A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal has berated the conduct and utterances of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, saying he is unworthy of his position as Nigeria’s number three man.
Speaking in an interview with TheScrutiny, Babachir described Akpabio as a clown and sycophant who has lots of baggage, especially during his tenure as Minister of Niger Delta.
He said President Bola Tinubu knows the personality and capability of Akpabio which was the reason why he did everything possible to make him Senate President in order to put the National Assembly under the grip of the presidency.
“Let me tell you, Akpabio ab initio is a clown who is now occupying the number three position in Nigeria. You have no opportunity to assess whether he is brilliant or not. He is just a clown and a sycophant, a ‘yes sir’ man”.
“He was governor at a time when Akwa Ibom had stupendous amount of money. So, because he had excess money, he did something with it but I doubt if the money he spent on developing the state is up to one tenth of what the state earned. When they told me Akpabio is the new senate president, I just laughed”.
“When he was made Minister of Niger Delta, he was acting like a clown there too. Look at the scandal that trailed his tenure. If you remember, there was a case when Joy Nunieh, the former NDDC MD said he slapped Akpabio for sexually assaulting her. It was during his period we had the ‘off the mike’ saga”.
“Now tell me, a man like that with loads of baggage is who Tinubu threw his weight behind as senate president. He made him senate president so he can manipulate, control and enslave him in order for the national assembly to be under his grip. The agenda is working and that is why Akpabio cannot tolerate anybody criticising Tinubu today. That was exactly what happened in the case of Ndume”.
Babachir said President Tinubu lacks access to good advice and people like Ndume who are willing to tell him the truth are being denied access to him or punished when they speak out.
“Bola Tinubu has no access to good advice. I know how the system works. When people get the opportunity to see the president, they don’t like offending him by telling him the truth. I can assure you, there are some ministers in this cabinet who only see the president during Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. They can never have one-on-one meeting with him because the gatekeepers won’t allow them access to the president”.
“I think Tinubu should have listened to Ndume because he (Ndume) was his great supporter. Ndume was on his side. He should have considered what Ndume said and find out really if people are being denied access to him. I was in the presidency so I know how these things work. One or two people who are supposed to grant access to the president usually block it, either because they don’t want you to undermine their own authority or because you refused to bribe them to do it”.
“They know Ndume will tell the president the honest truth about what is going on outside and for that, they won’t allow him access to him”.
