The National Vice Chairman of North West, Salihu Lukman, on Wednesday, disclosed that the ruling All Progressives Congress did not give President Bola Tinubu, governors and other candidates who contested the 2023 general election ‘a dime’ to fund the electioneering campaign.
Lukman stated that, unlike former President Muhammadu Buhari who was fortunate to have people mobilise money for his election, the former Lagos governor singlehandedly funded his presidential rallies.
“He (Tinubu) didn’t get a dime from the party. I challenge them. I’m making this public. Let them contradict me. Let them show evidence that that is not the case,” he said.
The Kaduna politician made the revelation at an emergency press conference held in Abuja to clear the allegation leveled against him by the leadership of the party.
The APC vice chairman stated that the non-availability of funds to the president and all candidates of the party in the build-up to the 2023 general elections was unprecedented, adding that even the ‘disastrous’ Osun election was well funded.
When asked to clarify if the same treatment was meted out to the immediate past president in 2015 and 2019, Lukman shook his head.
He stated, “Look in 2015, the APC was truly a model party. In fact, a party to really copy. President Buhari doesn’t have money. There were people who were assigned the responsibility to raise money. It’s not like Asiwaju that people said has money. So there were people assigned with the responsibility of mobilising money for the party.
“If anything was done in 2023 based on that, it would have been the initiative of Asiwaju. I am not aware of it as a party. If you remember, in-between we were busy causing distractions about what should be our roles in the APC Presidential Campaign Council.
“Unless we are humble and honest to admit that these are things that ordinarily shouldn’t have happened and admit we need to correct them and reshape the relationship between us and the government that emerge, we would continue to have the problem we are having.”
Earlier on Tuesday night, National Secretary of the APC, Iyiola Omisore, had labeled Lukman as a ‘loose cannon’ and ‘black sheep’ of the party.
Omisore, who made the claim on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today, further described the national vice chairman for North-West as a gas lighter who likes crying wolf where there is none.
He also berated those secretly backing or standing by Lukman’s philosophy, saying they are ‘cowards.’
In a similar development, Adamu also made an appearance on Arise Television on Tuesday where he also accused the North West vice chairman of acting in ignorance.
Reacting to the allegation, Lukman disclosed that both Omisore and Adamu are living in denial by refusing to address the issues plaguing the party.
“l listened to the chairman and national secretary of the party and I would say these two are in denial. There is clearly a problem. I don’t want to belabour the issue in terms of statements that have been made that are incorrect.
“I think the national secretary may have spoken either out of anger in trying to sweep issues under the carpet. Look I am not against him or Omisore but we must have the humility to accept our failures. This NEC and national caucus should be used to review all those developments in order to prevent a recurrence.
“You (journalists) are my witness. The national chairman and national secretary said I apologised when I sued the party. The national secretary said I was not informed. It’s not true. My colleagues appealed to me and convinced me. When the case of the secretariat being turned into a warehouse was raised, I stressed that we need a code of conduct. I accused the NWC of collecting bribes on the issue. I was not complaining about the national leadership who failed to control that kind of situation and allowed aspirants to just come and dump things on the NWC.
“That was the context of the apology to the NWC. My main point was that the leadership has failed us and our aspirants need to be controlled and regulated. We can’t have a situation where people think we are there for the buying. So I apologised to them for that seeming embarrassment. Even at the meeting, my colleagues in the NWC said the issues must be addressed and we left it on that note,” he explained.
