Salihu Moh Lukman, a former member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has advised advisers of President Bola Tinubu to be patriotic enough to always speak the truth to the president and other leaders about the state of the nation, saying that this will enable them to succeed.
He gave this advice on Wednesday, December 13, at a press conference ahead of next week’s public presentation of his latest book “APC and Transition Politics” in Abuja.
The APC former National Vice Chairman (North West) said President Tinubu and other elected leaders are fallible human beings, stressing that we owe them the responsibility to tell them the truth.
He noted that his advice and actions in the past were being misconstrued to mean opposition to both the President and leaders of the party.
Recalling the struggle against some reactionary tendencies in the party, Lukman said: “I keep saying we are very lucky to have Asiwaju Tinubu then as an aspirant. If we didn’t have somebody with his weight, I’m not very sure we would succeed in repelling the attempt to impose a candidate.
“If we didn’t struggle, it would have been almost impossible to get Asiwaju to emerge as our presidential candidate. And what that reminder tells us is that we must not because today Asiwaju is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria assume that we have achieved, no we have to continue to struggle. And for me, as far as I’m concerned, Asiwaju is like any one of us, he is a human being. He has his strengths, he has his limitations.
“I was conscious of the fact that there were some people who were busy arguing in the leadership of the party that I rebelled against the leadership of President Asiwaju. I didn’t rebel against the leadership of President Tinubu. All I thought as a person what we owe the president is to be able to tell him the truth, no matter what. And that was what I did.
“So we must remain committed so that when we see he’s not doing the right thing we draw his attention. A situation where all of us become sycophantic, everything he does is right. We must not get to that.
“I think we owe our leader the responsibility or President Tinubu the responsibility to tell him the truth.”
In the new publication, “APC and Transition Politics”, the former Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF) said Vice President Kashim Shetimma, APC national chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and immediate past Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo will grace the occasion with Chief Bisi Akande as the Chairman and the APC National Secretary, Sen. Ajibola Bashiru as the book reviewer.
