Some Members of the All Progressives Congress have urged President Bola Tinubu to desist from filling his cabinet with Politicians from Lagos ” as they contributed nothing to the success of Mr. President.”
Coordinator of South West APC Support Groups, Dele Fulani and Secretary, Lanre Asiwaju shared their observations in a statement title, “Dangers of Lagosizing Southwest.”
They said they were dismayed that the President of the 20 appointments made so far had favoured Lagos based politicians with 13 positions, adding that, “the arrival of former Lagos Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode into the fray as one of the appointment hopefuls is another fact in this direction.”
The APC Support Groups who lashed at Lagos for performing below par during the 2023 Elections, also described the recent appointment of Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila to chair a committee that will constitute boards of Ministries Departments and Agencies, MDAs as unfair and a ploy to turn the Tinubu administration into an al-Lagos Affair.
The statement partly read; “Recently, Your Excellency constituted a committee that will constitute boards of Ministries Departments and Agencies, MDAs, ironically the Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, was made the chairman while the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator George Akume was made the Secretary. This is wrong. Going by hierarchy and order of protocol, Akume’s position supercedes that of chief of staff. Gbajabiamila is only an aide to president Tinubu while Akume is the SGF and as such Akume should head the committee.
“We advocate that for posterity and adherence to established thematic of bureaucracy in governance Your Excellency should reverse the appointment and make the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) the chairman of the committee and a representative of the party (APC) as the secretary. Appointing the Chief of staff as chairman of that committee is to further take care of ‘Lagos boys’. If care is not taken we will end up having a ‘Lagos boys’ dominated administration at the expense of others which will not be break away from the norm in the last administration where people from a particular state were given more preference at the detriment of others who were far more deserving.
“Based on performance in the 2023 general elections, Lagos did not live up to its billing as Mr President lost the State to opposition party. If the party had relied on Lagos State alone for presidential election the president would have failed going by the results declared. We know the role other States in Southwest particularly Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo played in the last election. These states gave the president the best results in the entire South.
“Politicians from Lagos state should stop demonstrating unnecessary sense of entitlement to this administration as they contributed nothing to the success of Mr. President and cease from giving him pressure over appointments. We want to categorically state that we are not comfortable with this trend, and for the interest of the party and Nigeria at large things need to change. If the president fails to correct this anomaly, the political narrative might change come next election.
“This administration should not be seen as a Government of Lagos State and they alone should not take all the benefits that are meant for the Southwest otherwise other parts of the zone will leave Lagos alone to play the politics and await the outcome from the side. “
