“APC HAS TURNED AWAY” — LUKMAN, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN

Salihu Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that the current party has strayed from its platform and is starting to resemble the PDP, which it replaced.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Lukeman claimed that the APC came up with the notion of the opposition parties joining forces in order to overthrow the PDP and address some of the irregularities that were identified at the time.

The party has, nevertheless, strayed from its platforms on social services, health, and education.

The APC chieftain emphasized that this was the reason they founded the APC, saying PDP was turning into a one-man show where candidates were forced on voters and internal democracy was abandoned.

Lukeman went on to say that Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which was behaving like an emperor since he was the party’s only source of electoral capital, was partially to blame for the party’s issues.

He said, “We were clear on the kind of party APC should be. We saw the weaknesses of the PDP, apart from the imposition of candidates, part of the problem was that elected candidates were not accountable to the party or anybody and we thought building the APC would depart from that and that was where the slogan ‘change’ came.

“When the debate about the manifesto of the party was going on, the conception was that the party was going to be social democratic with a priority on the issues of health, education and social services but the party has deviated.

“We were hoping with Asiwaju (President Bola Ahmed Tinubu), things will start changing.

“We are having a party where some of its organs have not been convened since its formation. We are having a party which for one year no meeting has taken place and that party is controlling the government.”