Top leaders and power brokers in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have been advised not to impose candidates ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The party’s immediate past national vice chairman (North West), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, made the appeal in a statement on Tuesday, titled ‘The cancer destroying Nigerian democracy’.
Lukman said all party leaders should work hard to return the party to its founding vision and deepen democracy in the country, stressing that any proposal for electoral reform must include stronger regulatory framework for the operations of political parties in the country.
The former director-general of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) said, “Like the case in PDP in 2007, it may grow to the point whereby almost all APC candidates for 2027 elections may be produced through imposition.
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“Unless we want to lie to ourselves, as things are, there is the culture of manipulating political contests through imposition, vote buying, rigging, etc.
“We must also appeal to all APC leaders, especially, President Asiwaju Tinubu, to resist the temptation of overindulging themselves with the false belief that they could continue to succeed to impose their choices on Nigerians,” he said.