Salihu Lukman, former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately address the rift between two former Governors of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Abdullahi Ganduje.
In a statement issued in Abuja, Lukman opined that Tinubu should initiate another round of negotiations for a political alliance or merger between the APC, Kwankwaso, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
He warned that Party leaders should not limit their engagement with political challenges facing APC to only the bribery allegation against Ganduje.
According to him, Tinubu and top APC leaders must consider this an opportunity to renew the APC in Kano State and, by extension, North West and the entire North.
His words: “Being progressives requires honesty, which, given current political reality, we must accept that Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and his NNPP have a stronger support base in Kano State. Noting that Senator Kwankwaso was in our party up to 2018 and acknowledging that between 1999 and 2019, both Senator Kwankwaso and Dr Ganduje worked together, we need to revisit issues surrounding their disagreement.
“If this means another round of negotiations for a political alliance or merger with Senator Kwankwaso and the NNPP, our leaders should proceed to act accordingly. President Tinubu and the APC must fully take advantage of the current reality to renegotiate the APC’s support base. Renegotiating the APC’s support base should also be about reigniting the party’s progressive credentials.
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“It is very painfully disturbing that unless this kind of opportunity is utilised to the fullest, based on which new actors such as Dr Kwankwaso with a strong commitment to democracy based on principles are recruited into our party, the downward slide and retrogression towards conservatism and lawless management of the APC will continue.
“Without doubt, this situation presents an opportunity for President Asiwaju Tinubu to demonstrate his progressive and political dexterity. It is a low-hanging fruit, which, if properly managed, could also save the politics of Dr. Ganduje.
“The hard truth is that, somehow, the politics of Kano State was mismanaged, and as it is, if we were unable to win an election in Kano State when we were in control of the Kano State Government, it would be foolhardy to imagine otherwise.”
Lukman also appealed to President Tinubu to use this opportunity to correct the political imbalance in the country’s leadership by returning the North Central to the mainstream leadership.
“It was quite unfortunate that the imbalance was allowed to happen. Certainly, the objective couldn’t have been to marginalise the people of North Central from the political leadership of Nigeria.
“I am confident that President Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders will do the needful to renew APC and return APC to its founding vision of progressive politics,” the statement added.
