Jostle for 2023 heightening ethnic tension, says APC govs forum DG

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Director-General, Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), an umbrella body of All Progressives Congress governors, Salihu Moh Lukman, has blamed the heightening ethnic tension across the country on leadership projections ahead of the 2023 general elections.
In statement he issued in Abuja yesterday, titled, “Nigeria’s Volatile Politics and the APC report on True Federalism,” the PGF DG further argued that problems associated with ethnic profiling had compounded the problems of injustice.
He opined that the inability to address issues of ethnic tension in Nigeria had continued to inflame all manner of political crisis in the country.
“Perhaps, it also needs to be noted that it is not by accident that ethnic tensions are higher around the periods of elections. Once elections are approaching, expected leadership projections will always produce ethnic tension resulting in all manner of ethnically-induced interpretative conclusions of every government initiative and decision of political leaders at all levels.
“With hardly any exception, ahead of elections, almost everyone becomes sucked into the politics of ethnic contests. Every government initiative and almost all actions of political leaders get interpreted in ethnic terms,” he argued.
On the way forward, the PFG DG said: “To be able to manage our volatile politics, we need to strengthen our governance institutions. Inability to proceed to initiate processes of strengthening governance institutions in the country as contained in the recommendations of APC Committee on true federalism would continue to subject leaders to unfair accusations of ethnicity based on wrong perceptions.
“And if care is not taken, no matter the achievement of our leaders, public recognition of the tenure of our leaders may be dictated by perceptive judgements of poor performance based largely on bad management of ethnic relations.
Therefore, he said, all APC leaders have a responsibility to protect the achievements of APC leaders and governments, especially the Federal Government and President Buhari, adding that APC leaders need to overcome the current lethargic attitude against the initiatives for true federalism or restructuring.