The president, the group appealed, should look beyond his political associates in Lagos while making appointments that should reflect the entire South-West.
The appeal was disclosed in a statement issued in Abuja by the National Coordinator of South-West APC Support Group, Otunba Dele Fulani, on Tuesday, titled “Dangers of Lagosising the South-West.”
Fulani noted that his group has observed a growing trend of how party faithful from other states and the South-West have been sidelined from the majority of the presidential appointments announced so far.
The group said, “We have observed, with utmost dismay, the unpleasant development at the presidency where 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 the majority of the people around Mr President are all Lagos politicians. While they may not all be indigenes, these are politicians who played all their politics in Lagos and as a matter of fact made Lagos their immediate constituency.
“Looking at the appointments of 20 aides that were 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. 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,” the statement said.
Continuing, the group coordinator reminded the President about the significant role other states in the South-West played in his emergence as president in the 2023 elections.
He stated that judging by the result of the presidential election, Ondo, Ekiti and Oyo performed better than Lagos, stressing that it will be unfair for Tinubu to allow his home state alone to reap the benefits meant for the entire region.
He said, “It shouldn’t be like that. A similar thing might happen with the appointment of heads of MDAs. While we understand that there is so much pressure on Mr President, he shouldn’t fall so cheaply to this pressure. 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 South-West because if not, it will be as if Lagos 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 live up to its billing as Mr President lost the state to the 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 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 the next election. We made this observation in the interest of unity in the Southwest and the best interest of Nigeria at large.”
