Fresh crisis appears to be looming in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over the request of President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday to be allowed to nominate his successor as the APC candidate for the 2023 elections.
A member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC), Salihu Lukman, former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum, on Wednesday disagreed with the President, urging President Buhari to withdraw his request for discretion or privilege to nominate a presidential candidate for the party as his successor in the 2023 general elections.
Lukman, APC National Vice-Chairman in the National Working Committee (NWC), wrote an open letter to President Buhari on Wednesday, admonishing the unilateral nomination of the APC presidential candidate will erase all the lifelong achievements of the President to strengthen democracy in Nigeria.
The APC Vice National Chairman argued that the idea of President Buhari “will reduce loyal party members to ordinary observers when very sensitive issues with very high potential to diminish his revered status are being discussed.”
Lukman warned that any initiative that potentially takes away the rights of party members to elect candidates would potentially mobilise Nigerians against the party.
He argued that the temptation for leaders to choose their successors is democratically risky and very costly, saying that if President Buhari could submit himself to internal democratic process in 2014, then, his successor should follow same process in 2022.
Lukman maintained that APC must demonstrate much more sensitivity to the challenges of national unity by ensuring that the eventual standard bearer for the 2023 election embodies commitment to equity and justice as the underlying principles sustaining the corporate existence of Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari is soliciting the support of the governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and other stakeholders in picking his successor, who would fly the flag of the party at the 2023 Presidential Election.
The President had at a meeting with the APC governors on Tuesday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, stated: “In keeping with the established internal policies of the party, and as we approach the convention in a few days, I, therefore, wish to solicit the reciprocity and support of the governors and other stakeholders in picking my successor, who would fly the flag of our party for election into the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in 2023.”
The request of the President has been generating apprehension of plans to impose a presidential candidate on the party for the 2023 elections.