Members of Nigeria’s governing party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, have been called on to embrace political reform in the party and shun the prevailing conventional political behaviour in Nigeria.
The Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, PGF, Mr Salihu Lukman who made the call in a press statement released in Abuja said reform would strengthen the APC.
According to Lukman, the prevailing conventional political behaviour in Nigeria is when political office holders control structures of the party. He said reforms will return control of party structure back to the members.
“The conventional approach in Nigeria is that individual politicians aspiring for political offices recruit party members who are their loyalists. Party leaders at different levels emerge from the members who are loyal to the politician, who will, in turn, become the candidate of the party for election.
“Being in control of the structures of the party, the politician, who is the candidate of the party and eventually elected representative or leader of the party will be responsible for funding the party, as well as party administration, including recruitment of party personnel.
“From all indications, the seductiveness of conventional politics creates a strong opposition to reforms within parties. It is the determinant of success or failure in capacities of political parties to produce the desired change citizens expect,” he said.
The PGF DG also advised the APC Caretaker Committee led by Governor Mai Mala Buni to shun exchanging words with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and rather focus on communicating its activities on party building to the public.
Mr Lukman further urged APC members to support the Caretaker Committee in its efforts at building the party through membership registration and revalidation amongst others.
“Instead of some of the dry press releases throwing banters at PDP leaders who are struggling to bounce back to pollical reckoning, the messages from the Caretaker Committee and the party should be about rebuilding the party.
“There is the need to take every step necessary to ensure that the reform going on in APC strengthen internal democracy within the party. This will require that all activities of membership registration/revalidation, congresses and national convention are carefully planned.
“To achieve this will require that members of His Excellency Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee are taking the necessary steps to strengthen the capacity of the APC National Secretariat to implement all decisions. This is largely about taking responsibility and communicating decisions to party members and the public.
“Although considerable progress has been achieved, it is important to appeal for more consultations, coordination and better communications of initiatives and all the internal reform process,” Lukman said.
