A former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Salihu Lukman, has said that Nigeria needs parties that can subject the president and governors to control for the nation to develop.

Speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday monitored by Saturday Telegraph, Lukman said that a situation, where the president is the leader of the party that produced him and the governors are the leaders of their parties in their various states would lead to corruption.

“What is the president doing to ensure that the governors do what they need to do? For instance, when you are recruiting people into your party, even as a political leader, all you want is to recruit people without giving them the condition of what they should do for them to be accountable to their people. This is why I keep saying that unless and until we are able to organise a proper political party that can subordinate everybody from the president down the line to the party, then we will not get there.

He said: “Right now we don’t have that party; our objective of forming the coalition in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and negotiating to take over from the APC is to organise the country in such a way that if tomorrow we produce the president and governors, they would be accountable to the party and the party would properly direct them to deliver services based on electoral promises as provided in the manifesto of the party.

“That is why in the coalition, many of us, at least I can talk for myself; I see it as a platform for struggle.

“We have to engage our leaders. If our leaders are rational, they would do the right thing.

“I have taken my bearings from the lessons we are learning from the APC.

“We invested every trust in the APC, but at the end of the day the leaders betrayed those trusts and that is why the party is moving to where it is today, and wandering.”

Lukman noted that unless Nigerians understand that the country doesn’t have a political party that can subordinate elected representatives of the party, “and we continue to say that the president is the leader of the party and that governors are the leaders of the party in their states, and the structure of the party is subordinated to them, we will continue with this arrogance and they will continue to be unaccountable and convert public resources as if they are their personal properties.

While saying that high insecurity is one of the main challenges the country is battling, he challenged Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State to tell the people what he has achieved in agricultural productivity since he started distributing fertilizers to farmers, who he said could not go to their farms due to insecurity.

“Since Uba Sani became governor, have we been recording an increase or decline?

“Our political leaders would just talk to us as if we don’t know what we are doing. I don’t have the statistics, but my take is that agriculture production in Kaduna State is on the decline largely because of insecurity.

“The other day, I saw the National Security Adviser talking; such statements should not come from a public official.

“For me, I want a situation where I can go to the farm without the fear of insecurity.

“The other issue is that we come from the northern region, where the number of out of school children is largely on the increase; many parents are unable to take care of their children and you come and talk in a way as if you have handled those challenges.

“Many of us would not be where we are today if at the time we were born and growing up, we didn’t have access to education,” he added.

On why he left the APC, Lukman stated that nobody sent him out of the party, but that he voluntarily left and resigned his position as the National Vice Chairman (North West) of the party, and that he has continued to shout and advocate for reform.

“Even while I was there, I was always fighting to ensure that they did the right thing.

“In the coalition, I’m advocating that they must do the right thing.

“I’m in politics to make a difference; I believe we can reform Nigeria with the kind of policies we make,” he said.