Former National Vice Chairman (North-west) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has again written a letter to the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, asking him to to adjust and align yourself with the vision of President Asiwaju Tinubu to develop Nigerian democracy or resign from office.
The letter dated 2nd April, 2024, titled “Re: Moving APC Forward”, copied to the President, Vice President and former Governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, was leaked to newsmen in Kaduna.
According to Lukman, it is the highest embarrassment that a party that emerged with popular support base in the country, defeating a ruling party with all the expectations of being representative and responsive of the diverse interests of Nigerians is being destroyed and reduced to being the most conservative and highly insensitive of challenges facing the country.
“The culture of the party being a mere observer to initiatives of elected representatives including governments produced by the party is continuing. Given such circumstance, the party’s manifesto is the first casualty. None of our governments is being guided by the provisions of the APC manifesto. Once this continues, the vision of being a progressive party is sacrificed.
“If under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu, the best the party can produce are initiatives or lack of it from your leadership, we can as well declare and end to progressive politics in Nigeria. I am convinced that your leadership is the direct opposite of the vision of President Asiwaju Tinubu. That being the case, it is either you adjust and align yourself with the vision of President Asiwaju Tinubu to develop Nigerian democracy based on which our party emerged as a modelled progressive party, which is functional in line with provisions of the APC Constitution, or you simply take the path of honour and vacate the position of National Chairman.”
Lukman said for APC to emerge as a modelled progressive party require meetings of all organs as prescribed by the APC Constitution.
“In addition, it requires high level of tolerance and accommodating views of members. Organs and structures of the party at both national and state levels must be oriented to develop needed capacity to engage and regulate the conducts of governments to initiate policies in lines with provisions of APC manifesto. Given the reality whereby we are having leaders at all levels, including Governors who exudes ignorance of provisions of APC manifesto, urgent actions are required to reorient party leaders to be conscious and knowledgeable of provisions of APC manifesto and what is required to translate it into policy proposals.
“It is my hope everything will be done to speed up restoring Constitutional order in APC. It is also my hope that meetings of organs of the party, especially NEC will take place very soon and the meetings will review the situation facing the party and address the challenges, including rectifying the issue whereby the leadership of the country is skewed against the people of North Central.
“It is unacceptable that a party envisioned to be progressive will produce unbalanced leadership for the country. It is objectionable that an envisioned progressive party will discriminate against members simply because they are critical of initiatives of leaders or lack of it. Be that as it may, we will continue to make our modest contributions to the process of party development. We will remained defiant of all act of discriminations in every form it is carried out against party members.
“While looking forward to initiatives to restore Constitutional order in our party, kindly accept the assurances of my highest esteem and best wishes, Your Excellency. Ramadan Kareem.”
While lamenting that APC under Ganduje has not done anything different from the previous leadership, Lukman said: “Without annual national budgets, the party has failed to establish a clearly defined funding framework. Consequently, the NWC and its members, including yourself are being reduced to beggars, at the mercy of elected representatives.
“This is a matter I draw your attention to the first time we met on September 4, 2023 after your emergence as the National Chairman of APC, for which I offered to present proposal to you, which I did and submitted to you on October 24, 2023. A copy of the proposal titled APC Annual National Budget: Proposal Submitted to National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje is hereby attached.
“With all that has taken place since your emergence as the APC National Chairman, it is very easy to conclude that you have simply repeated and deepened all the mistakes of past APC leadership. You have been unable to recreate the party based on which organs of the party as provided in the APC Constitution are made functional.
“As things are, if allowed to continue, the risk of losing elections is high. Even in North West where you come from, party organisation has been weakened under your leadership in virtually all our states. Under your watch, you are unable to regulate the excessive conducts of some leaders. Consequently, leadership crisis is snowballing in many states with hardly any visible indication of efforts from your leadership to intervene and resolve the issues.”