EDITOR’S PICK:
EKO HOT BLOG reports that the National Vice Chairman, North-West, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman warned that it would be “democratically risky and very costly” if President Muhammadu Buhari is allowed to determine who becomes the next President of Nigeria.
This was as the member of the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led National Working Committee (NWC) cautioned Buhari on the need to be conscious of his legacies and avoid falling into the temptation of unilaterally picking his successor.
In an open letter to the President issued in Abuja on Wednesday, Lukman urged Buhari not to copy what he described as the anti-democratic credentials of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who foisted his successor, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and went on to rig the general election to ensure his emergence as President.
The NWC member, wrote the piece titled “Succession and 2023 APC Presidential Candidate: Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari,” in reaction to the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting between Buhari and APC governors at the Presidential Villa.
During the consultative meeting with APC Governors, Buhari highlighted the internal policies of the APC which allowed “first term governors who have served credibly well …to stand for re-election’ and ‘second term governors … accorded the privilege of promoting successors that are capable of driving their visions”.
The President, therefore, solicited for ‘reciprocity and support of Governors and other stakeholders in picking’ his successor, ‘who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.’
Reacting to the development via his letter, Lukman noted that it is important to caution APC to keep faith with basic tenets of democracy as its major campaign message to Nigerians for the 2023 elections.
He told Buhari that “this was eloquently highlighted in Your Excellency’s message to our Progressive Governors when you stated that ‘the key to electoral successes is the ability to hold consultations and for members to put the nation above other interests.’
The former Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum pointed out that “the big worry is whether loyal party leaders and members should just reduce themselves to being ordinary observers when very sensitive issues with very high potential to diminish and damage Your Excellency’s revered status in the country is being considered”.
“The temptation for leaders to choose their successors is democratically risky and very costly. If in 2013/2014, Your Excellency could submit yourself to internal democratic processes, it is important that your successor also follows the same process.
“It may also be necessary to highlight that a major disadvantage with the succession arrangement whereby Governors chose their successors is that it negatively affects the relationship between the successor and the predecessor, which undermines the capacity to influence actions or inactions of successors by their predecessors.
“Your Excellency, since the period of negotiating the merger that produce our party APC, I have been a proponent of ensuring that our party takes every step to preserve our leaders who could exercise moral authority.
FURTHER READING:
“This means that leaders who are highly respected on account of their standing in society should not hold elective or appointive positions,” Lukman wrote.
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