewed public agitations towards strengthening Nigerian democracy to ensure it meets the expectations of citizens, we must not allow Nigerians to be hoodwinked by the narrow ambitions of politicians to grab power and use it to advance personal ambitions. To achieve that is to push the frontiers of public debate about challenges facing Nigerian democracy beyond the narrow prism of political ambitions of opposition and displaced politicians. Now that the consensus about uniting opposition and displaced politicians has been achieved, we must insist that the negotiations to produce a new political reality should require them to substitute their ambition to emerge as candidates with becoming leaders of the new party.
Just imagine Alh. Atiku Abubakar, or Mr. Peter Obi, or Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, or or Dr. Kayode Fayemi, or Sen. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal or Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, or other opposition and displaced leaders with ambitions to contest becoming leaders of the new party. Imagine all these people decide that in order to lay a solid foundation for the emergence of strong party, all of them or majority of them will instead aspire to become part of the leaders of the new party. Certainly, if that happens, the new party can guarantee collegiate leadership similar to what we had in second republic political parties especially the NPN. Failure to have that could simply mean that the new party risked being oriented in old ways with political culture of imposition becoming dominant.
Part of what must be acknowledged is that Nigerians are tired of new parties emerging and seeking to assume power based on the vulnerability the ruling party. This much was acknowledged my Mr. Adio. To go beyond that is not to indulge the political ambitions of politicians the way Mr. Adio did. The task is to produce a functional party which set the required rules and has the capacity of enforcement. Whether the Presidential candidate of the party should come from South or North, it must be arrived at as internal decision of the party based on capacity to actualise it.
Both with respect to PDP in 1998 and APC in 2023, Nigeria’s political history show that it is possible for the struggle to enforce the choice of Presidential candidate to come from a particular section of the country based on recognition of the need for inclusivity and balanced political considerations. Once these debates are taken outside the structures of the party and are driven by primordial sentiments, the prospects of betrayal and internal sabotage are high as was demonstrated in PDP. The flip side is also that we can achieve power shift and so-called balancing that ends up eroding the welfare and living conditions of citizens including the section of the country where the President comes from, which is what the case of APC and President Tinubu represent.
Being someone who has had the privilege of engaging virtually all opposition and displaced leaders in the last one year, one of the question I tried to pose to all of them is whether they want to replicate the realities which drove the aspirations of former President Buhari and President Tinubu by imposing their personal ambitions and ensuring that they achieve it even if in the end it destroy their political credentials as selfless people committed to national development. Or do they want to cut a new trajectory of taking the path of honour and providing new political leadership to the country. The new desirable political leadership required is that of selflessness, which can unite both politicians and citizens in the country in a new direction. The new direction if it has any potential to strengthening Nigerian democracy should promote political competition both internally within the new party and nationally.
As it is, the mindset of most opposition and displaced political leaders is more inclined towards blocking political competition in the country. The truth is that any political leader who is prioritising the debate about power shift over and above building a strong political party, which can set the rules and enforce it, may only be hiding behind such arguments to impose himself/herself and perhaps invariably continue the political practice of emperors and dictators. Everything must be done to depart from that and create new political reality in the country. If APC is a failure, we must not allow the ambitions of politicians to hold us captive. 2027 present us with the opportunity to re-orient Nigerian democracy and return it to the path of producing political leaders through competition. I am confident that, just like Nigerian are able to stand up the military and win the struggle for democracy, we can stand up to politicians and win the struggle for competitive political contest in the country and defeat the culture of imposition, which has destroyed both the PDP and APC.
Salihu Lukman
Coalition of Political Leaders – Clarification
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
While responding to a question during the Press Conference on the Declaration of Emergency Rule in Rivers State on Thursday, March 20, 2025, Alh. Atiku Abubakar confirmed that the formation of a Coalition ahead of 2027 general election is going on. This has generated wide interests and national debates with varied interpretations. In order to set the records straight, it is important to state that negotiations are ongoing and nothing has been finalised. Once concluded formal announcement will be made with all the details regarding composition of membership, programme of action towards 2027, framework for contesting the 2027 elections, etc.
Consultations are in advanced stages, basically reaching out to prospective members of the coalition, mapping out issues for agreements among members of the coalition. At this stage of negotiations, the main focus is around getting leaders to agree to work together and substantially there is strong recognition that prospective members should set aside personal ambitions to contest the 2027 elections. The second issue being negotiated is the political party that will be the platform for the 2027 electoral contest.
These two issues are carefully being negotiated. While acknowledging that with respect to the requirement for members to set aside personal ambitions, there are strong interests being expressed around issues of zoning by individual leaders, these issues are yet to be formally discussed at any consultation meeting. The speculation therefore by some media analysts about disagreements stalemating the coalition negotiation is not true. The concensus among leaders is that the final decision about processes of candidates’ selection can only be handled and determined when there is agreement regarding the political party on whose platform the coalition will field candidates.
