Unilaterally foisting your successor on Nigerians will be costly, NWC member warns Buhari

The former Director General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum and member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to be conscious of his legacies and avoid falling into the temptation of unilaterally picking his successor.

Lukman gave the advice in an open letter to the President in Abuja on Wednesday.

While arguing that it would be “democratically risky and very costly” to allow the president do so, the APC NWC member urged President Buhari not to copy what he described as the anti-democratic credentials of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who foisted his successor, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and went on to rig the general election to ensure his emergence as president.

The piece titled “Succession and 2023 APC Presidential Candidate: Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari,” was in reaction to the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting between President Buhari and APC governors.

During the meeting with the Progressives Governors’ Forum on Tuesday, the president had spoken of the internal policies of the APC which allowed ‘first term governors who have served credibly well …to stand for re-election’ and ‘second term governors … accorded the privilege of promoting successors that are capable of driving their visions’.

The president, therefore, solicited for ‘reciprocity and support of governors and other stakeholders in picking’ his successor, ‘who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.’

While noting that ordinarily, the president’s demand should not be a problem as both party members and leaders will always trust the president’s judgment, Lukman, however noted that “the big worry is whether loyal party leaders and members should just reduce themselves to being ordinary observers when very sensitive issues with very high potential to diminish and damage Your Excellency’s revered status in the country is being considered”.

The former Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum also noted that it is important therefore to caution APC to keep faith with basic tenets of democracy as its major campaign message to Nigerians for the 2023 elections.