Blaming APC For  Problems Facing Nigeria  ‘Unfair’- Salihu Lukman

It would be considered  unfair for anyone to blame the ruling APC  for the  problems facing the country, the party’s  National Vice Chairman (North-West) , Mallam Salihu Lukman,  has said.

The APC  has  according to him acknowledged existence  of  challenges facing the country  especially  insecurity unlike the President Goodluck Jonathan administration  that  had consistently denied this.

Team@orientactualmags.com  learned Lukman, a one-time Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, said this while talking to journalists in Abuja on Sunday.

‘The deceptive propaganda being sponsored by the opposition is that the solutions to the problems lie outside the APC. Let nobody be deceived that APC is the problem. APC is not the problem. Yes! There are challenges that we are facing today which emerged while APC is in government.

My pride is that our leaders are not in denial of those challenges unlike in the previous administration. If you look at candidates of other parties, they are not coming up with recommendations but propaganda to shoot down APC and Nigerians should be smarter than that.

Life is about challenges. Those challenges exist, no doubt about it. But I think my response to it is that we will be honest, and we will open ourselves to engagement because democracy is a two-thing’ he said.

 Lukman , who described the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as a unique and sellable candidate, added  that he is not the regular political merchant still running the mill.

He, however, added that it is up to Nigerians to decide the kind of leadership that can correct the situation .

 ‘When I talk of our candidate not being an election merchant, he also has another advantage. He has been on the advocacy platform, even before democracy. The other candidates were not there.

I raised the point of the candidate not being on the ballot since 2003 on a positive note, to demonstrate that he is not one of those I called election merchants. He wasn’t an election merchant. And he had every reason to have aspired in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. That cannot be said of the other candidates, whether Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso or Peter Obi.

No doubt the likes of Atiku, Kwankwaso, and Peter Obi are respected people in politics. I will not toe the line of those dismissing them. As I said, in terms of edge and campaign, the advantage our candidate has is that he’s not a regular election merchant.

The last time he appeared on the ballot was in 2003. Unlike the other candidates you mentioned, he has never left the party for any other party, which for me means some higher level of integrity and trustworthiness.

Now it is up to Nigerians to make their conclusions. That does not stop Nigerians from making choices they want, democracy is about making choices, but our business as a political party and political leaders is to promote our candidate and engage the competition in a way that people acknowledge and recognize their differences’ he added.

The APC, he added,  also has a duty to ‘review and look at what we promised between 2015 and 2019’.

‘What are the gaps and there are gaps that exist? What is it that needs to be done in order to address those gaps? In addition to that, what are the new challenges? he submitted- Team@orientactualmags.com
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