By Lanre Oloyede
Former National Vice Chairman Northwest in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mallam Salihu Moh Lukman, has advised the leadership of the newly formed opposition coalition under the auspices of African Democratic Party, ADC, to make internal democracy the fulcrum of stability of the party.
The erstwhile APC chieftain gave the advise Tuesday as Senator David Mark assumes the mantle of leadership as the new National Chairman of ADC.
His advice was contained in a statement titled “ADC and the Prospect of Internal Democracy,”where he warned against the infiltration of “godfathers” who could derail the party’s democratic aspirations ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Lukman expressed concerns that the ADC risks mirroring the fate of older parties like the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and the All Progressives Congress APC if immediate steps are not taken to safeguard its internal democratic processes.
Lukman, who was instrumental in the eighteen-month long negotiations that led to the formation of an opposition coalition and Mark’s emergence, highlighted the pervasive culture of imposition within Nigerian political parties as a core problem hindering accountability and the delivery of electoral promises.
“The major problem is the culture of imposition that is widespread across all the registered political parties in the country,” Lukman stated.
“It is largely responsible for the absence of internal democracy within all the parties.”
He acknowledged the difficulty of uniting opposition leaders, many of whom initially showed skepticism and resisted joining the coalition’s meetings, even accusing the initiators of being sponsored by presidential aspirants.
Despite these challenges, Lukman affirmed their commitment to a “rescue mission” for Nigerian democracy, focused on establishing collective orientation within political leadership.
While commending Senator Mark’s leadership in sealing the agreement that brought about the new ADC leadership, Lukman cautioned that the work of the coalition is far from over.
He expressed worry that “the negative side of almost all our opposition political leaders is already at play,” with some manipulating the leadership reformation process by promoting loyalists without due consideration for merit.
“Loyalists are being promoted in a manner that suggests perhaps the 2027 elections is already won,” Lukman lamented, pointing out that this disregard for “intellectual capacity, integrity, performance track records, name recognition across all demographics, respect in community and political circles, independent mindedness and general acceptability” goes against the agreed-upon principles.
Lukman specifically pointed to instances where coalition leaders, nominated to negotiate zonal leadership positions, have self-promoted to lead their zones, leading to skewed zonal meetings that favored certain individuals. “At the rate things are playing out, ADC is being set up to become another variant of our old parties,” he warned.
He stressed that Nigerians would not be deceived by superficial attempts to present a new party that merely duplicates existing problematic structures.
“With the way things are going, coalition leaders will emerge as godfathers, and the next thing is that they will impose their surrogates at all levels as leaders of the ADC,” he predicted, adding that this would naturally lead to anointing preferred candidates for the 2027 elections.
Lukman asserted that the first true test of Senator Mark’s leadership would be his ability to “mitigate all these and ensure that ADC is not a party that will be controlled by godfathers.” He emphasized the need for collective leadership and equitable decision-making processes at all levels of the party.
