Governors of the All Progressives Congress will be meeting with the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja, tomorrow.
The Punch reports that the meeting is the first of its kind for the governors since the March 28 presidential election which Buhari won. One of the governors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with The Punch yesterday, said that the meeting would also be attended by all the APC governors-elect.
He said, “The APC governors, serving and incoming, are to meet GMB (Buhari) on Tuesday morning in Abuja to pay a courtesy call on him, formally congratulate him on his electoral victory and make input into the policy direction of the administration ahead of the May 29 inauguration of the new government. Ahead of the Tuesday meeting, the governors
However, the national publicity secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said he did not know anything about the meeting, although it was possible for the governors to be meeting with the president-elect. He said he had been busy with the work of the transition committee set up by Buhari. Mohammed said, “Yes, the meeting is possible but I have been busy with the committee’s work.”
It was learnt that the governors might demand that they be allowed to nominate those to be appointed ministers in their states. The governors are also expected to make their position known on which zone to be supported for the office of the Senate president. It was also disclosed that the governors would demand that they be allowed to nominate who should become the Senate president.
Recall that despite the fact that two of the governors contested the presidential primaries against Buhari, the majority of the governors supported his candidacy. After Buhari’s emergence as the party’s standard bearer, the governors wanted one of them as his running mate, but when the lot fell on Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), they bowed to party supremacy and supported the GMB/PYO ticket.
It is also understood that the governors felt that they should be allowed to present the next Senate president since they had not collectively received anything since the formation of the APC. Buhari emerged from the old All Nigeria Peoples Party and the defunct Congress for Progressives Change block, while Osinbajo emerged from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria block. These governors believed that they played a prominent role in the merger that led to the formation of the APC.
Just yesterday, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress said that the president-elect, Buhari will shock a lot of Nigerians in the incoming political dispensation.
Apc campaign Muhammadu Buhari.
