Former National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has strongly criticised President Bola Tinubu’s performance in office, saying the president has failed to deliver on the promises of his Renewed Hope agenda.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Tuesday, Lukman called for a new political orientation in Northern Nigeria, stressing the need for accountability, internal party democracy, and leadership reform.
“The disappointing part in terms of my assessment of President Asiwaju is that I had a very high rating of him,” Lukman said. “But to be honest, his performance in the last two years has betrayed whatever expectation I had of him.”
Lukman, who resigned from the APC in 2024 over what he described as a lack of internal democracy, maintained that the Renewed Hope agenda has failed to bring about the promised change. “I campaigned on the basis of it. I can say I’m well informed in terms of the content of the Renewed Hope promises we made. Nothing has come close so far to delivering on what we promised Nigerians,” he said.
In response to suggestions that President Tinubu may be the North’s biggest political problem, Lukman was cautious. “We are not passing the buck. The issue of Asiwaju or anybody in government is fundamentally secondary. The fundamental issue is what are we going to do in the first place in order to have a completely new orientation to the business of politics and governance.”
He explained that the National Political Consultative Group—a Northern coalition he is involved with—has spent over a year consulting with political leaders to redefine the region’s political future. “This initiative… is to do everything possible to unite political leaders in the North. It didn’t just start today. We’ve been working on it for almost a year now.”
Lukman said recent meetings of the group focused on insecurity and broader governance challenges plaguing the region. “Nobody can say we are happy with what we have presently. Therefore, what we do to get out of it is fundamentally the issue.”
He stressed that the group is not just looking for a new political platform but a new ethos. “We are not looking at a situation where we have another party that will come and continue business as usual, culture of imposition of candidates, and unaccountable leaders. That’s not the objective.”
According to him, a blueprint committee is already being formed to draft a development plan that will engage Northern governors across all 19 states. “Whether you talk about school children, poverty, or all the indices that now have become embarrassing in terms of the situation facing the North… there is that commitment to try and do things differently.”
He also addressed the criticism around APC’s decision to give Tinubu an automatic ticket in 2023. “If a mistake is committed, it’s a mistake,” Lukman said. “I think the main issue is that we must have a strategy that humbles leaders and challenges them to deliver. And when they don’t deliver, citizens, including party members, should have the right to pass judgment on them.”
Reiterating the need for internal party democracy, he stated, “Once internally inside a political party you don’t allow competition to take place, then the capacity of that party to participate in wider national competition will be weak. We are not going to set ourselves up to replicate the old mistakes and ride on the frustration of Nigerians to defeat incumbents.”
On the issue of zoning and whether the North would support a southern candidate, Lukman emphasised that party primaries must be respected. “Once you start talking of conceding, it means you are now even projecting that elections will not take place within the party. The most fundamental issue is that election must take place.”
He said the coalition is united in first building a credible party structure before fielding candidates. “Let’s focus on building the party first… If we don’t do that, people with ambition will now want to take over the structures of the party and put their surrogates as leaders. We’ll end up going back to where we are coming from.”
He also warned against the emergence of party leaders who are mere extensions of presidential aspirants. “A national chairman should have the profile to walk up to the president and say, ‘Mr President, this is not right.’ You cannot allow a situation where a potential presidential candidate will put his surrogate as the national chairman of the party.”
Lukman concluded by warning that unless this new coalition gets it right from the outset, Nigerians could face yet another round of political disappointment. “So long as we don’t correct that kind of issue from the beginning, we are going to set ourselves up and end up presenting another disappointment.”
Boluwatife Enome
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