In an article titled "Agonizing Experience of Being APC Member: Message to APC Leaders," Lukman expressed shock that Uzodinma was one of President Tinubu's favorite people.
Lukan, the APC's most recent national vice chairman for North West, asserted that he was one of the party's leaders who stood up and opposed the effort to force the party to endorse a presidential candidate.
He went on to say that even afterward, reactionary forces inside the APC made an effort to damage and sabotage the party's and all of its candidates' chances of winning elections, particularly Asiwaju Tinubu, the party's presidential nominee.
"I'm not seeking anything remarkable, nor am I making any claims. "I expect President Asiwaju Tinubu and all of his appointees to conduct themselves with humility and respect toward other party leaders and members, particularly those who are tasked with overseeing his relationships with them," the speaker stated.
The current situation suggests that it would have been more fruitful to be hostile or opportunistic toward President Asiwaju Tinubu. In the case of governors like Sen. Hope Uzodinma, who funded the effort to sway Sen. Ahmed Lawan's nomination as the APC's consensus presidential candidate, his rise to the position of Chairman of Progressive Governors beat the expectations of every APC founding member and was, in every way, tragic. Party leaders who angrily opposed President Asiwaju Tinubu's presidential ambition are now appointees in the Federal Government.
The politician, who was born in Kaduna, said that President Tinubu had a responsibility to live up to the expectation that he would lead the APC back to its original goal of becoming a really progressive organization.
About to wrap up his book about his time in the APC, Lukman revealed that he had discussed the party's future with Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Chief Bisi Akande, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, all of whom served as party chairs from 2014 to the present.
He voiced worry about the actions of party members and officials in the presidential corridors who were determined to prevent him from meeting with President Tinubu to write the Foreword for his book, which sought to make amends within the party.
Disappointingly, he said, "we are getting to a point where access is blocked once you are marked as someone whose views are not in line with the priorities of elected leaders."
As things stand, I've finished working on the manuscript APC and Transition Politics and am now up against a wall. It is rare to get access to Dr. Ganduje, President Asiwaju Tinubu, and many of the appointees who work closely with them.
"I'm hoping President Asiwaju Tinubu will pen the introduction. Additionally, I hope that President Asiwaju Tinubu and all of our elected and appointed representatives in the present day will never forget that the fight to restructure the APC and bring it back to its original goals began long before President Asiwaju Tinubu was elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. President Asiwaju Tinubu, who is rightfully the primary beneficiary now, led that effort, if anything.
Thus, let it be known that preventing President Asiwaju Tinubu from being reached or refusing to be reached will not put an end to the fight for APC reform. It is imperative that President Asiwaju Tinubu and all of his appointments acknowledge that restructuring the APC is a crucial component of the fight for the advancement of Nigerian democracy.
He went on to emphasize, saying, "Eight years later, we are still at the beginning." APC is starting to resemble PDP exactly, complete with all of its drawbacks. Under former President Buhari, we have stood still for eight years when it comes to creating the necessary party-building projects. Will President Asiwaju Tinubu's administration usher in yet another period of zero initiative for party building? Then where is the assertion that we are progressives? So where's the defense or connection to being an awoist?
"It is undoubtedly painful and unsettling that President Asiwaju Tinubu is beginning his term as APC leader by delivering a very clear and unsettling message that changing the APC is not his top priority. Dr. Ganduje is the party's best candidate among all the leadership resources accessible to it, because rebuilding the APC is not his top goal.
It is not President Asiwaju Tinubu's headache, whether party institutions are working or not, having succeeded in electing Dr. Ganduje as the National Chairman. It was also the reason why it doesn't matter if Dr. Ganduje's rise to prominence resulted in the marginalization of North Central residents inside the party and the federal government.
Maybe we could bring up Frantz Fanon's age-old caution that "Each generation must, out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it" to President Asiwaju Tinubu and all APC leaders. Reminding President Asiwaju Tinubu and all other APC leaders of the party's original goal of transforming Nigerian politics—basically, internal party changes to enable the emergence of candidates for election contests through democratic channels—is imperative.
"President Asiwaju Tinubu and other APC leaders should not allow themselves to believe that the mere elimination of the PDP and the installation of Presidents Buhari and Tinubu as Heads of the Federal Republic of Nigeria represents the kind of political transformation that the people of Nigeria have been longing for.
"APC is betraying its original goal as long as it permits a scenario that may be seen as solidifying the outdated political paradigm that encourages impunity and the imposition of authority.
"We can fool ourselves into thinking that we can keep winning elections and that leaders who are successful surround themselves with followers who only tell them what they want to hear, but this won't change the fact that treachery occurs and won't shield leaders from it.