Buhari meets APC governors, senators

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday night, met with All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting, which commenced about 9.48p.m, was attended by about 16 of the current 21 APC governors while those absent were represented by their deputies.
Others at the meeting are the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiohmole, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari and other presidential aides.
The agenda of the  meeting may not be unconnected with the gale of defections within the APC.
It would be recalled that the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, governors of Benue, Kwara and Sokoto as well as the deputy governor of Kano announced their defections from the APC and joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Some members of the National Assembly also defected from the APC to join various political party, last week.
President Buhari had earlier met with some APC Senators over the defections.
The governors attending the meeting included Gov. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state and Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi.
Others were Gov. Jubril Bindow of Adamawa, Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno, Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi and Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state.
Also at the meeting were Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau, Gov. Rochas Okorocha of Imo,Gov. Abdullahi Gamduje of Kano state and Niger State Governor, Sani Bello.
Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna state, Gov. Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa, Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo and  Osun Deputy Governor, Grace Laoye-Tomori were also in attendance.
Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting with senators, Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, called for the reconvening of the National Assembly to ensure speedy passage of the supplementary budget submitted by President Buhari.
According to him, it is necessary for the National Assembly to reconvene so as to look into the various requests made by the president as he begins his 10 working days’ vacation on August 3.
He disclosed that Buhari had already written to the national assembly informing it of his intention to embark on the 10-day vacation.
“Yes, the President is going on a 10-day leave and he did the right thing, he has written to the National Assembly, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of the Representatives.
“As the President leaves for his vacation, I believe that we are supposed to be very responsible as legislature. Those issues that are so important to this country that we haven’t dealt with we should be able to come together, come back and deal with them.
“Here I have in mind the consideration of the budget of INEC for the 2019 election, that is the request of Mr President to approve some virement on the 2018 budget.
“I believe that we are going to do a lot of justice to the people of this country to work hard to pass those requests.”
He reassured that APC as a party would continue to consult, unite and solidify the nation.
He reiterated that the APC remained the majority party in the senate with 53 members and challenged the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to reel out the names of their senators to justify their claims of having the majority.
Lawan said: “The APC remains the majority in the Senate, we have 53 senators, we reeled out the names and the states. Though the other side are claiming they 60, 70 but they have never given a name.
“It is left for you to make your judgement. In fact, I am using this medium to challenge the names of the PDP senators, we have published ours and among the 53 none has come out to deny that he is APC.
 
“Let them publish their own, they remain 48 senators in PDP, and by the grace of God, when the by-elections in Bauchi and Kaduna will hold, we will get two senators and that will boost our number.’’
 
The senate leader called on his colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives to come back and consider the requests of Mr President for the virement and supplementary budget for INEC for the 2019 elections.
The APC Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiohmole, who also spoke on the outcome of the meeting, said recent developments in the party were not earth-shaking or surprising to party members.
 
He said: “But these are what I might call tempting moments because I had faced similar situations in my state, when people were leaving.
 
“But the beauty of democracy is that whether big or small, it is one man one vote, on election day, no difference between a senator, a president, a journalist and any other person.
 
“In a sense, we have to accept that once a couple for any reason or the other find that they not compatible, the only honourable thing is to go.
 
“I was happy for one thing is that the senate president as a mark of honour accepted that he is leaving not because the new leadership did not make effort.
 
“He admitted that not only did I do everything possible along with the Vice President, along with some governors and we had meeting with the President, but he argued that those efforts came too late.
 
“But I couldn’t have started acting before I was born.’’