- President Muhammadu Buhari has been warned against choosing a successor ahead of the 2023 presidential election
- The warning was given to the president by a member of the All Progressives Congress National Working Committee
- Mohammed Lukman said such move by President Buhari would be to risky and costly for Nigeria’s democracy
The National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against choosing a successor prior to the 2023 presidential election across the country,
A member o the NWC, Salihu Lukman urged the president to be conscious of his legacies and avoid falling into the temptation of picking his successor.
In an open letter to Buhari on Wednesday, June 1, Lukman who is also the national vice chairman of the northwest warned that such action from the president would be democratically risky and very costly.
He also called on the president not to copy what he described as the anti-democratic credentials of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who foisted his successor, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Lukman alleged that the former president did not stop at that but also went on to rig the general election to ensure his emergence victorious at the poll.
In the letter themed; “Succession and 2023 APCPresidential Candidate: Open Letter to President Muhammadu Buhari,” Lukman reacted to the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting between President Buhari and APC governors.
A former director-general of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Lukman said it is important for the APC to keep faith with basic tenets of democracy as its major campaign message to Nigerians for the 2023 elections.
The letter read in part:
“This was eloquently highlighted in Your Excellency’s message to our Progressive Governors when you stated that ‘the key to electoral successes is the ability to hold consultations and for members to put the nation above other interests.’
“The temptation for leaders to choose their successors is democratically risky and very costly. If in 2013/2014, Your Excellency could submit yourself to internal democratic processes, it is important that your successor also follows the same process.”
“Your Excellency, since the period of negotiating the merger that produce our party APC, I have been a proponent of ensuring that our party takes every step to preserve our leaders who could exercise moral authority.”
“This means that leaders who are highly respected on account of their standing in society should not hold elective or appointive positions