2023: ‘Your disagreement may rob APC of electoral victory’, Lukman warns party leaders

Tunde Opalana, Abuja

A stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman has warned leaders of the ruling party that APC may not survive another round of crisis that may spring from disagreement among them on party policies and programmes.

Lukman who is the Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum, said the impending crisis might negatively affect the electoral fortune of the party in future elections.

In a piece titled ” Significance of Leadership Disagreements to Political Contests, dedicated to Prince Tony Momoh, one of the founding fathers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who died on February 1, 2021, he said seeming disagreement among APC leaders signals brewing of another crisis.

Lukman, in the position which does not represent the view of any APC Governor or the Progressive Governors Forum expressed dismay at the condemnation of APC membership registration and revalidation exercise and the comments it has generated among party stakeholders.

He said there is the need to avoid the ‘Broken Window theory’ and that all APC leaders be united in fixing all the problems facing the party and the nation. “No one leader can succeed without the other”, he added..

Advancing his appeal, the party chieftain said “all leaders of the party need each other in the same way President Buhari would need all leaders of the party, especially those that will succeed him to protect his legacy.

The blunt truth is that the current attempt to project some APC leaders as sectional leaders is politically as damaging in the way some Nigerians are demonstrating their anger against President Buhari and APC controlled Federal Government by alleging ethnic credentials. How successful is any leader going to be when his/her support base is sectional?.

“Once you eliminate internal disagreements among leaders of political parties, democracy will lose its appeal. Rather than contest, what we will end up having in politics is some notional faith in the sanctity of the party and its leadership.

Like all our religious shrines, all that we will be talking of as members of our respective parties is some claims about the purity of our leaders and our party even as we know that our only justification in joining the party is far from any imagined purity.

Integral to our decisions to join the party is the expectations we all seem to have in terms of what being members should translate to.

” This is where most times leaders often distinguish themselves. While to ordinary members, the issue is about political permutations of who is going to emerge as candidate for election, for leaders, it is more about ensuring that the party is able to retain its electoral viability.

Call it enlightened self-interest, every leader will be much more concerned about the capacity to win elections as the propelling factor for personal ambitions.

“As members of APC, we should be proud of our leaders and their ability to make open their positions about all the issues around the challenges facing the party.

We should be inspired by their disciplined commitment to support the decisions of the party irrespective of their personal positions.

“We should be proud of the illustrious leadership of Chief Akande, Asiwaju Tinubu and all our leaders in APC for demonstrating in very strong unequivocal terms that to remain united is not about denying what your personal preferences are with regard to choices open to the party in addressing challenges.

“Being united should be about accepting decisions that are not necessarily supportive of our personal preferences. Since the time of the APC merger negotiations between 2012 and 2013, there has never been anytime when all our leaders are in agreement. This is partly why there has always been internal contests within the party.

“Part of the challenge facing the party today is to ensure that internal contests in the party reflect the freedom of party leaders and members to express themselves within the limits of both the rules of the party and the country”, Lukman said..