Former National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has cautioned aides of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to stop blaming the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari for the present economic challenges facing Nigerians.
Lukman made the submission in a statement, “Travesty of Nigerian Democracy,” which he made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday.
The APC chieftain insisted that Nigerians did not vote for excuses but solutions to the economic malaise confronting them.
The former member of APC National Working Committee, who admitted that the Buhari administration had no economic team for the eight years it governed the country, urged President Tinubu and the APC leaders to take responsibility for Buhari’s failures “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 respects. 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.”
The former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum noted that the present economic hardship was complicated by sudden removal of subsidy on petrol and floating of the Naira against foreign currencies.
Lukman, who commended Tinubu for the initiative however noted that the policies were announced without planning.
“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.”
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