Former national vice chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Salihu Mohd. Lukman, has counselled the party to avoid the temptation of imposing candidates for elective positions in the 2027 general election.
He hinged his words of caution on the belief that based on the confidence of most APC leaders that under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s watch, the party would witness the anticipated transformation into a truly progressive party.
In a statement yesterday, Lukman urged the governing party to learn from the mistakes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007 when the then ruling party manipulated elections through imposition, vote buying and rigging.
The former director general of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) said he was worried that the activities of APC in recent times are tilting to a point where almost all candidates of the party for the 2027 polls might be produced through imposition.
Lukman said, “It is almost a return to the old PDP model of party organisation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo with the requirement of 100 per cent loyalty. Without any attempt to reopen old wounds, the requirement for 100 per cent loyalty was responsible for the graveyard silence internally within the APC when Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje was proposed by President Tinubu as National Chairman.
“After Dr. Ganduje’s successful emergence, there is also graveyard silence even when Dr. Ganduje continued with the practice of freezing structures of the party. No meetings of organs are taking place almost four months after the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as the APC National Chairman.
“Given such ugly reality, it should only be expected that the culture of manipulating political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. would become entrenched in APC.
“Like the case in PDP in 2007, it may grow to the point whereby almost all APC candidates for 2027 elections may be produced through imposition. Unless we want to lie to ourselves, as things are, the culture of manipulating political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc. in APC has reached the point where PDP was in 2007,” he stated.
