By Musa Ilallah (musahk123@yahoo.com)
A former National Vice Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Salihu Lukman’s allegation that the APC and the duo of former President Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent President Bola Tinubu ruined the country, is not only uncharitable but also an insincere and malicious assessment of the successes recorded in the country since 2015.
It is very sad that Lukman, in a statement recently in Abuja, further said, “The hard truth is that both former President Buhari and President Tinubu have turned out to be self-centred and unable to produce the needed leadership to pull the country out of its current challenges.”
Going by the antecedents of Lukman as a students union leader and a trade unionist in 2011 and 2015 when he listed an ambition to represent Kaduna State in the red chamber and woefully lost the Kaduna APC governorship primaries to Nasir el Rufai respectively, he has remained as stubborn as he was in the days of his excessive exuberance by seeing nothing good in others.
Indeed, Lukman’s leadership and political style has been combative and confrontational. His negative activism knows no bounds in his attempts to empower and make himself the centre of attention.
As Director General of Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, Lukman had a series of battles with Adams Oshiomole the then National Chairman of APC. Lukman accused the former NLC president of turning other members of the NWC into mere observers.
Yobe Governor Mai Mala Buni’s tenure as acting National Chairman also didn’t escape Lukman’s sledgehammer.
His sojourn at the Nigeria Governors Forum as its Director General where he fought the governors as a one-man riot squad and also fought the former National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu and former National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, to a standstill. He accused them of managing the party’s finances without the knowledge of other NWC members.
Lukman also expressed strong reservations about the emergence of the immediate past governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje, as the successor to Abdullahi Adamu.
Going by some of the attributes of Lukman as stated above one can confidently say that it is not surprising that he has now gone further to cast aspersions on the former and current Presidents of the country along with the APC that brought him to the limelight.
Lukman has been a thorn in the flesh of every APC member until his shameless exit last year.
Undoubtedly, facts and figures show that since President Buhari came on board in 2015 up to May last year, the country has recorded giant strides in his 3 thematic areas of improving the economy, improving the nation’s security and also taming corruption.
For former President Buhari and most Nigerians, despite what naysayers like Lukman say, PMB has given his best to the country and we all feel content and comforted about his selfless and patriotic stewardship of the country for 8 solid years.
Without mincing words, I strongly believe that PMB’s 8 years of leadership of the country was a rare display of commitment to integrity, discipline, and patriotism.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari has paid his dues to Nigeria.
The countless legacies left behind by former President Buhari in infrastructural development, economy, security and taming corruption are unprecedented. Saliu Lukman must have been blinded by his negativity to have seen former president Muhammadu Buhari’s giant strides.
I would like to end by saying that given Lukman’s antecedents, it is clear that he is an extremist and a non-conformist who cannot work with anyone.
The reason for this is not far-fetched. He suffers from what they call the “supremo syndrome,” that aura of invincibility.
His political witch-hunt of everyone he encounters on his political journey is a product of intoxication with hate politics and this aura of invincibility.
He goes to egregious lengths to discredit and destroy just about everything and everyone he comes into contact with, not for anything but to display their supremacist impulses.
The advice I have for him is that he might have a sword in his hands but the lesson he fails to take home from each of the frequent fights he engaged in -and lost- is that in all democracies characterised by periodic elections around the globe, the voter is the ultimate king. Buhari won in 2015 and got reelected in 2019 because the voter, not the political buccaneers decided those outcomes.
In addition to this, President Buhari had the honour and distinction of handing over to a fellow APC winner, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the end of his two terms.
Lukman and his co-travellers must show respect to deserving leaders and withdraw from their aura of invincibility, arrogance and undignified campaign if they