The All Progressives Congress (APC) South-west Support Groups have expressed concern over ‘unpleasant development’ at the presidency whereby most appointments are being filled with ‘Lagos boys’.
The groups in a letter dated july 19th, addressed to President Bola Tinubu and jointly signed by the Coordinator, Dele Fulani and the Secretary, Lanre Asiwaju, said a cursory look at the appointments made so far under this administration showed that majority of the people around the President are all Lagos politicians.
The support groups said while they might not all be indigenes of Lagos, they are politicians based in Lagos, who have played all their politics in Lagos, lived in Lagos, and as a matter of fact made Lagos their immediate constituency.
Against this background, they noted that this trend, if not checked, might make the Southwest the first boiling point of the Tinubu-led administration.
The groups noted that a situation whereby politicians from Lagos State are seen to be the ones taking all the benefits that accrue to the entire South-west was totally unacceptable to other States in the zone, saying Lagos is not the only State in Southwest.
The support groups said while they understood that Tinubu was under pressure, they admonished him to stand his ground and be a president for all.
They said his appointments should spread out to other states in the South-west and Nigeria, otherwise, it would portray the image that Lagos State is the only State in the entire region.
They said based on performance in the 2023 general election, Lagos did not live up to its billing as the President lost the State to the opposition party.
They emphasised that If the party had relied on Lagos State alone for the presidential election, the president would have failed going by the results declared.
They warned that politicians from Lagos state should stop demonstrating unnecessary sense of entitlement to this administration as they contributed nothing to the success of Mr. President and cease from giving him pressure over appointments.
According to the groups, We know the role other states in South-west particulasty Ondo, Ekiti,Oyo played in the last election, adding that these states gave the President the best results in the entire South-west.
The support groups stated: “We have observed, with utmost dismay, the ongoing unpleasant development at the presidency whereby most appointments are being filled with ‘Lagos boys’.
“We want to categorically state that we are not comfortable with this trend, and for the interest of the party and Nigeria at large, things need to change. If the president fails to correct this anomaly, the political narrative might change come next election,” they warned.
“Looking at the appointments of 20 aides that was recently made by Mr. President, we can categorically pin point 13 of them who are Lagos based politicians. Also, the arrival of former Lagos Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode into the fray as one of the appointment hopefuls is another fact in this direction.”
The support groups pointed out that Tinubu’s first trip to France as President, the entourage that accompanied him on that journey were predominantly those from Lagos state, despite the fact that most of them are without official portfolio or capacity.
They added: “This is uncalled for, this administration should not be made an all-Lagos affair as it will completely go against the campaign promises of national inclusion. Truly, this trend does not project Mr. President as a nationalist and a pan-Nigerian leader.”