There Will Be Consequences If Your ‘Boys’ Push You To Move CBN, FAAN Offices To Lagos – Senator Ndume Warns Tinubu

As opposition in the North continues to rise against the planned relocations of some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) headquarters to Lagos, the Chairman, Senate Committee on the Army, Senator Ali Ndume, has warned President Bola Tinubu of consequences if he sees through the plan.

Ndume who unsuccessfully competed to be Senate President in the 10th Assembly added the subplot on Channels TV when he blamed the cartel for pushing the president to initiate the plan.

He declared that Lagos is not Nigeria but rather was the former capital and is in Nigeria.

The senator was reacting to the announcement by the government that it was moving some offices of the apex bank to Lagos due to congestion of some departments.

It also announced that it was relocating the headquarters of FAAN to ensure seamless operations and save costs.

The plan is being opposed by various groups in the north including the Area Consultative Forum, who warned the president against the planned movement.

Ndume argued that those he called ‘Lagos Boys’ are the ones pushing the president into the planned movement.

He said, “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.

“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,” Ndume said.

According to him, “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?

“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,” Ndume said.

He maintained that, “This is a decision that is not well thought out. And I think the president will reverse it. I’m confident that. And if that does not happen, of course, this is democracy and we know what to do.

“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,” the senator said.