BY GODWIN IJEDIOGOR
THE senator representing Borno South and Chairman of its Committee on Army, Ali Ndume, has warned President Bola Tinubu that there would be political consequences if his administration goes ahead to move some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and headquarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to Lagos.
Ndume, while saying the President was being misled by officials her called “Lagos Boys,” who he insisted did not know how Nigeria works and would not be able to help the President when the repercussions come, also argued that if the offices were being moved due to congestion, the best places would have been Nasarawa, Kaduna, Kogi or other states bordering Abuja, not far away Lagos.
The Arewa Consultative Forum had also kicked against the movement of some CBN departments and FAAN headquarters to Lagos.
The CBN, had, in an internal memo recently said it was moving some of its offices to Lagos due to congestion of some departments, even as the government announced it was relocating the headquarters of FAAN to ensure seamless operations and save costs.
Recall that former minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, moved FAAN from Lagos to Abuja without any protest from any part of the country, while the decongestion of the CBN has been on since the last administration.
But speaking on a television programme on Tuesday, January 23, Ndume stated: “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 favour to Mr. President, because this will have political consequence. Yes. I’m telling you this.
“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.”
The senator stressed that it was not the votes from Lagos that brought Tinubu into power, advising him to jettison any plans to implement the plans, saying there’s a consensus in the North against the move, because there’s only one federal capital, which is Abuja.
“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.
“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?
“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?
“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.”
He insisted that Lagos does not represent the whole of Nigeria, explaining that there would not only be increase in cost of operations, but also risk to the lives of workers who will constantly be flying by air or on the road if it eventually happens.
“This is a decision that is not well thought out. And I think the President will reverse it. I’m confident of that. And if that does not happen, of course, this is democracy and we know what to do,” he boasted.
He urged the President to rescind the decision, stressing that he (Ndume) is neither Hausa nor Fulani, but a northerner and a Nigerian, adding: “CBN has offices that they can rent or build on their own to increase efficiency, but moving some departments to Lagos is not the best of ideas at all or moving any agency at all.”
While expressing optimism that the decision would be reversed, Ndume advised Tinubu to ignore the so-called cartel.
The ACF had argued that the CBN’s decision, rather than being a normal administrative action to fix some logistics problem, is a disturbing pattern of antagonistic actions often taken by certain federal government agencies against the interests of the North and other parts of the country, saying northerners would be affected by the exercise.
Some of the CBN departments planned for relocation are the Banking Supervision Department (DBS); Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department (OFISD); Consumer Protection Department (CPD); Payment System Management Department (PSMD) and Financial Policy Regulations Department (FPRD).
