Lukeman issued the warning in a letter written to the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) to express his displeasure over its alleged choice of Ganduje to replace Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the APC National Chairman.
Mallam Salihu Lukman, the All Progressives Congress (APC) North-West National Vice Chairman, has warned governors on the platform of the ruling party against endorsing the former Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, for the chairmanship of the party.
Lukeman issued the warning in a letter written to the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) to express his displeasure over its alleged choice of Ganduje to replace Senator Abdullahi Adamu as the APC National Chairman.
This comes after the recent resignation of the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Adamu.
The APC North-West National Vice Chairman from Kaduna State warned that endorsing Ganduje would be unfair to President Bola Tinubu and Ganduje himself.
The letter dated July 21, 2023 and addressed to the Chairman of the PGF and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzondinma, according to The Punch, is titled ‘APC National Chairman: PGF should serve as the Conscience of APC,' a copy of which was also sent to President Tinubu, members of the APC National Working Committee and Ganduje.
He stated that he found it troubling that the APC governors under Uzodinma’s leadership could be thinking of adopting the former Kano governor as the next national chairman of the party.
Part of the letter read, “While it is within the right of Progressive Governors being a very critical power bloc within the APC to endorse any candidate for the position of National Chairman, to make such decision public in whatever manner is unfair to both President Bola Tinubu and other leaders of the party who are not members of PGF. It is even unfair to Dr. Ganduje who is being endorsed.
“I have served PGF between August 2013 and February 2022 as Director General. I am fully conversant with the conventional approach toward managing consultations between PGF and the party.
"Whenever PGF is privileged to reach an agreement with the President, being the party leader, on matters affecting the party, PGF takes necessary steps to first meet with the NWC or at the least the National Chairman. Where such decisions require pronouncement by organs of the party, PGF uses its influence within the party to negotiate the buy-in of members of the relevant organs. That has been the tradition.”
Lukeman further stated that as a member of NWC, he felt slighted to first read about the report of the endorsement in the media, stressing that the move reeks of the same constitutional violation and undermining of party organs that Adamu and the erstwhile former National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore, were accused of.
He also appealed to the governors to play their conventional role as the conscience of the party by sticking with the zoning arrangement instead of zoning the APC chairman’s position out of North-Central.
He noted that “Given the implication of such endorsement in terms of being unjust and unfair to the North Central region and given that the position of the National Chairman is zoned to North Central based on which zoning for leadership of National Assembly was decided, it simply suggests that the PGF has deviated from its traditional role of acting as the conscience of the party.
“If PGF is to act as the conscience of the party, even if assuming as it is being promoted in the public that the endorsement is coming from President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the PGF I know would have taken every step to convince the President otherwise and if the President insisted, they would have shielded the President by owning the decision.
"But to handle the endorsement in the way it appears in the public is unfair to President Asiwaju Tinubu and unfair to Dr. Ganduje who is being alleged to have put so much pressure on the President, which is not true."
But the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka, noted that the APC's North-West National Vice Chairman's view does not reflect the position of the ruling party.
Morka in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday said that contrary to Lukman’s position, the party is committed to Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda.
Morka stated, “While individual party leaders and members retain their right to express their personal thoughts and opinions, they do not represent the official position of the NWC or the Party. The official position of the NWC on the subject of succession to any vacant offices of the NWC or any other subject will be communicated via the official channels of the NWC.
“Change in the life of any individual or institution is constant and inevitable. As Africa’s largest political party, our demonstrated capacity to adapt to change and emergent realities always stands us out and sets us beyond the wishes of doomsayers. We remain committed to the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration towards uplifting the quality of life of all Nigerians.”