By Adebayo Folorunsho-Francis
A former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (North-West), Salihu Lukman, has disclosed that the Dr Abdullahi Ganduje-led National Working Committee of the party must work towards raising an annual budget of N100bn to operate at an optimal level and to avoid depending on elected officials for funding.
Lukman also demanded that deliberate reforms be carried out on the organs of the ruling party to give their candidates stronger electoral advantages ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The APC chief gave the advisory via a statement issued in Abuja titled ‘Wither Nigerian Democracy: Urgency of Rebuilding Political Parties.’
He said, “For party organs to be made functional, the issue of party funding must be resolved beyond the current reality of dependence on elected representatives. The new leadership must be challenged to produce a national annual budget and NEC must consider all avenues of party funding and empower the new NWC to take every needed appropriate step to mobilise financial resources.
“There is no reason why APC, being the ruling party cannot operate a national annual budget of over N100bn. Note that the national annual Budget should cover the operations of all party organs, from national to states, local government and wards. It is only when a ruling party can operate a national budget of more than N100bn that the condition of service for party leaders at all levels can be benchmarked with public service conditions.
“But as long as the conditions of service for party leaders are below that of public service, party leaders will continue to subordinate themselves to elected leaders and the capacity to hold elected representatives accountable to the party will be weak. It is my wish that APC leaders, especially President Asiwaju Tinubu will consider these proposals in responding to challenges facing the APC. Achieving this when the next general election is more than three years away, would confer stronger electoral advantages to the APC. For other parties, to effectively compete against the APC, they will need to be equally reformists and not conformist.”
Continuing, the Kaduna politician also expressed concern that the leadership crisis previously suffered by the ruling party has spread to some opposition parties such as the Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Party and the New Nigeria People’s Party.
According to him, such challenges are bound to happen if the organs of political platforms are not allowed to function as they ought to.
“Being the ruling party, what affects the APC seems to be infecting all other parties in the country, in varying proportion. The problems of not allowing organs of the party to function have spread to the PDP. The leadership crisis is also consuming the Labour Party. The problems may be worse in other parties. Without a doubt, Nigeria is faced with a deeper crisis of accountability. Elected leaders in Nigeria are behaving more like emperors.
“Culture of debate and contestation associated with democracy are being destroyed. Sycophancy has taken over politics. Political survival is today a function of being conformist. Even in APC, with claimed progressive orientation, leaders avoid open disagreement with elected leaders,” he stated
