Choosing your successor risky, costly for Nigeria’s democracy, APC NWC member tells Buhari

A member of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari on the need to be conscious of his legacies and avoid falling into the temptation of unilaterally picking his successor.

National Vice Chairman, North-West, in the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led NWC, Salihu Lukman, gave the charge in an open letter to the President Wednesday in Abuja.

Lukman, in the piece titled “Succession and 2023 APC Presidential Candidate: Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari,” was reacting to the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting between President Buhari and APC governors.

During the consultative meeting with Progressive Governors on Tuesday, the President had spoken of the internal policies of the APC which allowed ‘first term governors who have served credibly well …to stand for re-election’ and ‘second term governors … accorded the privilege of promoting successors that are capable of driving their visions’.

The President, therefore, solicited for ‘reciprocity and support of Governors and other stakeholders in picking’ his successor, ‘who would fly the flag of our party for election into the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.’

The former Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum PGF noted that it is important therefore to caution APC to keep faith with basic tenets of democracy as its major campaign message to Nigerians for the 2023 elections.