A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr. George Agbakahi, has advised promoters of a shadow government in Nigeria to shelve the idea.
He declared that a shadow cabinet, which is a feature of the Westminster (parliamentary) system of government, was an aberration in Nigeria that constitutionally adopted a presidential system of government since 1979.
Agbakahi, a South East leader of Tinubu Support Organisation and member of 2023 Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) Media and Publicity Directorate, gave the advice during a current affairs programme aired on Television Continental (TVC) channel and monitored by our reporter in Abuja, weekend.
The APC chieftain also described the horde of defections of members of other political parties into the APC as a welcome development asserting that such defections demonstrate the faith and trust the defectors have in the person of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his renewed hope programmes.
He stated that President Tinubu has achieved a lot through his tough but critical economic policies of subsidy removal and unification of foreign exchange rates.
He stressed that the opposition elements, having failed to actualize their coalition plans, were now resorting to the distraction of forming a shadow government.
He said, “Now they are going into a shadow government, a shadow government which is an aberration in presidential politics. Have you ever seen a shadow government in presidential politics? Something they cannot win through the ballot box, they cannot win through a realignment or coalition, now they want to form a shadow government. It’s disingenuous for them to try to form a shadow government in a presidential system of government.”;;
As for the defections, he declared, “To me, I believe these defections are a strong affirmation of the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and it’s a demonstration, in my view, of the faith and trust all these defectors have on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“And you will see this election to me it may not be a very strong election. That’s why you see all these PDP people, El-Rufai, Atiku and others trying to form a coalition but the coalition has failed.”;;
Dr. Agbakahi stated that as the second year anniversary of President Tunubu comes in a few days time, the administration has done a great job and has acquitted itself creditably.
“I remember when he came on board, even before he came on board there were challenges in this country particularly in the area of economy and national security.
“However when he came in, he took very bold and ambitious decisions; first by obliterating the fuel subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange rate.
“Those were major policies that have brought this country a positive light. And since then there have been a lot of initiatives the president has put in place.
“For example, look at student’s loan. As we speak N54 billion has been disbursed in respect to student’s loan both to the university, in respect of tuition and also to students in respect of stipends.
“Apart from that in the area of employment opportunities the president believes that it is not the duty of the government alone to provide employment opportunities but he has provided an enabling environment for the private sector to participate in the provision of employment opportunities.
“There has been the Nigerian youth investment fund with about N110 billion and many youths are getting involved collecting soft loans; N1million, N3 million, even up to N20m. The Bank of Industry has done a lot; it has disbursed N110 bn to small scale Industries.”;;
He stated that the administration had done a whole lot to attract foreign direct investment of about $50bn into the country, and that the economy had started showing signs of recovery and growth.
He further noted that one of the outcomes of the removal of petroleum subsidy was the fact that the FAAC allocation to states has increased exponentially to 300 per cent.
“Some states that used to get N5bn monthly some of them are getting N15 bn now and in that respect they have been able to shoulder some of the activities of the states.
“Since President Tinubu came on board, we have never heard about any state that is owing salaries of workers, even some states have also used that opportunity to pay some of their local and international debts. So a lot is also happening.
“Look at the food prices, they are also coming down, the president has done a whole lot in the area of agriculture; over $1bn has been spent in providing fertilizers, there has been mechanized farming, there has been dry farming in areas like Jigawa, Katsina and environs, so a lot is happening.
“I believe the upcoming election in 2027 will be predicated on the achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubiu.
“Forget about what we have been hearing that people are defecting, well it’s good to defect but his performance in office is what will determine whether he will win the election and definitely he has done a whole lot.”;;
The APC chieftain acknowledged that “the issue of insecurity is one of the major challenges the administration is facing, although it has been a major characteristic of this country since 1999; but the federal government has invested heavily in the nation’s armed forces to tackle the problem head-on and that they are achieving results.”;;
“According to a news report, the Nigerian military has been able to neutralize about 12, 000 planned terrorist attacks; they have been able to rescue about 9800 people that were captured by terrorists.
“Also, according to news reports, over 125,000 Boko Haram terrorists have surrendered to the government. I think the president is trying.
“The main issue to me is the issue of farmers, herders conflict and that’s where the president as we all know called the meeting of the service chiefs, I think that was last week because he is also concerned about the issue of insecurity,”;; he stated.
Agbakashi dismissed as “a wrong assumption and in fact ironical”;; insinuations in some quarters that APC government was not acceptable to the South East, adding that APC as a government had made tremendous inroad in the South East.
“After all the governor of Ebonyi state is APC, the current governor of Imo state is APC, even though Anambra state is APGA but the current governor Soludo in my view has really demonstrated tremendous affinity with the centre.
“I think the point is this, mind you in the last election when Peter Obi a son of the soil in Igbo was there, it even helped the APC, because you know in the past South East has always been a traditional stronghold of PDP and now that PDP has fallen a little backward, you will see what will happen, APC will make inroad, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Reps is APC, from Abia state and he is also making inroad.
“Look let me tell you, elections are pretty dynamic and we have almost two years to go.
“Anybody that is telling you that the president will not make tremendous incursions in the South East to me is being disingenuous; I think he will do that,”;; he assured.
