President Tinubu Not Planning To Return FCT To Lagos-Media Aide…’Lagos Boys’ Trying To Mislead Him – Senator Ndume

President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser  on Information and Strategy, Mr  Bayo Onanuga on Wednesday described as untrue rumours that the president is planning to  return the  Federal Capital Territory to Lagos.

Recall that rumours had been promoted on social media that the president has plans to return  the FCT to Lagos state after the Ministry of Aviation, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria relocated some of their departments to Lagos.

While a new FCT was created and announced by late General Muritala Muhammed  on February 3, 1976, it officially became Nigeria’s capital on  December 12 , 1991,

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Onanuga , who made this clarification  in a  message posted  on  X (formerly Twitter), noted that the rumour  had started ahead of the 2023 general election, it was addressed.

‘President Tinubu has no plan whatsoever to move the Federal Capital to Lagos. The rumour first surfaced during the campaign last year by opponents looking for all manners of weapons to stop him. We trashed it.

Those peddling it anew are dishonest, ethnic and regional champions, trying to draw attention to themselves. Abuja has come to stay. It is backed by law.

The movement of FAAN, a department of the Aviation Ministry to Lagos, where it was based before former minister Hadi Sirika moved it to Abuja during the last administration, does not amount to moving the FCT to Lagos. The administrative move should have attracted scant attention, as Lagos is the commercial capital and the hub of aviation business in Nigeria. FAAN should be nowhere else but near the industry it regulates. FAAN will still maintain some presence in Abuja, as it is not a wholesale movement’ he noted.

 Onanuga also said the CBN  relocating some of its departments to Lagos state ought not to  attract controversy given that the departments in question are directly working with commercial banks which are all headquartered in Lagos and regulators ought to be close to the businesses it regulates.

 Some of the CBN departments that may be  moved to Lagos state are the Banking Supervision, Other Financial Institutions Supervision, Consumer Protection Department, Payment System Management Department, and the Financial Policy Regulations Department.

‘All those pushing this campaign of falsehood know they are playing politics, albeit a dangerous politics to pit the North against the South.

There are many parastatals that are not based in Abuja depending on their mandate. NIMASA is in Lagos. So, is NPA. National Inland Waterways Authority ( NIWA) is in Lokoja, not Abuja. Will the people opposing the movement of FAAN and some CBN departments want those agencies to be in Abuja, where there is no single port and no maritime activity?

Administrative decisions should not be politicized. Let it not look like whenever we are temporarily not at the helm of affairs, we create all manners of dangerous rumours to distract from the bigger picture and emasculate an administration led by a Southerner. Let’s stop the dirty politics. We can’t be playing politics with everything’ he added.

In the meanwhile,  Senator Ali Ndume of  Borno South ,  has faulted the planned relocation of some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria from Abuja to Lagos noting that President Bola Tinubu is being misled by ‘political cartels’ .

Ndume, who gave his take on the issue in an  interview with Channels Television on Tuesday,  said  the president is being given wrong advice  by the  ‘Lagos boys’.

‘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’ he added-Team@orientactualmags.com
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