TheCable

Salihu Lukman, director-general of Progressive Governors’ Forum, says President Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election in 2015 because the party was united and its leaders were meeting constantly to talk about issues.

Lukman told journalists in Abuja on Monday that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso, former Kano governor; and Rochas Okorocha, former Imo governor; played crucial roles in Buhari’s victory at the polls.

He was speaking about his new book titled ‘APC and Progressive Politics in Nigeria’.

The DG said the only person who did not attend those meetings but later became a presidential aspirant was Sam Nda Isaiah, publisher of Leadership newspaper.

He said Isaiah did not qualify to attend those meetings because “he was not qualified as a political stakeholder to be among those to be invited”.

“Part of what is needed in the circumstance is to remind our leaders that one of the factors that ensured that our leaders were united, which made the electoral victory of 2015 possible was that they were meeting almost on a weekly basis,” Lukman said.

“It wasn’t factional meetings, all our leaders attended almost all these meetings and they respected every decision.

“I can recall with nostalgic feelings that between 2013 and December 2014, President Buhari, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Owelle Rochas Okorocha were in attendance in virtually every meeting.”

The DG said at some point, he opposed the aspiration of Buhari to become president but that was not an issue because the leaders of the party were tolerant at the time.

“As a very junior appointee of the party, some of us even took hardline public positions against the aspiration of President Buhari for instance,” he said.

“At no time did President Buhari or any of the other leaders who aspired to be the party’s presidential candidate make it an issue. They related with all of us with the full knowledge of our public position.

“The truth is, our leaders were united because they exhibited a high level of tolerance, which contributed to making the party attractive. These are progressive credentials which the party and our leaders must return to.”

Lukman said the party must have a credible membership register.

“Credible and verifiable membership register should be the foundation for internal democracy within the party,” he said.

“Secondly, our leaders should work to win the votes of party members in order to emerge as candidates. Difficult as it is, we need to begin to develop strategies that will move our leaders away from the strategy of controlling party structures through imposing leaders in order to emerge as candidates for elections. This is virtually the source of almost all internal conflicts.

“The third and perhaps final issue is that of leadership succession. As a progressive party, our leaders need to begin to move to a situation whereby leadership succession arrangements at all levels are planned and criteria for leadership recruitment are set.”