Olisa Agbakoba: Tinubu Needs New People But Size of Government Should Reduce

Since the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the of the 2023 elections and his inauguration into office, many have expressed expectations as to what the new administration needs to establish before it can successfully achieve its so called “House Cleaning Agenda”

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba explicitly stated that for the administration to succeed, the administration not only needs to reconfigure certain structures of the government, but also find ways to connect fully with Nigerian citizens through sub national leaders.

In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, Agbakoba stated amongst the numerous expectations piling up on the administration, there is a need for the president to unite the nation through proper communication with political groups representing sub-national ethnicities of the nation. He also insisted on the honourable resignation and replacement of certain officials in office due to their alleged ineffectiveness in the previous administration.

“A lot is expected of him and here are a couple of things I would say. National unity; the country is so divided that nothing can happen without President Tinubu making a big attempt to unite Nigerians. 

“I would suggest that he can call a meeting of the sub nationalities of Nigeria. The Afeniferes, the Ohanezes;  because these guys have a very strong hold on their ethnic nationalities . If that happens and it is successful, that then pushes the way forward for him to unleash a couple of big programs.

“One would be insecurity. I would say all service chiefs should honourably resign. All of them including the IG of police because they’ve not done well. President Tinubu cannot go on with these service chiefs. We need to create a new security infrastructure.”

Dr. Olisa pointed out that there is a need to rapidly improve the nation’s economy as he described the debt to revenue ratio as “horrible.” After which he stated that the legislature would need to review up to 56,000 uncompleted projects including the Nigerian maritime service and the Nigerian Sea ports to which he estimated would both bring in over 18 billion Naira in revenue for the nation.

He suggested that moving forward, the administration would need to get rid of hindrances that would misrepresent the government by taking steps to reduce its size, according to the SAN, “We need to talk about limited government. The government is simply too big. We need to talk about anti corruption. 

“The anti corruption process is not working. I have challenged the constitutionality of the EFCC. EFCC is a behemoth. EFCC needs to be dismantled, Mr. Bawa needs to go because what he’s doing isn’t attracting people’s confidence. He’s always in battle with everybody. Now he’s battling Matawalle. That’s no way to fight corruption. 

“So we need to see Mr. Bawa step aside honourably. So that the anti corruption process can be seen to be genuinely  fought by the president without any equivocation.

“All the guys who took part of the old government should honourably step down. He needs new people.”

Dr. Agbakoba made recommendation of  “good people” he suggested would help the administration improve itself at certain administrations such as  Babatunde Ogala or Babatunde Raji Fashola for the position of Attorney General and Governor Bagudu as Secretary to the Government  of the Federation. He also stated that the people are more interested in development than the person who currently occupies the position of the president. 

“The fact that there are cases in the tribunal should not prevent him from absolutely getting the job done.”

Glamour Adah

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