The latest critique of the Tinubu-led administration by the Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, has reportedly sparked displeasure from influential forces within the Presidency.
According to sources who spoke with Nigerian Tribune, these forces, upset by Ndume’s remarks about a new cabal in the Villa, have initiated steps to censure him.
Ndume, representing Borno South, expressed concerns last week that President Tinubu has been “caged” by a cabal within the Presidential Villa, preventing ministers and other key figures from having direct access to him.
He also mentioned that these forces do not truly understand the economic challenges Nigerians face due to current policies.
In response, a coordinated effort involving the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Senate President Godswill Akpabio is reportedly underway. Their aim is to reprimand Ndume for his statements, which they consider embarrassing to the President and detrimental to the image of the ruling party.
Ndume had said: “The President should wake up, it seems he isn’t in the picture of what is happening because he has been caged off. He has been fenced off by plutocrats.
“He should open his doors and meet those who will tell him the truth. Unfortunately, the people who will tell him the truth won’t struggle to meet him. I am very worried not only for the President himself but myself.”
The APC National Working Committee at the weekend condemned Ndume, accusing him of making outlandish allegation against the present administration.
A statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, issued, on Saturday, dismissed Ndume’s allegation that Tinubu has been caged in the Villa and further described the lawmaker as an attention seeker.
A party source, however, told the Nigerian Tribune that a former lawmaker and now presidential aide, who was said to have instigated the party to issue the statement to condemn Senator Ndume, is also putting pressure on the president of the Senate to take certain reprisal action against Ndume in order to jolt him to withdraw what the Villa forces described as his needless antagonism of the President.
Multiple sources revealed that Akpabio has been told to announce a re-jig of existing Committees of the Senate to remove the Senate Chief Whip from the Committee on Appropriation, where he is the current deputy chairman. Ndume may also lose his exalted position as Senate Chief Whip.
According to the sources privy to the plot, “Akpabio is, however, in a dilemma. Ndume was the Director General of the Stability Group, the campaign team that ensured his emergence as Senate President. Moving against Ndume could polarise the rank of his loyal team.
“Few months after Senator Ningi suspension and recall, it could also send a wrong signal to the Northern Caucus that they have been marked for annihilation by the Tinubu presidency, using its foot soldiers in the National Assembly.”
The sources revealed that some senators from the South-West, whom their colleagues often referred to as Tinubu boys in the Red Chamber, have been railroaded into the orchestrated plot against Ndume.
A source said, “These same set of lawmakers, who ensured that the senator representing Bauchi Central, Abdul Ningi was suspended despite pleas from their colleagues are putting Akpabio under pressure to submit to the demand to checkmate Ndume.”
