Dr. Salihu Lukman, former Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), has claimed that some party leaders are putting more energy and effort into figuring out how to manipulate party structures in order to impose their preferred candidates for 2023.
Lukman made the announcement in a statement titled “A Comparative Review of Government Performances” issued on Sunday.
He stated that as the 2023 elections approach, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders’ campaign message is that they are on a mission to save Nigeria.
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The chieftain of the party stated that the main opposition party claimed the APC government mismanaged the economy, divided Nigerians, and created insecurity.
He emphasized that one of the arguments was that Nigeria is now the ‘poverty capital of the world,’ while alleging that the poor performance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC-led government contrasts with the ‘achievements’ recorded during the PDP’s sixteen years in power between 1999 and 2015.
“The inability of APC leaders to proactively engage public debates around challenges of governance in the country has given PDP leaders some undeserved confidence that 2023 elections can be won based on deceptive claims,” Lukman said.
Rather than developing a strategy to mobilize party leaders and members to actively participate in public debate by highlighting the achievements of the APC-led government through empirical records, some APC leaders are devoting more time and effort to figuring out how to manipulate party structures in order to impose their preferred candidates for 2023.”
Concerning the party’s upcoming convention on February 26, Lukman stated that the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Mai Mala Buni, and other members of the committee are working to destroy the party.
He claimed that instead of mobilizing Nigerians to review progress and challenges as part of preparations for 2023, the Buni-led Committee is holding APC leaders and members hostage.
“Instead of working to organize a National Convention where new leadership is expected to emerge,” he says, the CECPC has constituted itself into a Frankenstein monster bent on destroying the party.
The party chieftain stated that party leaders and members must put all the uncertainty created by Buni around the National Convention behind them so that the business of preparing for the 2023 electoral contest can begin in earnest in the APC.
“Every committed party leader and a member must rise to the challenge of compelling His Excellency Mai Mala Buni and his team of undertakers to hand off the party by ensuring the success of the February 26, 2022, National Convention,” Lukman added.
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