A former National Vice Chairman, North-west of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman, says, President Bola Tinubu is weakly committed to the anti-corruption war following the emergence of immediate past Governor Kano state, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje as National Chairman of APC.
Lukman in a statement issued Monday titled, ‘Disturbing Signals: Open Letter to President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’, described most of the decisions taken by the President since he assumed office as disturbing.
The former National Working Committee (NWC) member noted that given that Sen. Tanko Al-Makura is from Nasarawa State, and he has been very loyal to Tinubu, it was scandalous that the President opted for Ganduje with all the “baggage of corruption allegations against him.”
He said: “To be honest, making Dr. Ganduje National Chairman of APC is the first disturbing signal. Many party members are yet to recover from that shock.
“With all the uncleared corruption allegations against Dr. Ganduje, you opted to nominate him to become the National Chairman of the party even when Article 31.5(i) of the constitution of APC clearly gave Nasarawa State Executive Committee the power to nominate who should replace Sen. Abdullahi Adamu.
Lukman recalled that before the March 2022 APC National Convention, Al-Makura aspired to become APC National Chairman, but added that President Muhammadu Buhari was influenced to nominate Sen. Abdulahi Adamu over Al-Makura partly because he was alleged to be loyal to Tinubu.
He pointed out that it defies every logical reasoning Tinubu would ignore provision of Article 31.5(i) to nominate Ganduje even when the same provision of the constitution was used to nominate Sen. Basiru Ajibola from Osun State as replacement of Sen. Iyiola Omisore.
Lukman added: “The emergence of Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman of APC sent the disturbing signal of being weakly committed to fighting corruption.”
He said that leaders in APC accepted the emergence of Ganduje without much resistance produced the second disturbing signal, saying this was because the absence of resistance was more a reflection of fear, which is the new reality in APC.
Lukman added, “Once leaders and members of APC continue to feel threatened that when they express opposition against your decision, we may end up with the bigger danger of creating a police state.
“Largely because of the atmosphere of fear surrounding the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman, the wider debate of using the vacancies created to respond to the challenge of inclusivity given that we won the 2023 election with a Muslim-Muslim ticket was lost. “
Lukman said rather than even attempting to respond to that challenge and demonstrate that truly the party only invoked the Muslim-Muslim ticket as an electoral strategy, the party went ahead to impose another Muslim-Muslim scenario in the party with National Chairman and National Secretary both Muslims in a very insensitive manner.