Senator Ali Ndume ate the humble pie after this essayist challenged him last week. He confessed his child is a staff member of the Central Bank of Nigeria. But it is a half-hearted confession, the sort that Almighty God does not accept. He says, yes, his child works there. But he insists the move to Lagos was an ethnic idea. But he needs to come clean as to how his child landed the job. Did the smaller Ndume apply after a public job advertisement? Did the small Ndume do an interview with others or a written test? What was the process? If Ndume cannot confess to it then we must say that as a senator, he is one of the problems of this country. He needs to confess and say everything. If he wants to be a stickler for purity, he must show his hands as pure as wool.
Tag: Ndume
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Group to Tinubu: don’t be distracted by Ndume’s antics
Alliance for Reformation and Development (ARD), a group based in Kano State, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to be distracted by the antics of Sen. Ali Ndume on the relocation of some agencies and departments of the Federal Government to Lagos State.
A statement by the group’s spokesperson, Usman Mohammed, noted Ndume’s real intentions were more political for selfish interests rather than the collective interest of the north he purportedly was fighting for.
The group said the Federal Government, under the leadership of Tinubu has the right to relocate any department or agency of government for effective service delivery to any part of the country.
It described the President as a federalist and quality service-oriented person who prioritises effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery with results to show above ethnic considerations.
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It said: “We condemn without reservation the recent outburst of Senator Ali Ndume over the relocation of some agencies and departments of the Federal Government to Lagos State.
“As we have expressed it elsewhere, the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, has the right to relocate any department or agency of government for effective service delivery to any part of the country.
“For Ndume and his ilk, any action of government must be guided by primordial considerations that have stalled the progress and development of the country for decades rather than national interest.
“We wonder why Senator Ndume did not raise any such alarm when former President Muhammadu Buhari intentionally established and sited in his home state – Katsina – about 21 federal agencies during his eight-year reign, even to the chagrin of other states in the north that hardly benefitted anything tangible from the Buhari administration.
“We implore the general public to ignore Ndume, a known habitual alarmist and a serial ethnic chauvinist, who likes to raise unnecessary dust where none exists just to put a wedge between the north and south.”
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Ndume, FAAN and CBN relocations
- By Kene Obiezu
Sir: Mohammed Ali Ndume is an angry man. The senator who represents Borno South Senatorial District is angry with President Tinubu. He is irked by the decision to relocate some key government offices under the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria to Lagos.
Lashing out on Channels Television, he accused’ Lagos boys’ of misleading the president. He warned of political consequences.
Ndume presumably spoke for the North. But it is not like the North is without a voice. Vice President Kashim Shettima is from the North. He is Ali Ndume’s kinsman. His government succeeded that of another of Ali Ndume’s kinsman, Muhammadu Buhari. In closing his eyes to these, and chiding ‘Lagos boys’, Ndume rattled a cage of angry birds.
Doyin Okupe has rebuked him publicly. There will be many private rebukes. There will also be praise for a man who has suddenly found his voice as the defender of the North. The Arewa Consultative Forum agrees with him.
Maiduguri, Ndume’s home territory, was once the playground of Boko Haram. Ndume bristles, but only when it is convenient. He has previously railed against Nigerians for faulting the size of pay packs available to legislators.
If Ndume thinks the North is superior to other parts of Nigeria, the other parts of Nigeria do not accept any inferiority.
If he is being honest, he should recommend that government offices be moved to other parts of the country from the North. He has made it look like the Nigeria belongs to the North. He indirectly insists that everything must be concentrated in the North.
By his words he evokes memories; of Nigeria’s struggles as a country; of its sharp divisions along ethnic lines.
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Ndume must exercise restraint. Nigeria’s corpses are easily exhumed. Her ghosts are not easily exorcised. Ndume should know that. The North’s lion share of Nigeria’s resources is indubitable. It is only restraint that is saving the country.
If everyone who feels short-changed in Nigeria begins to freely issue threats, the country may just implode.
Nigeria neither belongs to the North or to the South. Neither to Abuja or Lagos. It belongs to every Nigerian. Equality is non-negotiable.
Ndume should know that.
It is worth remembering that it takes only a spark to start a fire that jars of water cannot quench.
