Immediate past National Vice Chairman, North-West of the All Progressive Congress, Salihu Lukman, has accused his party of dashing the expectations of Nigerians in the last nine years.
Recall that the APC displaced the erstwhile ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party, as the central government in the 2015 general elections.
Appraising the performance of the APC as the ruling party in a statement, Illusive Politics: What is to Be Done,” Lukman maintained that expectations that the APC would do better than the PDP it dislodged have turned out to be a forlorn hope.
“When leaders of opposition parties in the country successfully merged in July 2013, the expectations of Nigerians were that APC would produce more responsive leaders, both in terms of their ability to undertake honest criticisms and take responsibility in a direction that pulled the nation out of its development challenges.
“Without going into details, these are unanswerable expectations, which are today sources of frustration 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 is 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 abandoned, and leaders of the party have little or no say in the management of governments it produces at all levels.
“Processes of appointments into government and policy decisions have been made prerogative of the President at the national level and Governors at the state level. 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 a culture of impunity in the process of candidate selection. A situation that invariably forsaken the commitment of the party to change Nigerian politics and instead further entrenched the politics of godfatherism with the attendant consequences of widespread rigging of elections. So far, the culture of impunity is pervasive in APC.”
The former member of the APC National Working Committee further lamented that expectations that Tinubu would turn out to be a better leader than his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, have turned out to be misplaced as the economic fortunes of the average Nigerian have nosedived while party chieftains who led the campaigns for Tinubu’s emergence now agonise in the comfort of their homes.
“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 the 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 the reality of illusive politics, which has reduced citizens, party leaders, and members to be distant observers.
“Painfully, against every expectation that President Asiwaju Tinubu will reignite the Lagos success story at the 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, the 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.”
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