RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Seductiveness of Conventional Politicsand Challenges facing APC

21 views
Skip to first unread message

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 6:25:00 AM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com


Two issues or questions to Salihu Lukman:


At the end of the reforms and revalidation and recruitment of party members by June 21 next year would the Mai Mala Buni Caretaker Committee recommend that those who crossed carpet  unconstitutionally to APC on the floor of the National Assembly be expelled as part of measures to stop preservation of power at all costs as part of the goals it purports to pursue?

2.  Will mainstreaming the political appointments to the activities of the National Secretariat mean that political appointments are no longer lopsided as it is alleged to be under President Buhari?


OAA


Mr President you took an oath to rule according to the Constitution.

Where are the schools to promote the teaching of the country's lingua francas?





Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.



-------- Original message --------
From: Salihu Lukman <smlu...@gmail.com>
Date: 12/12/2020 21:51 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Seductiveness of Conventional Politicsand  Challenges facing APC

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (smlu...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

Seductiveness of Conventional Politics and the Challenges facing APC

 

Salihu Moh. Lukman

Progressive Governors Forum

Abuja

 

This is dedicated to Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, a founding member of the APC and Presidential Aspirant on the platform of the party in 2014, who died on Friday, December 11, 2020. May God Almighty grant the family and all our leaders the fortitude to bear this heavy loss. Amin!

 

Barrack Obama, former President of the United States of America, in his recently published Memoir, A Promised Land, asked the questions, “What made some movements succeed where others failed? Was it a sign of success when portions of a cause were absorbed by conventional politics, or was it a sign that the cause had been hijacked? When was compromise acceptable and when was it selling out, and how did one know the difference?” Certainly, Obama is using the term political movement in the context of organised group of people working to bring about political change. Without going into theories of political movements, it is very striking that the question of obsession with conventional politics is posed by Obama in a way that clearly mirror the challenges we face in Nigerian politics today, especially in APC. Does obsession to conventional politics indicate failure and could such failure be the result of possible compromises or sell out?

 

Conventional politics refers to political behaviour and conducts based on the prevailing practices. Such political behaviour and conducts cover issues of membership recruitment, candidate selection, to the realm of party funding, management and accountability mechanisms. The conventional approach in Nigeria is that individual politicians aspiring for political offices recruit party members who are their loyalists. Party leaders at different levels emerge from the members who are loyal to the politician, who will in turn become the candidate of the party for election. Being in control of the structures of the party, the politician, who is the candidate of the party and eventually elected representative or leader of the party will be responsible for funding the party, as well as party administration, including recruitment of party personnel.

 

It will be unfair to argue that the leaders of the legacy parties that produced the APC – Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Rochas Okorocha’s All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and later the New Peoples Democratic Party (NPDP) – did not make conscious effort to depart from the conventional Nigerian politics at the point of negotiating the merger in 2013. It is to the credit of our leaders that the 2013 merger negotiations adopted a comprehensive process of party building covering issues of membership recruitment (registration), leadership formation (congresses and convention). Even the administrative setup of the party was a product of negotiation as the merging parties had to dissolve their administrative structure into the new APC.

 

Between February and June 2014, membership registration was followed with Wards (Saturday, April 5), Local Governments (April 12), States (April 23) Congresses and National Convention (June 14). Membership registration was organised with a clear vision that the party will produce a membership database, which should be democratically accessible with all the necessary infrastructural platforms. Accordingly, investment to establish a computerised Data Centre for the whole country located at No. 10 Bola Ajibola Street, Off Allen Avenue, Ikeja Lagos was undertaken.

 

This was the first of its kind undertaken by any political party and it underlined the commitment of APC leaders to produce a party, which is democratically controlled by members of the party. This implied that members will be able to produce both leaders of the party and candidates for elections as against the prevailing practices of some few delegates dictating the process. As part of those initial debates, there was the decision that every election in the party, during Congresses, Convention and Primary will be based on the direct method, which will require every party member to take part. This was employed during the Ward Congresses of April 5, 2014. Part of the challenge was that the Congresses held at the time when the APC membership Data Centre was being setup and therefore records of membership wasn’t very organised.

 

As a result, the various Congress Committees for Wards, Local Governments and States encountered problems of reconciling membership records, which were largely manipulated by aspiring candidates for the 2015 general elections positioning themselves to ensure control of party structures. A clear indication that conventional politics of aspiring candidates taking over control of party structures was already rearing its stubborn face in the young APC. This created many disputes during Ward Congresses across the country, which was partly responsible for the decision to conduct the Local Government and State Congresses based on the delegate system since Ward leaders have already emerged.

