Leaders of Nigeria’s governing party, the All Progressives Congress, APC need to implement decisions in the party rather than manipulate such decisions to suit their interests.
The Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Mr Salihu Lukman, said this in Abuja in his keynote address at the APC Stakeholders Summit organised by the APC Rebirth Group with the theme; “Rebuilding the APC of our Dreams”. He confirms that the lack of implementation of decisions is one of the main challenges affecting the party.
While speaking on the APC’s elective national convention in February, he advised members to elect leaders who respect decisions and individuals who would not be overbearing.
“If there is a decision, leaders should implement such decisions very faithfully; we don’t want leaders that will claim to know better than people who took a decision.
“That is the problem we are having in the party now; when decisions are taken that does not suit leaders, they try to manipulate it and ensure it’s not implemented.
“That is why we are where we are; a decision is taken that Feb. 5th will be the date for the party’s National Convention, and somebody will sit down, and he is manipulating.
“We cannot have a political party that disrespects decisions,” the PGF DG said.
Mr Lukman, while lamenting the delay by the leadership of the party to pick a date for the national convention, said that if the party was struggling to hold its national convention, it raises the question of if it would be able to manage the process of producing candidates for the 2023 General Election.
He added that the danger signal was that the party might end up having a convention that would not necessarily guarantee that it would have a healthy contest in the party.
Mr Lukman advised the APC leadership to get back to the basics and ensure that organs of the party hold meetings regularly.
He further urged the APC leaders not to take a blind approach to zone party leadership positions to different geopolitical areas but instead look for competent individuals to fill such positions regardless of zones.
“I don’t believe in the zoning put in place by PDP over the years. What I call blind trust gives people responsibility based on trust, which will not take us anywhere.
“My preference would be that leaders have to sit down and look at members they have across all the country. We must appeal to our leaders, instead of making this blind approach to zoning, search for very competent people,” Lukman said.
The Convener of the summit, Mr Aliyu Audu, said though it has not been easy being a member of the APC, they would remain in the APC and keep working and believing in the party.
He explained that the summit’s purpose was to let APC leaders know that the youths are calling for more accountability and involvement in decision making.
Mr Audu added that they desired to ensure that the APC was not just a vehicle to attain political power but a true political institution for the realisation of individual and collective political aspirations.
“Truth be told, we have more than enough reasons to lose hope in the party, but when this happens, one or two of us have reasons to ginger us back,” he said.
Editor/Suzan O.
