Former All Progressives Congress (APC) leader Salihu Lukman has said President Bola Tinubu’s statement on fuel subsidy without presenting any plan was one of his biggest mistakes.
Naija News reports that the former National Vice President (Northwest) made this known in an interview on Arise TV on Monday.
Lukman stated that despite the economic situation in the country, APC members cannot access Tinubu or influence decisions on what should be done in the country.
The former APC leader noted that if the ruling party does not change its direction, the masses would be forced to queue behind another leader during the 2027 elections.
He said, “One of the biggest mistakes that President Asiwaju made was to make that statement on the day of his inauguration, declaring that the oil subsidy had disappeared without even sitting down to come up with a plan and today, there is no plan to respond to that challenge.
“And that is why living conditions in the country are collapsing and the government is standing firm. All of us at the game have become spectators. We cannot even access President Asiwaju and influence decisions in terms of what needs to be done.
“The way things are going, my prediction, for which I had to act as I acted, is that by the end of this year, if we do not take time, the campaign for 2027 will begin and people will be forced to simply queue behind any leader and out of anger, out of frustration, with reality before us, we will end up electing even a worse successor to President Asiwaju and all the challenges of the country will become even worse.”
Lukman also criticized the government’s significant spending on infrastructure projects such as the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, while neglecting urgent needs in education and health.
He highlighted that the allocation for education is insufficient to address such a critical issue.
He said, “Spend N15 billion on the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. Imagine if a fraction of that amount is invested in education and in terms of education, we are talking about 10 million out-of-school children in the north.
“This problem cannot be solved by doing the same thing as always, allocating a pittance to education and hoping that the classrooms function, that teachers are hired and that teaching materials are purchased with the pittance that is being spent now. Therefore, additional budgetary activities are needed to respond to this situation and get out-of-school children off the streets.
“In terms of cleanliness, the advantage is that it will also reduce the vulnerability of the nation in terms of insecurity. Imagine a fraction of 15 trillion naira invested in our armed forces through procurement of military equipment, training and even talking about responding to security challenges, we have been drifting as a nation for God knows how long about state police or not ”.
