The immediate past National Vice Chairman (North-west) of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman, on Tuesday, said the desperate move to remove the National Chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, from office could have been averted if the latter had a firm grip on his political structure in the state.
The former director general of the Progressives Governors’ Forum further explained that the reason the Kano government and supporters of the New Nigeria People’s Party succeeded in inflicting political damages on Ganduje was because he left the state with his trusted allies after he emerged as the national chairman of the party.
Lukman disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja, titled ‘Perils of Bad APC Leadership.’
The plot to remove Ganduje from office has thickened in the past one month.
It reached a crescendo last Thursday when scores of demonstrators stormed the APC secretariat in Abuja to demand his resignation and have the seat of the party leadership, previously occupied by Abdullahi Adamu, returned to the North Central Zone.
The protesters hinged their request on the recent suspension of Ganduje by a faction of his ward executive and the bribery allegation levelled against him by the Kano State government.
But Lukman insisted that his travail could have been averted if the former Kano governor had not taken the APC leadership as a jamboree by departing the state with many of his trusted loyalists.
He said, “Beyond all that is also the fact that once Dr. Ganduje emerged as the National Chairman of APC, virtually all the APC leaders in Kano State relocated to Abuja. Part of why the Kano State Government was able to inflict the kind of huge political damage on Dr Ganduje is because of the absence of virtually all APC leaders in Kano.
“The reality is that since the emergence of Dr. Ganduje as National Chairman, for about nine months, he has not visited Kano State more than twice. With such reality, and operating as an opposition party, it begs the question about whether he is at all interested in getting APC to win back Kano State.
“If President Asiwaju Tinubu with all his busy schedules could find time to go back to Lagos State on more than five occasions, it is certainly scandalous that Dr. Ganduje will use his position as the APC National Chairman as an excuse for political truancy. Being a political truant could only produce electoral failure back in his home state,” he advised.
The Kaduna politician also blamed President Tinubu for the continued marginalisation of North Central members from leadership positions.
According to him, the President was complicit by failing to reorganise the leadership of the APC from the ward, local governments and states to the national level.
He said, “Inability to manage affairs of APC as provided under the constitution of the party is symptomatic of bad leadership, which in every respect the leadership of Dr Ganduje represent. Being saddled with bad party leadership has made APC leaders, especially President Tinubu, complicit in marginalising the people of North Central from the political leadership of the country.
“APC must urgently take steps to correct that by electing a new leadership for the party. This is an irreducible minimum for APC to recover and regain all its electoral strengths across Nigeria. Rebuilding the APC should be about restoring constitutional order in the party. Given the fact that the current members of NWC are in their third year now and have so far appeared to be comfortable with running affairs of the party without reference to the APC constitution.
“The question of their political and administrative competence to manage the APC needs to be reviewed. Beyond changing Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman, perhaps it is the whole NWC that should be changed.”
Continuing, Lukman admonished that unless the party plans to rig the next general elections in 2027, urgent steps must be taken to embrace constitutional order in the APC.