Tunji Bello, a long-time ally of President Bola Tinubu since the days of their activism as members of pro-democracy group, the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), says operating as Nigeria’s president is a different ball game for the former Lagos governor.
Bello, who served during Tinubu’s second term as Lagos governor between 2003 and 2007, cited “gargantuan problems” at the centre as reason the President has not replicated his “excellent performance” in Lagos at the federal level yet.
Tunji Bello, now the Chief Executive Officer of the the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), was a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday.
Bello said, “What I know is that he (Tinubu) is somebody who fights for the interest of Nigerians at any point in time, just like he did when he was in Lagos.
“Considering what he contributed to the development of Lagos, the expectation is that he will do the same thing in Nigeria. But Nigeria is a different thing entirely. So, we should not expect that what he did in Lagos, he should come and do the same thing.
“There is Federal Character in Nigeria, when you get to the Centre. There is nothing like Federal Character in Lagos. That itself is one of the things he has to surmount. He has to consider the interest of different areas. He cannot just say that what works here (Lagos) must work there (at the centre). That should be properly studied.
“And then, he came in and met gargantuan problems; problems of infrastructure, petrol, insecurity, labour issues here and there, and different things.
“If you ask me, I will say he has done very well (but) we need to look at some areas and see how that we can recalibrate.”
The FCCPC chair said Tinubu has so far shown that he is a listening president who is ready to meet the needs of the people.”
Bello assured Nigerians that they are going to see improvements in the economy and other areas in the next two to three years.
“We are going to see a lot more improvements as we move on. He (Tinubu) just spent one year, only God can perform excellently well. One year, I think people needs to give him more time. In the next two, three years, I believe that we will see a lot of changes as we move on,” he said.
Bello also said his agency has started engaging traders nationwide, starting with Abuja. He said some traders cited bad roads, insecurity, inflation for raising prices. He, however, said those excuses don’t warrant arbitrary and exploitative prices.
The FCCPC boss said though his agency is not against anybody making profit, profiteering is unethical and won’t be tolerated.
Bello said culprits can be sanctioned up to billions of naira, their markets, stalls shut, amongst other penalties.
The FCCPC boss urged Nigerians to share information on exploitative acts by traders for the agency to act.
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