Tinubu’ policies taking us back to issues of restructuring – Lukman

By Tom Okpe

Former National Deputy Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) Salihu Moh Lukman has said policies of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Government is pointing to the debate on restructuring, to reform the country’s failing economy.

The former APC Progressives Governors Forum, (PGF) Director General, in a statement on Friday in Abuja, titled: ‘APC and Question of Liability, Open Letter to APC Leaders,’ said although, “the Government is taking some measures, which include the directive to immediately release 42,000 metric tons of assorted grains from the strategic reserves to Nigerians and the decision to setup commodity boards to regulate prices of food items in the country, in the long run, the bigger challenge is the issue of guaranteeing local production.

“A number of these issues takes us back to the whole debate around restructuring, which is about adopting a wholistic, not piecemeal, approach to reforming the Nigerian economy.”

Lukman also said both President Tinubu and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole were in the forefront of the campaign for restructuring the Nigerian economy, part of the problem created today is, instead of coming up with a comprehensive strategy with clear timelines, we are having isolated knee jerk initiatives.

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“We must appeal to our leaders, especially President Tinubu to stop behaving in the mode of repressive leaders.

“Being leaders elected on the platform of the APC, as true democrats, they should allow structures of the APC to function, based on which members and leaders of the APC can have a say in the policy directions of Government.”

He noted that in APC, leaders who have given Nigerians the needed leadership, including Tinubu and Oshiomhole, to resist bad policies, unfortunately, are implementing policies that have impoverished citizens saying; “they engage in the familiar blame games, attributing the consequences of Government policies to the administration of former President Buhari.

“This is very uncharitable and dishonest, with due respect to our leaders.”

The former NLC leader stated that inability of members to influence actions of the former President Buhari’s Government is responsible for whatever could be adjudged as the failure of that regime.

“As medium-term recommendations, issues of refiring and restreaming all Nigerian refineries were proposed.

“In the long run, allowing private investors to setup refineries were proposed. All these were as far back as 2000.

“At the time President Tinubu took over in May 2023, we were told local refineries will resume local production in December 2023. Good enough, the Dangote refinery had already been commissioned and was being projected to commence supply of refined products to Nigerians in 2024.

“There is clear national consensus that Government should remove subsidy.

“The big challenge is aligning the removal of subsidy to correspond to clear timelines when local production of refined products can be guaranteed.

“Once this is not done, the problems of arbitrarily increases in the prices of refined petroleum products based on cost of importation will be the reality.”

Lukman further stressed that he never expected anything good from the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration saying:

“At personal level, with due respect to former President Buhari, I never expected much from him. Immediately after the merger, with the emergence of APC, I campaigned internally among our party leaders from the North not to allow former President Buhari to emerge as the Presidential candidate of the party.

“My position, at the time, around 2014, was that, given all the challenges facing the country, especially insecurity in the North, we needed a President from the North who will be very active in uniting our people and giving clear leadership guidance.

“My honest view was that former President Buhari will not provide such leadership.

“The reality was that former President Buhari was never a team player. All the allegations against him why his military colleagues led by General Ibrahim Babangida overthrew him in August 1985 are there in the public domain,” he asserted.

He further stated that so long as the Government of President Tinubu adopts the old framework of dictating to the party, it has made itself vulnerable to repeat all the mistakes and failings of former President Buhari.

“Given this reality, it is painful to admit that both the APC as a party and the Government of President Tinubu are becoming increasingly unpopular with Nigerians.

“No one should be deceived that given the way we are becoming more and more unpopular; we are faced with the risk of rebellion by ordinary Nigerians.

“Given the fact that political opposition to APC is weak, and organisations of civil society in the country are also weak, the capacity to provide needed leadership to the opposition against APC and President Tinubu may be nebulous and desperate, which could become a threat to democracy.

“To avert such danger, it is important that our leaders return to their old mode of acting as visionary politicians and initiate deeply, more substantive political reforms in the country to reposition the APC and return it to its founding vision of becoming a progressive political party.

“At the same time, we need a different President Tinubu to show up who is a democrat and above all a progressive politician who should have high tolerance level when party members and citizens express disagreements to his decisions.

“We want a President Tinubu, who will be open to engagement by party members and Nigerians.

“Once the disposition of President Tinubu is limited to accommodating only views that agree to his decisions, it simply means that all hopes are dashed.

“Leaders of APC must therefore, refrain from acts that can only strengthen the hands of President Tinubu to dash the hopes of Nigerians.

“However, as it is often said, the test of the pudding is in the eating. Will President Tinubu take the needed steps to review the policy directions of his Government, such that, comprehensive policy framework is put in place, which should include the issue of removal of subsidy and exchange rate and not piecemeal strategy.

“Once the commitment to reform the APC is weak and make it function as a progressive party under the leadership of President Tinubu, the probability of reproducing the mistakes of past leadership will be high.

“And like past leaders, President Tinubu will end up, adding to the list of disappointingly, bad leaders Nigeria has produced.

“No amount to blaming past leaders will save that from happening except honest political reform to return APC to its founding vision,” he counselled.