Tom Okpe, Abuja
As the Endsars protest in the country rages, the Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum, PGF Salihu Moh. Lukman has urged Natiinal Leaders across the country to save Nigeria for the All Progressives Congress, APC to command moral electoral credibility.
Lukman made the call in a press statement in Abuja on Thursday saying, ‘crisis is always the test of leadership.’
He said: “Crisis is always the test of leadership. That our dear nation is in crisis cannot be disputed. The crisis is already consuming precious lives of Nigerians. Properties and assets of citizens and governments are being destroyed. Unfortunately, responses from our political leaders especially at Federal level are below public expectation.”
He also said as loyal members of the APC and patriotic Nigerians, we need to appeal to our leaders, in particular President Muhammadu Buhari, to kindly and urgently hasten intervention through appropriate civic engagement across every part of the country to ensure restoration of peace.
“It is now a national imperative for all our political leaders, irrespective of partisan, ethnic, religious, gender or any other demographic affiliation, to forge a strong national unity as a cardinal requirement for restoration of peace in the country. We are faced with emergency situation and every political leader should recognise that, in fact, political contest is only possible under conditions of peaceful atmosphere.”
The nation had been engulfed with youth protest against Police brutality on citizen, calling for the scrapping of it’s special squad, ‘Special Anti Robery Squad, SARS. “The last few days, since Monday, October 19, 2020, are periods of excruciating pain as Nigerians, but as APC members, we watched helplessly how innocent, legitimate and peaceful protest of our children was allowed to be hijacked. It is sad that the unfortunate poor management of the #EndSARS protest has led to the incidence of the night of Tuesday, October 20, 2020 in Lekki, which resulted in the attack of innocent protesters. “Consequently, Lagos State has come under attack by rampaging and angry lawless crowd, who have targeted and destroyed private and government structures, including the Palace of the Oba of Lagos, among many public structures. Our APC leaders, especially Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu are being threatened, resulting in the burning down of the house of the mother of Sanwo-Olu in Surulere, Lagos. “As it is, Lagos is practically shut down by the crisis. Before Lagos, Benin City was similarly shut down on Monday, October 19, 2020. Earlier, on Saturday, October 17, 2020, there was attack on Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, Governor of Osun State by some criminal elements who penetrated the peaceful protest by our youth in Osogbo. The situation is such that our Governors within their limited capacities are taking every pre-emptive step to avert further outbreak of violence in our states.
“The reality however, like other Nigerians, our Governors are at the receiving end of this unfortunate development. Although given their constitutional powers, they also have critically important responsibilities, but the Federal Government has superior responsibility to initiate response to the current crisis. While this is not a period to resort to any blame game, it is however important to recognise that part of the problem weakening Federal initiatives is the inability of many, if not all the mandate ministries and agencies responsible for one form of intervention or the other to competently and effectively initiate needed responses.” Lukman queried the existence of Ministry of Police Affairs but unable to stimulate engagement strategy with innocent young Nigerians calling for reform in the Nigeria Police.
“What is the advantage of democracy if a ministry cannot be able to engage the demands of citizens, where is the Ministry of Disaster Management and Humanitarian Services in all these; doesn’t the mandate of the ministry include initiatives to prevent disaster, or, is disaster management limited to attending to human casualties by way of providing palliatives; where is the Ministry of Youth in all this, how can the ministry absent itself from centres of legitimate protests of our youth for more than a week, where is the Ministry of Defence and Interior and where is National Orientation Agency,” he asked. He noted that if all the agencies of government and political appointees managing these agencies have handle their responsibilities as is expected, this crisis would have been averted pointing that “the current crisis is eroding the moral credibility of our party, APC and our political leaders. A situation where lives of our leaders are being threatened and our party and government demostrate weak responses is quite depressing.
He warned that the present leaders may be writing its names as a generation of political leaders into a national black book if this situation is not arrested urgently.