The question of negotiating the political party is the most difficult challenge. This is an area that many members of the coalitions have been engaging in different ways for more than a year now. Perhaps, it is important to highlight that there are many groups, including some members of the coalition who have filed applications to register political parties. For reasons best known to INEC, these applications are being frustrated. The only conclusion that can be reached in the circumstance is that INEC has decided that it will not register new parties.
To make matters worse, many of the existing registered parties who did not meet the electoral threshold of winning any seat in the last general elections face the threat of deregistration. Given this unpleasant reality, members of the coalition opened negotiations with some of the existing parties that have met the electoral threshold. Interestingly, somehow, some of the prospective parties being negotiated are being remotely pushed into crises mode in the same way PDP, Labour Party and NNPP have been entangled with existential problems. It is almost a clear case of destroying the legal basis for any party to qualify to field candidates for 2027 other than the ruling APC.
This is quite unfortunate coming during the tenure of a party that is envisioned to be progressive. It is even more troubling when it is during the tenure of a leader – President Bola Ahmed Tinubu – who has unarguably been in the vanguard of Nigeria’s democratic struggle. The way the Nigerian democratic space is rapidly shrunken can only be imagined under a military government. The determination and resilience of Nigerians is being called to question under the current APC government led by President Tinubu.
The leaders of the coalition are committed to providing the needed leadership to rescue Nigerian democracy. We must appeal to all patriotic Nigerians to recognise the urgency of the situation facing the country. We don’t have the luxury of waiting until we get to 2027 only to discover that Nigerians have been smouldered into a legal knock out. Related to this is also the worrisome reality whereby rule of law is being tested in ways that is threatening to democratic development of the country. All patriotic Nigerians must appeal to members of the judicial arm of government to come to the rescue Nigerian democracy by demonstrating that indeed they are independent and to that extent uphold the sanctity of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended.
We are confident that Nigerian democracy can be rescued. Rescuing Nigerian democracy is fundamentally about producing a political party that can guarantee and facilitate competitive political contests in the country. We recognise and respect all the interests, criticisms and reservations expressed by Nigerians, including those expressed by political leaders who in every respect are potential members of the coalition. Our strong appeal to all political leaders and Nigerians generally is that we must not allow personal interests to undermine our capacity to contribute to Nigeria’s democratic development.
Difficult as the situation would appear, the negotiation about the political party that will be the platform for the 2027 electoral contest is about to be concluded. All the attempt to push Nigeria into a one-party state will be defeated. Once the negotiation about political party is concluded, Nigerians will be formally informed of all the details, and mobilisation towards 2027 will commence. Other secondary negotiations will also commence. Details of procedure and processes of candidates’ selection will be similarly negotiated publicly through activities and meetings of organs of the party. Members of the party will be actively involved. All these critical issues will not be matters left to public speculation or reduced to manipulative antics of political leaders.
Rescuing Nigerian democracy is beyond simplistic debates of fielding candidates and the associated debates of the quality and where they come from. Everything must be done to produce elected leaders at all levels who will be accountable and, in every respect, and democratic in their dealings with Nigerians. Everything must be done to close this chapter of democratic national frustrations, which only produces emperors. This is the goal of the coalition, for which we appeal for the support of all patriotic Nigerians. We don’t envisage it will be an easy task, but we are determine to succeed.
Salihu Lukman
ADC and the Prospect of Internal Democracy
Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
After more than eighteen months of hard work and negotiations, Sen. David Mark is today, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, together with his team, taking over as the new national leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). When some few of us started advocating for a coalition of opposition leaders, most Nigerians, including many of the leaders who are now positioning themselves as the drivers of the process, were quite pessimistic and contemptuous. Some of them, until the last three months, resisted joining us in meetings that negotiated the process. We were accused of promoting or being sponsored by some leaders who nursed presidential ambitions.
Notwithstanding, we remained focused and continued to engage everyone. We were very clear that Nigerian democracy needed a rescue mission, in fact, a restart. The major problem is the culture of imposition that is widespread across all the registered political parties in the country. It is largely responsible for the absence of internal democracy within all the parties. And it is also the cause of why elected leaders are unaccountable and unable to be committed to delivering on electoral promises they made to citizens. Sadly, with hardly any exception, all our political leaders, who we had to mobilise to lead the rescue mission are beholden to the same problem we want to correct.
With that clarity, we committed ourselves to organising a coalition of opposition political leaders that will operate based on collective orientation. It was a very difficult task because most political leaders tried to manipulate the orientation of meetings to gain advantages. Throughout the negotiation process, almost every decision and initiative were suspect. Without doubt, we succeeded in keeping all the coalition leaders together by the grace God and through ensuring that concessions are given, which guaranteed some minimum balance and confidence. Perhaps, it also needs to be acknowledged that the leadership of Sen. David Mark in the last few months enabled us to seal the agreement that produced the result of the emergence of new leadership of ADC, which is what earned him the position of National Chairman.
