Senator Ali Ndume, representing Borno South, has urged President Bola Tinubu to take decisive action against what he described as “kakistocrats” dominating the Presidency, warning that their continued presence could undermine his administration.

Ndume spoke while reacting to the composition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, saying the structure did not address his concerns about the competence of some officials working around the President.

“My concern remains that the President has so many kakistocrats dominating the presidency. Unless he does something about it, they will continue to mess him up,” the senator said.

Ndume cited recent controversies involving a government agency and the suspension of a permanent secretary in the Presidency as evidence of what he described as weaknesses within the administration.

“We had a fake agency operating with an office, and after the ICPC investigated, they discovered even more. A permanent secretary in the presidency had to be suspended,” he said.

The senator, however, credited Tinubu for allowing the investigation to proceed but argued that the President needed to do more to prevent such incidents.

“That is where I give the President credit, but I insist that if he had capable hands, all this mess and embarrassment wouldn’t be happening. He is still not taking the appropriate action on it,” Ndume said.

On the APC campaign council, the lawmaker questioned the decision to include Tinubu as chairman, arguing that the party should take the lead in campaigning for its presidential candidate.

“People put up the presidential campaign committee. If I had the ear of Mr President, there was no need for a presidential campaign committee,” he said.

Ndume argued that the APC national leadership should instead be responsible for selling the achievements of the administration to Nigerians ahead of the 2027 election.

“The President is the product of the party. The owner of a product should be the one selling the product, not the product selling itself,” he said.

He added: “He shouldn’t be on it; it should be the National Chairman of the party.”

The senator also suggested that Tinubu might not have been fully involved in the process that produced the campaign council, pointing to the controversy that followed its announcement.

“From what happened, you can see that even the President was not fully aware. Why would there be complaints?” Ndume asked.

He said his concerns were not motivated by personal or partisan interests, but by the need to strengthen Nigeria’s political system.

“I know the man. But why am I worried? It’s not about my party; it’s about politics in Nigeria,” he said.

Ndume also defended some of the difficult economic decisions taken by the Tinubu administration, particularly the removal of petrol subsidy, saying the decision itself was necessary but its consequences had created significant hardship.

He said many Nigerians supported the removal of subsidy but were now bearing the impact of higher living costs.

“The President himself acknowledged that there is hardship as a result of the policies, but promised Nigerians that there will be light at the end of the tunnel,” Ndume said.

According to him, the prolonged hardship had become a major challenge for the APC ahead of the 2027 elections, with Nigerians becoming increasingly anxious about when the expected economic relief would materialise.

He also blamed some presidential aides for worsening public perception of the administration, accusing them of responding to criticism with personal attacks rather than addressing the issues raised.

“We are saying that the staff or people he has around him are the major problem. Instead of talking about ideas and events, they have small minds and talk about people,” Ndume said.

He urged presidential spokespersons to engage critics based on the substance of their arguments instead of resorting to insults.

“When anybody makes a statement, the President’s spokespersons rush on TV to insult the person and call them names. That is not it,” he said.

“You take the points that person made about the system one after the other.”