It should never become demonstrable that Nigeria is being divided along regional lines.
If that mistake is made, the deluge of demands will bury Nigeria.
Ndume of all people should know that hyperventilating over every perceived regional slight is not the way to go.
•Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
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Ndume: Hypocrisy of the northern elite
If Nigerians ever needed ample evidence of how tenuous the band that holds the nation’s fabric has remained, and of how utterly hypocritical the leadership of a section of a country is when matters concerning the well-being of the country as a whole is concerned, the furore over the planned relocation of some departments by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to the nation’s commercial capital has since offered more than the country could have bargained for.
For if it seems unimaginable that an exercise that should ordinarily pass for routine restructuring to enhance operational efficiency has led to the re-opening of old wounds as indeed the stoking of the age-long animosities that have held the country down, one only needed to be reminded that this is Nigeria – a country where nothing escapes the swirling attention of ethnic revanchists and allied conspiracy theorists.
Short of pronouncing a fatwa on the Tinubu administration, a section of the country’s elite are suddenly up in arms, fearing the changing political calculus. From what began as barely subdued whispers about a phantom plan by the Tinubu administration to move the seat of the federal government back to Lagos few months back, our ethnic and regional champions, seems to have found some straws to latch to. And guess what, they have, not one but two, to hold on to!
The first, an internal memo informing staff that the CBN governor, Yemi Cardoso, had pencilled the departments of Banking Supervision, DBS; Other Financial Institutions Supervision, OFISD; Consumer Protection, CPD; Payment System Management, PSMD and; Financial Policy Regulations, FPRD for relocation back to Lagos – an exercise in which 1,533 staff would be affected.
Said the CBN memo: “This action is necessitated by several factors, including the need to align the bank’s structure with its functions and objectives, redistribute skills to ensure a more even geographical spread of talent and comply with building regulations, as indicated by repeated warnings from the Facility Manager, and the findings and recommendations of the Committee on Decongestion of the CBN Head Office”.
Hard to fault? Not so, at least to Nigeria’s sectional leaders. For all they care, the culture of indulgence and waste, under which a privileged few, are availed the monthly luxury of hefty duty tour allowances for what ordinarily should be a desk job, can continue ad infinitum.
The second, a ministerial directive, ordering the movement of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to its operational redoubt in Lagos. And this would be followed by a more informed clarification: “Those affected by the decision to move the headquarters to Abuja have since returned to Lagos as there is no office space for them in Abuja. It was ill-advised in the first place to move the headquarters to Abuja when there was no single FAAN building in Abuja to accommodate all of them at once.”
Yes: two separate but related developments, whose underlying motives were to inject efficiency, rationality and common sense into governance said to amount an open declaration of war on the north by the Tinubu presidency!
And to imagine that the drum major for this nonsense is Ali Ndume, the chief whip of Nigerian Senate, a distinguished member representing Borno South senatorial district since 2011. Appearing on Channels Television the other day, he belched fire, rage and division, insisting that only a reversal of the two measures would bring peace, going as far as threatening the president with grim consequences should he fail to order a reversal of the measures!
That is how desperate things can sometimes get.
Truth unfortunately is that Ndume is not alone. A number of other northern groups have spoken of the measures as aimed at decapitating their beloved north – interpreted as degrading their beloved Abuja. Most notable is the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF). The body, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Tukur Mohammed-Baba on Sunday, described the measures, as reeking in bad faith, and ‘a deliberate ploy to further under-develop northern Nigeria.’
Said he: “The ACF wishes to remind all concerned that decades ago, the seat of the capital of the Federal Republic was moved from Lagos to Abuja for reasons that remain valid, it is constitutional even more so today, constitutionally so, although, of course, a section of the country never liked the decision”.
As one writer recently noted, the ACF chieftain rather conveniently forgot that whereas the nation’s key military institutions are almost exclusively located in his beloved north, the south has yet to complain of the need for parity.
What else have we not heard or read? I even came about an atrocious reportage (online of course) which suggested that relocating the affected departments, being the only departments mentioned in the BOFIA Act [Banking and Other Financial Institutions Act], is akin to stripping the institution of its essence. Yes; that the movement will strengthen Lagos and weaken Abuja – and thus render the latter almost useless. To yet another group, the measure would in the end punish married women from the north!
