“APC convention issues must be resolved February 26, Caretaker C’ttee must go”

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The immediate past Director General of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh Lukman, has assured that the controversy trailing the National Convention of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) would be resolved before February 26 and the National Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the party must go.

Fielding questions from journàlists in Abuja, Lukman said it is important that the party focuses its energy on how to build a strong platform that would be able to convince Nigerians to trust it with power for another four years rather than stakeholders engaging in unnecessary internal conflict.

According to him, the issue of zoning party offices should not have created conflict in the party, considering the fact that there must be a party before zoning can be discussed. He urged party chieftains to focus attention on how to ensure that the party’s national convention slated for February 26 is not shifted again by the CECPC led by Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni.

Speaking further, he expressed confidence that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not a match for APC, saying it is the internal wrangling in the ruling party that may give the opposition an advantage.

Lukman dismissed the insinuation that the crisis in his party has remained persistent because President Muhammadu Buhari, who is its de facto leader, has failed to provide leadership to the governors on the platform.

He said the decision of the President not to interfere in the party’s internal crisis has portrayed him as a true democrat different from past Presidents, citing the case of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom he accused of practically deciding who occupied any political office.

While countering the PDP claims that APC government has mortgaged the future of the unborn generation of Nigerians through its accumulation of a huge debt profile, resulting from excessive borrowing, the PGF ex DG said the important factor for consideration is that President Buhari does not borrow to pay salaries or to sustain recurrent expenditure.

He said all the borrowings by the APC government is invested on infrastructure, which he said can sustainably offset its debt when completed. He also noted with joy that the Buhari government has been able to grow the non oil revenue above what the country earns from sale of crude, contrary to the PDP era when the economy was only sustained by oil money.