A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Jesutega Onokpasa, has advised President Bola Tinubu to build a competent ‘Nigerian team’ around himself in order to right the wrongs of previous administrations and achieve his great economic plans for Nigeria.
Onokpasa, a known Tinubu loyalist, called on the President to dismantle the team of Lagosians around him and assemble a team of Nigerians that would assist him deliver on his Renewed Hope agenda.
Addressing the President in a video message, the member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said Lagosians, including the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, had been redundant and of no value to Tinubu’s administration.
According to him, the earlier the President gets better people, the better for his aspiration of fixing the country.
Onokpasa said, “Mr President, most of us supported you because we know your antecedent, what you have done in Lagos. But, you see, you cannot come to form a core of a team that is basically a Lagosian team to fix Nigeria, it is mathematically incongruous.
“It is an incongruity. It is expected that you will mobilise a team of Lagosians to fix Lagos but you will have to mobilise a team of Nigerians to fix Nigeria.
“You see these Lagosians you brought to Abuja to help fix Nigeria, with respect, are not helping you, starting with that your Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. You will have to dismantle this team, with respect, my President, you will have to dismantle it and rebuild a true genuine Nigerian core.
“Your core team must no longer be a Lagosian team, it must be a Nigerian team. Otherwise, we will just continue like this. Most of them are just interested in making money, they don’t love you and they are not interested in your welfare.
“They are not interested in your political welfare, they are not interested in moving Nigeria forward, these guys have been parasitic for decades. Let me use our Delta parlance, ‘Dem don parasite you reach.’ Discard them. There are many people across this country.”
“I am not talking of myself, I don’t need appointment, have I not been surviving? I have been spending money on you. Have I come to you to beg you for money before? I will continue supporting you my President, I don’t need you to give me anything.
“You have to dismantle this your Lagosian core. They are just useless, they are totally out of their depth and you must start dismantling them starting with that Gbaja (Femi Gbajabiamila).
“It is astonishing that throughout this period, you hardly hear from them. They have no ideas, no originality, nothing!
“They think Nigeria is Lagos? Sapele is not Lagos, Warri is not Lagos, Benin is not Lagos, Ugheli is not Lagos, Lokoja is not Lagos, even right there in Yoruba land, is Akure Lagos?
“Is Ado-Eki Lagos, is Osogbo Lagos? You can’t bring a Lagosian team and believe it will be able to fix Nigeria. A Lagosian team will fix Lagos, it a Nigerian team that will fix Nigeria,” the lawyer declared.
