• Super Admin
• 07 Mar, 2026

Dr. Wunmi Bewaji, a constitutional lawyer, is the Executive Secretary of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER) and former member of the House of Representatives, who represented Lagos Mainland Federal Constituency under Alliance for Democracy. In this interview, the ex-lawmaker speaks on the president's men and their strategic importance to the success or otherwise of the administration. In the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there are some people regarded as the President's men. These are people who worked with him right from when he served as the Governor of the state between 1999 and 2007 and who have now been put into strategic positions in the current administration. What are your thoughts on the people around the President? Even when late President Muhammadu Buhari was in office, people accused him of nepotism of a kind, that he was appointing people from his tribe but Buhari said that he will appoint people that he knows. For example, you have the example of the CBN governor, Yemi Cardoso. Everybody knew what he did in Lagos because we call him the headmaster and the reason for that name was because as a commissioner for planning, for budget and planning, he would never honor any payment if you could not show him the sub-head under the budget, no matter who you are. So, the fact that you bring something from the office of the accountant general does not mean that Yemi Cardoso is going to pay you, so he was known for that. So that was why it was because of that sort of high level of integrity that made the president to have confidence in him. You are going to do free market reforms, we need a CBN governor that will be reliable and dependable and, you know, that has a highest level of integrity. For Wale Edun, of course, we all know what he did in Lagos too. So these are people, you will say, with a very good track record. Nobody can fault their credentials. I'm not surprised that the president will want to fall back on that set of people to help him with his agenda. So it's normal and it's natural. I actually don't see anything wrong about it. Apart from Cardoso that you have talked about, how would you describe others in that category too in terms of performance? Look at Femi Gbajamiala who is also from Lagos. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives, Majority Leader. He was Minority Leader. Bringing that kind of CV to the office of Chief of Staff, it is solid. He has a very solid credential. To others too, most of these people that had worked with him, one way or the other, from the time he was governor, and even subsequently, these are people who have really demonstrated capacity, they've demonstrated competence and there is nothing bad in falling back on or relying on that set of people. There are people who believe that this makes it difficult for people to spot talents in other parts of the country. What are your thoughts? As governor of Lagos, he was known for appointing people even from outside of Lagos, even from outside of Western Nigeria. He appointed people, special advisers who were Northerners. He appointed commissioners from the South East and he was, at that point in time, he was the only governor that has ever done that. In this, I mean, as president, definitely, we have constitutional guarantee that allows for the observance of the federal character in appointment. Every state of Nigeria in the appointment of ministers is well represented but where we have a particular talent who probably might not be a politician. I tell you Yemi Cardoso is not a politician, same as Wale Edun. So, a lot of these people are not politicians, they are professionals. Don't forget that in Lagos, one of the reasons some people rose against Tinubu was because he said he was known for his preference for professionals rather than career politicians and that was why he brought in somebody like Fashola, by the time Fashola was brought, people felt why not a party man? Even Ambode (former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode) was not a politician. So, there is a consistency in this and that consistency is that when he sees talents, he will use it. As far as the office of the president is concerned, appointments are always bound by federal character and I think by and large, the president has been faithful to it. There is no state in Nigeria that is not represented by minister or special advisers and all of that. What does this decision say about our political process or political evaluation that every president would always have some members who form part of the Kitchen Cabinet? It's natural. All over the world, a president or a leader, even a governor, even a local government chairman would have a sort of kitchen cabinet. There will always be cabinet within cabinet. Just like we normally say, there will always be meetings before meetings. There will be people that would be closer to the president than others and there's nothing unusual about that. There are people who probably can go toe to toe to the president and tell him that something may not work and there are people who will not be that close, maybe because of the level of relationship between them. So it's always a better idea when you have people who probably can tell you the truth to your face. They are your men, they have your best interest at heart. So when they tell you stuff to do, you tend to listen to them. And that's where this idea of a kitchen cabinet might arise. It's not necessarily for negative purposes. You cannot rule that out, but then, in a country as vast as Nigeria. Then the office of the president is not a small office. For every subject the president is considering, the president will receive briefs from multiple sources, from multiple agencies. So even if the head of one agency is not telling the president the truth, there will be several other agencies that might tell that truth and eventually then the president will know this person doesn't really mean well for this administration. It doesn't mean the person will be removed, but the opinion of that person becomes relegated. So that's not a problem. How does this cabal system strengthen our politics? Well, what we are saying here is not peculiar to Nigeria. Even in the U.S., the American President has his inner caucus. So, within the inner caucus, there is the innermost caucus of the inner caucus. So, there is nothing unusual about this. What is most important is the focus of the administration on the core agenda of the administration. So you expect that those that will be around the president will be people who share his vision, passion, and who share the direction in which he wants to take the country. That is what is most important. What is your advice to those we call the President's men? Source: https://dailytrust.com/nothing-wrong-with-president-relying-on-some-men-dr-bewaji/