Ex-APC chieftain alleges marginalisation of North Central

A former Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Salihu Lukman, has faulted the alleged marginalisation of the North Central geo-political zone from the political leadership of the country.

“When you talk of marginalisation, my problem with President Asiwaju started from the beginning when the campaign to get Senator Abdullahi Adamu and Senator Iyiola Omisore was almost my singular handiwork.

“Nobody pushed me but having got them out of the party, the first thing President Asiwaju (Tinubu) did was to take steps that completely marginalised the people of North Central in the political leadership of the country and till today it has not been corrected.” Lukman said while featuring in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Programme, monitored by the According online on Thursday.

Lukman said the government is drifting away from the legacies of the party, saying that the Tinubu-led government has not prioritised investment decisions according to the critical needs of the country.

He noted that while insecurity has eaten deep into the fabric of the country and the need to invest heavily in the recruitment of more personnel into the police Force is a top priority for the nation, the Tinubu-led government rather chose to set aside a N15trn for the Lagos-Calabar coastal road project.

“We know that we need to take collective responsibility to be able to solve this problem, but everybody sits back and we watch even when elected people who promise to solve the problem are not doing anything.

:They are just running government based on business as usual, nobody is talking. We are supposed to be a progressive government and a progressive government is supposed to prioritise the living conditions of citizens; so public investment in terms of policies will prioritise that.

“All of a sudden we talk about statistics of N10million out-of-school children in the North, and this is what has bred this crisis of banditry and insecurity and a claimed progressive government instead of investing very high in education and mop up the out-of-school children to reduce the number of people that can be recruited into banditry, is spending N15trillion on Lagos-Calabar coastal road.

“With the best of intention, that could be needed, but in terms of priority of the nation, is it road construction or attending to problems of insecurity?” he queried.

Lukman stated that the problems of the ruling party began with the disposition of leaders sidelining debate while allowing “people to emerge as emperors after becoming elected.”