 

As at this point, in April 2014, the vision still remained that candidates’ selection process within the APC will be conducted based on the direct method involving every member of the party. To achieve that, under the Chief Bisi Akande leadership, the party invested considerable resources to complete the membership Data Centre before the commencement of candidates’ selection for the 2015 general elections. Unfortunately, on November 22, 2014, the APC Membership Data Centre was vandalised by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) based on the allegation that the party was going to “clone INEC Permanent Voters Cards.”

 

While it will be dishonest to claim that the attack on the APC Membership Data Centre is responsible for why the party resorted to the use of the delegate system to elect the party’s candidates for the 2015 election, it is important to recognise that the vandalisation of the Data Centre weaken the capacity of the party to produce credible membership register. The old practices of taking over structures of party leadership by aspiring candidates for various elections has already consolidated itself in the APC. Perhaps, the only aspiring candidate that did not resort to that was President Muhammadu Buhari, who is perhaps by far more needed by the party.

 

Once the party is able to produce candidates at all levels for the 2015 general elections, which ended with the December 10, 2014 National Convention that produced President Buhari as the party’s Presidential candidate, attention shifted to winning the 2015 election at various levels. And having won the 2015 elections at federal and 22 states, attention shifted to lobbying for appointments into both Federal and State Governments. The business of party building was practically suspended. In fact, once President Buhari emerged as the Presidential candidate of the party, negotiation for the selection of running mate was done outside the formal structures of the party. This is perhaps, one of the steps taken, consciously or unconsciously by power blocs within the party that undermined the capacity of the party to be able to exercise strong influence in many of the decisions of President Buhari’s administration both during his first term and now, in this his second term.

 

Informal demands and choices of party leaders became the decisions of the party, depending on which section of the leadership is making the demand. This confirms the point Obama made about the limits of durability of democratic values given that “commitment of leaders to democracy and rule of law might last only as long as it preserved their power.” The compromise therefore was the consolidation of APC as the governing party since 2015 without the corresponding internal mechanism for political negotiations to produce appointees for various positions in government. For some strategic reasons, many leaders of APC opted for informal negotiations to access opportunities for appointments into government.

 

Between December 10, 2014 and May 29, 2020, virtually all the party structures at national level were suspended and, in their place, informal lobbies and consultations by individual leaders based on personal preferences became the attraction. Whether decisions from informal consultations and negotiations could sustainably substitute formal decisions of party organs seems to be one challenge that is taken for granted. It would appear that all the later day difficulties, between 2015 and 2019 especially, including cohabiting with a rebellious section of the leadership controlling the 8th National Assembly attest to the unsustainability of the APC governance model.

 

The truth is that after 2015 elections, leadership disagreements within the APC became the source of electoral strength of the PDP and other opposition parties. Most of the electoral defeats experienced by APC since 2015 is on account of inability to develop and strengthen processes of consensus building within the party, including issues of candidates’ selection. It is clear that the return to conventional approach to politics in APC commenced during the merger negotiations of 2013 and got consolidated with the electoral victory of 2015. Unlike what happened in PDP between 1999 and 2007 however, the dynamic in APC didn’t allow any power bloc to monopolise the control of the party.

 

It is very easy to dismiss the APC as being the same with the PDP. In truth however, the APC is radically different from the PDP. For instance, while the PDP leadership is still in denial that there are challenges facing the party requiring internal reform, the APC leadership since 2018 in fact recognsed the need for reform. It was the recognition for reform that led to the decision to change the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun leadership, which brought in Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s leadership. Unlike in the PDP, there was internal debate about whether to change Chief Oyegun’s leadership or not. Instead of the conventional approach of forcing Chief Oyegun to resign, which is the practice in PDP, Chief Oyegun’s leadership was democratically changed at a National Convention.

 

With the emergence of Comrade Oshiomhole’s leadership in the APC, there was high expectation that the process of party building will return. A lot of the frustrations leading to the June 25, 2020 APC National Executive Council (NEC) decision to dissolve the Comrade Oshiomhole’s leadership has to do with the failure to return to the process of party building. With the appointment of His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee, the expectation is that the process of reorganisation and party building starting from membership registration/revalidation will commence. This means recruitment of new members at the same time with revalidation of old members so as to resolve any possible contention about who has left the party or not from the old register.

