Former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman has urged President Bola Tinubu and members of his Federal Executive Council to seize the initiative to mitigate the harsh economic hardship facing Nigerians, occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy and floating of the Naira.
Lukman who was former national Vice Chairman, North West of the party in a statement at the weekend titled, “Heartbreaking Reflections,” declared that the present administration has betrayed expectations of Nigerians.
Lukman maintained that both the Presidency and the ruling party appear indifferent to the economic misery that the present administration’s economic policies have instigated.
The statement reads in part: “The truth must be told: There is a big existential problem facing citizens. Unfortunately, all we here is appeal for patience. How long are citizens expected to survive under this kind of very harsh suffocating reality? What is really the plan government is working on? As someone who was in the forefront of the struggle for democracy, this certainly wasn’t what we fought for. Also, as a supporter of President Asiwaju Tinubu, we least expected that President Asiwaju Tinubu would be weakly responsive to the challenges facing Nigerians. Why did we negotiate the merger of the legacy parties that formed the All Progressives Congress? Did we really do that to produce a party that could produce leaders who will attend to the problems facing citizens? If so, where then are the leaders? Shouldn’t President Asiwaju Tinubu be one of such leaders?
“Clearly, at this rate, APC under President Asiwaju Tinubu may have succeeded in turning our democracy into an insensitive party. The APC should ideally be the model being the ruling party, based on which it is able to orient initiatives of governments it controls to respond to challenges facing citizens. Unfortunately, as it is either the APC is alienated from citizens, or it is unable to orient initiatives of governments it controls to respond to the needs of citizens. With none of the organs of the party functioning, meetings at any level are hardly taking place, all that the party does now is organising phantom primary in which so-called aspirants for offices are crowned as candidates of the party. Yesterday’s fighters for democracy who resisted military dictatorship are today’s Godfathers. Being today’s Godfathers, they dispense patronage at will and shift anointment every election cycle. Is that the variant of progressive politics we are producing?
“President Asiwaju Tinubu, APC leaders, and Nigerian politicians can do better. How can anyone with the faintest of conscience live a normal life with a reality whereby the same citizens who elected them as leaders are impoverished by decisions we took as a ruling party? Is President Asiwaju Tinubu at all aware that majority of our citizens, including relatively high-income earners cannot afford medication when they are sick?
“I must admit, both as an activist, as a politician, and as a Nigerian, I am heartbroken. I am devastated by the fact that the performance of President Asiwaju Tinubu in the last 10 months betrays all the expectations we had. We never expected that President Asiwaju Tinubu would be unmindful of the consequences of his decisions. The belief of many of us, and indeed most Nigerians is that President Asiwaju Tinubu is a responsive politician who will not recklessly take any decision without weighing its consequences on the lives of citizens. Being human, our expectation is that, if decisions are taken with grave consequences such as withdrawal of subsidy and floating the exchange rate, being the responsive leader he is, it is our expectation he will quickly review and recalibrate such decision with the overall objective of protecting the welfare of citizens. That is what progressive politics is all about.
“If within a four-year tenure, after 10 months the scorecard is gory tales of existential crises for citizens, then the political value of such a regime is suspect. President Asiwaju Tinubu must wake up and urgently do the needful to demonstrate his true democratic and progressive credentials. APC leaders must also wake up from their current power drunkenness and push the administration of President Asiwaju Tinubu to become more responsive and stop behaving like a military administration. A civilian elected government, which tramples on the structures of its own party and blocks its organs from functioning is as good as a military government. The choice between democracy and a dictatorship is clear. Once structures of party are blocked from functioning, capacity of any so-called democracy to respond to challenges facing citizens will be weak.
“This is exactly our situation in Nigeria today. The question is whether the real President Asiwaju Tinubu who was adjudged to be a democrat and progressive, who was voted by Nigerians, will resurface at these difficult times? I pray and hope that the God of mercy will take charge and fix our leaders and nation, Nigeria. May God Almighty touch the heart of President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders, and indeed all Nigerian politicians, to understand that millions of Nigerians are confronted with life threatening reality today. Just like we asked for the votes of citizens during election, citizens are asking leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu to be responsive to today’s reality.“
