Former National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has said there is a chance of the ruling party standing threatened at the next general elections unless it surrenders itself to reforms.
Lukman made the observation at the weekend in a statement titled, “Wither Nigerian Democracy: Urgency of Rebuilding Political Parties,” which he made available to journalists in Abuja.
The APC chieftain, who expressed strong reservations about the lack of fulfilment of promises made to the electorate, noted that any serious opposition party could ultimately benefit from the open display of indifference to the yearnings of Nigerians by the ruling party.
“Perhaps, a major issue, which must be recognised is that the existence of a gap between what was promised and what is being delivered is not on account of failure to initiate actions in line with what was promised. Certainly, actions were initiated. But combinations of slow phase of initiatives, often not in line with specifications provided in the APC manifesto and poor or weak relationships with citizens are responsible for the existence of such gaps. Ideally, being a party envisioned to be progressive, it should be expected that APC will take steps to strengthen relationship with citizens. Developing strong relationship with citizens should take bearing from having stronger relation with party membership. For a party to have stronger relation with members presupposes the existence of functional party structures, based on which meetings are taking place on regular basis.
“These were some of the expected changes APC promised, which would have earned it the desirable progressive credentials. Arguably, rather than expanding the democratic space in Nigerian politics, Nigerian democracy is being contracted. As a result, capacity of party members to influence decisions of elected representatives, across all Nigerian parties, is almost zero. Both at National and State levels, governments have been unable to meet the expectations of both party members and Nigerians. Increasingly, this is weakening the support base of political parties. The danger this posses is that out of frustration, Nigerians could support any opposition candidate and party to defeat a ruling party with hardly any prospect of changing existing reality. Very worrisome also is the fact that elected leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu are in denial of this danger or believe that they can surmount it without resolving the problem of imposition of candidates and discretionary decisions of the National Chairman, which undermines internal party democracy.”
Lukman, who suggested that the statutory organs of the party must be allowed to perform their functions, called on party stakeholders to initiate a process that would make those elected on the party platform accountable to the APC national secretariat.
“Unlike many, I believe that with all our shortcomings in APC and weak capacity to access and influence decisions of President Asiwaju Tinubu, all is not lost. To the extent that APC leaders and President Asiwaju Tinubu can consider proposals for internal reform of the APC, the prospects of APC rectifying its shortcomings, returning to its founding vision of emerging as a progressive party are there.
“The whole issue of activating all party structures and making them functional in line with provisions of the APC Constitution must be guaranteed. Once APC, being the ruling party, can operate based on provisions of its constitution can be guaranteed, the campaign to reform Nigerian politics and expand democratic space will be made much easier. If organs of the party are meeting regularly, problems of impositions of candidates will be minimised. In any case, issues leading to imposition of candidates are made possible and stronger because organs of the party vested with the responsibility of decisions regarding party primary are undermined. Consequently, party stakeholders who should have a say in decisions that can guarantee free and fair primary are marginalised. As much as party organs are meeting as prescribed by the party Constitution, incidences of imposition will be minimised.”
