Ganduje making no impact in APC – Lukman

To answer your question, there are a lot of dynamics going on. What appears in the public is not as safe as what people will imagine. It was very clear to me there were forces within the party that were not happy with my role of getting rid of Adamu and the advocacy I had done. I could see the personal danger, which was not just a threat to my life but a threat to my political career, and I am not someone who enjoys good relationships with many party leaders. And sincerely speaking, they gave me a lot of protection, no doubt about it.

But concerning the Progressive Governors’ Forum, there were clear divisions. My role was creating divisions among governors. It was safer for me and the governors to resign, which was what I did. Looking back now, I could see it was not a question of division, but the fact that some people were determined to get me out of the party’s leadership, and I couldn’t just take the risk because if I had allowed them and they succeeded, I would have been damaged. Anything I say thereafter, people would say it is because I am angry, and that I have been thrown out. Based on that, I chose to save myself, which is why I took a lot of time, basically going all over rebuilding my political career. Many felt offended that I resigned in the first place.

Well, we removed Abdullahi Adamu and brought in Ganduje. But Ganduje is just sitting, almost behaving like Adamu. I am sorry, with due respect to him. No meeting is taking place. Sometimes you see people paying courtesy visits. It doesn’t amount to meeting all the obligations the constitution has imposed on him as the national chairman of the party. I think these are the issues.

If today, our judiciary and our law enforcement agencies are working in such a way that they enforce the law as provided in both the constitution and all laws of the country, some of the rascality going on will not take place. But when people believe they have the protection of somebody, which is why people will say Asiwaju should intervene in every crisis. I think this is just where we are.

Look, let me tell you my personal stories. I started facing disciplinary committees from my ‘A’ level. At every stage that I faced a disciplinary committee, I went there with an open mind of ‘I can win’ or ‘I could be thrown out.’ But the good thing is that I wasn’t doing anything selfishly, and God sees my heart. Sometimes protection comes from unexpected quarters. So, look at the most important thing in life and have the best of intentions. Don’t set out to be mean or bad to anybody. I think that is my protection.

I didn’t set out to be mean in the case of (Adams) Oshiomhole, (Mai) Buni, and Adamu, to say they must leave the leadership of the party. No! I intended to draw attention to where the problem lies. When they didn’t listen to me, we continued the advocacy. For me, the first problem in life is fear. Once you conquer fear and, in any case, if I am expelled from the party today, what do I stand to lose? I said the same thing when I was in the PGF with the governors. I told them that I was first a citizen of Nigeria before being a party member and the then DG of the PGF. You can sack me as the DG but I will remain a party member. If you so wish, you can expel me as a party member. I am still a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Once you conquer fear, you don’t have any problems.

Some think you keep finding fault in virtually all the leaders of the APC, including party national chairmen and the president. What exactly is your motive?

I think it is quite unfair to say I don’t see anything good. I keep making the point of how close I was with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole when he was going to declare for the national chairman seat. I was one of those who wrote his declaration speech. If I didn’t see anything good in him, I wouldn’t have supported him in the first place. Seeing good in a person, for me, is not to keep quiet when the person is doing the wrong thing.

I think the challenge we have is that many party members become difficult after they have access to power, even when you try to offer advice. Understandably so because they are surrounded by demands, hence they are unable to distinguish between those who genuinely want to support them to succeed and those praise singers who just want to extract some benefits out of them. In the process, people like us become shortchanged, if I can put it that way.

For me, if I discover that I am not able to assess my leaders and they are going wrong, meanwhile it is the society that is at the receiving end of their inability to do the right thing, I will come out and talk. That is why my background is in activism. I didn’t just go into activism because it is fashionable. I went in with my eyes very open because I was hungry for knowledge. I read a lot. So, that is all about Oshiomhole. After Oshiomhole’s leadership was removed and Mai Mala Buni came, all of you were witnesses to that; there was a time when I was assisting the Buni Caretaker Committee to draft some of their statements until the time they decided they wanted to start thinking about whether to have a convention or not. At that point, some of us were phased out.

While your conflict with Oshiomhole and Buni is understandable, what’s your grouse with Tinubu?

In the case of Asiwaju, God knows, I didn’t come out to insult him. Yes, I was shocked when after the removal of Abdullahi Adamu as the national chairman of the APC, the name of Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, who is somebody I respect, started flying around. I said it several times that I didn’t believe he (Tinubu) made the right decision. If you look at our constitution, the first preference is that the state that produced the member of the National Working Committee should have the benefit of nominating the replacement.

Based on that, I thought Nasarawa State should have been given the honour and we are lucky to have somebody like Tanko Almakura, who is, first of all, a founding member of the party. By my own reading of the situation, one of the reasons why he (Almakura) was not considered to emerge as the APC national chairman was because of Abdullahi Adamu’s closeness to Asiwaju.

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