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.
During an interview on Channels Television ‘Question Time’, the SGF dismissed the labeling of the President’s close associates as a ‘cabal’ accused of the purported hijack.
He said: “If they say the cabinet of 37 ministers constitute the cabal, its OK because these are the key members of the cabinet. The President appointed them and they are the ones that advise the President on the decisions that he needs to make.
“Of course I am honoured to be in the ‘cabal’ in this Presidency (and) I have no apologies to make.
“If the President decides that he wants a Secretary to the Government (of the Federation) who is going to work with him, coordinate the activities of his government and give him advice, obviously, that man should be able to have unfettered access to the President.
“He is supposed to be able to give advice to the President because he is with the President on a daily basis in a manner that other might not have.”
‘Nigerians Need To Know’
Mr Babachir was also of the view that the anti-corruption campaign of the Buhari administration is not a witch hunt as widely criticized.
He argued that the revelations of high-level corruption in the country should not be wished away.
He also defended the government’s constant reference to the past administration, blaming it key players for the current economic challenges facing the country.
“Could you have known, for example, that somebody can walk into Central Bank, reverse his boot and leave with 2.2 billion dollars of raw cash?
“Could you have known that somebody sitting on the trust of the people could sit down and embezzle 40 billion? Look at the kind of money they are dispersing.
“So should we keep quiet and let Nigerians say everything is OK? That there was no looting?
“We are in the position we are because the people that came before us preferred to carry our common patrimony and put it in their deposit account for their wives and children.
“Nigerians must be told what we inherited and what we are seeing, and majority of Nigerians, I can assure you, are in favour of what the government is doing.
“Of course quite a few that were beneficiaries of these looting will make noise,” he said.