A former national vice chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for North-West, Salihu Lukman has said the allegations of corruption surrounding the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs since its formation in 2019 demonstrate how under the party, problems of corruption were allowed to continue.
He said this was heartbreaking because one of the campaign promises of the APC in 2015 was war against corruption for which Nigerians invested their trust in the party and former President Muhammadu Buhari.
Lukman in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday said as it turned out, those expectations were not met adding that although, there were flashes of attempts to fight corruption during the tenure of Buhari it was not able to change the orientation of politics away from being prebendal (feeling entitled to government funds).
He said, if anything, prebendal politics took over the APC and many public officials produced by the APC also became guilty of converting public resources to private use.
“Recall how the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was reported to have seized N19.3 billion salary bail out given to Kogi State by the Federal Government, which was deposited in an unlawful bank account domiciled with Sterling Bank Plc in November 2021.
“This is a State controlled by the APC. There are other similarly damaging allegations of how some APC controlled states were unable to pay salaries of workers.
“All these confirms Prof. Richard Joseph seminal description of prebendal politics in Nigeria as a system, which ‘enables divergent groups and constituencies to seek to accommodate their interests. At the level of the individual, it is a pattern of social behavior that is quickly learned and accepted.
“Debate about social costs and benefits regarding public policy choices of APC governments, for whatever it is worth can go on. However, so long as indices of poverty, cost of living and welfare conditions of citizens remain below acceptable thresholds, public expenditure would be heavily suggestive of waste, low productivity, increasing affluence of public officials, ‘paltry gains’ for citizens and ‘misery for the greater majority’ of Nigerians,” Lukman stated.
According to the APC Chieftain, it is painful to admit that the party has ‘quickly learned and accepted’ prebendal politics and ‘it would be more comforting to say that it’ is working efficiently for some APC leaders in government.
He said part of the evidence of working efficiently produces the outcome whereby ‘some …appointees’ of President Bola Tinubu ‘decided to hit the ground running by spending public funds with impunity and audacity – and gleefully spitting on due process’ as highlighted by Simon Kolawole in recent article.
Lukman said the big consolation is that Tinubu has decisively intervened, first with the suspension of the Minister, Dr Betta Edu, then followed by suspending implementation of all social investment programmes and full-scale investigation of activities of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
“Will these produce a new beginning in the fight against corruption in the country? Or will it be another moonlighting providing escape routes for all those accused of corruption with another inconclusive outcome? Above all, will President Asiwaju Tinubu use the opportunity of this investigation to introduce deeper political reform in the country such that the orientation of APC begins to shift away from prebendal politics?
“Will such a shift take APC back to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party based on which the party and all its organs are strengthened to not only become functional but also develop the capacity to regulate the conduct of public officials it produces?” he queried.
The former director general of Progressives Governors’ Forum urged APC leaders to rise to the occasion and remain resolute in engaging President Tinubu and all party leaders to return APC to its founding vision of being a functionally progressive party with capacity to regulate the conducts of public officials it produces.
“To be able to achieve that would require a change in the way party leaders relate with President Asiwaju Tinubu. A situation whereby disposition of party leaders towards the President is limited to issues of accessing opportunities in government would only strengthen prebendal politics and weaken initiatives towards returning the APC to its founding vision of becoming a progressive party.
“Once prebendal politics remain strong and initiatives towards making the APC becoming a progressive party are weak, the fight against corruption in the country will be weak. APC leaders must rise to this challenge and provide the required support to ensure that Nigerian democracy overcomes its prebendal orientation to become both responsive and representative of the wider interests of Nigerians.
“As a party, APC must turn a new leaf in Nigerian democracy by doing everything necessary to ensure that the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu succeeds. Nigerian politics must be about meeting the expectations of citizens based on which elected leaders make every sacrifice to justify the votes of Nigerians!” he added.
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