Senator Ali Ndume has joined voices with those opposed to the relocation of some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) headquarters to Lagos.
The CBN and FAAN recently announced plans to relocate some of their offices to Lagos due to congestion of some departments, and for FAAN to ensure seamless operations and save costs.
But appearing on Channels Television, the Senate Majority Chief Whip said such move would have political implications.
Ndume warned that Tinubu was being misled by a cartel he termed “Lagos Boys”.
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He argued that the so-called members of the cartel do not know how Nigeria works and will not be able to help the president when the repercussions come.
According to Ndume, if the offices were being moved due to congestion, the best place would be Niger, Nasarawa, Kaduna or Kogi and other states surrounding Abuja, for the sake of proximity, instead of 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.
“Do you say that because majority of our oil is extracted from South-south, you take the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) 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.
“We will not accept it. Besides, you know, they are not doing any favour 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 to correct it because they don’t know anybody. They only know their offices. And they only know that they have brains.
“This is a decision that is not well thought out. And I think the president will reverse it. I’m confident about that. And if that does not happen, of course, this is democracy and we know what to do,” he said.
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