By Adesina Soyooye
An All Progressives Congress, APC, Group in the South-west, has accused President Bola Tinubu of appropriating the Presidency to Lagos.
The Group, South-West APC Support Group, SASG, expressed shock at the appointments made so far by the President, insisting that most of them were from members of the Party in Lagos, to an, almost, total snub of members from other States in the South-west. The Group has, therefore, warned of the dangers inherent in “Lagonising” the Presidency, by giving APC chieftains in Lagos an undeserved sense of entitlement.
In a statement, the National Coordinator of the group, Otunba Tunde Filani, alleged that APC chieftains in Lagos whom he identified as “Lagos boys” have cornered most appointments from the Tinubu Government.
In the statement entitled, “Dangers of ‘Lagosizing’ Southwest”, Group noted that out of 20 aides recently appointed by Tinubu, 13 of them are Lagos-based.
For the records, Filani noted the contributions of other States in the zone to Tinubu’s success, and pointed out that Tinubu lost Lagos in the presidential election but won in Ondo, Ekiti and Oyo states which are getting nothing, so far.
Said the statement: “We have observed, with utmost dismay, the ongoing unpleasant development at the presidency whereby most appointments are being filled with ‘Lagos boys’.
“We the Southwest APC Support groups are constrained to say that this trend, if not checked, might make the Southwest the first boiling point of the Tinubu administration.
“We hereby wish to call the attention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to this ugly development and to state that a situation whereby politicians from Lagos State are seen to be the ones taking all the benefits that accrue to the entire Southwest is totally unacceptable to other States in the region as Lagos is not the only State in Southwest.
“A cursory look at the appointments made so far under this administration showed that majority of the people around Mr President are all Lagos politicians. While they may not all be indigenes of Lagos, but these are politicians based in Lagos, who have played all their politics in Lagos, lived in Lagos, and as a matter of fact made Lagos their immediate constituency.
“Looking at the appointments of 20 aides that was recently made by Mr President, we can categorically count on our fingers about 13 of them who are Lagos based.
“The arrival of former Lagos Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode into the fray as one of the ministerial hopefuls is another fact in this direction.
“Another scenario is that if you look at Tinubu’s first trip to France as President, those who accompanied him on that journey are those from Lagos despite the fact that most of them are without official portfolio or capacity.
“This is uncalled for. This administration shouldn’t be made an all-lagos affair. It doesn’t project Mr President well as a nationalist and a pan-Nigerian leader.
“Recently, the President constituted a committee that will constitute boards of Ministries Departments and Agencies, MDAs, and went ahead to make his Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, 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. Gbaja is only an aide to president Tinubu while Akume is the SGF. The president should do the reverse, Gbaja should be the secretary, then a representative of the party should be part of the committee because the party knows who worked for the president during the election. Putting Gbajabiamilla as Chairman of that Committee is to further take care of ‘Lagos boys’. If care is not taken, you will see ‘Lagos boys’ having most of the Board appointments.
“It shouldn’t be like that. Similar things might happen with the appointment of heads of MDAs.”
Filani appealed to President Tinubu “to ensure that other states in the south west zone are given a sense of belonging in his administration.
“Mr President should stand his ground and not allow himself to be misled under any unwarranted pressure. He should be a president for all.
“His appointments should spread out to other States in the Southwest because if not, it will be as if Lagos State is the only State in the entire region.
“Even if we are to look at it on the strength of performance at the 2023 general elections, Lagos didn’t lived up to its billing as Mr President lost the State to opposition party. If we were to rely on Lagos State alone for that 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 Southwest in the last election.
“Politicians from Lagos should stop The unwarranted sense of entitlement to this administration as they contributed nothing to the success of Mr. president and cease from giving him unnecessary pressure.
“We want to state that we are not comfortable with this trend, and things need to change. If the president fails to correct this anomaly, the narrative might change come next election.
“This government shouldn’t be seen as Government of Lagos State and Lagos alone shouldn’t take all the benefits that are meant for the Southwest otherwise other parts of Southwest will leave Lagos next time to play the politics alone to see if they have the strength to do it.
“We made this observation in the interest of unity in the Southwest and the best interest of Nigeria at large.”
