Who is blowing Trumpet Lukeman?
Who is blowing Trumpet Lukeman?
By Ayederu Adedayo
The media has been saturated with report of the statement made by the Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum, Dr Salihu Lukman, issuing an ‘order’ to the CECPC of the ruling All Progressives Congress to ensure that the National Convention holds in February.
As a Political Analyst and a staunch member of the All Progressives Congress, the position of Dr Lukman caught my profound fancy, juxtaposing his current “order” with his statement of October 2, 2021 in which he also “ordered” the party not to consider any external candidate for the Presidency in 2023.
What I have found amusing is the failure of the Kaduna-born scholar to separate his personal views from his official capacity as the Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum. When he speaks, it sounds like the voice of all the Progressive Governors. By virtue of his office, he carries the voice of all Governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
The prognosis of his usual hit on the party might lead us to unwrap the persons blowing Trumpet Lukman.
Prior to the 2019 Presidential Election, it was highly rumored that Dr Lukman approached the President and advised him not to contest the Presidential election.
His advice came at a time many Nigerians were speculating about the Presidential ambition of the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. Dr Lukman was then eyeing the Governorship of Kaduna State. His advice was borne out of scheming to move el-Rufai up and take over his position.
President Muhammadu Buhari went on to contest the Presidential election and won. But ever since then, Dr Lukman has been a bone in the throat of the All Progressives Congress.
In April 2021, he prophesied that the All Progressives Congress may lose the 2023 presidential election.
Dragged forward to January 2022, Dr Lukman accused the CECPC of the party of culpability in the possible postponement of the National Convention, tentatively fixed for February 2021. This, no doubt, has amplified the voice of those who are desperate to get rid of the uncompromising and fair-dealing CECPC. Their agenda is borne out of the aggressive drive to seize the apparatchiki of the party at all cost.
It is clear that Dr. Lukman is a strong ally of the Governors of Ekiti and Kaduna State, both of whom are interested in occupying the Presidential Villa from 2023.
Could it be that Dr Lukman is echoing the unheard voices of those Governors? What could be responsible for Dr Lukman’s reckless and unsubstantiated attacks on the highest decision organ of the party he is said to belong to, while being the Chief Administrator of the Progressive Governors Forum? Who is Dr Lukman speaking for? Or what are his interests in the party.
As a member of the All Progressives Congress, I want the party to organize a credible National Convention to usher in, without delay, substantive leadership. But it will be a disservice to the ideals of the APC and the determination to retain power beyond 2023, if the party is coerced into organising a National Convention without proper reconciliation.
It is a plausible move when the CECPC set up a Reconciliation Committee under the leadership of respected statesman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu. The Committee is still busy with the herculean but important and necessary task of ensuring aggrieved members are brought together.
The recent events in the Kano, Kebbi and many other chapters of the party across the nation, underscore the need to cast the party in the iron of unity before staging a National Convention. If Dr Lukman speculated the APC will lose the 2023 presidential election nine months ago and today, he is demanding the party organize a National Convention amidst chaos and crisis, it is high time the party asked Dr Lukman some questions.
Governors are leaders in the party and are free to make their views known without using disruptive proxies. It is high time some of our Governors dropped their personal and egoistic interests and see a bigger picture of a big, healthy and effective party that will continue to serve Nigerians.
I read the call for the sack of Dr Lukman in the papers today as the party is becoming impatient with his serial outbursts against its leadership. But I think there are better ways of handling the matter without necessarily axing him from the PGF.
PDP lost the 2015 elections because it failed to harmonize its home. There was complacency and overconfidence. APC cannot afford such if it must remain in power beyond 2023.
Anyone who genuinely loves the party will not want it to rush into a National Convention without putting its house in order.
APC cannot emulate a party that was roundly rejected by Nigerians in two election cycles. It must cut its identity and do what is right, when it is right and if it is truly right.
Ayederu Adedayo, an APC Member writes from Basin Road, Ilorin, Kwara State
