Salihu Lukman is a former National Vice Chairman (North West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview, he speaks on the call by Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, on politicians from the North to wait until 2031 for them to contest for president, and his warning to the leadership of the African Democratic Congress against the imposition of candidates ahead 2027 elections, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

George Akume recently called on northern politicians not to vie for the presidency until 2031, what’s your immediate reaction to this statement?

Well, I think to be diplomatic is to say such a statement, to say nobody should aspire for the presidency when election is taking place, can only come from an illiterate.

And the secretary to the government certainly is not an illiterate. He’s a respected citizen who I assume is a democrat and knows what democracy is all about. Once election is going to take place, it presupposes there is a vacancy.

And by the constitution of Nigeria, forget about internal arrangement within parties, anybody is free to aspire and contest for position. And to that extent, therefore, his statement is, I would say, is completely out of place and of no effect at all.

Some are arguing that some of those statements are a form of political zoning, which even though could foster unity, could stifle meritocracy and genuine competition. What do you say?

You see, the issue of zoning is a very valid thing to promote inclusivity. But when that is used and people are given opportunity and they fail, citizens are free to revisit it and see whether that is working for them or not.

And I think that the challenge we are being confronted with. I mean, I take responsibility. I’m one of those who really stood by President Tinubu when I was in APC. I campaigned for him. But the hard truth must be told.

He has failed and that we are feeling it by the reality of our living condition today. And to that extent, therefore, as far as I’m concerned, will assert our democratic right to get him out of the place. But that will not in any way jeopardise any negotiation to protect issues of equity, inclusivity and what have you.

You’ve asserted that the first true test of Senator David Mark’s leadership within the ADC would be his ability to ensure that ADC is not a party that is going to be controlled by imposition and godfathers. How difficult will it be to unite these opposition leaders?

Well, I think first thing first, for me is to acknowledge, because from the speech of Senator David Mark when he took over the leadership of the party, he made it very clear that his leadership will adopt zero tolerance to imposition. And they will take steps to set up a competent bureaucracy to run the affairs of the party.

I think those are heartwarming statement coming from our national chairman and we will give him every support to ensure he succeeds. However, coming from APC, I was part of the founding members of APC and having experienced what we experienced in APC, trusting the leaders will do the right thing.

And in the end, end up basically taking us back to where we are coming from, almost in a worse form. I for one, I can speak for myself. I don’t know about others who are in the party. I will remain very astute and on the alert, you know, and I’ll continue to raise issues with leaders internally within the party. And when necessary, I will come out publicly and advocate for the right thing to be done.

Because, you see, part of our challenge as a nation, and even as people who are advocates for democracy, we invested so much trust on leaders. We imagine that leaders are rational people who ordinarily left on their own will always do the right thing. The instinct of leaders, especially in the context of today, is basically to collapse and continue.

That is what happened to APC. And not too distant time from when APC took off, the next thing we see that it began to gravitate towards imposition, process of internal contests within the party were blocked, and then APC got damaged more than even PDP. Therefore, if that is going to serve as a lesson to all of us, from the beginning of the formation of ADC, we must take steps. When we see leaders beginning to gravitate toward that, we must raise alarm and ensure that they don’t do that.

Because why am I raising the alarm early enough? It’s because, although at national level, I have seen collective leadership playing out and taking decision to determine the leadership of the party at national level, I have seen a tendency for many of our leaders to go back to the states and do almost the same thing that is happening in the parties where we are coming from. Now, if that is the case, why did we leave our parties? We’d have no business leaving our parties if we are going to end up creating another party in the image of our old parties.

I think that is the message. And for me, with due respect to our leaders, we have to all, because that’s the only way, if we promise Nigerians ADC is going to be different, everybody must be on the alert to ensure we are doing the right thing so that we don’t deceive Nigerians into voting another party and another set of leaders that will perform almost exactly, if not worse than the leaders we seek to replace today.

What actionable measures can party leaders actually take to ensure a more democratic and transparent candidate selection process, is it possible?

Well, again, it takes me back to the point I raised earlier. Because we expect leaders to do the right thing, the process of even setting up the rule of the party, we leave it in the hand of party leaders. Now, APC, we just negotiated to take over ADC now. And part of the agreement we reached with the former leadership of ADC is that we review the constitution of the party and put in place a new model constitution.

But again, and I have had this comment over and over, the problem is not the constitution, it’s not the law, but the operators of the law. I will stretch it further. Sometime we as members, people imagine you are only relevant when you are in position of leadership.

As ordinary members, we have important role to play. And once we are not submissive to leaders in such a way that we indulge them to do the wrong things, they will sit up.

So, I think moving forward, and this is where I think we need to agree, that even though we are working with the same old leaders, we can create a condition that is almost impossible for them to do the wrong thing by ensuring that at all time when they do the wrong thing, we step forward and say, no sir, you are doing the wrong thing.

