Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has condemned the verbal attacks on President Bola Tinubu over the relocation to Lagos from Abuja, some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
He said the criticisms against the president were either borne out of political mischief or ignorance since the action did not amount to moving the nation ‘s capital back to Lagos.
Senator Uzodinma, who spoke as a guest of Channels Television, urged Nigerians to focus on the economic benefits of the exercise as it was meant to save cost and engender efficient productivity.
He dismissed claims by some Northerners that President Tinubu was planning to move the capital of Nigeria back to Lagos, saying such insinuations were totally unfounded, as the president lacked the powers to unilaterally effect such a fundamental change.
According to him, “It has been made clear that those departments need to be close to the banks that the CBN is supervising which are in Lagos. We also know that Lagos is the hub of the aviation industry. So, I don’t see anything wrong with what the President has done.”
He noted that as a former chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, he was aware of the huge resources expended in shuttling between Abuja and Lagos for the routine supervision, not to talk of some staff who do that on a daily basis.
The Governor, however, commended some Northern personalities and groups, including the Northern Senators Forum, and the Emir of Kano for supporting the planned relocation of those departments.
Describing the exercise as purely administrative, Uzodinma accused the opposition of blowing it out of proportion to score cheap political points.
He described President Tinubu as a first class patriot and nationalist, who would never promote any policy to endanger the unity of Nigeria, and urged Nigerians to support the programmes and policies of the president.
On his plan for Imo State in his second tenure, Uzodinma disclosed that his achievements in the second tenure would dwarf those of the first tenure.
He declared that in spite of the politically motivated insecurity that tended to distract him during his first term, he was able to achieve more than 75 percent of his electoral promises.
According to him, his massive infrastructural development and human capital development, were the cardinal issues that won him reelection, which he would continue to pursue with vigour in his second tenure.
While pledging to ensure the reduction of poverty in the state, and the strengthening of the economy, Uzodinma said the youths would be more gainfully employed through the Imo Skillup project, among other laudable policies embedded in his prosperity agenda.