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And all of these because, in the opinion of the CBN leadership, the institution would deliver better on its mandate were the personnel to be deployed optimally. Interestingly, FAAN would say exactly the same thing: that moving the institution – not the aviation ministry as disingenuously and erroneously conflated and projected by opportunistic hacks – to its operational base will better serve the needs of its constituency!
I perfectly understand why the issue has become something of a hot button. Those who wonder what the matter is all about only need to cast their minds back awhile when Godwin Emefiele reigned at the apex bank. That was a laissez-faire era during which children of the powerful not only flooded the bank with their children and relations, but conferred on them the right to dictate the departments where they were to work.
As one might imagine, it was only a matter of time before the corporate headquarters building exceeded its carrying capacity, following which the bank would surpass its personnel requirement.
Thanks to the new leadership at the apex bank, that day appears to have come sooner than expected. With the affected staff now expected to live by the rules which others had long taken for granted, it seems hard to think of a greater punishment by a people whose access to power and the privileges it confers had long defined such niceties as an entitlement.
Now, the joke in town is that those ‘crying adults’ are outraged because their children and wards are affected. How many or how true, we may never know. What we do know and which a former CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has since attested to, is that the measure contemplated by the apex bank makes eminent sense; and that those at the CBN corporate headquarters are no more Nigerian than those in the field offices in Minna, Yenagoa or wherever. And finally that those who can’t be seen to work within the rules of their organisations have a choice: to move on.
Surely, Nigeria and Nigerians have seen enough of the blackmail, the negative, ultra-reactionary activism to call out their purveyors be they in high or low places. It is time to remind them that this is 2024.
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Senator Ndume as metaphor
What ails Nigeria’s political leadership is the dearth of statesmen, and Ali Ndume, senate chief whip, epitomized that symptom the past week. Relegating his higher responsibility as a senator of the federal republic to the backseat, he projected himself as a northern irredentist. He gleefully claimed in a televised interview that transferring a parastatal of the aviation ministry and few departments in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), from Abuja to Lagos, amounted to anti-northern posturing by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s (PBAT) administration, warning that there would political consequences.
The senator chose to ignore the sound reasons offered by CBN that “this initiative aims to ensure compliance with building safety standards and enhance the efficient utilization of our office space.” The bank reported that while the floor space was designed for 2700 personnel, the building is currently housing 4,233, and building controlling authorities have warned against the abuse. On its part, the Minister of Aviation announced that FAAN, which until 2020, was operating from Lagos, the hub of airliners, would return to their empty office space, instead of wasting public funds on rented apartment in Abuja.
In pursuit of his narrow agenda, it never occurred to Ndume that by his stance, he was telling the rest of Nigerians that the claim that Abuja belongs to all Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic differences, is a ruse. He was in essence parroting that what guides his responsibility as the chief whip of the senate, is northern or even narrower interests, and not national interest. He was telling those who nominated or elected him as chief whip that he can never rise above parochial interest, damn common good.
By rising to the defence of a few employees of the CBN and FAAN, Ndume was lending credence to the claims in the past that privileged Nigerians were flooding federal agencies and parastatals with their wards, while they lie to the rest of Nigerians that there was a ban on employment. It is such self-serving interests by power brokers that must have compelled the CBN to over employ such that a building designed to cater for 2,700 number of users, is now housing as many as 4,233.
To protect the interest of the privileged few, the safety of the entire users was damned by the previous administrators of the CBN and by extension the presidency. As happens in the protection of parochial interests, Ndume is willing to risk the lives of entire CBN staff in Abuja, to promote his irredentism. But, a scratch of his promoted interest in the public domain, may show that it is his personal interest that he clothes as northern interest.
It is possible he has a ward, some friends, or few relations that would be affected by the movement of the departments, or he merely wants to be seen as the protector of northern interests. Knowing that he cannot defend his opposition, against the sound administrative and economic reasons offered by the authorities, he chose to resort to base ethnic sentiment. But Ndume is not alone in pursuit of such narrow interest, which is at the heart of our nation’s underdevelopment.
