A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Salihu Lukman, has accused President Bola Tinubu of “rewarding” governors who misappropriate and divert public funds for personal gain.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme on Friday, Lukman said that despite clear evidence of mismanagement by some governors, the president continues to approve substantial disbursements to states without enforcing accountability.
His remarks come in response to President Tinubu’s recent appeal to state governors to prioritise poverty alleviation and ensure that governance delivers tangible benefits to citizens.
However, Lukman questioned the president’s commitment to enforcing this directive, arguing that governors continue to evade accountability due to their firm grip on party structures.
“Yes, the president has said the right thing, but what is he doing to ensure that governors do what they need to do?” Lukman asked.
“The president can do something, but what I see him doing is to reward them for doing the wrong things.”
“Once we have a system where the structure of the party is subordinated to them, they will continue with this arrogance and continue to be unaccountable and convert public resources as if it is their personal property,” he said.
The former National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) further criticised the Tinubu administration for prioritising the defection of opposition governors over making sure they are accountable to the people who voted for them.
He said, “For instance, when your recruitment policy in your party is blindly informed in a way that all you want is for people to come into your party without giving them the conditions that need to happen for them to be accountable to their people.
“Many of them, their objective is to be where they are and not to deliver service.”
Lukman noted that while APC members had high hopes and fully trusted their leaders, that trust was broken through poor leadership and lack of accountability. He added that the ADC has learnt from the APC’s mistakes and will do things differently if it produces Nigeria’s next president in 2027.
“The ADC as a coalition, I see it as a platform for struggle. We have to engage our leaders. The mistake many of us make is to imagine that leaders are rational and, left on their own, they will do the right thing.
“Our objective of forming the coalition is to organise it in such a way that if we produce the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and governors, all those people will be accountable to the party and the party will properly direct them to deliver services based on the electoral promises as provided in the manifesto of the party,” he said.
Lukman also dismissed concerns about the ADC’s lack of structure, describing them as mere “doomsday analysis.”
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