Salihu Lukman, immediate-past vice-chair of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) in the north-west, says the ruling party must do
away with money politics.
Lukman, in a statement on Monday, added that many leaders of
the APC are facing the challenge of not having access to President Bola Tinubu.
“As loyal members of the APC, and above all, as patriotic
Nigerians, we are all here to make the President and Nigerian governments at
all levels succeed,” he said.
“Being the father of the nation and the leader of the APC,
President Asiwaju Tinubu is the supervisor in chief, and we will not antagonise
him. We acknowledge the courage of the President to take all the necessary
decisions.
“First, the biggest problem many APC leaders have with
President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government is inaccessibility.
“Perhaps, partly because of the challenge of managing
pressure from people seeking political appointments in government, the
assumption is that everybody seeking to meet the President or people around him
will be lobbying for appointment.”
He also said the cost of contesting an election on the
party’s platform has become unbearable.
“Beyond issues of strong public perception about similarity
between the APC and other parties, there is also the troubling reality whereby
it is increasingly becoming more expensive to aspire and win elections in APC,
perhaps more expensive than in any other party,” he said.
“For instance, cost of APC Presidential and Gubernatorial
nomination forms in 2014, ahead of the 2015 general elections, was
respectively, N27.5 million and N5 million.
“In 2019, it increased to N45 million and N22.5 million for
Presidential and Gubernatorial nomination forms respectively. It rose to N100
million and N50 million in 2023 respectively.
“At this rate, by 2027, the cost of APC nomination form for
Presidential election will not be less than N250 million. That of Gubernatorial
election may not be less than N125 million.
“As things are, we must be honest, Nigerian politics cannot
continue the way it is today. Many Nigerians, especially APC members, expected
that doing away with money politics is one of the changes APC will bring about.
“Unfortunately, things have progressively got worse. Sadly
too, because structures of the party are not functioning, there is no avenue to
deliberate all these and make proposals.”
He further said the APC is progressively losing its
democratic ideals.
“APC is progressively losing even the little democratic
credentials, which in 2015 encouraged Nigerians to expect the possibility of a
progressive party emerging out of it,” he added.
“Many Nigerians,
including APC members may be tempted to rationalise this unfortunate reality based
on the liberal disposition of former President Buhari who was unable to ensure
that APC matured into the envisioned progressive party in the last eight years.
“Consequently, APC virtually was taken over by whatever was
PDP, and all its negative values including money politics.
“So long as aspirants
and candidates are required to bear all the financial burden of winning
elections, the extent of being successful may not include transforming APC into
a progressive party, which is the primary source of APC’s electoral advantage.”
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