Leaders’ resistance to competition caused crisis in parties – APC chieftain

The Director-General of the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, on Sunday identified resistance by some powerful individuals to competition as the major cause of crisis among political parties in the country.

Lukman, who disclosed this in a statement, said the role of political parties across the world in facilitating the shift of power to the people is remarkable.

According to him, leaders and political establishments, including parties become more prone to electoral defeats when they resist or block internal pressures for leadership change.

He stressed that the inability of political interests to pay attention to strengthening capacity of political institutions to facilitate leadership contests makes citizens to recklessly dismiss and condemn leaders without any clear political demand that requires any response from political leaders.

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The PGF chief said: “Part of the challenge facing Nigerian politics today is the difficulty in institutionalising and mainstreaming political competition within our parties.

“Most of our political leaders are highly resistant to competition. For them, competition should be mainly reduced to the endorsement of their leadership and their decisions, including the leadership choices they make.

“This reality has created a situation of permanent internal rebellion within our parties. Anyone, interested in contesting or competing for leadership in any of our parties, must be ready to organise rebellion, especially, if such an aspiring contestant is not part of the inner caucus of current leaders.”

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