Former National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has accused former President Muhammadu Buhari, incumbent President Bola Tinubu and the ruling party of destroying Nigeria, and urged Nigerians to replace the party in 2027.
Lukman who made the accusation in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday, lamented the way his erstwhile party and the duo of Buhari and Tinubu had ruined the nation, saying 2027 presents a golden opportunity to replace them.
He, however, noted that replacing the APC in 2027 will not be enough to remedy all the ills the party and its leadership had plunged the country into, but urged Nigerians to work hard to entrench a system whereby new political party that will produce the next leaders, has the power to put elected officials in check.
The former APC chieftain lamented the lack of cohesion and purpose of the current crop of opposition politicians who are
‘working at cross-purposes as they are each focused on their presidential ambitions, rather than subsuming their narrow interests under the broader national interest of rescuing the nation from the vice-grip of current political hawks.’
Lukman stated that unknown to key political opposition leaders, the strength or confidence of President Tinubu is derived from their inability to open themselves and honestly commence negotiations to build a united front ahead of 2027.
He expressed dismay that the likes of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr Peter Obi and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso have yet to close ranks so as to form a formidable opposition that will be able to remove the APC from power in 2027.
Lukman said while the opposition leaders all agree that the performance of President Tinubu in the last year since his assumption of office has been disastrous, unfortunately, their agreement falls short of making them accept to work together towards building a common platform, capable of mobilizing and uniting Nigerians towards defeating President Tinubu and APC in 2027.
According to him, ‘their inability to commence proper political negotiations is emboldening President Tinubu to continue with his impulsive visionless governance experiment, unperturbed by the harsh realities it has created for Nigerians.’
“At this point, it is important to appeal to our key opposition leaders to wake up and try to be compassionate and appreciate the gravity of the dire situation facing citizens,” he said.
“The big question is whether, on account of personal ambitions, we want to continue to mismanage our reality and sacrifice every opportunity, which ideally a democratic system offers.
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“The opportunity that the democratic system offers is that any government, which fails its citizens should be voted out. No doubt, by any standard, both President Tinubu and APC have failed Nigerians. It is quite disheartening that a party, which came with all the promises of changing Nigeria for the better has ended up ruining the country.
“From the economy to problems of insecurity and corruption, which were the three cardinal challenges APC and former President Muhammadu Buhari promised to tackle in 2015, what we had in 2015 is a child’s play today.
“The hard truth is that both former President Buhari and President Tinubu have turned out to be self-centred and unable to produce the needed leadership to pull the country out of its current challenges. Certainly, all of us who were actively in support of these leaders never imagined that they would be such colossal failures.
“We have moved from being opposition politicians to becoming a ruling party since 2015. Sadly, as a ruling party, we have become worse than the PDP we defeated in 2015. Unlike in the days of the PDP that allowed for opposition parties to function, we are today confronted with the ugly and depressing reality whereby all the opposition parties are being manipulated into a deeper crisis of an existential nature.
“While the common enemy of all of them is the APC, and although conscious of all these leaders, alarmingly, the three leaders still think that they can succeed individually. I hope I am wrong. But I am increasingly becoming agitated that these leaders will, if not moderated, take us on the same old route of mismanagement due to personal ambitions.
“Beyond the key opposition leaders, we may perhaps need to put more focus on the second-generation opposition leaders. Who are these second-generation opposition leaders? These are the Yemi Osinbajos, Rotimi Amaechis, Kayode Fayemis, Nasir El-Rufais, Rauf Aregbesolas, Aminu Waziri Tambuwals, Ibikunle Amosuns, etc.
“From our experience with the APC, Nigerians are not interested in just the defeat of APC and President Tinubu in 2027. Clearly, what Nigerians are interested in is the defeat of APC and President Tinubu to produce a strongly democratic nation that is responsive to the needs of Nigerians.
“For that to be achieved requires the emergence of a strong political party that can regulate and direct the conduct of all elected representatives, especially the President of the Federal Republic.
“Nigerians are wary of just supporting the ambition of any person simply because we are unhappy with the performance of a serving President. What is it that accounts for the failure of APC, former President Buhari and now President Tinubu? What is absent in the organization of APC that made it worse than PDP?
“How can we produce a new party that can overcome the weaknesses of APC and guarantee that elected representatives produced by the new party, including the President will not turn out to be emperors and overlords?” the statement concluded.
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