With the emergence of new leadership of ADC, does it mean the work of the coalition is over? Does it even mean ADC has become that envisioned party that will guarantee internal democracy whose operation will not be dictated by the culture of imposition? The answer to both questions is no. If anything, the work of the coalition is just beginning. The truth is that the negative side of almost all our opposition political leaders is already at play. Many are taking steps to manipulate the process of leadership reformation of the ADC. Loyalists are being promoted in a manner that suggest perhaps the 2027 elections is already won. The struggle to ensure that loyalists of leaders emerged as the leaders of the reformed ADC to some extent disregard the consideration for intellectual capacity, integrity, performance track records, name recognition across all demographics, respect in community and political circles, independent mindedness and general acceptability to all or majority of stakeholders, which we agreed to.
The worrisome reality is that most leaders are behaving as if the 2027 elections is a walkover. When the national leadership positions of ADC were shared to zones, coalition leaders who were only nominees into the Committee that negotiated the sharing arrangement, promoted themselves into becoming the leaders of their zones. The coalition leadership had to issue out transitional operational guidelines specifying categories of leaders to participate in meeting at all levels. Even then, some of our leaders ensured that the Zonal meetings that produced the new leaders of ADC are to their advantage. At the rate things are playing out, ADC is being setup to become another variant of our old parties.
We must caution our leaders, Nigerians will not be deceived by any cosmetic design of presenting another party, which is only a duplicated our old parties. With the way things are going, coalition leaders will emerge as godfathers, and the next thing is that they will impose their surrogates at all levels as leaders of the ADC. This will naturally be followed by anointing preferred candidates for 2027 elections. Therefore, the first test of Sen. Mark’s leadership of the party is the extent to which he can mitigate all these and ensure that ADC is not a party that will be controlled by godfathers. To what extent can the party guarantee collective leadership at all levels? This will largely depend on the ability of the new leadership to ensure that the process of decision making at national level, leadership reformation at states, local governments and ward levels are not skewed to favour anybody.
Another very important challenge is the question of steps to be taken by the Sen. Mark’s leadership to provide new orientation to party administration at all levels. For instance, will the reformed ADC take steps to develop a competent bureaucracy in the party Secretariat with established rules and professionally staffed? Or will the party leaders recruit their loyalists as staff in the party Secretariat? Will the ADC develop the needed capacity to mobilise all the financial resources required for the operations of the party, including election financing? Or will the party operate based on the old tradition of relegating its funding to depend on the generosity of leaders?
The other critical question that Nigerians anxiously await initiatives of the Sen. Mark leadership is the issue of the direction the party intends to take towards addressing the challenges facing the country. With the painful experience under APC whereby ahead of the 2015 elections, APC presented a delightful manifesto with all the promises, but ended up disregarding it once elections are won, what will be different with ADC? What is even the manifesto of ADC? When we negotiated with the former leadership of ADC under Chief Ralph Nwosu, one of the agreements we reached is to have a new manifesto. What steps will be taken by the Sen. Mark leadership to produce a new ADC manifesto. Or will the new leadership allow the tradition whereby candidates for elections produce their individual manifestos, with hardly any bearing with the party’s manifesto?
A lot of hard work and sacrifices made it possible for the emergence of Sen. Mark and his team as the new leaders of ADC. We are grateful to Chief Ralph Nwosu and his team who were former leaders of ADC who agree to resign from their positions based on the conviction that Nigerian democracy truly required a rescue mission driven by a democratically functional political party. Will the new team of Sen. Mark leadership justify the sacrifices made by Chief Nwosu and his team? Or will they adopt the mentality of some coalition leaders of imagining that 2027 election is a walkover, and therefore proceed to conduct themselves almost as if election has been won and what is left is only to appoint people into government? Once that is the case, the return to the old practice will be accelerated and in not too distance time, it will be predictable who the ADC candidates will be at all levels, including presidential elections.
The only safeguard against that is when our leaders of our new party, ADC, under Sen. Mark appreciate the enormity of work before us and begin to organise itself to provide the needed leadership to truly produce a new orientation to party management. As much as we acknowledge Sen. Mark’s leadership capacity, he should not expect Nigerians to trust that he will lead ADC into becoming the envisioned party that can have the capacity to hold elected representatives accountable. The truth is that Sen. Mark and the new leaders of ADC must earn the trust of Nigerians on account of which the party and its candidates can win the 2027 elections. The way to earn that will be based on the ability of the party to institute collective leadership at all levels based on which democratic emergence of party leaders and candidates for elections can be guaranteed.
