No cause for alarm over Buhari’s health — APC Govs

ABUJA—Governors of the ruling All
Progressives Congress, APC, have restated their
loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari, saying
his state of health was of no consequence to
issues of state-craft.

“We are not worried about the development, it
is not compulsory for the president to preside
over every Federal Executive Council (FEC), that
is why our constitution makes available the
place of the Vice President”, said Kaduna State
governor, Nasir el-Rufai who addressed
journalists yesterday night after hours of
meeting with the party’s National Working
Committee, NWC.
According to the governors, the FEC meeting
for which the president has been absent for
some weeks now is not a must-attend for Mr
Buhari.

“Mr President is 74 years old; at that age, it is
possible to have one ailment or the other, even
I, at 57 take medication for one ailment or the
other. Our prayer is that the president gets
better but the reason he has a Vice President is
because of a time like this, it may not be as a
result of sickness that he did not attend FEC,
he may have had other pressing issues to
attend to. I have not had to chair every State
Executive Council in Kaduna state because the
deputy governor is there, if I have other issues
of greater priority to attend to.

       

Muhammadu Buhari

“We are not worried yet or have any reason to
be worried but I call on every Nigerian to join
all of us to pray for the improved health of the
President. It has improved in the last few
weeks since he came back and we will continue
to pray for his improved health”, he added.

On some of the issues raised during the
meeting, el-Rufai said: “The most important
decision is that henceforth we will hold a
meeting here at the National secretariat once
every month. This is with a view to increasing
interaction, foster relation between the national
and state branches of the party as well as
work towards strengthening the party. We also
took certain resolutions and the first is that the
Progressive Governors have committed to work
assiduosly at strengthening and rebuilding the
party and ensuring reconciliation and
unification of the party at all levels.

“We have committed to providing the NWC all
the support that they need. We will also engage
in fund raising from our donors, sympathizers
of the APC to ensure that the national
headquarters of the party and indeed all
organs of the party have the wherewithal to
continue with the difficult work they have been
doing within the party.”

“The joint meeting between the NWC and the
governors also resolved that at our next
meeting, we are going to look at the
arrangements for the midterm convention and
put in place the resources necessary to ensure
that the convention hold as required by our
party.

“The governors restate their loyalty to Mr
President, the Vice President and all leaders of
our party; we enjoin Nigerians to continue to
pray for the improved health of the President.
Vanguard checks revealed that four state
governors among others loyal to the national
leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress
(APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former
Vice President Atiku Abubakar, boycotted the
meeting.

The absentee governors loyal to the former
Lagos governor include Akinwumi Ambode of
Lagos, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun and Godwin
Obaseki of Edo state. Also, Adamawa state
governor, Umaru Jibrilla Bindo, a known loyalist
of Atiku Abubakar was absent.