APC Govs To Meet Buhari On Ministerial Nominees Tuesday

Governors of the All Progressives Congress are meeting with the
President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja on Tuesday,The PUNCH
reports.

The meeting, it was gathered, would be the first to be attended by the
governors jointly since the conduct of the March 28 presidential
election which Buhari won.

One of the governors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity with
PUNCH correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, 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 would hold a meeting on
Monday evening in Abuja where we would firm up our presentation to the
President-elect."

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
who said he was not aware of the meeting, however, stated that it was
possible.

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.

Apart from this, 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 gathered that the governors would demand that they be allowed
to nominate who should become the Senate President.

Despite the fact that two of the governors contested the presidential
primaries against Buhari, 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 was gathered that the governors felt that they should be allowed to
present the next Senate President since they had not collectively got
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.
The governors believed that they played a prominent role in the merger
that led to the formation of the APC.
--PUNCH