Whether as individuals or as groups, many leaders at the helm of affairs have little regard to national interest. But they smartly cloth their self-serving interests as national, tribal, regional or other group interests, and the undiscerning public jump on the bandwagon. One example is Farouk Lawan, formerly of the House of Representative, whose jail sentence was affirmed recently by the Supreme Court. One recalls that at the height of his public posturing, Farouk presented himself as an ultra-nationalist, determined to bring probity and transparency into public office.
Back then, he was usually clothed in his white agbada, pontificating on how he and his ad hoc committee members were going to rid the fuel subsidy regime of the evil of corruption. Many swore that he represented the best of nationalists, but alas, all that posturing was to position himself to extort maximally from his victims. If not that Femi Otedola was his match, and exposed him for who he truly is, who knows what position of authority he would be occupying in government presently.
The same can be said of the recently disgraced governor of apex bank, Godwin Emefiele. At the height of his public posturing, he pontificated that his policies were the best thing to happen to the nation’s economy. While promoting his personal interest, including the ill-fated presidential ambition, he projected himself as the nation’s economic champion. He bestrode macro and micro economy of the country like a colossus. Until the bubble bust, many would swear that he was working for the best interest of Nigerians.
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So, Ndume is not alone in creating a public illusion of his persona. In crying out against a mere routine administrative action, by the CBN and Ministry of Aviation, the self-serving Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) claimed the action was geared to underdeveloped the northern region of the country. Beclouded by parochial interests, they ignored the reasons offered by the authorities for the relocation. They rather stoked ethnic sentiments, and pushed the narrative that Abuja is a northern enclave rather than the Federal Capital Territory.
Joining the bandwagon, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum also claimed that the administrative decisions were geared to the disadvantage of the northern region. Unfortunately, while pursuing a narrow agenda, they were claiming to be working for a national inclusiveness. According to them, since Abuja was chosen to promote national cohesion, the head offices of all federal government agencies must therefore operate only from Abuja. This column calls on their leaders to rethink such strategy, in the promotion of northern interest.
It also asks Ndume to review his aggressive pursuit of his political interests. The threatening of PBAT with political consequences, was debasing of his long standing in the National Assembly, first as a two-term member of the House of Representatives, and presently four-terms as a distinguished senator. He ought to know that the underdevelopment in the northern part of the country is not as a result of where the parastatals and agencies of government are located. Rather it is the mismanagement of the enormous resources the region had benefitted.
If development results from mere political brinkmanship or siting of public offices, the northern part of the country would have been much more developed that the southern part. Part of the major challenge of the region, is the tragic sense of entitlement, which hinders the benefits of competitiveness. Ndume, should use his remaining years in the senate to promote national cohesion, opportunities for the teeming youth population and development of all parts of Nigeria. A united and prosperous Nigeria, will benefit the northern region more than where a few federal government offices are situated.
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Ndume’s grip on hollow heroism
In a period when Nigerians are being saturated with uninspiring rhetoric, albeit platitudinal escapism or, if you like, voyeurism in some high places during grim national moments, this column shifts its focus to Senator Ali Ndume, a seasoned rabble-rouser who has consistently propelled himself into the national limelight with attention-grasping charades. Four years and eight months since the column last addressed him, it revisits Ndume’s peculiar penchant for drawing attention through what appears to be a feigned and self-serving patriotic zeal, now exemplified in his recent threats against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
It would seem rather strange that the column returns with a focus on Senator Ali Ndume, a man who, over the years, has perfected the art of rabble rousing to shoot to the limelight of national discourse. I had written about him twice in times past. And it was all about his queer, if not questionable way, of drawing attention to himself by feigning a patriotic zeal that is, at best, pretentiously selfish. Why do I say this? Oh, it is simply because his latest ranting and undisguised threats against the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu are in sync with his well-honed political gymnastics which has been on display over the years.
