The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been advised to make its electioneering campaign to issues-based, as well as proposals for nation-building,
This approach is imperative as the major challenge facing Nigerian politics is about opening the democratic space, but despite the odd, the people must be challenged to make hard choices.
APC National Vice Chairman (North West), Salihu Moh. Lukman gave the advice in a piece he wrote recently titled: “Issues for APC 2023 Presidential Campaign”.
Apart from being issues based, Lukman insisted that the campaign must be about pushing Nigerians to take all the hard decisions based on respect, equity and fair representation, specifying that these are the virtues Tinubu should represent.
He related that the ruling APC should win the 2023 Presidential Election based on a “convincing promise for national unity!”
“The challenge facing Nigerian politics is about opening the democratic space. It is not going to be easy, but Nigerians must be challenged to make hard choices. Important as ethnic and religious identities are, addressing challenges facing the country, require that political leaders are not allowed to ride on cheap sentiments of religion and ethnicity to opportunistically win elections.
“If Nigeria is to move forward, 2023 Presidential campaigns must not reduce important debates of moving Nigeria forward to sentimental considerations of ethnicity and religion. If the truth is to be told, both Islam and Christianity, as well as all our ethnic factors have been used in equal measure to hold Nigeria at a standstill. Many so-called religious and ethnic leaders have used and are still using religion and ethnicity to pollute the minds of Nigerians against one another. If Nigerian politics is to overcome the adversities of these so-called religious and ethnic leaders, religious and ethnic backgrounds of leaders must be subordinated to experiential attributes of persons being considered for leadership” Lukmon wrote.
The APC Chieftain said it is important to stress the point that whatever is the final choice of Asiwaju Tinubu and APC leaders with respect to who emerges as the running mate, the 2023 Presidential election will be keenly contested, irrespective of religious and ethnic identity of both Asiwaju Tinubu and whoever the running mate may be.
He posited: “APC leaders must acknowledge the fact that the 2023 elections present another golden opportunity for the APC to re-invent itself. With the landmark initiatives of President Buhari’s government in the last seven years, challenges of insecurity are being used by opposition parties, especially PDP, to falsely allege that APC has failed.
“The claim is that APC government has mismanaged the economy, divided Nigerians and created insecurity. Part of the arguments is that Nigeria is now the ‘poverty capital of the world’, alleging also that the so-called poor performance of APC led government of President Buhari contrasts with so-called ‘achievements’ of sixteen years of PDP between 1999 and 2015. Many PDP leaders and their supporters have even claimed that if PDP failed to win the 2023 election, Nigeria will collapse.
“APC must, as a party, use the 2023 Presidential campaign to effectively counter all these false narratives. Part of what must be done to achieve that is about developing effective communication strategy, which has been one of the strong weaknesses of both the APC as a party and as a governing party at Federal level. APC’s 2023 Presidential campaign must effectively correct all these false narratives and convincingly confirm to Nigerians that, President Buhari’s APC government has put Nigeria back on the roadmap to national development. APC’s 2023 Presidential campaign must use evidence-based politics to showcase the initiatives of President Buhari-led Federal Government” Lukmon said.
If APC wished to win next year’s general, he advised that the major objective of its Presidential campaign should be to correct all the false narratives being propagated by opposition parties that APC government has failed.
In line with this, Lukmon wrote that the campaign should focus more on showcasing the achievements of APC-led Federal Government, which is about rebuilding the country.
He specified that the APC should flaunt social investment intervention initiatives, such as: N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Home Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP); infrastructure development and agriculture programme of Muhammadu Buhari-led administration
Another scorecard of the APC Federal Government that can win election he wrote is the implementation of National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), which he harped, is far more than what any government in the past has done.
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