#EndSARS Protest: President Buhari’s Lieutenants inactive, says DG-PGF
Tom Okpe, Abuja
Direcor General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum PGF, Salihu Moh. Lukman has lambasted appointees of the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration of inactiveness which is bringing the president to ridicule and unfair criticisms.
Lukman spoke in Abuja on Friday during the media presentation of his book, ‘APC and Progressive Politics in Nigeria,’ however opined that while the appointees are no doubt competent hands, their engagement strategies remain deeply flawed.
He said the ‘EndSARS Protest’ is a culmination of years of failed engagements between the people and government appointees.
“Poor engagement of policy demands by groups in the country presented to elected governments through protests is a major problem. This requires that as a party privileged to be elected into government, we need to make efforts to change this reality. What differentiates democracy from any dictatorship is the capacity to engage citizens and based on such engagement, shape public policy.
“Being a progressive party with a progressive government, this should be seamless. Actually, it is the Next Level we should be working on, to take Nigerian politics to a better political climate.
“These are appointees who are no doubt very competent. In the circumstances, the inaction of appointees of government is exposing the President to unfair criticisms. We need to also send strong appeals to all appointees of government to rise up to contemporary democratic challenges by developing correspondingly strong engagement of stakeholders in their sectors in the management of initiatives around their mandate.
“I have no reason to doubt the competence of our leaders to achieve that. My worry is that inability of our leaders at all levels to work as a united front is slowing down the process. This has in many ways contributed to the frustration exhibited by Nigerian youths around the ‘EndSARS Protest’. Part of the bigger worry is also that appointees of government with the mandate to facilitate seamless engagement somehow are not producing the needed democratic responses,” he stated.
