By Segun Ayobolu
Why has the All Progressives Congress (APC) since its formation been unable to constitute its Board of Trustees (BOT) as provided for in the party’s constitution? I have always found this curious and inexplicable. Indeed, so uncomfortable some key members of the party appear to be with the word or concept of the BOT that they have rechristened it as the National Advisory Council. Yet, despite this change of nomenclature, I am unaware that this critical organ which is indispensable for maintaining high ethical standards within the party and serving principally as its moral compass has been inaugurated.
The APC constitution provides that the BOT shall “Be the embodiment of the conscience, the soul and the sanctity of the Party and shall intervene in all disputes and crisis in the Party to ensure its stability at all times”. Given the criteria stated for its membership and the vast experience of those qualified to belong to it, the BOT should be at the vanguard of propagating and upholding the values of the party. Its influence stems from the assumed integrity of its members as well as their rich experiences in public life and the wisdom this confers.
It is perhaps in the absence of either a BOT or a National Advisory Council that the former Director General of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) as well as National Vice Chairman of the ALC, Mallam Salihu Lukman, has often chosen to speak as the conscience of the party and to hold successive leaderships of the APC to account particularly with regard to fidelity to the party constitution, organizational efficiency and adherence to the principles of good corporate governance.
During the week, Lukman, a development economist, former students union leader, pro-democracy activist who is also described as a political organizer, launched his new book ‘APC and Transition Politics’. The author said the book was written to document his experiences in the struggle that brought President Bola Tinubu to power. This book will certainly make interesting, informative and provocative reading as Lukman can be as controversial as they come and he never refrains from speaking out courageously and boldly as well as taking a stand in accordance with his principles.
To those who have been at the receiving of his often acerbic, trenchant and unsparing criticism, Mallam Lukman cannot be their idea of a good and loyal party man. If he truly had the best interest of the party at heart, they would reason, why does he often resort to public criticism of its leaders which is tantamount to washing the party’s dirty linen in the open? While he may exaggerate in some of his positions, indifference to or silence on many of the issues he raises can certainly not be described as a demonstration of love for the party or the administration of President Tinubu.
A veritable gadfly, he has been a constant and unrelenting thorn in the flesh of successive leaders of the party from Comrade Adams Oshiomhole during his tenure as National Chairman to governor Mai Mala Bunu when he served as Chairman of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Comnittee (CECPC) to Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu as National Chairman as well as the National Secretary at the time, Senator Iyiola Omisore, and now Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
His views may at times come across as exaggerated, extremist or unpalatable but they still serve a useful purpose. For instance, a few days before he launched his book, Mallam Lukman addressed a press conference in which he warned the APC of the possibility of its being swept out of power at the centre in 2027. Referring to current severe economic hardships, he said “Life is becoming more difficult. We must appeal to our leaders that things are getting out of hand at the rate at which we are going under a Party that is envisioned to be progressive. We are likely going to start witnessing rebellion if care is not taken by 2027”. Luckily, the Tinubu administration itself is very much aware of the current inclement economic climate and the consequent harsh existential conditions.
Speaking recently at the graduation ceremony of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 16 participants, Vice President Kashim Shettima acknowledged that “All of us here belong to a tiny segment of the Nigerian population. And you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that the poor are angry with us. Go to the slums and mingle with the poor. I am a native of Maiduguri (Borno State Capital). Anytime a rich man brought a new car to his house, it used to be a place of pilgrimage. People used to go and see not out of anger, but of admiration. But now, as we cruise around in our bulletproof cars, one will see contempt in the eyes of the poor. We have to improve the quality of governance”. Beyond this, there is a palpable sense that majority of Nigerians are willing to give the Tinubu administration time to settle down and for its bold policy initiatives to begin to yield the desired results.
It is certainly significant that the administration’s wholesale removal of the fuel subsidy and the attendant sharp inflationary spirals has not elicited the kind of outrage and mass demonstrations that erupted when previous administrations tried to toe the same policy path. This is reflective of a willingness to give the administration the benefit of the doubt but this supportive stance of the public does not obviate the fact that the peoples trust must not be taken for granted and that the administration must be sensitive to the imperative for the requisite sense of urgency in delivering concretely on its Renewed Hope Agenda.
Mallam Lukman is a passionate and vehement advocate of fundamental reforms of the APC to enable it become a viable, vibrant and dynamic organization. In a recent open letter to leaders of the party, he noted that the current ruling party is becoming a replica of the PDP “with all the negative attributes “. According to him, “We spent eight years under former President Buhari motionless in terms of developing the needed initiatives for party building. Are we also going to experience another era of zero initiative for party building under the leadership of President Asiwaju Tinubu? Where is the claim of being progressive? Where then is the justification of any link to being an Awoist?”.
But then, it is heartwarming that the current leadership of the party has revealed plans to improve its organizational efficiency and strengthen its ideological orientation. When he led members of the National Working of the APC on a visit to President Tinubu this week, the National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, unfolded plans to establish a National Institute for Progressive Studies, launch an electronic registration portal and develop a reliable database. This most certainly is the way to go.
It is interesting that even before Mallam Lukman’s new book hit the bookstands, remarks made by a former National Chairman of the APC, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, at the book launch had generated considerable controversy. Oshiomhole had recalled how the author of the book as well as former governors Ibikunle Amosun and Kayode Fayemi of Ogun and Ekiti states, respectively, had conspired to engineer his removal from office as party Chairman. Oshiomhole had strenuously resisted attempts by some governors to foist their governorship and other candidates on the party insisting that only those who emerged through credible primaries would be accepted by the party.
In a swift response, Senator Amosun accused Oshiomhole of peddling falsehood arguing that the erstwhile National Chairman of the party deserved to be removed from office because he conducted what he described as the worst primaries ever in the history of the party.
It will be recalled that on November 20, 2018, Oshiomhole had addressed a press conference in which he stated reasons why the purported primaries conducted by the Amosun group in the Ogun APC lacked credibility and could not stand. In conclusion, I will quote him at length to show the albatross that governors had become in the party at that time.
According to Oshiomhole, “At a stakeholders’ meeting, governor Amosun decided to introduce the third element which didn’t feature in the resolution of the National Executive Council and announced that Ogun State was going to adopt consensus and he proceeded to define what in his view constitutes consensus. He announced somebody as the consensus governor, he proceeded to announce another man as deputy governor; he went on to announce himself as the next Senator and he said the current serving Senator, Tejuoso, should step aside. He also went on to announce that the second Senator also from Ogun State would step aside while another will come in”.
He continued, “Governor Amosun went on to announce another man who will be the next Speaker and another one as the next Deputy Speaker. He also single-handedly pronounced that of the eight House of Representatives members, seven will not return. According to him, only one will return. All these he claimed is a consensus”. Luckily for the APC, the first National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, set a very high standard in terms of comportment, maturity, ethics and efficient administration of a political party. He showed the light for present and future generations of the party’s leadership to find the way towards the strengthening of the APC as a cohesive, stable, efficient and result-oriented political party.
Culled from The Nation