Anything short of that will defeat the prospect of ADC to win 2027 elections. If the ADC can meet these expectations, within the next six months, it should be clear to Nigerians. An important checklist is the need to be fair and just to all party members. Already, there are complaints of unfair nominations of some leaders of the ADC from some states. How the Sen. Mark leadership is able to fairly resolve them is important. Related to this is the issue of guaranteeing the emergence of collective leadership at lower levels based on the operational transition guidelines. The ADC leadership must pay attention to states where some powerful politicians come from. Those are the politically infected category with the imposition virus who will damage the prospect of ADC from becoming the envisioned internally democratic party. The degree to which ADC can emerge with potentials to produce accountably elected leaders is dependant on how the Sen. Mark leadership resolve all the complaints being made.
The other associated issue is that ADC must not expect members to remain beholding to the party simply based on expectations. The party leadership must recognise that the trust of Nigerians on political leaders is low. The case of ADC will not be different. What this means is that the new generation of ADC members will not waste their time in the party if the expectation of producing an internally democratic party is weak. To that extent therefore ADC leadership should be ready for mass exodus of party leaders and members out of the party if within the next six months ADC emerges as another variant of our old party. With the logic of once beaten, twice shy, there is no need to hang on to any expectation based on false orientation.
The only question will be when party leaders and members leave ADC, where will they go to? This is why the framework and organisational format of the coalition must be retained for at least the next six months. With that, coalition arrangement must also be developed at states and lower levels such that leaders are constantly in negotiation mode, negotiating agreements based on circumstances confronting them, including whether ADC is emerging as the envisioned internally democratic party or not. If not, what initiatives should leaders take at all levels to present options to citizens that can guarantee emergence of accountable elected leaders?
Whether the Sen. Mark leadership can allow that to be activated to guide the reformation of ADC leadership at all levels based on the operational transition guidelines is another checklist. The extend to which political leaders at all levels will be committed to working with the coalition arrangement is also a determining factor about whether ADC can emerge as the envisioned internally democratic party. All these are issues that can be determined within the next six months. No one, including all of us who are privileged to spearhead and successful produce the ADC as the candidate for the envisioned internally democratic party, should be giving excuses if after six months there are no tangibly evidential justifications to confirm achievement. No political leader should expect citizens and electorates to continue to play the role of being pawns in a political chess game in which the only beneficiary are politicians and elected leaders. Whatever is required to produce leaders with humility and elected representatives in ADC must be done. It should be more honourable to abstain from participating in 2027 elections on account of failure to reform ADC to emerge as the envisioned internally democratic party than seeking to embark on another deceptive project of hoodwinking Nigerians into electing another round of unaccountable leaders.
The work of Sen. Mark’s leadership is cut out for them. It is beyond producing candidates and winning the 2027 elections. For those of us who spearheaded the process of negotiating the coalition and producing ADC as the candidate for the envisioned internally democratic party, whether we are part of the national leadership or not, we must remain united within the coalition to continue to engage the leadership of Sen. Mark to ensure they succeed. If, for any reason, we allow them to fail, we have equally failed. The prospect of succeeding is much stronger. However, it all depends on the extent to which we are ready to continue to make the sacrifices required.
Maybe we should also remind ourselves that politics is local. This requires that we all move back to our states and ensure that ADC at that level is run democratically based on collective leadership. In many states, this is already being threatened. Many high profile political leaders, especially former Governors are taking steps to serve as godfathers in ADC and leaders at these levels are reduced to acting as the members of cabinet or members of board of parastatal of government in which powerful politicians and former Governors are the Chief Executive Officers. Although faced with a lot of disadvantages, those of us who suffer the disadvantage of not being godsons of these high-profile politicians must take every necessary step to win the confidence of citizens at that level.
Coming from Kaduna State, we must take every necessary step to discontinue the political culture of divisive politics of religion and ethnicity. Any political leader who is associated with past divisive politics in the state must commit to reforming himself as basis for working with us in the effort to reform the ADC and make it a party that promotes a new united Kaduna State. Based on the transitional operational guidelines provided by the ADC national leadership, the process of instituting an all-inclusive leadership at state level and all the 23 local governments and 255 wards in state should commence. We appeal to all political leaders to relate with everyone who qualifies to be part of the transitional leadership of ADC at all levels in the State with respect and high measure of tolerance. We must commit ourselves to making ADC an equal opportunity platform at all levels. Anything short of this should be resisted.
We are confident that ADC can become the envisioned internally democratic party. First thing first, the Sen. Mark leadership must rise to its calling and give the party and Nigerians a new template in political party management in the country. The prospect of achieving that should be evidentially established within the next six months. Anything to the contrary should mean that ADC and the coalition has failed and we should abstain from participating in the 2027 elections. May God strengthen the capacity of Sen. Mark and his team to provide the needed leadership for us to succeed in making ADC the envisioned internally democratic party. Amin!