LAGOS – Salihu Lukman, former Vice National Chairman, North-West of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that President Bola Tinubu is surrounded by aides and associates who are setting him up to fail.
Lukman, who noted that Tinubu has made himself inaccessible to even party members who supported him to win election, said, “Under Asiwaju I was very confident that he wouldn’t really do business as usual the way Buhari did, but unfortunately he’s doing business as usual and as it is, we’re going to end up in a worse situation.”
Lukman who recently resigned his membership of the APC spoke on Arise Tv, where he made certain suggestions for Tinubu to win back his support.
He said, “I think President Tinubu needs to audit his cabinet. He needs to audit those around him. I made this point somewhere that the President Tinubu that we have now is not the same as Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu that ruled Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 because Asiwaju that ruled Lagos surrounded himself with very competent and clear headed people. If he wanted to take the wrong decision they could step forward and stop him. He doesn’t have such people around him now. The people around him now are those who basically say what he wants to hear, and that is not healthy for a leader. If anything they are setting him up to fail.
He added, “I don’t want Asiwaju to fail. I want him to succeed because it’s in our interest for him to succeed. As a nation we’re hungry for a leader who in 200 years to come will be celebrated just like Americans are celebrating George Washington.
“The issue which I think President Tinubu should start doing now to demobilize some of us and we’ll all queue behind him if he sets out and allows party to function, is to ensure competent people leading the party, not just people he nominates, people with skills and capacity, to engage him and persuade him from doing the wrong things. Get him to act based on the decisions of the party. For me if he does that I’ll say our democracy has begun to mature, and if I see it that the party is beginning to get the strength to really intervene and give direction in terms of control by the party at all levels. The manifesto of the party is beginning to get life. I think if he does that, he’ll demobilize a number of us and I’ll queue behind him and will support the party.
Speaking about Tnubu’s failures he said, “One of the biggest mistakes President Bola Tinubu made was making that inauguration declaration where he declared that “Subsidy is gone” without even settling down to think of a plan. Till today, no plan was made in respect to that challenge, because the living condition in the country is terrible.
We cannot keep grand standing. All of us in the party are just onlookers. We’ve been unable to even access President Buhari and influence decisions on what needs to be done and this is frustrating.
“From the way things are going, my prediction, which is why I had to act the way I did, is that by the end of this year if we don’t take time the campaign for 2027 will start and people will be forced to just queue behind any leader and out of anger and frustration, with the reality before us, people will end up electing a worse successor. All the challenges of the country will even get worse,” he added.