By: Taiwo Amodu – Abuja
Barely two weeks after the presidential election that produced the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President-elect, a member of the APC National Working Committee has called for reform that would give all party faithful a sense of belonging.
National Vice Chairman, North West of the APC, Salihu Lukman in a statement on Friday, titled; “APC Internal Dynamics and the Future of Democracy,” said the ruling party cultivated its demonisation with its Muslim Muslim ticket and must take conscious efforts to disabuse the minds of Nigerians, particularly the Christian faith that the party is integrative and belongs to all.
Lukman, who advised the President-elect to form a broad-based government, also cautioned Tinubu not to proceed with the composition of cabinet without reform of the national secretariat of the party.
The immediate past Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum called for an emergency national convention of the ruling party to replace Senator Adamu Abdullahi with another chieftain of the part from North Central who must be a Christian.
He also called for the removal of the National Secretary of the party, Senator Iyiola Omisore with a replacement from the same South West geo-political zone. Lukman accused Senator Omisore of playing divisive politics which he claimed affected the fortunes of the APC in the governorship election held in Osun State last July and the poor performance of the party in the presidential election in the southwest states.
He said:” 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, Senator 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 Senator Adamu to resign as National Chairman to create an 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 Senator 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.”
Lukman also advised the President-elect to ensure that the distribution of key positions in the Federal Government reflects 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 the South-West and North-East respectively, nobody from either of these two regions should aspire for any of these offices. Opportunists 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 a 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 the 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 participation 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.”
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