Salihu Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and now a leading figure in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s approach to state governance, accusing him of rewarding governors who mismanage public funds.
Speaking during an appearance on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, Lukman argued that the president’s failure to enforce accountability has allowed state governors to continue their poor financial practices unchecked.
“Yes, the president has said the right thing, but what is he doing to ensure that governors do what they need to do?” Lukman queried.
“The president can do something, but what I see him doing is to reward them for doing the wrong things.”
His remarks come shortly after President Tinubu publicly urged governors to prioritize poverty alleviation and ensure governance delivers tangible benefits to citizens.
But Lukman believes the president’s words have not been backed by meaningful actions.
According to him, state governors have maintained their dominance over political party structures, effectively shielding themselves from oversight.
“Once we have a system where the structure of the party is subordinated to them, they will continue with this arrogance, and continue to be unaccountable and convert public resources as if it is their personal property,” he said.
Lukman also criticized the APC’s approach to political expansion, particularly its acceptance of defecting opposition governors without holding them to clear standards of performance or accountability.
“When your recruitment policy in your party is blindly informed in a way that all you want is for people to come into your party without giving them the conditions that need to happen for them to be accountable to their people, the objectives of many of them become to be where they are and not to deliver services,” he stated.
Turning to the state of the APC, Lukman did not hold back. He accused the party leadership of betraying the confidence reposed in them by members and citizens alike.
“In APC, we invested every trust in the leaders and at the end of the day, leaders betrayed that trust, and that is why APC is damaged today, whereby it is worse than the PDP,” he said.
Now active in the opposition, Lukman said the ADC intends to restore integrity to public office through more accountable governance structures.
He explained that the party is working toward creating an internal system that compels elected officials to align with the party’s manifesto and goals.
“The mistake many of us make is to imagine that leaders are rational and, left on their own, they will do the right thing. Our objective is to organise the party in such a way that governance is accountable to the party and aligned with the manifesto,” he added.
