Babachir Lawal: Dispersed Pockets of Frustration, Malcontents to Blame for Nigerians’ Anger

•Charges Tinubu to address nation, rejig cabinet, fix alleged nepotism

•Alleges S’west dominates government ‘excessively and obnoxiously’ 

•Says people can’t be intimidated under current climate 

•Declares legislature slavish, senate operating dictatorship 

•States north unhappy with treatment of Nasiru, Ningi, Ndume, Dangote

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and estranged ally of President Bola Tinubu, Babachir Lawal, yesterday, claimed that dispersed pockets of frustration and malcontents were responsible for the current bad blood against President Bola Tinubu and his government.

He, therefore, called on  the president to immediately address Nigerians, reshuffle his cabinet with a view to fixing the alleged nepotism in his appointments.

Lawal, who said the president’s broadcast should outline the challenges confronting the nation, added that the idea would afford the president an opportunity to also outline the immediate and the long-term measures out of the current economic quagmire facing the country

These measures, the former SGF said, would assuage organisers of the national protests and show his seriousness in containing the economic challenges facing the country, and help to  stave off the planned protests against his administration.

The SGF, in a statement, yesterday, called on the president to reshuffle the cabinet to include “a mix of technocrats and politicians,” adding that Tinubu should, in his address, come up with persuasive arguments intended to placate the angry and hungry citizens.

His words: “Under the current climate, Nigerians cannot be intimidated by this government nor do they respect it. So, avoid the macho tough talk.

“In the proposed address to the nation, enumerate concrete and believable policies of government intended to address current challenges on an immediate, medium and long term basis,” he stated.

He called for a mix of technocrats and politicians in the cabinet, stressing that politicians were more adept at communicating with the people and have more stake in the successes or failures of a government.

“These Lagos technocrats who now fill the MDAs lack knowledge of the workings of Nigeria. Majority of them are rude, inaccessible, clannish,” he warned

The former SGF, who also told the president to purposefully address the excessive nepotism in this government, noted that, “The Southwest dominates this government excessively and obnoxiously.”

Lawal also expressed concern that the current Senate leadership “operates a dictatorship in which no dissent is tolerated. This is insidiously building an imperceptible revolt that might soon explode.

“For example, Senator Ndume was sincerely speaking truth to power, when he said the president is unreachable. A slavish legislature is neither good for your long-term interests or that of the country at large.

“People are taking exceptions to these ways of handling contrary opinions in the polity. In the north we have taken great exception to how you (or people acting on your behalf) maltreated, Nasiru, Ningi, Ndume and lately Dangote.

“Your very close associates are also busy meddling in the affairs of senior traditional institutions in the North West, which we believe has the intended purpose of dismembering northern political and social harmony and hegemony. In the South East, your fixation on Peter Obi and the unfair treatment of Igbo businesses in Lagos is unsettling.

“There is also no denying the fact that political crises in Rivers State would been long settled had the president shown an inclination to resolve them. It is instructive that no individual or institution in the South West has suffered such unjust treatment.

“These kinds of situations are some of the triggers of the current discontents across the nation because they generate dispersed pockets of frustration and malcontents that eventually aggregate into a large whole resulting in bad blood against the person of the President and the government,” said Lawal.

The former SGF said that the military has blatantly ignored the fact that internal security was wholly the constitutional responsibility of the Nigerian Police Force, and wondered why they have been warning against the planned protests.