A member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mallam Salihu Moh Lukman, has described as insensitive to Nigerian constitution any Muslim aspiring to be the next Senate President.
Lukman, who is also the National Vice Chairman (North-west) also call on the APC governors, stakeholders and all the party members to prevail on all the aspiring muslim Senator-elects to drop their ambitions.
In a statement the APC chieftain released Monday in Abuja, titled ‘Cash-and-Carry Contest for Leadership of 10th National Assembly’ he said with two Muslims already elected to be sworn in as President and Vice President on May 29, any attempt to consider another Muslim as Senate President will promote the dominance of Muslims in the federal government and will be injurious to national unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as a sovereign entity, which must not be allowed.
“Any Muslim aspiring for the position of Senate President has no respect for both the constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the APC. This is because Chapter II, Section 14(3) of the Nigerian constitution clearly outlined that ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.’
“Further, the APC constitution enjoined party leaders and members to ‘render service at all levels of governance, and to build a nation which will guarantee equal opportunity for all, mutual and peaceful co-existence, respect and understanding, eliminating all forms of discrimination and social injustice among Nigerians, rendering selfless service that will rekindle a deep sense of patriotism and nationalism.’
“How can anyone aspiring for position of leadership at all levels seeking to bribe his/her way be said to be interested in rendering service? Such a person will only be interested in rendering service to himself and himself alone. Besides, given that both the two persons allegedly involved in this cash-and-carry approach to mobilising support for their emergence as Senate President are Muslims, it will be gross insensitivity to the peaceful co-existence of the country and disrespectful to Nigerians to allow them to continue to aspire for the position of Senate President.
In addition, Lukman said any Muslim Senator-elect aspiring for the position of Senate President is disrespectful to the leaders of the country and the party, including President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu.
According to the APC chieftain, emerging risks threatening the peaceful co-existence of Nigeria, however manifest, will squarely be interpreted based on the actions or inactions of the political leadership of the country in the persons of President Buhari as the current leader and Asiwaju Tinubu as his successor.
“Once aspirants win leadership positions through cash-and-carry methods, their loyalty to the government led by Asiwaju Tinubu and the APC will be weak. Such a person could even hold the Government hostage in pursuance of their personal ambitions, which is known only to themselves.
“With all these worrisome developments, the passive and almost unresponsive calmness of members of the APC NWC led by Sen. Abdullahi Adamu is giving credence to the speculation that some of these cash-and-carry aspirants for leadership position in the 10th National Assembly may have bribe the NWC not to initiate actions to zone positions in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly. Otherwise, why is the NWC unable to convene meetings of organs of the party to invoke Article 13.4(vi) of the APC constitution, which directs the NWC to ‘propose electoral guidelines and regulations governing the conduct of elections to party offices at all levels, and procedure for selecting Party candidates for elective offices’?
Lukman described as disturbing and highly unacceptable that something as sensitive as electoral guidelines and regulations for electing leaders of the 10th National Assembly will be left to public speculations.
“At a time when opposition political parties are practically taken over by combinations of religious bigots and political opportunists who will go to any length to manufacture lies aimed at manipulating gullible citizens to support them, we can’t allow the contest for leadership of the 10th National Assembly to continue unregulated. Everything must be done to mobilise all committed party leaders and members to call all APC elected representatives aspiring for positions in the leadership of the 10th National Assembly to order.”
He, however called on the APC to take every step to sanction all those mobilising support for their so-called aspirations based on cash-and-carry method.
“We must appeal to both President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu to promptly urge our National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and the whole NWC to immediately restore constitutional order within the APC.
“The audacious impudence of our elected representatives aspiring for leadership positions in the 10th National Assembly is only a reflection of the dysfunctionality of the organs of the party, which has been the cause of all the leadership challenges facing the party since the time of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
“So long as organs of the party are not meeting as provided in the constitution of the party, decisions required to regulate the conduct of party leaders and members, including the sensitive issue of zoning party leadership will be absent. Once that is the case, leaders and members can go to every extent to achieve their narrow objective of winning election into leadership positions even if that will undermine the peaceful co-existence of Nigeria and the electoral viability of the APC as a political party.
“Our Governors and all our party leaders must also be reminded about their abiding commitment to the unity and peaceful co-existence of Nigeria, which was responsible for their support for the emergence of Asiwaju Tinubu as the candidate of our party for the 2023 elections.”
