Imposing Ganduje on party members as National Chairman may spell doom for APC – Salihu Lukman
Salihu Lukman, the erstwhile national Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has explained why he resigned as a member of the party’s national working Committee.
Lukman in a statement entitled, “Resignation from APC NWC: Explanatory Note,” noted that the Progressives Governors Forum of the party, is becoming too high-handed and overbearing for the progress of the ruling party.
The erstwhile Vice Chairman also expressed strong reservations about the dominant thinking in the party where whatever is attributed to President Bola Tinubu on party matters is taken as the law without recourse to the provisions of the APC Constitution.
He stressed that move by the Progressive Governors Forum fueled by buy-in of President Tinubu to impose former Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, as national chairman, leaving the North Central politically stranded could create distrust and ultimately party break up.
His statement reads in part: “Sadly, the turn of events in the last 10 days since the resignation of Senator Adamu and Senator 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.
“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 allegations 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.
“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 ramifications 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.”