That is not acceptable. And that will check them, even if they can be audacious and arrogant to think that they have the power to do it. If you raise it one, two times, and everybody is not the same.

The issue of zoning is a very valid thing to promote inclusivity. But when that is used and people are given opportunity and they fail, citizens are free to revisit it and see whether that is working for them or not

There are many leaders who ordinarily, if they are alerted in the wrong direction, they will comply. But because people are not alerting them, we end up where we are today.

So, I will say that sincerely speaking, Nigerians have to realise that angels are not going to come down from heaven to fix this country. And the era we are told in the religious scripture, the era of prophets is gone.

So another prophet is not going to come to fix Nigeria. It’s we human beings, we citizens of Nigeria that have to rise up and make all the necessary sacrifice.

I tell you, the biggest threat people like us will face is that at the end of the day, even when we win election, we are not going to be part of people to be considered for appointment or whatever. I mean, you don’t need to survive. I mean, all you need to do is to organise yourself properly and God will take care of you. That is my conviction.

What steps or reforms do you believe could be crucial for political parties in Nigeria, including the ADC, even the APC, to embrace, even implement for internal democracy and candidate selection to be more transparent?

Well, I won’t waste my time talking about APC, sincerely speaking. I have spent many years advocating for reform within APC, and clearly they are not interested, and that is not their priority, which is why we left the APC and come to where we are now.

Now, with ADC, as far as I’m concerned, there is a golden opportunity to ensure that we model it in the right direction, which is why, as Senator David Mark and his team have taking, I felt I need to come out and begin to advocate publicly.

There are internal advises that one is given also, but part of the thing is that I also want to encourage Nigerians who are interested in seeing a model good party to come and join us and know that there are people internally within the party who are also committed in ensuring that leaders do the right thing.

I think from the way Senator Mark and his team have started, all they need is to have followership as members of the party who will strengthen their hands so that when they are surrounded by the same leaders who want to do the wrong things, they can know that they have allies among the party membership. Now, I think stretching the issue to try and answer some of the issues you raise about how imposition can be present, prevented.

One of the things that have happened to almost all our parties is that meetings don’t take place. APC, for instance, although National Executive Council meeting is supposed to be taking place every quarter, they now hold meeting only when they have challenge to replace national chairman.

Other organs don’t even exist as far as the leaders are concerned. Now, we must make a difference. When meetings are taking place, we must also encourage, that is what we want to see happening in ADC. We must also encourage members to be outspoken to raise issues and use the meeting as a platform to negotiate what should be the decision of the party.

And we will appeal to leaders, especially Senator David Mark, who should be able to encourage that by showing good tolerance. And he has started very well. And I think we need to strengthen his hands to ensure that other leaders are also tolerant and allow internal debate.

We can have parties that operate almost as a cult. No debate is taking place. And when people raise issues, they get criminalized and threatened. I have gone through that in APC. People threaten me with expulsion, suspension and what have you, simply because you are challenging leaders to do the right thing.

Sincerely speaking, if Nigeria is to move forward, we must summon the courage to continue both internally and in whatever capacity we find ourselves to engage leaders and contest issues with them based on the commitment to get them to do the right thing. In any case, when they do the right thing, who takes the credit? It’s not the ordinary member like me who is agitating for it. The people who take the credit is the leadership.

How do SGF’s statement and your warning to ADC leadership reflect the broader challenges that we facing our democratic consolidation within Nigeria and what is your own message to political leaders and actors as 2027 draws closer and everyone starts, well, continues wrangling for elections?

Well, in terms of how those issues resonate to the broader challenges of building democracy in Nigeria is basically to look back where we are coming from. Under military, we are all complaining that our freedoms are being trampled upon and that we are unable to speak out.

Now, under democracy, which is supposed to give us that power and those rights to be able to speak out and use that to negotiate how to move our nation forward. We are in a way almost imposing on ourselves those same conditions we are coming out from under military rule.

And I think we need to break away from that. In a way, it’s our own complicity that is strengthening the hands of leaders to continue to dominate us in a way that doing the right thing become basically the only thing that can happen.

Today, I mean, people in government and they are my good friend, many of them are my good friends, say a lot of things that they know they are lying, for instance, when they say President Tinubu is doing very well. He’s a wonderful leader. He’s surpassing the achievement of previous governments.

They know they are lying, you know. And nobody within APC is coming out. I see my good friend who is the spokesman. Interestingly, both the spokesman of President Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga and the spokesman of APC, they are all my good friends.

I see them always lying publicly. But these are people, when we were in the trenches in the struggle for democracy, they were in the forefront of being able to courageously tell leaders, including taking risk to be outspoken. I mean, what is so difficult if we find ourselves in the privileged position we are occupying today?

To step forward and tell our leaders exactly those old things we used to tell military leaders. I think we need to break away from that. If there is anything I hope to achieve, is to encourage Nigerians to really see the possibility that when you speak out, you can impact in the initiative of leadership to be able to do the right thing. I think that will be the message I want to leave