From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Former national vice chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Moh Lukman, has urged Nigerians to make the defeat of APC and President Bola Tinubu not only possible in 2027 but most importantly guarantee the election of truly democratic leaders not emperors.
The former Director General of APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), also lamented that Nigeria democracy has been turned on its head with so-called elected leaders turning into emperors.
Lukman further decried that the structures required for political consultations and consensus building are being undermined, adding that political party structures are anything but democratic as they have become catalysts and sources of national disappointment.
In the statement he issued in Abuja on Thursday, Lukman noted that; “Our challenging times have remained with us and have become even more challenging. Perhaps, these challenging times define the reality of our life and our existence as Nigerians.”
“Its severity calls to question whether indeed there is any chance of life getting better, now or in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, with self-centred leaders at all levels, whose mission has remained suspect, these challenging times continued to push us into an almost permanent state of misery, disbelief and negativity.
“So long as we continue to live in a state of misery, disbelief and negativity, our capacity to apply ourselves and produce positive outcomes in any way possible will continue to elude us.
“This will mean that we will continue to produce bad leaders whose mission will remain suspect. Such leaders will lack the needed initiatives to address Nigeria’s challenges.
Therefore, as we enter 2025, and as Nigerians, we need to ask ourselves the fundamental question of what is it that we must do to begin to turn things around?
“The simple but also very difficult answer is that we should as Nigerians believe in ourselves in a positive way. Nigerians must remind themselves about the power of possibility and once again seek to engage leaders with a positive mindset. Engaging such leaders should be about emphatically calling on leaders to be responsive to the needs of citizens. Ideally, this is a very simple calling, which is logical with any democratic setting.
“However, it is also difficult and complicated given that our democracy has been turned on its head in Nigeria with so-called elected leaders turned emperors. Structures required for political consultations and consensus building are being undermined.
“Political party structures are anything but democratic. In fact, so-called political parties have become the catalyst and sources of national disappointment. With hardly any exception, Nigerian political parties have disappointed Nigerians on the same scale.
“And it is predictable, things being equal, as we move towards 2027, Nigerian politicians and political parties will disappoint Nigerians on a bigger scale. The expectations for free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria may elude Nigerians once more.
“Or as was the case in 2015, we could have relatively free, fair and credible elections in 2027, which may only result in the defeat of APC and President Bola Tinubu with the attendant danger of retaining the status quo of producing leaders who are emperors, who would only pretentiously be committed to resolving Nigeria’s challenges.
“As Nigerians, we must rise to this challenge and make the defeat of APC and President Asiwaju not only possible in 2027 but most importantly guarantee the election of truly democratic leaders and not emperors.
“The only way that could be possible is if as Nigerians we are able to focus ourselves to produce a functional political party that will respect its own rules,” Lukman noted in the statement he titled, ‘Political competition should define new Nigeria.”
