The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal has
\ndismissed claims that the Presidency has been hijacked by a few
\nindividuals with selfish agenda.<\/p>\n
interview on Channels Television \u2018Question Time\u2019, the SGF dismissed the
\nlabeling of the President\u2019s close associates as a \u2018cabal\u2019 accused of the
\npurported hijack.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIf they say the cabinet of 37 ministers constitute the cabal,
\nits OK because these are the key members of the cabinet. The President
\nappointed them and they are the ones that advise the President on the
\ndecisions that he needs to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I am honoured to be in the \u2018cabal\u2019 in this Presidency (and) I
\nhave no apologies to make.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the President decides that he wants a Secretary to the Government (of
\nthe Federation) who is going to work with him, coordinate the activities
\nof his government and give him advice, obviously, that man should be able
\nto have unfettered access to the President.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is supposed to be able to give advice to the President because he is
\nwith the President on a daily basis in a manner that other might not
\nhave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Nigerians Need To Know\u2019<\/p>\n
Mr Babachir was also of the view that the anti-corruption campaign of the
\nBuhari administration is not a witch hunt as widely criticized.<\/p>\n
He argued that the revelations of high-level corruption in the country
\nshould not be wished away.<\/p>\n
He also defended the government\u2019s constant reference to the past
\nadministration, blaming it key players for the current economic challenges
\nfacing the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould you have known, for example, that somebody can walk into Central
\nBank, reverse his boot and leave with 2.2 billion dollars of raw cash?<\/p>\n
\u201cCould you have known that somebody sitting on the trust of the people
\ncould sit down and embezzle 40 billion? Look at the kind of money they are
\ndispersing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo should we keep quiet and let Nigerians say everything is OK? That
\nthere was no looting?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in the position we are because the people that came before us
\npreferred to carry our common patrimony and put it in their deposit
\naccount for their wives and children.<\/p>\n
\u201cNigerians must be told what we inherited and what we are seeing, and
\nmajority of Nigerians, I can assure you, are in favour of what the
\ngovernment is doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course quite a few that were beneficiaries of these looting will make
\nnoise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr Babachir Lawal has dismissed claims that the Presidency has been hijacked by a few individuals with selfish agenda. interview on Channels…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n