 

The process of membership registration/revalidation is expected to be followed immediately by processes of leadership formation at all levels. From all the internal debates so far, one of the underlying objectives is to resolve the challenge of electing new party leaders in the same year when general elections are to take place. Electing party leaders in the same year when candidates for general elections are to emerge only re-enforce the desperation of aspiring politicians to control structures of the party. With all the rebuilding process expected to end in June 2021, it then means that APC can have almost two years before the 2023 general elections to negotiate landmark political challenges and possibly produce some internal consensus, which should be able to throw up credible candidate for the 2023 general elections at all levels.

 

Interestingly, this is hardly appreciated by some section of the APC leadership, largely because of factors of denials of the problems facing the party, almost similar to the situation in PDP. As long as leaders can estimate high possibility that they will emerge as candidates for election, it simply means that everything is alright. Whether in the end they will win the elections after emerging as candidates is a different matter and not part of the political projection.

 

From all indications, the seductiveness of conventional politics creates a strong opposition to reforms within parties. It is the determinant of success or failure in capacities of political parties to produce the desired change citizens expect. Somehow, the disconnect between politicians and citizens is simply in the application of what Obama refers to as the durability of democratic values. While citizens, and to a great extent, party members, are interested in broad issues of democracy and rule of law, which should empower citizens and party members to elect leaders and make them accountable, for politicians, it is reduced to preservation of power, by whatever means possible. The point of unity between citizens, party members and politicians is simply located in the need for a strong political party with strong internal democracy to win elections and strengthen national democratic culture and practices.

 

A major issue will be the capacity of structures of the party, especially the National Secretariat, to serve as the coordinating hub for the implementation of decisions of the party. One of the major challenge of politics is that it hardly recognise the value of professionalism. Often, the extend to which professionalism is sacrificed narrow the scope of reform and quickens the resurgence of conventional politics. In other words, the whole business of reforming the party will be reduced to throwing up sections of the party’s leadership as candidates for general elections. This is already being speculated by sections of the APC leadership opposed to the reform going on.

 

Therefore, rather than ignore such allegations, there is the need to take every step necessary to ensure that the reform going on in APC strengthen internal democracy within the party. This will require that all activities of membership registration/revalidation, congresses and national convention are carefully planned. To achieve this will require that members of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee are taking the necessary steps to strengthen the capacity of the APC National Secretariat to implement all decisions. This is largely about taking responsibility and communicating decisions to party members and the public. Although, considerable progress has been achieved, it is important to appeal for more consultations, coordination and better communications of initiatives and all the internal reform process.

 

Poor consultations, coordination and communication makes party members to be contemptuous of every decision taken, which strengthens the confidence of those opposed to internal party reform. The solution to all these lies in the ability of the 13-member Caretaker Committee to work harmoniously with the required professional competence. The Secretary of the Caretaker Committee should be able to facilitate the process of planning and one of the 13 members should be able to lead the process of members’ and public mobilisation. Therefore, instead of some of the dry press releases throwing banters at PDP leaders who are struggling to bounce back to pollical reckoning, the messages from the Caretaker Committee and the party should be about rebuilding the party.

 

Our leaders, especially the Caretaker Committee should bear in mind constantly the message of Obama in his Memoir, that “It was the nature of democracies to swing between periods of progressive changes and conservative retrenchment.” The swing to conservativism may be produced from within the party. The goal of reform therefore is to ensure that the party is fortified as the bearer of democratic values and progressive politics. This is the critical success factor for enduring reform that should come with commitment to democratic values and rule of law, which is not limited to preservation of power.

 

This is what is required to overcome the seductiveness of conventional politics. Eventually, the APC should be able to return to the original vision whereby every member of the party should have a voting right during the process of electing leaders for the party and selecting candidates for elections at all levels. Ultimately, the reform should be able to guarantee that all negotiations for appointments by governments produced by the party should be mainstreamed as part of the operational activities of the party.

 

This position does not represent the view of any APC Governor or the Progressive Governors Forum

 

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/FD4FF962-799F-49E9-AC69-D622D39726B6%40gmail.com.

Salihu Moh. Lukman

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 7:49:20 AM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
I will recommend that instead of asking questions, make your demands and follow up with whatever will be necessary to get them considered. We should stop asking questions in expectation that our expectations will not be met!

SMLukman
Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Dec 2020, at 12:24, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:



OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 9:09:27 AM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Salihu Lukman:


There is no harm in asking questions from people whom you think know better than you do on a subject. It is a sign of humility.   I know that you know more than I do on this particular subject.

If you have no answers to my questions simply say so. That someone knows better than you do does not mean you expect them to know everything.   


