A political scientist, Professor Kamilu Sani Fagge, has submitted that some powerful people have formed a cabal around President Bola Tinubu and are the ones influencing his policies and decisions.
According to him, the cabals are making the President believe he can run Nigeria the same way he ran Lagos State as Governor.
He said Nigerians are crying because of the policies which the cabals around President Tinubu have encouraged him to implement but which are not favourable to the people because Nigeria is not Lagos and should, therefore not be run the same way.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, the Bayero University academic don said cabals are not peculiar to Nigerian politics.
He said they are powerful and influential, but they rarely interfere with the day-to-day running of the government, unlike what is obtained in Nigeria.
He urged President Tinubu to realize he was not elected to satisfy the cabals, but to work for Nigerians.
In his words, “There are very few people directly influencing the policies of the government. Unfortunately, some of them are his political acquaintances or relatives that have been with him. The reality is that those people are the ones he had links with when he was governor. But now, they are trying to make him act as if the policies he took in Lagos are applicable to Nigeria. That is why people are crying. Nigeria is more complex than Lagos.
The president is not for the cabal but Nigeria because he was elected by Nigerians, so he has to look beyond such group of persons.
On what should be the way forward, Professor Fagge urged President Tinubu to be loyal to the people, and not the cabals. He added that the President must find means of hearing and understanding what is going on on the streets so as to adequately meet the needs of the people who elected him.
“The way out of this problem is for the president to accept the fact that he is a democratically elected president. He must be responsible to Nigerians, not very few members of a cabal.
“The president must open other channels of communication from which he will know and hear about the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.
“Whatever members of the cabal think the president wants is what they will let him know; and they will shield facts from him. So, he has to acquire such knowledge and facts from other sources, after all, he has so many informal and formal channels by which he can know what is happening in the country.
Formally, there are channels in security agencies saddled with the responsibility of informing the president. Then informally, he has other contacts and trustees in other places. I think the sooner the president or any leader is open to the people the better for him and the country,” he submitted
