A former National Vice Chairman North-west of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman has called on the leaders of the party and President Bola Tinubu to resist the temptation of towing the path of self-destruction by continuing to operate as a closed government.
Lukman in a statement issued Wednesday titled; “Burden of Leadership, Open Letter to APC Leaders”, said it was very disappointing that they have successfully created a party which has won three elections consecutively with hardly anything to show for it.
The party chieftain stressed that the only thing they could boast of are leaders who continue to manage the affairs of government exclusively in mode of dictatorship.
He said: “Our leaders who led the merger negotiation to produce APC in 2013 owe it to Nigerians to call President Asiwaju Tinubu to order and get him to recover whatever is left of his democratic and progressive credentials.
“Both as APC and Nigerians, we all have a responsibility to make all the needed sacrifices to win President Asiwaju Tinubu administration back and put it on the path of emerging as an inclusive government managed by an envisioned progressive party, APC.
“APC leaders and President Asiwaju Tinubu must resist the temptation of towing the path of self-destruction by continuing to operate as a closed government. “
“We must caution our leaders, as things are, they are on the verge of self-destruction. It is very clear that President Asiwaju Tinubu’s respect for political leaders in the country is weak largely because of the failure to act as leaders. Virtually, all APC leaders are behaving more like bosses.
Lukman lamented that APC as a party envisioned to be progressive was increasingly moving in the direction of strengthening reactionary orientation.
Lukman noted that If the truth be told, as it is, he said they practically have a party limited to producing candidates for elections in which Governors and some anointed party leaders in states without APC government exercise prerogatives beyond any rational expectations associated with any democracy.
He noted that the issue of ensuring that party structures exercise some responsibilities in managing governments and influencing decisions of elected leaders was simply sacrificed.
The party chieftain noted that APC might have succeeded in producing some of the worst governors in the history Nigeria.
He said: “For us in the North, we have produced not only absentee Governors, but Governors and politicians who now go for lesser Hajj almost in the same frequency they go for weekly Jumma’at prayers, all probably with public resources.
“One of our Governors in North-Central is behaving like someone possessed or acting under the influence of some addiction, making scandalous policy statements, only to retract them, perhaps when he comes back to his senses. Painfully, both the party and all our political leaders just watch and behave indifferently.”