Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has said that the inactivity of some appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari was exposing him to unfair criticisms.
He said while he had no reason to doubt their competence, but added that the inability of party leaders at all levels to work as a united front was slowing down the process.
The director general said that this had in many ways contributed to the frustration exhibited by Nigerian youths as witnessed with the #EndSARS protest.
The party chieftain explained that part of the bigger worry was also that appointees of government with the mandate to facilitate seamless engagement somehow are not producing the needed democratic responses.
Lukman stated this yesterday in Abuja during the media presentation of his new book, ‘APC and Progressive Politics in Nigeria’, saying that the #EndSARS protest was a culmination of years of failed engagements between the people and government appointees.
He stated: “Poor engagement of policy demands by groups in the country presented to elected governments through protests is a major problem. This requires that as a party privileged to be elected into government, we need to make efforts to change this reality. What differentiates democracy from any dictatorship is the capacity to engage citizens and based on such engagement shape public policy. Being a progressive party with a progressive government this should be seamless. Actually, it is the Next Level we should be working to take Nigerian politics to”.
“I have no reason to doubt the competence of our leaders to achieve that. My worry is that inability of our leaders at all levels to work as a united front is slowing down the process. This has in many ways contributed to the frustration exhibited by Nigerian youths around the #EndSARS protest. Part of the bigger worry is also that appointees of government with the mandate to facilitate seamless engagement somehow are not producing the needed democratic responses.
“Again, these are appointees who are no doubt very competent. In the circumstances, the inaction of appointees of government is exposing the President to unfair criticisms. We need to also send strong appeals to all appointees of government to rise up to our contemporary democratic challenges by developing correspondingly strong engagement of stakeholders in their sectors in the management of initiatives around their mandate”, he stated.
