Opposition working for Tinubu’s second term, Lukman alleges 

Bode George traces crisis in PDP

Former Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman, has alleged that opposition political parties are working covertly for President Bola Tinubu’s second term as President.

Meanwhile, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), Bode George, has traced the internal strife within the party to injustice and the leaders’ refusal to abide by the constitution.

Lukman, in a piece entitled ‘Looming Danger of Docile Political Opposition’, remarked that the care-free disposition of the opposition could produce what he termed “the disastrous outcome” whereby Nigerians may be unable to change Tinubu’s government in 2027.

Acknowledging ongoing discussions about what needs to be done by chieftains of opposition parties in the mould of Atiku Abubakar of PDP, Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), he expressed worry that those discussions had yet to graduate to structured political engagements on the platforms of any of the existing opposition parties.

Lukman, who recently resigned his membership in the All Progressives Congress (APC), claimed that none of the opposition parties, which ordinarily should be leading the opposition to Tinubu’s government, was making any effort to unite opposition political leaders in the country.

Instead, he argued, all the leading opposition parties are embroiled in some embarrassing internal crisis, which has pitched their leaders against one another.

According to the Kaduna-born politician, it is quite appalling that PDP leaders are antagonistic to Atiku, Obi is in the midst of a helpless survival leadership battle in LP and Kwankwaso is oversighting a directionless NNPP whose roof is being blown away by its so-called leaders.

The situation, he added, is worsened by the fact that the other parties have adopted a monarchic behaviour, sitting in their comfort zones waiting for disgruntled and aggrieved opposition political leaders to come to them for some ‘royal’ covers.

He lamented: “All these have contributed to emboldening Tinubu and his APC to make insensitive and reckless decisions, daily, which worsen citizens’ condition of living.

“On a scale never imagined in the country, Nigerians across all divides are living in agony on account of harsh living reality due to reckless policy decisions, while the government continues to indulge in illogical luxurious public expenditure without recourse to due process.”

FOR lasting peace to return, George charged PDP stakeholders to undertake an unbiased post-mortem of the causes of the crisis before setting up a reconciliation committee.

While discussing the topic, ‘National Reconciliation and Discipline in the PDP’ on television, on Sunday night, George described the setting up of a reconciliation committee as putting the cart before the horse.

The PDP chieftain said, “There’s no chance in the world that the chairman of the party will come from the same zone as the presidential candidate of the party. That was where the disagreement started, and they didn’t handle it well. That was why we went to war, divided. And, of course, divided, how will we not be defeated house?

“We could not prevent that from happening. As we are now, there is no solid opposition to counter the lacklustre or non-seriousness of those in government. We are busy fighting.”

Speaking on events preceding the crisis and the efforts made to reconcile feuding members, the former National Vice Chairman South West Zone of PDP said: “I was one of those elected on the first elective convention of our party in December 1998, and we knew what they handed over; no perpetuity in any office. That is why they gave three to the South and three to the North.

“All positions will not come to the South. All positions will not come to the North. And as they go, they rotate around there. But they wanted to denounce that and we refused.”