Looming danger of rebellion over harsh living conditions big threat to Tinubu’s 2027 ambition, APC chieftain warns

Lukman also accused his party of producing the worst set of governors currently administrating the states in the history of the country, and claimed that the leaders occupying political offices are accumulating financial resources legitimately or otherwise for future elections.

The former National Vice Chairman North-West, who also accused his party of shortchanging Nigerians, lamented that the eight-year tenure of former president Muhammadu Buhari was not used in inculcating some minimum standards expected to be respected by all APC elected leaders.

The statement he issued in Abuja read: “The least will be for APC and President Tinubu to lose elections for second term in 2027. The bigger threat is the looming danger of rebellion against the harsh living conditions facing citizens, which may come with expression of wildcat anger against political leaders in the country. Potentially, this may be spontaneous without any leadership.

“Already, some of the flashes of protests, including the looting of warehouses and trucks conveying food items by angry citizens protesting hunger are bearing some of these spontaneous leaderless characteristics. And because our political leaders are behaving more as overlords, instead of taking steps to initiate engagements and avert such danger, they are all becoming onlookers, watching from their comfort zones.

“As leaders in APC, we must accept responsibility for the present unfortunate reality whereby for the first time we have produced an elected government, which is practically scornful to other political leaders.

“Since the time of former President Buhari, we have succeeded in producing elected governments that audaciously imagine that they can manage the affairs of this country exclusively without allowing permissible consultations as provided in the APC Constitution.

“Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with all his military background, never indulge in such grave undemocratic practice. If, for any reason, during the tenure of former President Buhari, this was the case, why should President Asiwaju, being an Awoist, a democrat and supposedly progressive politician condone and adopt such undemocratic conduct?

“Why should President Tinubu adopt the current unfortunate reality winding up the APC? Is his leadership of the party assuming the f of practically orm of serving as the Receiver-Manager for the APC?

“If our leaders truly want to earn the respect of Nigerians, having succeeded in getting President Tinubu elected, why should they limit the scope of their relationship with President Tinubu’s administration to only issues of being appointed into positions in his government?

“Sadly, with such ugly reality, APC may have succeeded in producing some of the worst governors in the history Nigeria. For us in the North, we have produced not only absentee governors, but governors and politicians who now go for lesser Hajj almost in the same frequency they go for weekly Jumma’at prayers, all probably with public resources.

“One of our governors in North-Central is behaving like someone possessed or acting under the influence of some addictive, making scandalous policy statements, only to retract them, perhaps when he comes back to his senses. Painfully, both the party and all our political leaders just watch and behave indifferently.

“One would have wished that the eight-year tenure of former president Buhari was used to inculcate some minimum standards expected to be respected by all APC elected leaders.

“A golden opportunity was lost, the country is faced with so much disadvantaged and a government produced by the APC is unable to put in place a clear policy plan to get the country out of the mess. Depressingly, this doesn’t appear to be a source of concern for most of our political leaders.

“So long as our leaders have access to political offices, they seem to be unconcerned with all the tragic realities facing the country. The conclusion is that our leaders occupying political offices are busy accumulating financial resources legitimately or otherwise for future elections.

“We must cautioned our leaders, as things are, they are on the verge of self-destruction. It is very clear that President Tinubu’s respect for political leaders in the country is weak largely because of the failure to act as leaders. Virtually, all APC leaders are behaving more like bosses.

“Accordingly, this is now a source of threat with the potential danger of leaders completely losing relevance and unable to command the respect of citizens. Largely, because of inability to serve as leaders, most of our politicians have lost the capacity to be selfless.

“This has produced a situation whereby President Tinubu seems to be contemptuous of all APC leaders and therefore proceeding manage affairs of the country without consultation as required by the APC Constitution,” Lukman quipped in the statement.

Attacking further, the former Director General of APC Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) noted that; “the biggest worry is the fact that as it is today, it is difficult to dispute the allegation that APC is nothing more than an electoral vehicle to grab power. Even with that, the objective of grabbing power is limited to supporting former president Buhari and President Tinubu to achieve their ambitions of becoming Presidents.

“All the sacrifices made by leaders of legacy parties that merged to produce the APC have been jettisoned. It is very disappointing that we have successfully created a party, which has won three elections consecutively with hardly anything to show for it other than leaders who continue to manage the affairs of government exclusively in mode of dictatorship.

“Given all these, any conclusion about APC shortchanging Nigerians can hardly be dismissed. The challenges facing us as a nation, especially having succeeded in producing the APC and winning elections three times, producing leaders who will act as servants to citizens, not bosses, is paramount,” the statement read.