The Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has said the All Progressives Congress (APC) must adopt the model it used in the build up to the 2015 general election to win the 2023 presidential poll.
He said regular meetings by APC bigwigs and power brokers between 2013 and 2014, led to President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015.
Speaking with newsmen on Monday in Abuja, during the presentation of his new book titled, “APC And Progressive Politics in Nigeria” Lukman urged party leaders to unite and return to the era of holding regular meetings without sidelining those with opposing views ahead of 2023.
He also appealed to the party’s top echelon to demonstrate its progressive credentials by putting in place a credible and verifiable membership register.
“Part of what is needed in the circumstance, is to remind our leaders that one of the factors that ensured that our leaders were united, which made the electoral victory of 2015 possible was that they were meeting almost on weekly basis.
“It wasn’t factional meetings, all our leaders attended almost all these meetings and they respected every decision.
“I can recall with nostalgic feelings that between 2013 and December 2014, President Buhari, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Owelle Rochas Okorocha were in attendance in virtually every meeting.
“The truth is, our leaders were united because they exhibited high level of tolerance, which contributed to making the party attractive. These are progressive credentials which the party and our leaders must return to,” he said.
