Former national vice chairman, Northwest of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Moh Lukman, has lamented that former president Muhammadu Buhari and the incumbent, President Bola Tinubu, have betrayed all the expectations Nigerians have on the party.

Lukman warned that if by the end of December this year no structured engagement to develop the alternative political platform has commenced, it means that any opposition to APC and President Tinubu in 2027 will be based on personal ambitions of individual political leaders.

Advocating an alternative political structure to rescue the country, he claimed that progressive degeneration has invariably brought the country to its knee whereby public resources are practically the private resources of so-called elected leaders.

In a statement he issued in Abuja on Monday, the former director general APC Progressive Governors Forum noted: “How are the opposition political leaders strategising to re-orient political leaders in the country to address these challenges? Beyond individual press statement, Nigerians legitimately expect political leaders to be meeting and debating proposals around all the country’s challenges.

“In addition, given all the confidence invested in APC, former President Buhari and President Tinubu, and in the end betray the expectations of Nigerians, what is Nigerian political opposition doing to guarantee that when elected they will not jettison their campaign promises?

“This is largely a function of how much commitment opposition political leaders are willing to demonstrate to build structures of accountability, which will regulate the conducts of all political leaders. For instance, to what extent are opposition political leaders committed to building structures of political parties?

“Once commitment of opposition political leaders is only about supporting their personal ambition to become candidates for 2027 elections, it only means that opposition political leaders are not committed to building the structures of political parties.

“Weak commitment to building the structures of political parties is responsible for the current tragedy whereby Nigeria is a democracy that despises meetings. We are a so-called democratic nation that undermine and destroy all structures that promote negotiations. Because of our inability to negotiate our differences, we have been unable to convert our diversity into resources and assets for nation building.
Consequently, political opportunism has taken centre stage and political leaders, including opposition politicians, cheaply use our differences to hoodwink citizens,” he argued.

While commenting further, Lukman noted that; “the political challenges facing our dear country are very clear.

What is required to develop alternative political platform to rescue the country is also very clear. It is all about whether opposition political leaders in the country are willing and committed to developing stronger relationship based on disposition to be selfless.

“Being selfless is all about capacity to invest higher levels of trusts among all opposition political leaders without limiting it to personal ambition to emerge as candidates. The other related issue is the question of negotiation to produce alternative policy proposals, which opposition political leaders will be committed to implementing if elected.

“No doubt, Nigerians are going through very harsh excruciating conditions. Since the commencement of the Fourth Republic, it is a case of progressive degeneration that invariably brought the country to its knee whereby public resources are now practically the private resources of so-called elected leaders.

“Developing alternative political platform in the country should be about restoring the virtue of selflessness among political leaders in Nigerian politics. Opposition political leaders must recognise the urgency requiring strategic initiative to produce the alternative political platform to rescue Nigeria.

“The reality is that if by the end of December 2024, no structured engagement has commenced based on strategic initiative to develop the alternative political platform, oriented based on selfless disposition of opposition political leaders, it simply means that any opposition to APC and President Tinubu in 2027 will be based on personal ambitions of individual political leaders.

If that is the case, the risk of producing a government that is worse that the current one will be high. Irrespective of whether the government is led by Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso or any of the orphaned leaders of APC, any successor government that emerged based on personal ambition of political leaders risked being worse,” Lukman wrote in his statement.