•seeks coalition of opposition parties in 2027

Former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman has identified the South West region as the most endangered by the economic policies of the present administration.

Checks revealed that central to the economic reform of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the unification of the exchange rate and the removal of the subsidy on petrol.

The former National Vice Chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in a statement on Sunday entitled, ‘Future of Democracy in Nigeria,’ noted that with the import-dependent status of the economy, most of the multinational companies located in the South West are leaving the country in droves and in the process, creating job losses.

He said: “The danger with the way President Asiwaju is running affairs of the country is the potential destruction of the relative advantages of the economy of the South-West region, almost like the way former President Buhari left the Northern region worse off after his eight-year tenure. More than anything, the negative impact of the crash in the value of the naira and the rising cost of production for industries – small, medium and large scale – will be more devastating to the economy of the South-West than any other region.

“Without going into details, the South-Western region of the country is arguably more industrially advanced than any part of the country. The current downturn producing higher incidences of industrial closures and relocation of some of the large-scale industries out of the country will have more negative impact on the people of the South-West. Part of the tragedy of Nigerian democracy is the absence of visionary leaders in the mode of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and Sir Ahmadu Bello.

“These are leaders who prioritised public investment in human capital development at a time when Nigeria didn’t have the kind of resource endowment we have today. Most of the foundational developments, which led to all our pioneer educational institutions such as the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, University of Nigeria Nsukka and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria were all created within less than ten years of Nigeria’s independence during the First Republic.

“Now, more than twenty-five years since the commencement of the Fourth Republic, there is hardly any achievement that can be pointed at, both in terms of the physical development of the country and human development. Instead, virtually governments at all levels have been captured by so-called elected leaders who operate more like Yahoo-Yahoo fraudsters diverting public resources and assets to their private use. Problems of insecurity in the country, which is a by-product of the crisis of poverty, unemployment, drugs and substance abuse among young people, etc. are hardly getting the deserved attention of elected leaders. Instead of building schools, recruiting teachers and providing books and teaching materials to harness the productive potentials of our population, elected leaders are more disposed to outright embezzlement of government resources so much so that today there are strong speculations of state governors converting substantial parts of their monthly federal allocations to US dollars at black market rates, which is responsible for why the value of the naira remains weak.”

Accusing the present administration of fiscal indiscipline, the former chieftain of the APC submitted that investment of “N15 trillion on the construction of 700 Kilometre Lagos–Calabar coastal highway, which is more than half of the annual budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria,” was a humongous expenditure as he noted that the proposed federal highway has no links to industries and the productive sectors of the economy.

While seeking for a coalition of forces against the ruling APC, Lukman appealed to former presidential candidates in the dominant opposition political parties to be willing to subordinate their individual aspirations to rescue the nation from the APC which he claimed has nothing to offer.

“From a situation whereby APC as the ruling party in Nigeria promised to provide the needed leadership to fight corruption, APC has legitimised higher level of corruption in the country, legitimising the phenomenon ‘state capture’ virtually at all levels. With ‘state capture’, democratic institutions such as the legislature, electoral bodies and political parties are emasculated. Even traditional institutions are increasingly being reduced to appendages of the executive arm of government. The executive arm of government is becoming more and more the problem of Nigerian democracy, undermining the capacity of elected leaders and governments to respond to challenges facing citizens. With a high propensity to subvert laws that compel accountability, most Nigerian elected leaders operate with the corrupt mindset of ‘state capture’ thereby appropriating public resources and assets and converting them to private use.

“Getting out of such a mess will require strong political parties, which are lacking in contemporary Nigerian politics. How can we get political leaders to commit themselves towards building strong political parties? Whether Nigerian democracy can have the kind of future, which could enable elected representatives and governments to competently and effectively respond to challenges facing Nigerians is contingent on the ability of political leaders to produce strong political parties. So long as the aspirations of Nigerian politicians are only limited to winning elections and producing new elected leaders, Nigerian democracy will be unable to reverse the phenomenon of ‘state capture’, which is now in the advanced stage of taking over the Federal Government.

“Unfortunately, given the advanced stage of ‘state capture’ at the Federal level, most political leaders, including the leading opposition leaders such as Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso are all operating in isolation to one another.”