Economic hardship: Tinubu has silenced APC leaders — Lukman

Economic hardship: Tinubu has silenced APC leaders — Lukman

Former National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has expressed concern over what he called the indifference of most leaders to the economic hardship facing Nigerians, occasioned by the economic policies of the present administration.

The former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum, in a statement on Wednesday entitled, “Burden of Leadership: Open Letter to APC Leaders,” alleged that leaders in the ruling party who should tell President Bola Ahmed Tinubu the home truth about his economic policies only discuss what will earn them individual gains when they have private audiences with him.

“Expectations of party leaders and members that President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s leadership will return APC to its founding vision were strengthened by his activist pro-democracy background and his records as Governor of Lagos State.

“Many APC leaders and members believed that the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as the successor to former President Buhari would be a radical departure from all the disappointments we had between 2015 and 2023. Sadly, immediately following the electoral victory of 2023, our leaders may have devalued themselves into a subservient relationship with President Asiwaju Tinubu.

Almost all our leaders, with probably negligible exceptions, became self-centered and limited engagements with President Asiwaju Tinubu to only what they can get from him in terms of appointments into his government. Questions of the agenda of the government and the vision driving the government are simply ignored….

“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 many disadvantages, 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 caution our leaders; as things are, they are on the verge of self-destruction. It is very clear that behavingPresident Asiwaju 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  more like bosses. Accordingly, this is now a source of threat with the potential danger of leaders completely losing relevance and being unable to command the respect of citizens.

“Largely because of the inability to serve as leaders, most of our politicians have lost the capacity to be selfless. This has produced a situation whereby President Asiwaju Tinubu seems to be contemptuous of all APC leaders and therefore proceeding to manage the affairs of the country without consultation as required by the APC Constitution.”

The former member of the APC National Working Committee further raised the alarm that apart from losing the electdangerion in 2027, the party leaders could also be at the receiving end of recent attacks by agitated Nigerians.

“As it is, the inability to organize and initiate engagement with President Asiwaju Tinubu will, in the long run, be injurious to both the political future of President Asiwaju Tinubu and the democratic development of the country at large. The least will be for APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu to lose elections for a second term in 2027.

The bigger threat is the looming  of rebellion against the harsh living conditions facing citizens, which may come with the 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.”