Let’s be clear about one thing, Ndume and every other well-meaning legislator in the National Assembly do have the onerous duty to always put the executive on its toes on every matter that would enhance national development, economic growth, security and the wellbeing of the society. In fact, it would seem that the National Assembly is already failing in that responsibility with its laid back see-nothing, say-nothing attitude to the multifarious crisis plaguing the Nigerian nation. Of course, they may have chosen to play the ostrich in order not to ruffle feathers and stain the white agbadas in the corridors of power; it remains a crying truth that Nigeria is bleeding crimson red. And this is not just about the rising inflationary rate or the complete emasculation of the middle class by an unstable economic experimentation that is high on promises and abysmally low on deliverables for now. It is not even about the thousands that plunge into the poverty stream week in, week out. It is more about seeming docility in tackling the clear and present danger that could spell doom for a nation that is clearly in need of true heroes.
Leadership, it must be stressed, is not just about playing to the gallery and hugging the klieg light in a popularity contest. It is deeper than that. And for those who vowed with Aso Villa to help towards actualizing the ruling party’s Renewed Hope manifesto, the best way to etch positive optics in the mindset of a pauperized citizenry is not by playing politics with key government policies and throwing tantrums, no matter how petty. Unfortunately, Ndume seems to delight in both. I find it quite disturbing that, with all the devastating challenges the nation has been grappling with in the last eight months, the one that would draw the inflatable ire of the Borno State-born lawmaker was the plan by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, to relocate some key offices of the apex banking institution from the Abuja headquarters to Lagos for operational effectiveness. It is for the same reason that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, directed the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to return to Lagos.
Perhaps, if Ndume had sought audience with Cardoso and Keyamo to explain the rationale behind the planned move to relocate staff of these offices and agency to Lagos, he would have been a bit diplomatic in his reaction. Unfortunately, he displayed crass infantilism with his sectional posturing as the voice of the North on the matter. His choice of words was replete with ethnic jingoism and bitterness. It was as if he has an axe to grind not just with the Executive arm of government but with President Tinubu who, to the best of my knowledge, has not told anyone of a plan to run for a second tenure in 2027. But then, I am neither a senator nor a card-carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Maybe Ndume knows what the birds of power are chirping in Aso Rock.
Take a listen: “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, and 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. 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.”
Apparently, Ndume’s haughtiness has not waned neither has it been tamed by time or by his experience in the ‘countless’ years he has spent in the National Assembly, first as House of Representatives member and later, as a senator. Like the saying goes, words are like eggs and that is why they are to be uttered with utmost discretion. Once an egg falls and gets scattered, it can hardly be put into any tangible use again. So, why has experience not tamed Ndume? Why would he think that, in this modern times and age, only the Northern votes can make someone a president of the country? Was he not around when President Muhammadu Buhari, with millions of votes from the North, couldn’t unseat President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan? Did he not know that it took more than the handshake from the South-West and other regions before the Buhari Presidency could become a reality? And was it not the same synergy cum handshake across the regions that have empowered him to have the honour of enjoying certain privileges in the National Assembly including being a regular face in the gang of principal officers?
Nigeria is precisely where it is today because nearly everyone sees things from the base prism of ethnicity and clannishness. It is even laughable that Ndume didn’t see any sense in moving the headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to the South-South or the Ministry of Agriculture to the North if that would help the national course and economic growth. To him, everything should be centred in Abuja because it is the country’s capital. In other words, Abuja is in the North. Now, what manner of thinking is this? And how has this kind of thought process helped us in anyway?
Be that as it may, there are many ways in which the likes of Ndume can become the celebrated heroes of this our forever-fledgling democracy. They would need to shed the toga of ethnic jingoists and tribal warlords. Do they want us to send them a list of unmitigated problems besetting this country that need the urgent interventions of a serious-minded set of lawmakers who do not necessarily have to be bend-down boutique for the executive to use as a plaything. If the authorities at the CBN think the best way to achieve its set of monetary and financial policies is by deploying certain professionals to certain duties in their Lagos office, so be it. In any case, the National Assembly has committees that monitor governance and policy issues in the apex bank and other financial bodies. Wouldn’t it be better to allow these committees to interrogate the CBN leadership on how they come about the decision to relocate some key departments instead of allowing one man to make a song and dance of it in a most despicable way?
In an earlier piece some years back, I had described Ndume as a rebel that wouldn’t play by the rules. That was at a time when he rebelled against his party and supported Senator Bukola Saraki to become the President of the Senate. That time, the party’s choice, former Senate President Ahmad Lawan, was left to lick his wounds until he was eventually ‘compensated’ with the position of Senate Leader, a post which Ndume had occupied immediately Saraki was installed. Excerpts from the piece reads: “Ndume was among the Northeast Senators who disowned Senator Ahmed Lawan’s endorsement by the zone.
