PDP Will Only Succeed In 2023 If APC Fails – Salihu Moh. Lukman

The Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum PGF, Salihu Moh. Lukman has come out to say that APC is now its own biggest opposition.

He recently revealed this in a statement which x-rayed the electoral chances of the party ahead of the 2023 general election.

According to him, the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and others are now mere shadowy opposition parties whose electoral victories are largely dependent on the failures of the APC.

He added that leaders of the All Progressives Congress APC must take the necessary steps to ensure the party’s political activities in 2023 are a success.

His words, “An inconvenient reality, which every APC leader and member, committed and working to protect the electoral viability of the party, should be worried about is that the strongest opponent of the APC is within the APC.”

“The truth is, other parties, especially the PDP, are shadow opposition whose electoral prospects are largely dependent on the outcome of internal contests in the APC, mainly because of the reckless and undisciplined conducts of some APC leaders.”

“If anything, the lesson from the 2019 elections, which every APC leader and the member should be reminded is that APC was defeated in Rivers, Zamfara, Bauchi, Adamawa, Oyo and many other places by aggrieved APC leaders who worked against candidates or leaders of the party as a result of internal disagreements around candidate selections for Governorship of these states. Such internal disagreement almost cost the party the loss of Imo State until the Supreme Court confirmed the victory of the APC. In Ogun, it was a traumatic victory. Kano State Governorship election certainly had its baggage of painful experiences. Lagos State was a shocking narrow victory, no thanks to avoidable challenges. Rambo political contest led to the loss of Edo State in the 2020 Governorship election.”

“How the party is able to manage the process of the internal contest is now the challenge. The biggest problem in politics, which compromises both leaders and members and weakens the capacity to provide generic support to candidates irrespective of who emerges is the personal ambitions of leaders for elective and appointive positions. Most times, leaders and members relate with challenges based on estimation of potentials to win support to access elective and appointive positions. Hardly do leaders and members take initiatives to resolve challenges without some associated expectations, which could be linked to opportunities to access elective and appointive positions.”

“Inability to develop the capacity to regulate the conducts of party leaders will be injurious to the vision of developing the APC as a truly progressive party. As much as it is a welcome development that the party is winning new members, there must be corresponding effort to regulate the conduct of party leaders, based on which efforts are made to provide new orientation to all party leaders, especially the newcomers.”