OAA



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.



-------- Original message --------
From: "Salihu Moh. Lukman" <smlu...@gmail.com>
Date: 13/12/2020 13:01 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Seductiveness of ConventionalPoliticsand   Challenges facing APC

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (smlu...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
I will recommend that instead of asking questions, make your demands and follow up with whatever will be necessary to get them considered. We should stop asking questions in expectation that our expectations will not be met!

SMLukman
Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Dec 2020, at 12:24, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:




--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

Salihu Moh. Lukman

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 9:49:06 AM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
It is not about having answers. Your questions clearly indicate what you want. Whether that will be the decisions of our leaders is a different matter and will depend on the level of engagement to produce such an outcome. My understanding of politics is that it is all about engagement, if you like struggle. We can’t remain in our comfort zones and expect our leaders to give us what we want. That is in fact the main reason why we are faced the problems we have.

I am sorry, you just have to go beyond questions to get the outcomes you desires!


SMLukman
Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Dec 2020, at 15:09, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:



OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 1:47:58 PM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com


Salihu Lukman:

Well Nigeria is not just the playing field of the APC.  I am not a card carrying member of the APC even though some may conveniently want to see me as the supporter of the party and its leader ( neither am I a supporter of the PDP.)

You are the one who said in your preamble that the APC is different from the PDP. All I wanted to ascertain is whether this is a serious statement and whether the future as you project it should be taken seriously, including your reading of it.

If the PDP is different from the APC, then the APC should not be welcoming Senators from that party of a different philosophy into their ranks.  They should not do so in an unconstitutional manner and put the problem at the feet of Oshiomhole if the Mai Mala Buni Care Taker Committee can not give an undertaking to do things differently.

I am engaging Salihu Lukman the front man of the APC with my questions, which is part of my participation but all I get is a rebuff!

Yes, my questions indicate what I want: honesty.  If you dont know, why dump statements on us that pretends you know?

This not a question of ' what our leaders want' because you are  part of that leadership and that is why you have been given the role you have been given.

Yes, this is what the people demand from you and is not a question of ' comfort zones.'

We are not looking for pseudo- politiks wrapped In Obamaesque 'Conventional Politics' catch phrases.


OAA



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.



-------- Original message --------
From: "Salihu Moh. Lukman" <smlu...@gmail.com>
Date: 13/12/2020 15:03 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Seductiveness of ConventionalPoliticsandChallenges  facing APC

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (smlu...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
It is not about having answers. Your questions clearly indicate what you want. Whether that will be the decisions of our leaders is a different matter and will depend on the level of engagement to produce such an outcome. My understanding of politics is that it is all about engagement, if you like struggle. We can’t remain in our comfort zones and expect our leaders to give us what we want. That is in fact the main reason why we are faced the problems we have.

I am sorry, you just have to go beyond questions to get the outcomes you desires!

SMLukman
Sent from my iPhone
On 13 Dec 2020, at 15:09, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:



--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

Salihu Moh. Lukman

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 4:25:35 PM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
There is a world of difference between proving a point and engaging. Be that as it may I get your point and respect your openness. Your judgement about my position is within your right. My appeal is that we should as much as possible try and relate with some respect for one another. Otherwise, it will be difficult to communicate. But take it from me, if for any reason you believe I am forcing my opinion on you, that wasn’t the intention. I canvass my views openly as part of my internal advocacy in the party. I am not a spokesman of the party, which is clearly stated. But kindly do let me also know if for any reason you think that I am canvassing these positions in a wrong platform. I will not impose myself anywhere I am not welcome.

Regards


SMLukman
Sent from my iPhone

Adeshina Afolayan

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 4:26:27 PM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
I am actually very surprised that Ọ̀gá Lukman responded gruffly to your inquiry. He is one of the few I have read who takes Nigerian party politics seriously enough to compose and publish reasonable disquisitions about it. I remember then that we were allowed to critically engage with you, and your responded with joyous camaraderie. What has happened? 

So, if a reader is not allowed to exercise the right to question what you have written, what's the essence of it? 

We all are invested in Nigerian politics, and so we preserve the right to question it and whatever anyone says or believe about it. Billy Dudley spoke about the virtue of scepticism, and that's what Ọ̀gá Agbetuyi has deployed. In actually fact, most of what you have written about the APC is undermined by the fact that there's no ideological difference between the APC and the PDP. Indeed, the alacrity with which politicians move from one to the other speaks to no ideological basis at all. And since you believe so much in the APC as to keep pushing the boundary of the conditions for its possibility and consolidation, we should ask questions. 


