Former national vice chairman (North-West) of All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Lukman, has lamented that elected officials in Nigeria are worse than military rulers.
Speaking on Nigerian democracy, he said: “Unfortunately, here we are, 25 years after, the welfare condition of Nigerians is unarguably worse. Unemployment and poverty incidences have increased.
“Poor management of national resources has continued so much so that the crisis of insecurity and threat to human lives is the new normal.
“The worst part of it is that we have elected governments, virtually at all levels performing worse than military rulers.”
The former director general of APC Progressive Governors’ Forum also hit out at his party, saying:
“APC is one glimmer of political hope, which emerged in 2013, elected as the ruling party since 2015, but emerging, so far, as another moonlighting phenomenon.
“Being a party founded with the vision of becoming a progressive party, it has crashed below whatever a political party represents, let alone being progressive. As it is today, its leadership does not obey its own constitution, it does not hold meetings and it is accountable to no one.
“Since 2015, when the party was elected as a ruling party, with former president Muhammadu Buhari, the manifesto of the party has been virtually abandoned and leaders of the party have little or no say in the management of governments it produced at all levels.
“Processes of appointments into government and policy decisions have been made prerogative of the president at national level and governors at state level. Like under military rule when citizens were reduced to distant observers, under the APC, party leaders and members have also become distant observers.”