Read Also: Okupe knocks Ndume for faulting relocation of CBN, FAAN to Lagos
He criticized what he called “the overzealousness of Ahmed Lawan,” and insisted that Lawan was unlikely to emerge Senate President. On June 9th, 2015, at the inauguration of the 8th Senate, Ndume stood as the Rock of Gibraltar in the Senate chamber to give support to the emergence of Senator Saraki in disobedience to the APC leadership directive. He was, later the same day, nominated to run for the position of Deputy President of the Senate, but he was defeated by Senator Ike Ekweremadu, a PDP Senator from Enugu West. That week, Saraki announced Ndume as the Senate Majority Leader, again, in total disregard to APC leadership’s instruction that Lawan should be made the Senate Majority Leader. Ndume was said to have been nominated and endorsed for the position by the North East APC Senate caucus.”
In 1999 when Ndume, in another show of treachery, moved to contest the Senate Presidency despite the party’s choice of Lawan, I had asked: “Will he make himself available to be used as the one that scuttles his party’s plans to take full charge of the affairs in the National Assembly?
Is he another Saraki in waiting having released a nine-point agenda earlier this week despite his party’s position? Well, the rest, as they say, is history. But that was not the end of the story.
Ndume was also a major news item during the battle for the Senate Presidency in the 10th Assembly in which he insisted on contesting for the position when it was apparently clear that it had been zoned to the South-South and not the North-East where Ndume comes from. Today, he is the Chief Whip in the 10th Senate after working as Godswill Akpabio’s campaign head during the struggle for the Senate Presidency.
For a man who likes to play the hero in every political game, it would be dangerous to wave his recent rant as a mere political gymnastics just to curry attention. While it is soothing that some prominent leaders in the North have dissociated themselves from Ndume’s threats coupled with the CBN’s clarifications on the matter, it would not be out of place to ask: What exactly does Senator Ndume want this time?
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Ndume spoke for himself, not Senate on relocation of CBN, FAAN – Karimi
There were more reactions on Wednesday to call by Senate Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop the relocation of some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) from Abuja to Lagos.
Ndume, in a Channels Television interview on Tuesday, warned Tinubu that there would be political consequences for his action, claiming that the President was being misled by a cartel of ‘Lagos Boys.’
Reacting, Sen. Karimi Sunday (Kogi West), described Ndume’s position as “personal and does not in any way represent a position taken by the Senate.”
He stated in Abuja it was needless to attach ethnic or other sentiments to the relocation of the offices, which Karimi said, was done for cohesion and better delivery of services.
The senator said: “Teaders need to avoid utterances that will heat up the polity and cause division and disaffection amongst the federating units of the country.
“For example, the headquarters of 96 per cent of all banks in Nigeria is in Lagos. The staff of the Banking and Supervision Department of the Central Bank often travel to Lagos to check their books at the headquarters. it will therefore save cost to have that directorate in Lagos.
“Also, Lagos remains the hub of aviation in Nigeria; for operational efficiency, it is better to have FAAN in Lagos.
“What is important to our people in the North and Nigerians as a whole is how decisions of government will affect their lives positively and put food on their table at cheaper prices.
“They are not bothered by any ethnic sentiments on the relocation of offices of federal ministries and agencies.
“Senator Ndume’s position is personal and doesn’t represent the position of the Nigerian Senate.”
It was learnt that the northern senators’ forum had not taken an official formal decision on the issue, preferring the option of an investigation.
Read Also: Ndume spoke for himself, not Senate on relocation of CBN, FAAN – Karimi
During the forum’s last meeting, where the issue was raised, the members urged caution on taking a hasty position, calling for a full investigation to be conducted before any intervention, including legal processes, would be explored.
“When this issue was raised for discussion on the platform of northern senators forum, the Chairman of the Forum, Sen. Abdul Ningi, cautioned on the need to exercise restraints. That no one should jump into conclusion or read political meanings into the decision.
“There is the need for a proper investigation before taking a position.