Salihu Moh. Lukman

unread,
Dec 13, 2020, 6:05:22 PM12/13/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
The issue is simple, I strongly believe that rather than asking questions based on some expectations, why not pose a demand? Conclusions have already been reached, which is ok and I respect that. My sense is that there is a lot of work to be done in Nigeria. I will be lying if I say APC is an ideal party. It is not perfect and will never be perfect just as no perfect political party exist anywhere in the world. 

In the end it boils down personal choice. But once we make our choices, we should be able to respect the choices of others. Therefore, my strategy is not to rationalize those choices and when people try to push me in those directions, I just redirect myself back to where I can be functional. That is the point. I am happy you are able to recall some of our debates. My engagement with our political leaders is not about rationalizing their decisions or actions. Far from that, it is about influencing their decisions.

You will recall that way back in around 2012 when some of us began to argue for merger of opposition parties, many cynics as you put it argue that it will not succeed. By the time it became obvious that the merger will succeed, again the cynics argue that the merger will collapse at the point of producing candidates and we will not be able to defeat PDP. Of course all that is now history.

It has been very clear to me that the most functional thing in politics is the capacity to simulate engagement with political based on clear demands. I make no personal claims, but I will argue that I alway try to apply myself within the party based on a strategy to promote clear demands that will help strengthen the party. Go and review all my writings, which are available on this platform, you are likely to confirm this point. I am convinced that Nigeria is paying a heavy price arising from the refusal of many bright and resourceful Nigerians from joining politics. The sad thing is that we reduced politics to the issue of contesting or occupying public office. The truth is that it is much more than than. Even the whole debate about ideology, I will insist, it is not a matter that can be resolved based on simply electoral contest. That is perhaps a matter for another day.

I am not fascinated by judgements people make against leaders, although I respect the rights of people to make those judgements. When we talk of ideology, my position is that it is not a question of declaration. It is matter that require negotiation, which should engender commitment to values. In fact, commitment to values should influence the structural configuration of parties eventually, based on which the whole question of discipline will be about respecting and living based on the values we subscribe for ourselves. 

When we talk of party building, these are part of the issues. I do appreciate that people are in a hurry to begin to talk glowingly about all these. For me, the issues are far from that. Go back to all my writings, I try to be consistent on a number of these issues. I critique our leaders and the party based on the need to push them to take the right decisions. Being a functionary, I take all the risk that is required to ensure that all the right choices are available for leaders to consider. So when I argue that instead of asking question make demands, it is simply about ensuring that people take responsibility in providing choices to leaders. Don’t allow them to take decisions and then you come Criticising them when in the first place you assume that they will decide based on your estimation of what is right. I don’t think we should allow anyone to hide under the guise of cynicism to specialize in doing postmortem. 

But when I say I am not going impose myself in any platform where I am not wanted, I mean it. It is quite frustrating when the whole challenge of political engagement is reduced to for or against leaders. Objectivity in scholarship is beyond those simplistic judgements no matter the sophistication of the language use.


SMLukman
Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Dec 2020, at 22:26, 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

 I am actually very surprised that Ọ̀gá Lukman responded gruffly to your inquiry. He is one of the few I have read who takes Nigerian party politics seriously enough to compose and publish reasonable disquisitions about it. I remember then that we were allowed to critically engage with you, and your responded with joyous camaraderie. What has happened? 

Adeshina Afolayan

unread,
Dec 14, 2020, 10:10:23 AM12/14/20
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Ọ̀gá Lukman,
You're correct on many issues, and I have always agreed with you on them. But you certainly cannot impose what you think on others, as you also rightly noted. And that is the issue right here. Both questions and demands have their places in coming to terms with politics, and especially politics in Nigeria. We need to throw everything we have at the leadership, rather than speaking to some doctrinaire position on politics and how it ought to be done.

On this same platform, we once had a debate about the place and role of sceptical questioning vis-a-vis agitation, or what you call demands. We cannot logically hope to exclude anything that could coalesce into a better Nigeria. You appear to be a reasonable face of reflection on party politics in Nigeria, a politician and a thinker. How then can you insist that the only thing you will countenance and deal with are demands rather than questions? It doesn't make sense to me. Questioning sometimes leads to consciousness raising, a critical ingredient in any social change. 

So, dear Sir, once you throw up your beautiful and well-thought out pieces, and on a platform like this, expect so many points of engaging inflections.


Adeshina
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages