Senator Ali Ndume has warned President Bola Tinubu yesterday that transferring some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) headquarters to Lagos will have political consequencies.
Ndume, who spoke on Channels Television, maintained that the president was being misled by a cartel he referred to as the “Lagos Boys.”
He said that the so-called members of the cartel are unaware of how Nigeria operates and will be unable to assist the president when the repercussions occur.
“Some of them think that they know better than everybody. But they don’t know anything. When you don’t know Nigeria, you only know Lagos, and then you start doing things as if Nigeria is Lagos. Lagos is in Nigeria. That’s the wrong decision,” he said
“We will not accept it. Besides, you know, they are not doing any favor to Mr. President because this will have political consequences. Yes. I’m telling you this.
“And these guys who are just sitting down there, trying to hang on to Mr. President, will not be there to amend the political mistakes or even correct them because they don’t know anybody. They only know their offices. And they only know that they have brains,” he said.
Ndume emphasized that it was not Lagos votes that brought Tinubu to office and advised him to abandon any attempts to implement the relocation decision.
Ndume said there is a consensus in the North opposing the president’s decision because there is only one federal capital, Abuja.
“All these Lagos boys who think Lagos is Nigeria are just misinforming or advising the president wrongly.
”The regulators, or financial institutions, are supposed to be in Abuja. Now, you want them to move because, as you say, Lagos is the commercial capital. This is one of the mistakes.
“And I’m sure the president will reverse it because it doesn’t work. You can’t have two capitals, or is the CBN governor going to be operating from Lagos and the headquarters of the CBN in Lagos?
“Do you say that because the majority of our oil is extracted from the south, you take the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to the south, or because Nigeria’s agricultural produce is more in the north, you take the Ministry of Agriculture to anywhere in the north?
“It doesn’t work that way. And that is one of the problems that is cropping up, but I’m very sure; I’m very confident that Mr. President will look at this because he’s a nationalist, not just a Lagos man.”
”This is a decision that is not well thought out. And I think the president will reverse it. I’m confident in that. And if that does not happen, of course, this is democracy, and we know what to do,” Ndume boasted.