“I want to believe that our President, Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will not act in any way to undermine any section of the country, the decision would have been made for the cohesiveness of units within such organisations,” one member stated.
While speaking during the interview, Ndume alleged that a group of powerful persons (Lagos boys) around the seat of government was responsible for the President’s decision, warning of consequences the President might not be able to reverse whenever they began to unfold.
He stressed: “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.”
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Senate Chief Whip, Ndume faults proposed relocation of CBN, FAAN depts
Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South Senatorial district, has criticized the plan to relocate some departments of the the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from Abuja to Lagos.
He faulted the move in an interview with Channels Television on Tuesday.
Ndume said: “All these Lagos boys who are thinking that Lagos is Nigeria are just misinforming and advising the President wrongly.
“Those political cartels that are in the corridors of power are trying to misinform the President and we will tell the President. The President will take action.
“They are not doing any favour to Mr President because this will have political consequences.”
The Chief Whip of the Senate, however, said the relocation of the office to Lagos will have consequences.
He said: “We only have one Federal Capital and that is Abuja.
“The regulators of the financial institutions are supposed to be or are in Abuja. Do you want them to move back because you say Lagos is the commercial capital?
Read Also: Ndume lauds Tinubu over Edu’s suspension, urges president to dismantle ‘emerging political cartel’
“This is one of the mistakes and I’m sure Mr President will reverse it because it doesn’t work. You can’t have two capitals.
“Is the CBN governor going to be operating from Lagos? Or do you now say that because the majority of our oil is extracted from South-South, you take NNPC to South-South?
“Or is it because Nigeria’s agriculture is more in the North, you take Ministry of Agric to anywhere in the North? It doesn’t work that way.”
He added: “I’m very sure and confident that Mr. President will look at this situation because he is a nationalist and not just a Lagos man.”
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Why sanctions on Republic of Niger should be lifted, by Senator Ndume
Senator Ali Ndume has explained why the current sanction imposed on the Republic of Niger by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should be lifted.
Ndume said the sanctions are biting hard on the ordinary people in the two countries.
ECOWAS had in July 2023 imposed economic sanctions on Niger, following a military coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.
The sanctions include a ban on travel, border closure, and a freeze on assets belonging to the government and its supporters.
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He made the call while contributing to the debate on the situation report by a member of the Parliament from Niger Republic, Hon Djibo, at the ongoing Second Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja, Nigeria.
Ndume’s call for the lifting of sanctions is coming ahead of the ECOWAS heads of state summit.
He said: “The sanctions are not working. They are only hurting the people of Niger. We need to find a way to resolve the political crisis in Niger, and sanctions are not the answer.”
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Appeal Court affirms Ndume, Lawan as validly elected senators
The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Thursday, affirmed the election of Sen. Mohammed Ndume and Sen. Kaka Lawan of Borno South and Central Senatorial Districts respectively.
The three-member panel, presided by Justice Biobele Georgewill, held that the two appeals against the lawmakers lacked merit.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC had, on Feb. 25, declared the duo of Ndume and Lawan as the winners of the National Assembly election into the two senatorial districts.
Dissatisfied with the declaration, Muhammed Kumalia and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) challenged the election of Lawan while Kudla Satumari and PDP filed petition against Mohammed Ndume at the state’s election tribunal.
The Borno National and State’s Election Petition Tribunal dismissed the two petitions.
Not satisfied with the judgments of the tribunal, Kumalia and Satumari lodged appeals before the Court of Appeal in appeal number: CA/G/EP/SEN/BR/7/2023 between Mohammed Umara Kumalia & another Vs. Kaka Shehu Lawan and others, and appeal number: CA/G/EP/SEN/BR/04/2023 between Kula Satumari & another Vs. INEC and others.
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While Yusuf Ali, SAN, represented Kaka Shehu and APC, Johnson Usman, SAN, appeared for INEC and Marcel Oru, SAN, represented Ndume in the two appeals.
The senior lawyers urged the court to dismiss the appeals for lacking in merit.
Delivering the judgments, the Court of Appeal upheld the submissions of the learned senior counsel to the respondents that the two appeals lacked merit and dismissed same while affirming the election of Lawan and Ndume respectively.
(NAN)