- He criticized the PDP for evolving into a one-man show
Salihu Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), stated that there is no difference between the ruling party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Lukman argued that the APC is now becoming worse than the PDP, the party it aimed to replace.
Lukman criticized the PDP for evolving into a one-man show where internal democracy was abandoned and candidates were imposed on the electorate.
He emphasized that this was the impetus behind the creation of the APC. The opposition parties decided to merge to defeat the PDP and address the issues observed at that time.
“We were clear on the kind of party APC should be. We saw the weaknesses of the PDP, apart from the imposition of candidates, part of the problem was that elected candidates were not accountable to the party or anybody and we thought building the APC would depart from that and that was where the slogan ‘change’ came.
“When the debate about the manifesto of the party was going on, the conception was that the party was going to be social democratic with a priority on the issues of health, education and social services but the party has deviated,” Lukman said.
The APC chieftain said part of the party’s problems started from Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, adding that the president was like an emperor because he was the singular electoral asset of the party.
“We were hoping with Asiwaju (President Bola Ahmed Tinubu), things will start changing,” he said, lamenting that things had rather got worse.