ABUJA-An usual high powered meeting between Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and some state governors held Monday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting was not open for media coverage as it held closed door in the Vice President’s office. Curiously, it held on a day President Muhammadu Buhari departed the country to Morocco for a conference on climate change.
The governors at the closed-door meeting included Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello and Adamawa State Governor, Jubrilla Bindow. All are governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. The atmosphere in the Villa after the meeting was heavy with speculations on the President’s request to the National Assembly for approval to get $29.9 billion loan from external sources.
On another plank, the lopsided appointments for which the governors had written the presidency, registring their dissatisfaction may also be another reason for the meeting. It will be recalled that the senate had turned down the request, saying that it was lacking in details. Seemingly, the senate president, Saraki had been a frequent quest at the presidential to the extent that he called 3 times within a week.
At a time, he warned that the loan issue was a work in progress and should not be politicized. Emerging from the meeting, the leaders were seen speaking in clusters, a development which obviously conveyed a feeling that the meeting was deadlocked. The discussion even sprawled outside the villa, just at the presidential fore -court where they also discussed in low tones. But none of them would speak to Journalists directly even when approached for comments. It was only Saraki who offered to speak eventually and he was very tacit about it. “I am sure the VP will issue a statement. But nothing of great alarm. It’s all for good governance, inclusion and collaboration with all arms.
“The states are here, national assembly executives just came up with ideas on how to make things work even better, that’s all”, he said simply. While Vanguard pressed to know the outcome of the meeting outside what Saraki said, the media office of the Vice President was yet to respond by way of official statement on the meeting as at the time of filing this report.
VANGUARD
