The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator Ali Ndume, has cautioned President Bola Tinubu that there will be political consequences if he goes on with relocating some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) headquarters from the nation’s capital to Lagos state.
Speaking on Channels TV on Tuesday, January 23 2024, Ndume averred that the president was being misled by a cartel he termed “Lagos Boys”.
The senator maintained that the so-called members of the cartel have no idea how the country works and will not be able to help the president when the repercussions surface.
It would be recalled that the CBN in an internal memo had earlier revealed that it was moving some offices of the Central Bank of Nigeria to Lagos state owning to congestion of some departments. Recently, the government disclosed that it was moving the headquarters of FAAN from the FCT to Lagos citing seamless operations and costs saving as reasons.
While arguing that if the offices were being relocated to address issues of congestion, the Senator said that the best place would be Nasarawa, Kaduna or Kogi and other states surrounding Abuja, for the sake of proximity, as against faraway Lagos.
“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, then you start doing things as if Nigeria is Lagos. Lagos is in Nigeria. That’s a wrong decision. We will not accept it. Besides, you know, they are not doing any favor to Mr. President, because this will have political consequence. Yes. I’m telling you this”. Ndume added.
He stated that those advising Mr. President on the matter will not be there to amend the political mistakes or even to correct it because they don’t know anybody other than their office and brains
Ndume stressed that it was not the votes from Lagos only that brought Tinubu to office, appealing to him to rid any plans to implement the relocation of such offices.
He emphasized further; “All these Lagos boys that are thinking that Lagos is Nigeria are just misinforming or advising the president wrongly. The regulators or the financial institutions are supposed to be in Abuja. Now, you want them to move because 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 headquarters of the CBN is in Lagos?
He questioned that because major oil production is extracted from South-south, should it then means the the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) be moved to the South-south or because Nigeria’s agricultural produce are more in the north, you take the Ministry of Agriculture to anywhere in the north?
He added that such does not work that way and that is one of the problems that is cropping up, adding that he is very confident that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, being a nationalist and not a Lagos man, will look at the issue.
Ndume who insisted that Lagos does not represent the whole of Nigeria, explained that there will not only be increase in cost of operations but “risk to the lives” of workers who will constantly be flying by air or on the road, if the planned relocation eventually happens.
While stressing that the decision is not well thought out, Ndume gave the assurance that the president will reverse the decision.
