Lukman berates campaign against APC membership registration

By Tunde Opalana

The Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman has raised the alarm that the rejection of the planned membership registration and revalidation by the Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC)  across the country is positioning the party for another bad leadership.

Lukman in a position that does not represent the view of any APC governor or the Progressive Governors Forum said the move against membership registration by the caretaker committee is a smokescreen for the emergence of surrogate leadership in the party.

The Daily Times recalled that since the reported decision to commence the process of membership registration/verification by the APC National Caretaker Committee, there have been media reports threatening legal actions to block the Caretaker Committee from organising the process.

Some of the threats even go as far as claiming that the only mandate given to the Caretaker Committee led by His Excellency, Mai Mala Buni is to organise a National Convention in December 2020. In other words, the mandate does not cover membership registration, and should the Caretaker Committee go ahead with the planned membership registration, notice of court action is being presented.

While the Director General acknowledged engaging in debate with the objective of ensuring that the overarching consideration is the development of the party and democracy, he advocated that such debate must go beyond schemes to subordinate the party under the control or manipulation of anybody.

Canvassing reason for the registration, Lukman said “one will expect any leader of the party with any claim of being a progressive or even democratic politician to welcome the need to have membership registration/verification ahead of the APC National Convention.

“In fact, even after membership registration/verification, before we can satisfy that there are legal delegates for any National Convention, APC would require Ward, Local Government and State Congresses.

“These Congresses need to hold ahead of the National Convention to affirm that the delegates to attend the National Convention have the authority of party members. With such reality, the debate should be about how to conduct both the membership registration and congresses in ways that assist in resolving the lingering leadership crisis in the party.

“Sadly however, it would appear that it is the old challenge of ensuring that the party remained with crisis-prone approaches based on some tight-fisted control of party structures by some leaders.

“This means, the design is not about laying strong foundation for the party based on which the rules of the party are the reference point but instead ensuring that the party is controlled by some designated leaders whose only objective is to manipulate the process of candidate selection for elections.

“These so-called leaders advocating for APC to have National Convention without going through the process of membership registration/verification simply want to plant their surrogates as the new leaders of the party. To achieve that, false arguments are being presented that the National Convention of the party doesn’t require membership registration.

The party chieftain said there is no need to worry about any litigation on this matter, rather, he said, “all committed APC members should be ready for this stage of the struggle.

“As committed party members, we should be able to combine the political battle for the democratic development of our party based on ensuring the institution of best practice standards as the operative framework for our party with skillful legal engagement.

“Nobody should be allowed to use any bullying tactics to force us back to the old undemocratic ways of manipulating critical processes of leadership selection in our party by undermining or corrupting our membership records.

” Without credible and verifiable membership, there is practically no party organ, there can only be illegitimate leaders and therefore illegal delegates to any National Convention. As party members, we should be able to summon the confidence to prove this in any court of law.

“While it is important to appreciate the need to ensure that the provisions of our party’s constitution are respected by everyone, especially the Caretaker Committee, which has the difficult responsibility of resolving our leadership challenges, it is important that the right thing is done to lay solid democratic foundation for our party.

Acknowledging   all the efforts of the Caretaker Committee since June 2020 when it was setup by the Emergency National Executive Committee (NEC), Lukman said those leaders who are now campaigning for National Convention without membership registration may just be taking advantages of the seeming respite in the party, which may convey the wrong impression of inactivity.

“This wrong impression is being created to suggest that members of the Caretaker Committee have ulterior motives other than resolving the challenges of the party. This is a very unfair and wayward allegation.

“The Caretaker Committee is certainly competent and will be able to overcome all these distractive allegations aimed at bullying them to simply organise a National Convention that can at best produce surrogate leaders with hardly any verifiable membership register”, he said

READ ALSO: Igbo youths disown Okeke over lawsuit against #EndSARS sponsors