APC yet to connect with Nigerian masses ahead of 2023 general election – PGF DG

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The Director General of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Moh Lukman, has expressed concern that despite the fast approaching 2023 general election, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) still has a lot of grounds to cover in endearing the party and its manifesto to the masses of Nigeria.
In a statement issued yesterday by the PGF DG, the party said there is need for the party to embark on aggressive mobilisation and selling of the party ideals to Nigerians, as a measure to guarantee an impressive outing in the 2023 general election.
According to Lukman, “…being members of the APC, we should be able to acknowledge too that although, the slogan of the APC is CHANGE, which underlines the commitment of the party and its leadership to bring about change in the country, the programmatic details as articulated in the party’s manifesto require a mobilisation programme in order to win the support of Nigerians.
“One of the big gaps confronting the APC, which unfortunately makes it easy for opposition politicians to dent the party and its governments’ is the absence of mobilisation programme to engage Nigerians to take responsibility in their different fields of endevours in responding to challenges facing the country.
“Getting Nigerians to take responsibility in their different fields of endevours in responding to challenges facing the country is a critical success factor in terms of producing the change envisioned by the APC and its leadership as articulated in the manifesto of the party.”
While raising the alarm over sustained blame game approach by APC to governance, even six years after Nigerians voted the party to power, the DG said President Muhammadu Buhari and all those who rode to power through APC, must desist and design strategy to meet the desires of Nigerian masses, especially by first taking responsibility of their actions and inactions.
Recalling how APC emerged to wrest power from the then opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lukman said “It is hardly disputable that PDP mismanaged and squandered opportunities for sixteen years between 1999 and 2015. No need to go into details as that is not the focus. What is more important at this point is the recognition that it was easy for Nigerians to register their support for APC, and on that account voted PDP out of power in 2015.
“Of course, there were contextual factors, which made the APC to win the support of Nigerians. These factors include the successful merger of defunct opposition parties – Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressives Change (CPC) and Owelle Rochas Okorocha’s faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) – combined with relatively transparent processes of candidate selection for the 2015 elections, especially the Presidential Candidate, together with all the inspiring campaign promises and the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari as the Presidential Candidate of the APC. With all these, the APC was able to win the 2015 elections and Nigerians had very high expectations.
“The question is, to what extent did the APC and its governments meet or are meeting the expectations of Nigerians? What are the challenges and how is the APC and its governments responding to these challenges? Compared to PDP, how different is the APC?
“The fundamental issue is the question of the extent to which APC leaders and members are responding to challenges. Are we taking responsibility? The good thing is that, in APC, leaders are not in denial of the challenges. This was not the case with PDP before 2015 and up this moment.”
He said though the ruling party inherited a battered system from the now opposition PDP in 2015, the party may not had fared well in confronting the challenges it met on ground, citing the Rwandan experience.
He however challenged the people in authority to develop a problem solving mechanism while noting that the nation’s challenges are more likely to get worse if nothing is done to arrest the situation.
The DG argued further that despite the wide recognition and acknowledgement that the challenges facing Nigeria as a nation are deep rooted, it will require a robust programme of reorientation in the country to sustain the envisioned change APC and its leadership are working to achieve, adding that “once the focus and scope of initiatives is limited to operations of government institutions, and non-governmental institutions continue with business-as-usual practices, most of the challenges facing the country will linger.
“For instance, take the case of insecurity, which is the most important threat to the survival of the country. As much as combative military operations against insurgency in all its manifestations – banditry, kidnappings, abductions, etc. – is fundamental to restoring order and protection of lives and property in the country, equally important is also how Nigerians across all strata of social life are being mobilised to take responsibility in restoring order and guaranteeing security of life and property in every part of the country.
“How is government working to raise awareness of Nigerians in terms of what to look out for as danger signals in our different communities? What kind of conducts by citizens, including community leaders constitute risk factors and therefore indicative of security challenges? What should be done, where and who to report to? What other initiatives should citizens take?”