Caretaker committee: Time to move APC beyond personalities – DG PGF
The Director General, Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr.Salihu Lukman has said that Thursday’s inauguration of the Caretaker and Extra – Ordinary Convention Planning Committee has provided a positive platform for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to move beyond personalities’ influence.
In a personal statement, he opined that members of APC should have drawn vital lessons from the APC leadership crisis and resolution.
Lukman charged members with genuine interest for the unity of the party to discard post -NWC dissolution comments and analysis in some quarters which he said are sycophantically inclined to demonstrate support for leading political actors.
The Director General expressed dissatisfaction that such analysis gets reduced to imagined winners and losers, which end up distracting or pinning politicians to the same old issues of personality contests.
Lukman said “most of the public debate around the emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of Thursday, June 25, 2020 was more about who was in control, who emerged victorious and what does that mean in terms of so-called 2023 projections.
“Whether in terms of interpreting court orders or provisions of the APC constitution, which would have influenced the decision to convene the meeting and arrive at some of the resolutions, most Nigerians reduced the issues to strategic positioning of preferred APC leaders.
“As a result, most analyses are hardly about finding solutions to the leadership problems facing the APC or emerging lessons. When preferred APC leaders are perceived to be disadvantaged, those APC leaders allegedly being responsible for such circumstances get labelled negatively.
“Consequently, both preceding and after the June 25 APC NEC meeting, the position of most Nigerians is about how key APC leaders stand. We need to go beyond this”.
Rather, Lukman insisted that vital lessons have emerged but hardly focused because of the approach of reducing everything around the NEC to so-called 2023 projection and what its decisions represent.
He said “largely because President Buhari was able to discharge the responsibility of being the moral authority in APC, although members of APC NEC went into the meeting sharply divided, they came out united and resolute to work for the unity of the party. They went with problems and came out with solutions”.
Police confirm killing of 17-year-old boy by Kaduna vigilance group
Lukman wished members of the party should commend the leadership of President Buhari in this challenging moment, stating that “without attempting to compel or force anyone, he was able to broker peace in the party. Instead of displaying authoritarian methods, he followed conventional democratic processes of presenting recommendations and allowing members of NEC to decide. Rather than being a dictator as he is always accused of, he displayed excellent democratic credentials.
“The fact is, the President was able to discharge his responsibility as the moral authority of the party because he freed himself from all the leaders who were the problem. It is only because of that he was able to see the true picture and accordingly make recommendations that can solve the problem.
“These were recommendations that didn’t defeat anyone but favour everyone, which confirms the President’s status as ‘belonging to everybody and belonging to no one’. This is one attribute that can be said to be unique to this President”.
The DG charged APC leaders, especially those positioning themselves as potential 2023 successors, to imbibe the attributes of President Buhari.
